EPA rules:
yes i have read them, and have studied law enough to know that if you are not very careful you can get bit!
suttle differences in words such as "should" and "shall" can twist a meaning from day to night , and even from day to apple!
one also has to consider the political nature of things, such as if some group takes a dislikeing to you, they can use even a loosely worded clause to beat the crap out of you.
then consider: if you are in your late 50's or 60's and have worked your whole life to pay off your house, and try to
set yourself up for retirement,,, you risk alot.
i know first hand how laws are written,, and also how a judge has wide discretion to interpret those same laws.
He can, and often does use what is called "the intent of the law" to make it read what he wants or the opposing atty wants it to say.
i don't know if there are any atty's in this group, but i would bet a pretty good dollar that none of use will find an atty that will sign off on the importation of these engines at this time. The law is just to loose, to vague, and filled with problematic language, and it is subject to changes at any time. Literally an importer takes a risk that new regs don't come out tomorrow to cause him renewed risk the day before he takes delivery of a shipment.
also it is readily apparent that laws and regs can be inacted to be retroactive! this means that it is conceivable that they might choose to right new regs tomorrow and place a start date retroactive april 1, 2006. Who has the money to lobby and stop this sort of retroactive approach. I don't! do you?
parts are a different animal entirely, they don't have to be date stamped at present so even if they changed the regs to include them it would be very difficult to retroactively go after them. to my knowledge the importers do not have to maintain documents on parts, so this looks to be the most effective way of doing business without a high level of risk.
now as far as kit engines, i think this will prove to be a godsend, for all the reasons previously mentioned, and
upon receiving a kit once cannot simply add oil and start it. you have a kit and take responcibility of checking it over at least some upone assembly.
my bet is more of the engines as kits will be completely disassembled, cleaned, detailed, blueprinted than there every was when they came complete.
nobody is kidding me with this one,,, i know human nature, you got this beautiful hunk of engine out of the crate and all you want to do is fire it up asap to hear it run... everybody feels it,,, but few have the self restraint to tell themselves to wait, and do it right.
i do wonder how many problem engines come from this sort of action,,, uncrate, start and destroy.
the reason i say this is:
my partner bought a 2 cyl petter gen set... he got in uncrated, added oil to the full mark, water and fired it up, because he was so excited... only to find out later that the full mark on the dipstick was not even close to covering the pickup tube to the pump! he didnt take time to check squat,, i am sure even sand was the last thing on his mind, even after he was told numerous times to take a good look at things first. what makes matters worse is he is a truck mechanic and knows better!
so yes on numerous counts the kit engines are just what we need, just when we need it most.
bob g