this is from WAAAY back but I figured i'd post up to put some content on the site. We are at november 23rd 2002 and my car is getting swapped as I write...

T minus 1 hour until my swap is completely done. I always planned on starting a thread just to summarize everything for anyone interested - here it is. I've gained a lot of knowledge on the swap through *this site* (thanks); so I figured I might as well post this stuff to help others through the learning curve.
So since I'm just waiting the minutes out I figured I might as well start. Read on if you've got some time or just want to hear about the process I went through....I'll do it in chapters.

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I used to own a 94 acord EX vtec 5spd. It was so sweet. A classy 4-door with a silky smooth tranny and that gorgeous valve timing reward for getting the tach up into the changeover zone.
Believe it or not 145 hp was enough for me at the time. I did however spend way too much money on little things - CAI, clear lenses, shift knob, indiglos, audio, exhaust....it added up (the amount spent, not the performance gains).
THen some boner smacked into me at a stop light and sandwiched my baby between his Carolla and the brand new Civic EX coupe in front of me.
So I had a fat insurance check coming at me and the opportunity arose to spend less on a car, save money on insurance, and put the rest into a new powerplant. With a gleam in my eye I took the opportunity and bought a 1998 Civic CX 5spd with 64k on it from an anal insurance salesman in the valley.
That was in July. The shopping began the next day.....

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Decisions, Decisions...so many out there for a 98 CX. I looked at the B16a2, B18b, b18c1 and b18c5 and briefly at the H22. To give you an idea of where I'm coming from I don't like ricers. I'm a mid 20s white Yuppie who has no place in anything that bounces, booms, roars or snorts. But I love to drive and I love Honda motors for their simplicity and brilliant engineering. I will never take my car to a track, [edit] - that changed - only to windy mountain roads to push its limits. (And of course the occasional stoplight and freeway onramp)
So H22 was out - too much engine for too little car. Too many upgrades would be required. That was more for the hardcore racers, I'm just an enthusiast.
I looked heavily into the B-series engines. I weighed HP, torque, cost, ease of installation and of course tuning potential with forced induction and bolt ons down the road.
The B16 came out the clear winner. Direct swap, big gains, sweet R/S ratio, yada yada yada. It had to be USDM because my car was going to be legal (still have to figure out how or if I really want to make it totally legal....but at least I have that option)
So I looked and looked and looked for the right USDM b16...to no avail. I had a few sources I kept checking but Honda Motors ONline was my primary option. I researched a bunch of places and they supplied the best motors for the best prices and very conveniently.
Steve at HMO came into a GSR before he came into an Si, so I double checked my b18c1 research and bought that engine instead.

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Could I do the install myself? Sure. Would the learning curve be taxing on me, my car, my wallet and my friends? Shoe betcha. So I decided to look into a shop. Everyone knows that Southern California is the place to be for import tuning and swap shops. I quickly came up with a list of 23 shops from Chatsworth to San Diego to look into. I was dissapointed to find out, through phone calls and personal visits, that most either didn't do swaps, couldn't speak english, or just plain sucked. There's a lot of bad workmanship being performed out there - it's disgusting. But I narrowed it down to 2 and eventually to 1 -the cleanest, most professional, and highest quality shop in Southern Cali (based on my research) is Autolink Motorworks in Temple City. Even if you don't have work to be done on your car just go there and check out their cars - bring a napkin to whipe the drool.

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All this research took place over 4 months time. That's a long fucking time to be driving a stock CX. There are no 2 ways about it -those things are slow. But I had to do some stuff to keep me busy. I attacked my sound system first (if you can even call it that out of the factory) so at least I couldn't hear my puny little D16 whine up hills and all but blow up with 4 people in the car. Anyone ever notice that at 80 mph in a civic, you can be in 3rd, 4th or 5th gear and it doesn't make a gnat's sphincter's worth of difference? That pisses me off. So I turned up the radio.
I also got wheels and a prelude shift knob/collar assembly from my roomate. He upgraded from a CRX to a Prelude SH 3 months after he bought some nice 16x6.5 Fox 2s. I got those off him dirt cheap. Then I bought him a new SH shift knob for his birthday and took his old one for my car. It fit damn good so I bought a new one for myself. That chrome collar and nice black leather looks good. www.handa-accessories.com supplied me with some nice factory add-ons like a cargo cover, armrest and leather steering wheel wrap. Nice touches and cheap!
Anyway, my car was still slow, so back to the swap....

