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Old 10-Jan-2009, 11:31 PM
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b20/b18 swap n00b questions need help

kk so i wanted to swap my engine to a b20 or b18

now im not a racer and im not really going to put my car on the strip (btw its a 95 civic lx 4 door) so i wanted an engine with a bit more toruqe and the b18 is good for both torque and HP but the b20 is better in torque less in HP and ALOT cheaper

soo..

1) i wanted to know everything i needed to buy to do the engine swap and anything that i can recycle from my car right now

2) i wanted to know if i could use a different auto tranny for this engine (like a b18) or does it HAVE to be the stock b20 tranny

3) i wanted to know where i can get turbos from because the ones i saw was 3000+ which is ridiculous and i saw one on this site selling for 800

so ya i now these questions are pretty n00bish but im trying to absorb all the info i can and fyi i did a bunch of google searches for these questions but i didnt really get good answers so thats why im asking
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Old 10-Jan-2009, 11:57 PM
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1) Pretty much the only thing you can reuse from your car, is your stock engine harness. As long as the Engine you're putting in is OBD1
2) Theres no point in swapping engines for an automatic car. Save your money
3) $3000 is probably for everything, turboing a car aint cheap. Go and buy that 800$ turbo, and then paying an extra 600 ontop of that for rebuilding very shortly after.
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Old 11-Jan-2009, 12:03 AM
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the main reason i wanted to swap it is just for my car to accelerate a bit faster i weigh 200 pounds and thats fine but then i add another friend 200 pounds okay so far add another friend 150 pounds slows down a bit but not really 250 pound friend comes in car starts to stress when going 60 i just wanted my car to accelerate better witha high weight ( i assume greater torque would do that)
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Old 11-Jan-2009, 01:42 AM
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turbo on a automatic i think its kind of useless wont really benefit much from it
any b series tranny will work with any b series motors.
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Old 11-Jan-2009, 02:24 AM
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Originally Posted by thusee
turbo on a automatic i think its kind of useless wont really benefit much from it
any b series tranny will work with any b series motors.
Are you serious? If anything if you're serious about power a turbo automatic is the best setup since you dont lift your foot off the gas when it shifts and therefore the car never drops down in boost.

Stick is more fun and in my opinion the best way to go but a built automatic turbo against the exact same equal setup in every way except auto instead of manual, the auto will be faster 9 times out of 10, and an auto never miss-shifts.

BTW both my cars are manual, just giving some advice.


To the original poster, get a B18. Every stock non-vtec B20 ive seen has torque but thats it. Unless torque is ALL you care about get the B20, otherwise get an LS, theres more of them out there, parts are easier to come by, etc etc etc.
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Old 11-Jan-2009, 06:28 AM
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Save up, sell you car and buy a van lol.
But to be serious, all that work into auto not sure how many people will want to buy it unless you are gonna keep the car till it dies or part it out. Imo if you are willing to spend 5000$+ then why not, you will have a nice quick car. And turbo auto will be nice.
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Old 11-Jan-2009, 10:43 AM
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the problem with turbo hondas is that there is very little aftermarket support for the auto tranny's. So you'll be going through auto tranny's (that weren't ever designed to take boost or lots of power) very quickly.

Swapping over to 5spd is a lot of work and anyone who's ever done it will tell you to just buy a 5spd car.
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Old 11-Jan-2009, 10:59 AM
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kk well my car engine now is pretty much on its dying legs right now its at 300 k i could probably push it another 100k but at that point it would just be dead completely so i wanted to do the b20/b18 swap that was my main priority the turbo might come after if i have a bit more money.

this car was my first car an ( i know this is going to sound stupid) i REALLY dont wanna sell it cuz making a 95 auto 4 door look good is like dating a rich fat chick.. ya she has lots of money..but shes still fat so ya lol. also, i wanted to get a 5spd integra but my parents were against it completely so i just caved in and got my civic which i havent complained about yet so ya :P

okay so without the turbo what engine setup would you recommend so i would get the most out of my money i was looking up on the b18 block b16 head but again i wont be racing that much so i wanted something fairly quick to accelerate and can carry more than 200 pounds
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Old 11-Jan-2009, 11:03 AM
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Originally Posted by zeeman
Swapping over to 5spd is a lot of work and anyone who's ever done it will tell you to just buy a 5spd car.


Its not THAT hard, as long as you know what you're doing and understand everything. And do alot of reading up.
I did it on my 92 civic by myself.
Id never do it for free tho lol Id want money out of it if i ever had to do it on someone elses cars
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Old 11-Jan-2009, 11:17 AM
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its hard enough.
MOST people don't have the knowledge/resources to do it theirselves, so to pay a shop wouldn't be practical b/c they'd charge and arm and leg to do a swap AND convert to 5spd.

If you just want a fun street car b20s are great IMO and they run on 87 octane gasoline just fine. They have lots of torque and make good power up to about 6000rpms or so. If you want something that revs really high, get a vtec counterpart (GSR or ITR).
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Old 11-Jan-2009, 11:22 AM
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anyone know a site where i can get the COMPLETE engine swap and parts needed to put it into my civic

btw whats a rough estimate to buy the engine and put it into a civic? (2 thousand???)
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Old 11-Jan-2009, 03:20 PM
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ya youd be looking at least 2g in all the parts and labour.. To convert to b series u will need axles and mounting brackets. I did a swap in my 00se coupe to a obd2 b18b. it cost around 2500$ for all.. And i think that was great deal!!!!!! But now that i crave Vtec i wish i just stayed with my d16y7 and did the y8 conversion! would have been alot cheaper and not a alot of research. For you finding a built up vtec dseries block and head then sell of a nice tranny for a nice auto tranny would be ur most cost effictive way to get reliable power for a car u may not keep! Dont get me wrong i love my torque but u should be able to hit my stock ls #s with a good running dmotor easy.. As for where to get the motor lots of places online check the afflieates page on here defcom and tecnoits (SORRY on spelling) but they are ones i hear nothing but good things and are ones i may contact soon about tuning my setup!
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Old 11-Jan-2009, 08:18 PM
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Random question..

