The modern automotive landscape online has grown chock-full of engine swaps, restomods, and crazy twin-turbo builds galore. Click into YouTube and it's easy to start believing that these kinds of projects are, themselves, easy. But fair warning: YouTube lies.
From the time and money invested to reliability concerns, performance problems, and parts availability, the average build requires much more in the way of know-how and actual work than YouTube shows want you to believe.
In California, anyone daydreaming about the perfect car with the perfect engine also has to worry about smog testing, as this great state has become famous for restrictive and complex laws regarding engine modification that lend all kinds of confusion to any potential modification project. CARB certification, BAR refs, and STAR smog stations—all these awful acronyms more than nudged me toward a pre-1975 model year car when I was recently searching for my own personal project, which ended up arriving in the form of a pile of Porsche 914 parts.
But not everyone sees California's strict rules the same, as proven by a Silicon Valley-based enthusiast I recently spoke with named Eddie Mello who has his heart set on building an LS-swapped 1996 E36 BMW M3 restomod—one that will pass smog and receive full California Air Resources Board (CARB) certification.
Eddie Mello's Silicon Valley Automotive History
Mello works at Amazon Web Services as a Partner Success Manager for North American telecom accounts. But he's been in the Silicon Valley region for his entire life and career, working largely in sales before moving into his current position. Much like so many tech industry vets, Mello's got plenty of passion on the side, as well.
"I've always been a car guy," Mello explained, "Probably had about 30 cars. I’m a guy who likes to drive cars. I don’t have enough money to go and collect like 10 or 20 of them—that’s a future goal. But even if I did, they’re not like artwork to me, per se, or a way to hold money or value. What they are for me is something that piques my interest. I like driving them, I do autocross and have done a few driving events. It’s about enjoying them.”
Highlights of his previous possessions include an M3/4/5, the famous four-door, five-speed E36 sedan, as well as an E39 BMW 540i Sport with the V8 and six-speed. He's also owned two different generations of John Cooper Works Minis, the latest a 2019 Knights Edition from the F56 generation that he daily drives, and he currently considers a 997.2 Porsche Carrera S Cabriolet his weekend car.
"The F56 is a great car, although it’s a little nannied down. My first one I had, which was the R56 series, was much more raw to me. And I think that’s because this one has traction control. It’s still a quick car and it’s super comfortable and it’s fun because it’s small and you can put it anywhere, but it’s almost too polished."
Adding An E36 BMW M3 To The Stable
Mello absolutely loved his E36 M3 four-door, which he used to schlep around clients in the days of Motorola brick phones—a technological throwback that makes shifting in traffic something of a frightening proposition. But as great as an M3 with its silky-smooth inline-six and VANOS valve timing system might sound, the E39 540i got him hooked on the rumble and low-end torque of a V8 engine.
Plus, Mello has clearly had engine swaps on the brain from a young age, which helps explain the somewhat perplexing situation he's now created for himself.
"My dad, when I was a kid, we had tons of killer cars that my mom made him sell for nothing," Mello recalled. "But this was the '70s. We had a ‘53 Ford F100 with a Chrysler Hemi in it. My dad was a hot-rodder and I’ve always been around that. He was driving street motorcycles and he had every generation of Corvette, even up to the last one, the C7."
The sheer range of Mello's past automotive experience boggles the mind. On top of dad's enviable history, throw in personal ownership of 5.0 Fox Body Mustangs, Chevy Volts, a 1968 VW Beetle, and more. But in the modern era, he's obviously feeling a bit unsatisfied.
"Cars today—let’s be honest—they’re super fast," he explained. "When you look at the 0-60 and the Nurburgring times, the problem is that guys like me, I’m not that good enough of a driver. But to be going at nine-tenths in one of those cars, you’re definitely gonna kill yourself.
“There’s quick and there’s fun to drive, I had that with the R56. And then there’s the sound and the rumble of the V8. You could even throw into the mix what the new Tesla Model 3 is like. Those cars have a lot of torque and they’re very fun point-to-point, but there’s no sound. They’re kind of soulless."
Finding Jake Barkell Of Classic Daily LLC
Mello admits he's a fan of the E36 M3 in both two-door and four-door form (he got the sedan back in the day precisely to drive clients around but would have preferred the two-door even then) and spent a lot of time searching for his current Dakar Yellow coupe. The car came with plenty of history, having been owned and raced by the former Chief Information Officer of San Mateo County, Jon Walton.
Before even buying his '96 M3, Mello had begun doing the necessary research, befriending a BAR ref and even the owner of a local smog check station to pick their brains for potential knowledge of the process. He also hunted down a builder named Jake Barkell, who runs Classic Daily LLC in Michigan and seems ready to take on the job (knowing full well it could end up getting fairly complex).
Barkell had previously earned a reputation for custom work performed in his home garage, including dropping an LS3 into the white E36 pictured above—but he's based in Michigan (in a proper shop by now) and that car ended up living in China. Mello landed on Barkell after considering some California-based shops, including Castro Motorsport in Los Angeles, but Barkell's schedule and willing communication sealed the deal.