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When you spend 4 months looking for an engine and researching swap shops you waste no time getting down to business when an engine finally pops up.
Within a week of finding the engine my car was down at Autolink. It's been down there for 3 days now and I've learned a lot about Murphey's law during those 3 days. This is exactly why I went USDM - stuff goes wrong and shit pops up. Apparently when you put a GSR engine in a CX you need the following additional pieces:
EK civic mounting brackets for a b-series engine. That means either an Si or a JDM CTR. ($100)
AC bracket from a 94+ vtec del sol. (it needs to be for a civic engine bay and a DOHC motor.) ($140)
An intake - the GSR intake won't fit the engine bay. I just went cold air and got it over with (cha ching)
An exhaust - The CX exhaust is way too restrictive. ALso the CX has the cat in the header, which gets swapped for the pipe-only GSR header. So you need a cat to bolt to the GSR downpipe and pretty much whatever you want from the cat back, except a CX exhaust. So I went custom exhaust. (Cha ching)
Throttle Cable - the civic cable doesn't fit ($50)
A guage cluster if you want to track your rpms. I'm looking into an Si cluster ($200)
Every swap is different and I found that as the guys go through it they come up with stuff they need. Autolink has been really good about calling me and checking before they buy or do something.
So 3 days (including all of today at a muffler shop) and it should be done in a little while.

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I got it back last night and I haven't stopped smiling since. For a guy like me in my financial situation, wanting what I wanted, it was totally worth it. It's a little loud, even with a modest exhaust, but man oh man does it haul ass. And it sings like a Baptist Choir while it does it. I still don't have a tach, so it's hard to pinpoint where stuff happens, but I think the vtec changeover is just really smooth unless you're on it hard. And I've only hit the 2ndary intake once or twice - I don't want to redline it until I know where redline is. But the engine is sweet, the car is super fast, powerful and just plain surefooted on the road. This engine should have been available in a civic from the factory.
The tranny is much more decisive and clicks smoothly into well apportioned gears. No more vibrating shift lever like I'm driving an 18 wheeler. I'm really happy I went with this engine and the shop I chose to install it. I don't know how a B16 would have been, but I can't imagine being happier with any other swap.
And the gas mileage is still good too. I've done 100 miles so far on less than a 1/4 of a tank.

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Ok so I spent more than I wanted to....a lot more. But was it worth it? Sure. No doubt in my mind it was.
The engine was $3700 - fair for a 58k USDM in such great shape.
The install was cheaper than I thought it would be. I won't list the exact prices cause Autolink has the right to charge what they want for different installations...but it was affordable. All in all, with the engine, install, all necessary adapter mounts, brackets, misc. hardware, intake and exhaust it came to over $5k. But add that to what I paid for the civic stock and I've got a machine that's worth a hell of a lot more than what I paid for it...and a pisser to drive.
If I had to do it over I wouldn't do much differently. Maybe I woudl shop for the miscelaneous parts ahead of time to save some cash...but I wouldn't have saved much.
I think I'll go for a drive now

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I wrote more in reply to others, but I won't post all that.
I'll just say for over 3 years it's been going strong and it's a fantastic swap.
I got it legalized in California - it just needed a USDM OBDII Cat which I got for $300 (a steal) and it passed just fine.
Post up any questions

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ahhh the bible is back

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Ahh the memories....

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1998 Honda Prelude type sh.

"Just a small town girl, living a lonely world. She took the midnight train going anywhere. Just a small town boy, born and raised in south detroit, he took the midnight train going anywhere."

you call me a post whore scott...look how many of your won posts are in this thread! could have condensed it all.....

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bah. people don't read big long posts...besides I was just copy/pasting and I said I'd do it in chapters.
You're still a whore

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whateva.....

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