Quote:
Originally Posted by triangles
Engine swaps in the US are legal. What is not legal is to put an older engine with looser emission standards in a newer car with more strict standards. Regardless even this is rarely enforced.
Also the trucking industry somehow found a loophole in the EPA regulations because they can put an old rebuilt engine into a newly manufactured truck that never had an engine in it. This "new" truck is only subject to the emission requirements of it's 30 year old engine.
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Certification of heavy duty trucks follow the engine instead of the chassis for some reason. The kits you speak of are called gliders and originally where used to fix low mileage crash damaged trucks. Say a guy rolls his new truck with only 50,000 miles. The frame is bent and cab smashed but the drivetrain is basically new. He could order a new glider chassis and swap his drivetrain into that new chassis. When emission regulations tightened in the 2000's some dealers started ordering new chassis and installing a remanufactured drivetrains in them. These per purchased by small fleets and owner operators that didn't want to invest in the equipment and training required to maintain modern computer controlled drivetrains. That business grew and now about 5% of the new truck fleet are "glider kits". Obama closed that loop but Trump has rolled back the regulation to allow gliders to continue to be built.
Gliders also aren't required to comply with computerized log books so small time owner-operators can continue to drive more miles than allowed by law.