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So I guess if I want to know I'll have to dig through the laws and regulations, federal and state, then call the BAR Engine Change Hotline and ask for technical support to see if they know anything about it. Like tearing a motor apart chasing a small problem.

It means, "California has power over your ride, you have none." Kalifornia uber alles, as they say.

Sure is. Along with NA5, "Emission System, Federal Requirements." Now if we just knew exactly what it means ....

Cat-and-mouse game looking for RPO NN5. No "official" explanation, and nobody else seems to know. A couple of Corvette sites add Federal Offset Vehicle to the description. More recently, the EPA has rules for dealers selling vehicles to be registered in another state. The GM RPOs for this...

This would also explain why TType85 had to use the California chip for his '86 swap: the Referee viewed his '85 as an '84 parts revision, therefore California certified. Which should make an '85 engine legal to swap into a California car. Although proving that to a Referee could get...

I think I may have found the answer as to how the '85 was sold in California. According to the GM parts catalog, the emissions label that TType85 wishes he had a better shot of in post #13 was tied to RPO NN5, "Emission System California Override." I haven't tracked down the explanation of...

This continues to bug me. Maybe someday I'll get used to never being able to reconcile these facts. The issue doesn't affect me personally -- except in how it bugs me! :ROFLMAO: BTW, I believe someone also misspelled Joe's name. I think it's supposed to be Cheung, not Chung.

On this California ceritification issue, things are far worse for the Chevy TPI 350. 1985 -- no EOs 1986 -- federal version certified 1987 -- no EOs 1988 -- federal version certified 1989 -- no EOs 1990 -- federal version certified 1991 -- no EOs 1992 -- federal version certified

If it helps jog your memory a little, I ran the online smogcheck history on the VIN. Here's the essential results. 8/2/1996 Passed. 6/2/1997 Passed. 8/10/1998 Passed. 6/25/2002 Failed test with Emission Device found to be Tampered. 6/26/2002 (Referee) Failed test with Emission Device...

Apparently Joe hasn't been here since last November ....

The statement of a nursing home resident is hardly proof, LOL.

Well this doesn't make a lot of sense, does it. If the motor had to be CA why put "CA/FED" on the sticker? So the rules were probably the same then as now.

For a while I thought about moving to Oregon, but they have a law there says a gas station attendant has to pump your gas for you. I just don't think I could get used to that.

I've been thinking about slipping over the border to Nevada ....

The fact that the Referee sticker says "CA" doesn't prove the car was. It proves the '86 motor was, by virtue of the chip. It shows the end result of the swap. The current rule is, you can swap a CA motor into a CA car or Fed car, and a Fed motor into a Fed car, but not a Fed motor into a CA...

By "original CA car" you mean sold new in California by a Buick dealer? That's what the archive of EOs is about, referred to in post #1. Those EOs were issued to allow dealers to sell new cars in California. There are EOs in the archive for every year of Buick turbo EXCEPT 1985. Now we might...

Hmm, looks like you must have done that '85-to-'86 swap a loooooong time ago ....

The GM FACTORY chips can be re-programmed. They are EPROMS, Intel 2732A. You can erase them completely with an ultraviolet EPROM eraser, then zap all-new contents with any garden variety PROM programmer. So there's no red flag there. And factory chips are covered by the certification EOs...

Not to be a nuisance, LOL, but I've been thinking about this, and I still have a couple problems. 1. You are prohibited by regulation (with legal force) from being present in the area where the Referee is working while he inspects your vehicle. So how do you know what he did? Did he tell...

Anyway, the PROM is why I wanted to find out about the '85 certification (or rather lack thereof). There were ONLY two (2) differences between '84 and '85: the MAF sensor and the Calibration PROM. The difference in the MAF sensor was the screen (chicken wire for '84, honeycomb for '85). The...