07 JKU with LS motor swap, trouble with registration/emissions in AZ (kinda urgent)
 

I have an 07 JKU with one of MoTech's 6.0 LS motor swaps. Last year it passed emissions perfectly. This year, the wife takes it in and the gal looks at the two ODB2 connectors and says that this vehicle has been "tampered with" and "modified". She fails it and sends my wife to one of 3 places in AZ that can handle "waivers". My wife goes there and the guy prints out this:

https://www.epa.gov/sites/production...ngswitch_0.pdf

and he highlights a few lines and tells her that they cannot pass the vehicle because it's a heavy duty engine.

My wife tells him that it's an LS1 motor that used to be in Corvettes and probably wouldnt be considered heavy duty. She gets me on the phone with the guy and I ask him why it matters what motor is in what vehicle as long as the emissions are acceptable. He tells me that "they are clamping down" on the engine switching law and the presence of two ODB2 connectors prohibits him from going any further. I said that every kid who put a bigger motor in an old muscle car and dozens of jeep owners in AZ are going to be enraged by this and he said that they are aware. He suggested we go to DMV and try to get it registered as recreational only and just trailer it.

Well... I have a huge investment over 5 years with this thing and pretty much every mod I selected was intended to get the most off road but still keep it street legal. I can't tell you how irked I am.

We now have a 60-day extension to figure out who to talk to. Either this guy is wrong (I read that thing a couple times and there is room for interpretation) or I'm going to be the first one in AZ to challenge this. I don't mind but I thought I'd check first with the community. Any advice would be helpful, especially if you are professionally intimate with Federal or AZ laws.

(I will post this on a couple other forums as well, so if you see it again, just ignore)

Thanks!

LF0D

First- you've contacted MoTech, right??

Next....which computer controls the emissions? Why not 'move' the other obd2 port out of visibility while it's being smog checked?

Get rid of the black/gray font, its a pain to read and hard to highlight on a phone.

You have a few options:

-You can register it in an emissions exempt zip code, its called code 52. Use this to find one: http://gisweb.azdeq.gov/arcgis/veiareas/

-You can hide the JK OBD2 port up in the dash and retest with only the GM port available. If you had Motech do the swap you likely have all of the donor vehicles original emissions equipment and will be fine.

-You can go back, show them that the LS is not considered a heavy duty engine in your application by referencing the EPA website which states a GVWR of 8500lbs or less is light duty, also show paperwork proving the engine and emissions systems were from or designed for a corvette. Also move the original JK OBD2 port so they don't test it or question it. The only limiting factor is that the engine must be the same model year as your Jeep or newer.

Did you move from NH to AZ?

sorry for the font, don't know how that happened.

yep, I talked to Robbie at MoTech and he is giving my contact info to someone that got his swapped JK registered this year.

Me and the Jeep are from AZ, I just drove it up to MoTech to have the work done, otherwise it's registered here. As I said, last year they griped about the gas cap, gave me one with a better pressure seal and it passed perfectly. This year they flipped when they saw the ODB2s. Curiously, both the gal and the guy said they were both "trained" to look out for "modifications and tampering".

If I can't reason with them, I'll use their own language when making my case... as you mentioned, it's clearly not a heavy duty motor. The problem is now we are in the system as "failed" and the reason is something like modification/tampering and motor not OEM (or something like that). So even if I go to another place now I'm pretty sure they will see that and stop the show.

Thanks for the suggestions!