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Hey, everyone. Unfortunately, I have learned a lot of hard lessons over the past few months. Don't trust a dealership, don't buy a car with excessively worn shifting components, don't shut off an overheating engine and immediately put cold water in it, keep an eye on your coolant, be careful where you jack your car up, etc.
I bought this 2007 Civic Si for too much in Escondido, CA, after my previous car was totaled and insurance paid me, then drove it back to where I live and work in the Texas Panhandle. I use it for pizza delivery at a local pizza shop. It is my only car and my breadwinner. No issues at all on the drive back and for the first few weeks, then it was problem after problem after problem, most of which were my fault.

Now the engine block is cracked and the head gasket is blown. It also needs a clutch and a tranny rebuild, because the shifter is as loose in 1st gear as it should be in neutral, and it often grinds when shifting from 1st to 2nd at high engine speed, and it sometimes grinds going into 2nd from 3rd, even when I'm rev-matching.
Because of the blown head gasket, there was coolant getting into the oil, and there was a lot of coolant leaking out of the engine through the head gasket and the cracked engine block.

I caused a radiator leak by not paying attention when jacking up the car. The jack was in the right spot, in the center of the crossmember right behind the radiator, but I was doing it outside on hot asphalt. The asphalt caved in underneath the jack, the car fell off the jack, and the jack went under the radiator. As the car fell, the jack pushed the radiator/condenser assembly with all of their support brackets up towards the hood a few inches, bent all of those brackets, and caused a radiator leak. With some help, the brackets were bent back into place, but I did not have the money for a new radiator.

I just barely had enough money for some BlueDevil. I've been warned not to put it in, but it's summer, so I wasn't worried about clogging my heater core, and the radiator was leaking, so I wasn't worried about clogging that, either. It really was my only option at the time.

After a bottle of head gasket sealer, I drove it for a day, made some money, but didn't keep an eye on the coolant level. I ended up overheating and burning off all the BlueDevil close to the end of the day. I barely made it home, burned a couple quarts of oil in the process, put in another bottle of BlueDevil that night, let it sit overnight after idling it according to the instructions, then I bought a bottle of block and radiator sealant and topped off the radiator with water and that sealant throughout the day, which fixed every coolant leak I had.
I was no longer going through over a gallon of water every day, and I was no longer getting coolant in the oil.

Unfortunately, the damage had already been done. VTEC completely failed about a week later, then I got an oil leak onto my serpentine belt, which blew my water pump.

I fixed that, and kept driving the car. Oh also, the A/C hasn't worked since I bought the car. The dealer assured me it just needed a recharge. Actually, it needs a compressor. It also needs about $1,000 of parts for the suspension.

I have been driving the car for a little over 6,000 miles since all of these issues started cropping up, and now I've got COVID, so I figured I'd use my time stuck at home to ask for advice.

I intend to keep this car mostly stock and do very few performance upgrades. I only plan on giving it an upgraded clutch, but not a multi-disc clutch, a short-throw shifter, a cold-air intake, and a tune. That's it.

Here's the plan: Pull a long block out of the closest junkyard that has one. Buy a nice, stock rebuild kit for the K20Z3, buy a stage 3? clutch kit, buy whatever I would need to rebuild the tranny, buy a short-throw shifter, and buy an upgraded motor mount to replace that god-awful hydraulic mount. (Why did Honda ever think that was a good idea? They last less than a few months!) Rebuild the junkyard engine, take the current engine and tranny out of my car, rebuild the tranny, put the new clutch in, put the tranny on the junkyard engine, replace the motor mount, build a cold-air intake, put the junkyard engine with my original tranny back into my car, then drive it for a couple thousand miles or so before buying a FlashPro or a standalone ECU (which is cheaper?) and tuning it.

I've already become attached to this car, so I'm not selling it. I'm pouring all of my money into this car. I couldn't even sell it if I wanted to, because the few days I'd be without a car would be a few days I wouldn't be making money. I know myself too well, and I'd spend too much on the new car, then not have enough money to make it back home. That almost happened with this car, but thankfully a friend was willing to lend me a few hundred dollars until I could make the money back.

Any recommendations on good tranny/engine rebuild kits? Would it be cheaper to just buy a junkyard tranny? Any good junkyards that should have this engine that are relatively close to the Texas Panhandle? Has anyone got a spare long block they can sell me for less than $1,000, so I don't have to go to the junkyard? haha

Also, what other K20 engines would be just as smooth to swap into my car without any fabrication or tuning necessary? If a slightly different K20 fits in this car, I might go for it, but I really like the Z3, because of the presence of VTEC on both camshafts.

Any advice for this complete rebuild and replacement would be greatly appreciated! I look forward to hearing from this community.

 
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I would buy a junkyard trans as well, and presonally i wouldn't bother with any of those upgrades. Drive it stock with everything working properly first and then decide if you want to get it tuned.

