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Hello everyone, embarrassingly enough I am new to the Honda scene. I’ve owned this 5 speed ‘96 Civic DX for 3 years now and I am very happy how well it’s been treating me. The car is great, but it’s way underpowered. I’ve been considering doing an engine swap, but of course I want it to be CARB legal. I am the type of person who likes to do things the right way. I don’t mind paying a little extra to avoid me long term problems.
I would like to keep the car naturally aspirated since I only use it for short city trips and mostly to commute to work (70 miles round trip).
Any recommendations? I’m open for suggestions.
A head swap would be cheap and give a respectable boost in power. My EL (same as the ex in the US) has about 20hp more than the DX and it is a noticeable boost in power. Whether that would stay CARB legal or not, I suspect so, but I ultimately have no idea.
bro...the closes thing as a carb legal swap is if u did what I did. that is to swap it to whatever u had in mind then get it state ref. when u go to state ref. their job is to make sure ur car is smog safe to drive on the street. so they will work with u on the smog . once u pass the state ref. u will have special documents from the state saying ur swap is legal and smog safe to drive on the streets so all those dumb cops that wants to pull u over for any stupid reason about ur car engine. just slap those documents in their faces and watch them cry cuz they know they can't do nothing. Also when smog check time comes u gotta go back and smog it at state ref. cuz regular shops can't smog u cuz they will try and smog u under the stock civic spec. and ur car spec. changed.
this is my 96 civic ex k24 turbo ( state ref. )
