DasAuto

Hello

I purchased a 1985 Honda Civic DX a while ago with the stock 4 speed manual transmission and 1.3L Carb engine. After driving this car for a while I am starting to come across multiple engine/transmission problems and have been thinking about an engine swap for quite a while. Originally I was going to pull the engine and trans and fix them but I figured why go through the trouble of tending to the engine and trans when I could just purchase a new engine along with matching transmission fix whatever issue that engine may have. After that I do a little swapy swap and plomp that engine right in.

In short I want to swap my stock **** engine, with an engine with more pep in it's step. However I should mention that this car has a tight budget so I was looking at the B20 engine as it is cheap and readily available with a good amount of support. I tried browsing the interweb's looking high and low for information and I have come up bone dry. (The internet does not recognize the existence of my 85 Civic DX, but instead focuses on the CRX, probably because its a better car to begin with).

Thank you for your time and consideration in this matter and I hope you will give me any advice you have to offer. (Exept for "76hp lololol driv kar awff clif lolololo XDDDDDD" If you want to tell me to scrap or get rid of the car then don't bother replying. I understand this is not the most "optimal" car to perform a swap on, but I will not get rid of the car simply because I can't make it the way I want it. All cars deserve the tender care that I give them and I will not scrap them.)

Thanks for reading!!

P.S. There we go, this is the right thread.

ezone

Project Rule #454
Come up with a dollar figure for what you think your project is gonna cost.
Now triple it, because that's gonna be the real starting point, and it will go up from there
Same goes for time
Are you married? This is a test LOL

Plan for a lot of unplanned needs that cost more money
If you don't have mad engineering and fabrication skills, you might need to pay someone who does


I'd wanna know if anyone already sells engine/trans mounts to do that specific swap
Same for axles, knuckles/hubs, or at least know ahead of time what it's gonna take to connect the drivetrain to the wheels

You'll probably want access to the entire car the new drivetrain comes from, assuming you'll be using EFI and will need some complete wiring harnesses, ecm, fuel pump, radiator, shifter and associated parts, and whatnot...

BRAKES! BRAKES! BRAKES!
For the love of God if you want to double the horsepower you need to double the stopping power
Wheels n tires because the stock 13's probably won't clear a real brake upgrade


Hope you have another car for your daily driver because this one is gonna be torn apart for quite a while.
Bolting an engine and trans into a car might sound simple.......but getting it to all work correctly makes many people pull their hair out and/or run out of money, and that's when the stupidest critical stuff ends up just hacked together (there goes all hope of reliability). Seems like few swaps are actually done well and safely.


Consider starting with a newer car that has better support,
It's a helluva lot easier than having to discover and fabricate every single step of the way


If you really do serious math you may decide just buying a newer faster car is cheaper. Some V6 Accords are pretty damn quick can be had pretty cheap lol

mac25

I think the B series has a rod style shift linkage which I doubt will mount to your shifter location without modification.

But i could be wrong.

...

The K series has a cable driven linkage which would be much easier to mount.

I'd also go for a soft clutch line which requires less tools and time to fit than a hard line.