 
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Ok, gotcha! Thanks for the recommendation! If I buy a junkyard trans, could I potentially save the clutch from that trans to put off the cost of a clutch kit until right before I get it tuned?

 
Rep Power: 222

Stock replacement clutch is fairly inexpensive, i personally wouldn't install a used clutch.

 
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Alright, who sells a good stock replacement clutch for a normal price? What price range should I be looking at for a clutch?

 
Rep Power: 367

exedy
unless you are making like 60% more HP (like turbo, compressor, hypothetical number ), stock clutch is more than enough

 
Rep Power: 367

car-part.com for nearby junkyards (parroting same website for decades, for people that bothers to search)

https://www.civicforums.com/forums/2...-part-com.html

 
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Ok, I'm glad to hear that I won't have to spend too much money getting a new clutch, but with a smoothly-functioning trans, could an upgraded clutch make shifting faster and snappier? And thank you for the link to car-parts.com! I've done a little research, but I haven't seen this website before. I'll give it a shot!

 
Rep Power: 367

the stage 1 clutch are way stiffer to step into the clutch pedal
stage 2, someone said it broke his left leg
(pressure plate need clamp that harder)

shifting faster/snappier have never been related to upgrade clutches. Rather, slower depending on your leg strenght

 
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Wow, ok. I'll stick with the stock clutch. I'm looking for better shifting, but it seems like a clutch won't help, and I don't want to hurt myself. Thanks!

 
Rep Power: 367

shifting better depends on original design, maintenance, proper alignment (when solid linkages - Hondas use cables) between shifter lever and trans, and proper shifting techniques

clutch need to transfer the available torque to the trans for a regular manual trans. does not matter for sequential shifting or autos of all sorts, paddle shift included

 
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.Ok, thank you for the explanation. I was planning on changing the fluid and cable when I replaced the transmission anyway, but what do you mean by "proper shifting techniques?" As far as I understand, shifting up into the next gear is very simple. Gas out, clutch in, move the shifter to the next gear, clutch out, gas in. So my understanding would indicate to me that shifting quicker, assuming everything is in good mechanical condition, is just a matter of doing all of that quicker, while still timing everything correctly and without skipping any steps. Is there a better shifting technique for shifting up quicker?

 
Rep Power: 367

I wanted to stop here so you can get back to what you need...
best way to avoid money shifts?
from 5-4 shifts, simply pull gear off, let the lever naturally come back to center, pull lever down (many try to bring lever back center manually and mash the gear or accidentally shifts into 2nd and overrev engine - money shift)
same can be said about upshifting 2-3.
shifting faster is not the issue, not losing time when shifting is better. 2-3 can also better be done with double clutch

I don't let me hand go of the sifter, but when I pull out of gear, I release any grip from hand and let the hand follow the sifter lever. Got center? push or pull toward 3 or 4th gear. for training, you can completely release the lever and push/pull after lever gets back center.
as long as rev match is done

I use two fingers and wrist movements to shift my mazda miatas.

 
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Alright, thank you for the advice! I'll do some research myself on shifting and wait on this thread for more recommendations regarding my engine. Best wishes!

 
Rep Power: 125

JDM import places will have engine/trans kits that can drop right in. Typically comes at a premium but will come with a warranty. Typically the swaps hover around 40-60k miles.

 
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I’d love to have a warranty, but I really can’t afford the premium. I’ll probably have to buy everything piece by piece until I’m ready to rebuild the junkyard motor. I’m also considering being a mechanic for a living, so I’d love to do this project with a junkyard engine to learn how to rebuild an engine.

 
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If you want to do that, buy a K24 block and reuse the old head. It’ll be cheaper than replacing the entire engine.

 
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I can’t reuse the old head. It’s warped and all of the VTEC and VTC components have failed. Do you know where I can get a good rebuild kit with timing components, an oil pump, and everything?

 
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Rockauto

 
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I’ll look them up! Thanks!

 
Rep Power: 125

You can get the head machined easily enough, but how do you know that all the VTEC components have failed? Never heard of that before.

 
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Unfortunately, because this is my only car, I cannot wait for the head to be machined. I can’t have this car out of order for more than a few days at a time. The machine shops in my area are months behind right now. I’d rather spend more to buy a remanufactured head or a junkyard engine and take only a day to put that into the car than wait months for a machine shop.

I can tell VTEC has failed because the cam timing gears with the actuators rattles horribly whenever I start the engine, the rattle every time I shift gears, and VTEC refuses to engage, no matter what I do.

 
Rep Power: 125

The VTC actuator rattle has nothing to do with VTEC. It sounds like you’re in limp mode.

Since you’re in a pinch, buy the cheapest working K-series (not the K24Z) you can find and just throw it in, because you won’t find a Z3 in a junkyard. You’ll throw codes because it won’t have VTEC but it’ll work.

It may also be worth evaluating other options, ie a different car. At least from the sounds of it, this isn’t a great car mechanically or cosmetically, so it may not be worth investing much, if at all, into this thing.