Exhaust Notes - Honda & Acura Engine Swaps - Honda Tuning Magazine

Motor Swap Special
Over the last few months, our mailbox has been backing up with questions about motor swaps, hard questions, stuff we don't necessarily know the answers to. Fortunately, we know people that do. For this month, we fired our swap tech questions off to Brian Gillespie of Hasport Motor Mounts. When not playing hardball as the CRX negotiator on Pinks, Brian spends his time developing new ways to make hard swaps easier. When you've got an engine hanging halfway out of your hood, the rental on the cherry picker is overdue and your mom wants her garage space back, he's the guy to call. -AH

What the F, what the H, what the...K?
I was curious I have a '97 Honda Accord LX with Neuspeed race springs, Koni Adjustable Sport dampers and Suspension Techniques sway bars. What I am curious about is a motor swap that can give me enough power to enjoy my suspension just a little more on the street. I've driven H22-powered Accords and they are a little more fun to drive than the F22B that I have right now. How much power does it put out? And if I get that swapped in, where do I look at to get parts to build up the head? Would exhaust for an LX Accord fit that motor and what about headers, because from what I see it's a little cheaper than an H22 swap and I don't want to jump on the band wagon like every other Accord owner. One more thing I read an article in one of your past issues about Hasport doing a K24 swap into 1994-1997 Accord. Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks a lot and keep up the great work.-Andrew L.

The engine you are probably talking about is the '97-up Accord SiR and SiR-T F20B engines. The SiR-T had a manual tranny and put out about 200 PS while the SiR came in an automatic flavor and pumped out 180 PS. They both sported a blue valve cover so I'm not sure how I would tell them apart by looking at them. Both motors are a direct bolt-in into your car and would be a significant upgrade to what you have now. The Accord Type R is an H22A motor similar to the Prelude SiR S Spec engine. It had a red valve cover and puts out around 220 PS. As far as parts for modifying them, use the equivalent H22 parts, including the headers. The Accord exhaust should bolt up with little or no modification.

A big key to improved performance is to make sure you get a decent transmission with your engine. Nothing kills horsepower on a VTEC motor like a lame Accord transmission. Try to get something with close ratios. Any of the manual transmissions that came in DOHC VTEC Accords or Preludes will do nicely.

As for the K24 Swap, Hasport should have (finally) released its bolt-in kit for the '94-97 Accord by the time this magazine comes to print. The Hasport mount kit is designed to work with the TSX K24A2 and six-speed transmission. It will also work with the much less expensive Accord K24A4 and transmission.-BG

It Almost Lines Up
I have a '97 Civic hatch with a '98 H22A installed and wish to transplant the H22A to a '93-97 del Sol. My question is: Will that be a direct bolt-in since I'll just be taking all the hatch's mounts, spindles, axles, brakes and everything and putting them into the del Sol? It looks like the two chassis are very alike. Can you please tell me what else I have to do to make this work?-Ken V.

Unfortunately, the chassis' are not that similar. The short answer is you will need some mounts. Some of the mount kit companies use the same transmission mount but that is the only one.-BG

Hole In My Head
I have a question for you, I have a '91 hatch that I put a JDM D15B in and there is an opening on the head right under where the clutch cable connects to the cam cover. It has a spot for something because there are two bolts. I cut some sheetmetal and punched out some holes and put some gasket maker. It covered it up and it doesn't leak or anything, but I'd like to find out what it is or if it is necessary.-James M. / Houston,TX

That particular head was also used on a carbureted version of the D15B. The opening you are talking about is where a manual fuel pump was mounted. If the head was on a carbureted engine there would have been an opening there and the fuel pump would have extended down the hole to an eccentric cam that would drive it when the engine was running. Nothing to worry about, and it shouldn't leak.-BG

Old School Sleeper
I've been searching for the answer to this question for weeks now.

What's needed for a B18C1 swap in an '87 Civic Si? We do have access to a '97 GSR front clip. What parts are swappable (i.e. ECU, axle, shift linkage, etc)? I found partial answers, but not all.-Sam L.

Man, that is a great swap. The Civic is really light weight and the GSR motor willmake that car fly. There are a couple of companies that make mount kits for B-series engines into the '84-87 Civic and CRX bodies. You have a couple of special considerations though. The kits are designed to work with the older '90-93 B-series cable transmissions. Also the GSR intake manifold is rather large and you will need to put a dent in the firewall to get it to clear.

As for other parts, you can use the '97 GSR ECU with some fancy wiring, but you are better off using a '94-95 GSR ECU. It is much easier to do an OBD0 to OBD1 conversion rather than OBD0 to OBD2. Parts of the GSR engine harness can be used to modify the Civic's engine harness. It's an extensive modification, so it usually works best to send the Civic and Integra harness to someone who knows what they are doing. The Integra shift linkage can be shortened to work, or you can lengthen the stock Civic linkage. The rear engine bracket will need to be exchanged for one from a '99 Civic Si. The axles are too long, but do keep the intermediate shaft. That's the big stuff, you should be able to use some of the small stuff like the Integra throttle cable and hoses.-BG

Brian Gets Stumped!
I have an '06 Honda EX Auto, i found a website that is selling a K24 for $900. Can I mount that to my car? Or would I need a TSX auto trans or new motor mounts? My goal is a K24/K20 head and a 2.6 stroker kit (or how ever high it goes). I want to get an N/A high horsepower Civic (auto to prove a point). I know my goal is high, but I think I can do it with a lot of money, and well, more money.-Brain T. / Bakersfield, CA

I've thought about this one too. Here are the problems. You are right about the TSX trans, since the K24 would not bolt to your automatic.

Mounts -Getting the TSX auto in is not too terribly hard, it would essentially require a new tranny side mount. There are factory parts that can be used to bolt the left side and rear mount. The front mount could be omitted or you could fab up something there too.

Axles -Use the stock passenger-side axle. At most, you may have to change the inner joint. Most likely the RSX automatic would fit and you could use the stock driver-side axle too.

Electronics -Herein lies the crux. There is no ECU that controls the automatic tranny and allows for tuning the stroker K24 engine you want. You might be able to build some sort of piggyback harness like Hasport did for it's K20A Fit conversion, where the Fit ECU was retained to control the drive-by-wire throttle and dash functions and a K-Pro actually ran the engine. It depends on your resources. I'm not too confident the shift points for the R18 engine are good for a stroker K24 either.

After all that work there is one last problem, transmission life expectancy.

But it might work for a while. You might be able to use the RDX block though; who knows, you may be able to use an Acura TL automatic, which would be beefier. Hmm, need to do some measuring....-BG

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