How much work would it take to swap to manual or how much would labour costs be
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Old 12-Jan-2009, 12:09 AM
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by the sounds of things enough hours that its gonna add a good chunk to ur bill.. get some cams for a dseries and do a tune..
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Old 12-Jan-2009, 01:05 AM
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Altech performance quoted me $1200 complete for a straight d series auto-to-manual swap. That included parts and all.

I went and did the swap myself over 2 years ago. Literaly, it just added an hour onto the overall time i spent doing the complete b series swap.

Heres an amazing link that i used when i did it...
Its kind of broken since HT has been in the ***** lately

http://www.honda-tech.com/showthread.php?t=1337459
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Old 12-Jan-2009, 01:31 AM
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Originally Posted by honDuh
Altech performance quoted me $1200 complete for a straight d series auto-to-manual swap. That included parts and all.

I went and did the swap myself over 2 years ago. Literaly, it just added an hour onto the overall time i spent doing the complete b series swap.

Heres an amazing link that i used when i did it...
Its kind of broken since HT has been in the ***** lately

http://www.honda-tech.com/showthread.php?t=1337459
Nice link!.. will come in handy for some people.
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Old 12-Jan-2009, 01:59 AM
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im considering doing the auto to manual mod myself but i just want to get the engine out of the way first

so so far ive got from you guys

b20b/b20 vtec/ d15y8

1) i have no idea what a y8 conversion is but i did do some research and i saw that the d15b is offering what i want for ALOT cheaper

D15B
  • VTEC
  • Found in:
    • 1991-1999 Honda Civic VTi EG4 (Japanese Market)
    • 1992-1998 Honda CRX VXi EG1 (Japanese Market)
      • Displacement : 1,493 cc (91.1 cu in)
      • Bore and Stroke : 75 mm × 84.5 mm (3.0 in × 3.3 in)
      • Rod Length : 137 mm
      • Compression : 9.6:1
      • Power : 140 hp (148 ps) @ 6800 rpm & 115.9 ft·lbs (14.1kg/m) @ 5200 rpm
      • Redline : 7200 rpm
      • Fuel Cut : 7411 rpm
      • Valvetrain : SOHC VTEC
      • Head Code : P08
      • Fuel Control : OBD-1 MPFI
i just wanted to know if the above stats were for the engines being shown here
http://www.toronto jdm.com/lite/cart...ategory_id=120

ignore the space between the toronto and the jdm
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Old 12-Jan-2009, 04:16 AM
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1st. You'll need the auto to manual mount from hasport or innovative. ******** will order it for you in about a week. thats the first thing you should get and it cost about $180ish.

2nd. get manual pedals, the one on the thread that was given to here here http://www.honda-tech.com/showthread.php?t=1337459 tells you that you don't have to get the whole manual pedals but in reality, you have too!!. reason: is because the brake pedal is to close to the clutch pedal when you put it together. very dangerous. auto brake pedal is wider than the manual pedal.

3rd. master clutch cylinder off 92-95 civic or from an itegra 94-01 and clutch line from 92-95 civic . You can get the clutch flex line from ******** aswell for 98 bucks. (trust me it will save you the headache!!!)

4th is buy the whole swap b16, b18b/a, b18c1/c5, b20 etc.... or you may stick to d15 or 16. whatever you want. as long as it for dseries or b series. You should have everthing you need for the whole drivetrain eg. drive axles, shifter linkages etc... oh yea, don't forget the shifter! buy a short shifter if i were you.

5th is you'll need to take your stock ecu and bring it to ******** and they'll chip it for so you can run VTECCCCCCCC. whatever engine you prefer they can do it for you. give them a call to find out for the price.

6th is to buy all the fluids. rad fluid, tranny oil, engine oil and ofcourse brake fluid for your clutch cylinder to work.

I have corrected some of the info from the thread above. This should prepare you for everything you'll need to do the conversion and MAYBE will help you think twice on doing this project at all because it will cost you time and money and more money if you bring it to a shop. But if you ask me if I would do it all over again??? Hell noooooooooooooo. I would have bought a nicer ride with the money that I have spent just doing the coversion. My advice is sell the car and just add the money that you have right now and buy a better one that has more power. trust me dude, you'll thank yourself in the future.
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Old 12-Jan-2009, 04:17 AM
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by the way its tiknootik is the store. hehehhe
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Old 12-Jan-2009, 08:35 AM
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From someone who has experienced this swap first hand. Ill let you in on a little secret, make the junk yard your best friend.
I just found a mint donor civic in the yard and stripped it of everything do to with the clutch pedal and lines and etc.
I got the entire clutch pedal assembly, clutch master cylinder, entire line, and flex line for $35.
Instead of buying a full brake pedal assembly, because yes the arm is different between the auto and manual. I just simply went to honda, and bought a new arm for a 5 speed, it was $46 or so. And its one bolt and one pin to replace it.

You dont have to buy the hasport auto-manual upper transmission mount. Just gotta know someone good at welding. Cut your existing brackets off the subframe, and get them rewelded in the proper position. One way of doing that. mock up where the transmission will fit, and bolt up the mount. then weld brackets accordingly.

I went from an auto d15b7 to a LSwith gsr trans. so i pretty much swapped everything. ECU was straight plug in, etc.
But yeah if you're doing a swap like this. either go b series. or just sell the car cuz it wont be worth the trouble for only a d series.
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