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I stumbled across this website: http://www.dieselnet.com/ and started to cut and paste an article but was not able to due to copyright laws. There are a lot of the explanations such as how the chip trucks were able to meet regulations because of GVW and class:
http://www.dieselnet.com/standards/us/ld_t2.php
I have also had a few long conversations with a person here in Pennsylvania's Department of Transportation Emissions Inspection Division concerning having a title rebranded as "Modified" for fuel types. In Pa and their current interpretation of the federal highway emissions regulations the only legal way to have the title modified is based on the original manufacturers chassis availability and only the original approved engines that were available from the factory apply. As an example this means if you have a 305 gasoline engine in an 82 GMC 1/2 Ton pickup truck you can only install a diesel engine that was federally approved for that chassis which would be the NA 6.2L diesel. Even though the 4BT would be a newer federal emissions approved engine it was not originally a federally approved (or yet invented) engine in 1982 for that chassis. According to federal law it would also be illegal to install a computer controlled Duramax in the same chassis again because the 1982 chassis was not federally approved for the Duramax.
Now for something that I found as a bit shocking. You folks in California are better off than the rest of us when it comes to diesel conversion. Ca is recognized as EXEMPT from federal emissions due to their more stringent emissions testing and laws. This is one of those times when living in Ca may actually be in your favor.
So what does this mean? Overall I would thing that if you are doing a conversion you may want to look for a pre 1970's chassis that was never required to be emissions approved by the federal government. Again your particular state or country may already have preset requirements in place. The important part is to check everything before you start your project.
http://www.dieselnet.com/standards/us/ld_t2.php
I have also had a few long conversations with a person here in Pennsylvania's Department of Transportation Emissions Inspection Division concerning having a title rebranded as "Modified" for fuel types. In Pa and their current interpretation of the federal highway emissions regulations the only legal way to have the title modified is based on the original manufacturers chassis availability and only the original approved engines that were available from the factory apply. As an example this means if you have a 305 gasoline engine in an 82 GMC 1/2 Ton pickup truck you can only install a diesel engine that was federally approved for that chassis which would be the NA 6.2L diesel. Even though the 4BT would be a newer federal emissions approved engine it was not originally a federally approved (or yet invented) engine in 1982 for that chassis. According to federal law it would also be illegal to install a computer controlled Duramax in the same chassis again because the 1982 chassis was not federally approved for the Duramax.
Now for something that I found as a bit shocking. You folks in California are better off than the rest of us when it comes to diesel conversion. Ca is recognized as EXEMPT from federal emissions due to their more stringent emissions testing and laws. This is one of those times when living in Ca may actually be in your favor.
So what does this mean? Overall I would thing that if you are doing a conversion you may want to look for a pre 1970's chassis that was never required to be emissions approved by the federal government. Again your particular state or country may already have preset requirements in place. The important part is to check everything before you start your project.