Montana

Well as you may know I am in the market for a civic to drop a b18 into, and I have the following question:

Assuming I buy an old eg 93 -94, and dump the engine in it, how long can I expect to be driving this car if I service it and maintain it regularly. I need the car to last me the next 4-5 years.

Keep in mind I am not too much of an expert on cars and maintenance; and most likely Ill be asking on forums such as these more newby questions when I actually purchase the civic.


The eg is my fav body style, and I would prefer to get it, however if the 15 year old car will be falling apart after every speed bump I would rather buy a newer civic for the swap.

On a sidenote the b18 will fit fine into a 4 door 98 civic right?

PS. on another sidenote, if theres anyone under 20 on the forum, how much insurance are you paying on ur civic and what model type.

thanks, cheers

rick10

well let me start by asking you how much money are you willing to spend on your new civic?

under 20?? can you get your dar or mom to insure the car for you?? you could still drive it

k_r_a_c_k_e_r

iTrader: (3)

I personaly would rather spend the money on an older car then buying a new one.

rick10

helll no !! ... unless you are into tuning and you can do the work yourself he shouldnt buy an old car.
4-5 years is a long time.

At the end of the day its your decision . But this is my experience.

I bought a car that was 10 years old , which i paid for 4000 $ . The car drove well for 5 months after that it was a nighmare. I needed for college and work however i can not remember how many times i had to call in sick for work or missed classes because the damn car will keep breaking down. Not to mention that in a year i spent at least 1000 on repairs ( main repairs because i couldnt afford the secondary ones), plus the regular maintance (oil , filter , etc). If you are making 1200 a month part time and you have to pay 400 insurance plus 120 on gas the last thing you want to do is spend an extra 150 or more for repairs , and also loose some money because you will miss work.

I had my car for 3 years , i spent at least 4000 on repairs plus i probably lost another 2 grand on time i took off work everytime it will break down . And they gave me 400$ when i traded it in for a newer car and i was lucky the guy gave me that because other dealers didnt want to give me a penny for it.


Now, i kind of learned my lesson , i bought a 2000 civic in 2006 , i paid 7000$ for it , i prob spend 1000 but on maintanence in the last two years , not major repairs , never missed work or school . The best feeling is that you can trust your car everymorning when you go down to the garage to start it. It feels like crap when you are driving an old car and you are thinkinh something its about to break !

Now if you have a new car it doesnt mean it wont break down but your chances are better, plus it is easier to sell it after 3-4 years.

If you are just a regular joe that knows a thing or two about cars and then you get a car that is between 5-8 years old you should be fine. Any older than that you better know how to fixed it or be willing to pay a mechanic and they are not cheap i tell you

Team Rukus

if you think buying a older car is screwing yourself then you gotta look at the market in total. if older cars were risky business then no one would be driving cars because majority of the vehicles out there are still over 10 years old. it all comes down to how good of a car you end up picking up. rule of thumb generally is if it costs a little more then the other cars in the same make and model then its a better condition car but you still have to inspect it to make sure. as for me i do everything with cars so i have no problems finding the ****tiest and cheapest car and turning it into a mint condition car for really cheap aslong as the body is decent but thats because all the labour i put into it is my self and the parts i got hook ups on.

rick10

and also i forgot to tell you that i was forced to drive without insurance for 2 years because the I couldn't keep up with the repairs and the insurance together.
So everytime i had to go to repair my car i just took it as me paying for insurance.

However it is still annoying waiting for the mechanic shop for 2-5 hours for a repair. Or calling a two truck in the middle of the highway during winter because your car broke down

rick10

that is true , but that only applies for someone that knows how to the work on the car himself and also has a place to work at .


Thats what many mechanis do nowday , they get an old car , fix it up and then sell it .

However for a regular joe, i dont think it's a good idea to get an older car if you can afford a newer one

rick10

just to add more to your reply

getting an old car is a risky business. How many old cars do you see on the road nowdays??? very few. The majority of the cars on the road are newer cars . Actually many of the cars on the road are lease cars.

The majority of people prefer to buy a newer car or lease a car to avoid paying big amount of money in fixing an old one.Plus avoide wasting time and having headaches when they old ones break down

Ofcourse there is always going to be people that prefer buying old cars because they are cheap , but the majority of these people are the ones that can do the fixing themselves , got hook ups , do not have money to afford a better car, insurance problems.

However it doesnt mean they really want to get the old car , i think anyone that can afford a new car would prefer to buy a newer one than to buy an old one and then fix it up.

k_r_a_c_k_e_r

iTrader: (3)

if thats true, your an idiot.

rick10

yes an idiot that saved 10 000 in two years , well more like 5 gs because of the stupid repairs on my car and then used the other 5 gs to get a newer car

also an idiot that never got pulled over for two years driving 60 000 kms

however , i wouldn't do it again because now i can afford my insurance

screwface

the way i look at it is a car is the sum of all it's parts not any one part. personally, i wouldn't be able to enjoy a badass engine if the car sees so much downtime it's a hassle to own. especially with the cost of insurance and gas and ****...

there's so many performance options available that you can find something to accomodate your budget after you get a reliable vehicle. well, that's the route im going anyway.

rick10

exactly . Look for something reliable first.