Starting Work On The LS Swap
As minty fresh as the M3 might be, Mello plans to have Barkell go over it with a fine-tooth comb once the engine swap is complete. But here's where our conversation got interesting—after all, I had to grill him on what exactly it's going to take to make the actual motor work California-legal.
At this stage, Mello and Barkell face a conundrum that has them frozen at the point of even deciding which LS engine to use. On one hand, a drop-out from a 2010-2015 Chevy Camaro SS sounds quick and safe, but on the other, a factory E-ROD crate engine might end up being easier due to the complexities of emissions requirements that a California BAR ref might have to inspect. Technically, Mello's M3 will receive an "Engine Change" not an "Engine Replacement" so the rules and regulations get all the more complex. And one big problem is that an E-ROD motor would only become possible if Mello's M3 were one year older, which means it would have left the factory with a simpler 1995-and-older first-gen On Board Diagnostic (OBD) system.
“The ref gave me the advice, 'I would not do a drop-out, I would do an E-ROD motor,'" said Mello. "Because there’s less emissions equipment that goes with it. You can use your factory gas, your fuel pump, your sending units, and all that. You need to have the evap canister hooked up and then you need the E-ROD flash on the ECU. It comes with the cats. But when you go to 1996, the E-ROD's useless for you because it’s OBD-I."
Hard Choices And A Tough Fit For An LS V8
The additional work required to use the drop-out LS leaves Mello faced with a tough choice: should he keep the Dakar Yellow 1996 or source an OBD-I car? The list of pros and cons on each side of the internal debate grows almost too long to fully notate here.
“The challenge you have there is now technically, you’re supposed to swap the entire car down to the gas tank for a drop-out like a 2010," Mello revealed. "So I panicked. I have a guy who’s coaching me and runs a smog shop in town. He runs a BMW shop too. He wants to help me out and wants to learn while I’m doing this. He kept saying ‘I don’t understand the rules about the 95 or older.'"
In terms of actual mechanical complexity, Barkell sounds to have helped Mello keep his cool. Regardless of the year, he's already figured out how much the BMW's steering column will likely need to be moved to retain the proper exhaust layout. He's already communicating with the BAR refs, too, which is a big help.
“My mechanic’s not scared of it," Mello almost bragged on behalf of Barkell. "He’s already talked to the referee and got an exception for the gas tank, so I can keep the E36 gas tank. But I might have to put the Camaro fuel sender, purge valve, and all that stuff. But that’s not the scariest part right now. Right now, if I use a drop-out, I have to use the CARB air intake."
“And it’s supposed to be either the OE or CARB certified air intake. But there’s only one CARB air intake, made by DiabloSport in Utah. The challenge is that we ordered one, so tonight Jake is actually measuring on the 2010 to see how far it will be from the firewall, to see if we have the physical space."
Interior Upgrades And Complementary Mechanical Modifications
Mello's vision for the M3 restomod isn't all about the performance, though. He believes that in today's swelling enthusiast landscape, cars from the 1990s will end up booming in popularity as millennials acquire the money to buy the cars they grew up dreaming about (a belief I happen to share). But he acknowledges that 1990s-era cars need some help in the creature comfort and interior build quality departments, so modern amenities planned for the E36 project include touches like heated seats,Apple CarPlay, and Alcantara for the shift knob and E-brake boots.
It'll also get a Tremec T56 Super Magnum six-speed stick shift conversion, in place of the ZF five-speed, though Mello plans to keep the original rear differential and figure out a custom driveshaft. A Porsche 996 big brake kit, an M Technic 2 steering wheel with a flat bottom, and all new OE rubber bushings all around will probably fit into the mix, plus a custom stainless cat-back exhaust.
All in, Mello expects to spend around $65,000 on the project and hopes that it'll only take until September to complete the mechanical work, then one to three trips to the BAR ref to get the CARB certification. To someone else, dropping that kind of money into an E36 M3 might sound crazy, but Mello is his own customer here—though he will admit to thinking about the potential business opportunity if he can get the whole process down pat.
"This is like my six-month experiment," he mused. "I’m at the last 20% of my career. And I’m trying to figure out what I want to do to keep myself engaged and have fun and maybe make a couple of dollars. I don’t need to make the same kind of money I made before but it would sure be a lot more fun to be in a community of people with a common interest."
For those who find themselves interested in Eddie Mello's trials and travails as he tries to get the LS-swapped M3 past smog, he specifically wants to communicate the importance of perspective with regards to all the regulatory mechanisms that California has put in place.
"The biggest thing about CARB certification is working with the refs," he advises. "They’re not your enemy—these guys don’t make the rules, they just enforce the rules. They’re asking the questions. They can go to their supervisor and okay, you got an exception."
As always, finding the right person on the right day sounds like half the battle, though he also dropped one final (and somewhat scary) hint:
"By the way, they keep a database and all this stuff sits in the database tied to your VIN number. So if you go to the ref check, regardless of where you go in California, they’ll see all that. So that could work for you or against you."
Sources: aws.amazon.com, bar.ca.gov, nutanix.com, classicdaily.net, facebook.com, castromotorsport.com, gmperformancemotor.com, and arb.ca.gov.