Questions on either porting or gen V swap and C.A.R.B.

[Ramcharger310]

I'm not asking to be spoon fed answers, but is their a resource to learn about porting a gen III or swapping a gen 5 and what they require?

I need to service my SC in the future as the nose is leaking and was wondering if any performance upgrades could be on the table if I can still legally pass smog.

[95naSTA]

GenIII porting is likely your only CARB passing option. There are 2 decades of threads on it at this point but here's one:
https://rivperformance.editboard.com/t4 ... iii-blower

GenV swapping will require a noticeable adapter plate and either bypassing or adapting the EVAP and PCV systems. This extra hardware can be spotted during an inspection. Then you should get a tune, which unless something has changed, no 3800 aftermarket tune is CARB certified. This didn't really matter until July of last year when CARB inspections started to verify the checksum of your bin file and if it doesn't match the handful of stock checksums for your stock pcm, you'll fail. This has been discussed at length on other forms but I lost track of it since I no longer have a car registered in Cali.


https://www.grandprixforums.com/how-to- ... n-5-a.html
https://www.thedrive.com/cars-101/41603 ... -flash-faq

[Ramcharger310]

GenIII porting is likely your only CARB passing option. There are 2 decades of threads on it at this point but here's one:
https://rivperformance.editboard.com/t4 ... iii-blower

GenV swapping will require a noticeable adapter plate and either bypassing or adapting the EVAP and PCV systems. This extra hardware can be spotted during an inspection. Then you should get a tune, which unless something has changed, no 3800 aftermarket tune is CARB certified. This didn't really matter until July of last year when CARB inspections started to verify the checksum of your bin file and if it doesn't match the handful of stock checksums for your stock pcm, you'll fail. This has been discussed at length on other forms but I lost track of it since I no longer have a car registered in Cali.


https://www.grandprixforums.com/how-to- ... n-5-a.html
https://www.thedrive.com/cars-101/41603 ... -flash-faq

Thanks for the links, looks like some great reading.

As for the PCM tune, I was thinking a work around would be to keep my original PCM stock and get a 2nd PCM with a tune.

Then come the biannual smog time, I would switch to the original stock untouched PCM.

[95naSTA]

The only thing is if the mods lean you out enough to throw a code without a tune, pcm swapping won't work. You could be completely fine but won't know for sure until you do the work and put enough miles on it to find out.

[Ramcharger310]

The only thing is if the mods lean you out enough to throw a code without a tune, pcm swapping won't work. You could be completely fine but won't know for sure until you do the work and put enough miles on it to find out.

I'll be honest with you...living in SoCal, most of my performance mods are going to be backwards. So supporting mods before engine performance mods.


Suspension
Transmission
Brakes
Steering
Audio
Cosmetic
Etc...