Unless you are the type of guys that get s an older car for cheap puts a big engine , performance parts to make it a racing car. Some people like that and know how to work on their own cars. which is great

But the average joe doesn't know how to do it and neither has the tools, time , money and patient to do it.
Once i'm more settle i will probably buy a "PROJECT CAR" and learn to work on it and then be proud of my work but for you being a first car i dont think it is such a good idea

viper_2_4

10,000 insurance over 2 years?...WTF?

rick10

yea man , i was paying 410 a month for a basic insurance on a 93 jetta that cost me 4000 .

Since it was my first car i had to borrow two grand from my parents so i was paying 910 a month for the first 4 months , plus gas

After that , my car started breaking down so the nightmare continue for a whole year

Year ends and my stu p i d insurance company tells me that they made a mistake and my montly insurance was supposed to be 480 , so i complaint but nothing happened. I shopped around for a diff company but the best quote i received was 520.

I was starting a new semester i needed money to buy my books and pay off my visa. So i had to either cut my insurance or quit my job and just go to school. Because work and school were a 45 min drive and a 3 hour bus trip.

I just took the risk and drove like a grandma for two years , i developed a smell for cops and a sense of cars around me over two years, but it was well worth it because i kept me job , paid my visa , saved money to get a decent car, and finish school.

Montana

Wow thanks for all the quick replies. Im pretty much positive now that ill be going for a newer 2000 civic, and most likely the 4 door to save on the insurance.

ForSale

Older cars are better, (can’t really say that for civics) but when it comes to civics don't go anything older than a 1995 EG, because civics are dime a dozen, and 99% of the used old one's you'll find have been raped or had older owners who drove it for economy purpose all through the year and probably had rust they never washed off.

If it was some other brand I’d say go ahead buy an older car, but there are problems here, one I remember being your age and even though I love older cars, it was a pain in the nads trying to get my Honda’s where I wanted to in the budget I had, I had to sell my 1 accord and 2 civics every 6 months as to how bad they were that it was not worth fixing them. I ended up paying 3grand to 4 grand on those 3 Honda’s in 1 month that I owned each. Until I got involved in car shows and learned a lot about cars, and found a nice EF for $4000, and spent another $4000 on suspension and rims, and later added a B16, it was the most fun I had on a track. But school came up and I had to let it go for $4000 in desperation and I lost loot.

Another very important thing, if you want your civic to last 4-5 years, when throwing in the b18 limit the red line to 7500k, I’ve seen too many people get rev happy and blow up their engine raping it at 9000k.

try to get a newer civic like a EK hatch, its light, nothing newer because then the newer cars get heavy, compare a weight ratio with the 2001 civic sir with the b16 I think, you want to get a civic lighter than that, other wise you'd be wasting the weight to power ratio advantage you could easily have.

The best swap is usually trying to get the most powerful engine into the lightest car, but when it comes to the older civics they are very rare to find well maintained unless you buy it off someone on this website who’s babied their civic.

Anyways, take your time and yes, I’d recommend a 1998 or newer, the B18 will rattle the ish out of the rusty old civics, I have also had friend break engine mounts in ef’s after installing B18 and running it on the track.


Good luck.

Midori

480 -520 for insurance ??? I was paying 170 when I was 17 and 109 now at 23 do you live in the downtown core or something?

as for the topic any joe blow can learn how to work on cars... I have no training what so ever and I would say that I can do any repair except body stuff as long as the bolts/nuts come out without to much trouble.. old cars = rusty parts

Also with old cars you can shop at junk yards. eg and ef are a dime a dozen now a days. I just fixed my AICV and some other broken sensor (air temp?) for 5 bucks. I suppose on the flip side newer cars wouldn t have these problems but they could.

oh and a motor swap will not help you save money.

armash

its not a bad idea buyin an older honda if ur gettin just the shell or a good deal on and older one with lots of clicks on the odo
u can spend 3-4grand on it, drop a new motor, body work and suspension and it will be good to go for the most part. little repairs here and there are not that big a deal
as long as ur getting a good healthy motor for ur swap, i would go for it

zoomroom

Older cars are always in a constant state of repair. If you have access to another car, say your parents car, then yes, buy an older car. You'll learn basic auto repair pretty quick. If access to borrowing another car is not an option, buy the newest car your budget will allow.

jdesouz

Im 19 paying 200-250 a month for an 02 civic coupe. Thats with me as secondary under my mom as primary.