Honda-Tech - Honda Forum Discussion - JDM Civic EU3 AT to MT

I don't know if this thread was ever solved, but I'll share my experiences with my conversion.

For the past couple months, I've been admiring the spirited performance of the K20A. *As such I've been contemplating doing a complete K-swap or just boosting my current D15B. *I'm also in the middle of an auto to manual transmission conversion, so I'll need to make a decision quickly. *I've already gotten the manual shifter and pedals from a EP3 Si (recall that I have the 5 door EU1), so now I'm waiting on 2NR to order for me the shifter cables and master clutch cylinder. *Since I got impatient, I had already put in the manual brake pedal myself and stripped out the carpet to relocate the park brake (which is foot operated).

Here, I've posted videos of my slow progress thus far (you have to click to play). *I finally figured out where the cable linkages for the park brake were located as I had originally thought that it was hydraulically operated. *Now I want to figure out how to move it to the center so that I can attach a hand brake to it. *I had already purchased a ES1 Civic handbrake (handle and ratchet assembly) thinking that it could be work.

Note: in the videos below, I was very exhausted having working in the engine bay for the majority of the day before getting around to stripping the interior. You'll have to click on them to play the videos as I had used PhotoBucket to upload them.

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l2...15-17-24-1.jpg
http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l2...5-16-33-08.jpg
http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l2...5-17-08-03.jpg
http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l2...5-17-27-36.jpg
http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l2...5-17-30-37.jpg

Many photos and videos of what's actually going on is missing as I didn't get the time to upload them as yet (720p videos take a while to upload on my connection) so I should have this fully documented tomorrow.

On Saturday, I took the car to Superior to get the conversion done as I didn't have an engine hoist to raise or gently lower anything or a breaker bar for those stubborn (ceased-up) bolts. *Upon arrival, Superior was going to charge me more than three times what was discussed over the phone and through emails. *My personal mechanic had migrated months ago, so I had to call around for someone to do the work. *No matter what time of day I call, I can never seem to get Little T on his cell (except once weeks before) no matter how many voicemails I left. *A coworker recommended me to his personal mechanic (on Lyndhurst road) so I made the link and took the car there. *I agreed with his price, so he got the work started. *He removed the axles, subframe and lowered the automatic transmission in no time. * Thats when things begin to go horribly wrong. *The Olympics was still being aired on TV (I chose the wrong weekend for this project) and the number of broken parts during the removal process was slowly racking up. *This resulted in several taxi rides to Superior's used parts section. * Either way, the conversion process wasn't going to be finished the same Saturday (and the garage isn't opened on Sunday) so the work will have to be resumed on Monday.

Monday morning, I went down there to find this:
http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l2...8-13100241.jpg
http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l2...8-13101936.jpg
http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l2...8-13101931.jpg
http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l2...8-13101927.jpg
A clickable video for comparison:
http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l2...3-10-34-01.jpg

For those of you who know my car, the glass is supposed to look like this:
http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l2...8-13101949.jpg

It goes without saying how upset I became about the situation. *Then I got depressed when I saw this:
http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l2...8-14102757.jpg
http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l2...8-14102753.jpg

Let's put the above on hold for a moment while I get back to the conversion process.

The gearbox went in quite nicely. *I had to buy a new axle seal as they tore the last one in the removal process. *I'm trying to rememeber the proper name of the splined portion of the half-shafts (with the metal circular clip) that slides into the differential. *I had to replace the "left" one with a "right" one from Superior as the "left" one was too long and wasn't fitting in the seal and wasn't going to fit up with the knuckle either on the other end (as it would be sticking out too much). *In other words, the car now has two "right-hand" set of splines going to the open differential in the gearbox. *I'll re-write this better when I get the proper terms to explain it.
http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l2...3-14-44-02.jpg

After bolting up the clutch, it came out to be about an inch and a half higher than the other pedals and feels ridiculously stiff (we definitely removed all the air bubbles from the line so now I feel like re-introducing a few to make it a little spongy). *As it is, my left knee is rubbing on the steering wheel when I'm riding the clutch. The master cylinder is self adjusting so that the height remains constant. *I'll just have to turn the nut on the piston shaft to see if I can adjust to match the height of the other pedals as left-foot braking becomes difficult on days I feel sporty. * The driving feel of the pedal doesn't feel nice like my friend's EP3 Civic or co-worker's DC5 Integra. *I didn't buy the manual subframe for this car as these cars come in manual locally and I was waiting for when I buy the EP3 K20 to buy that subframe at the same time (possibly online). * *With that being said, the automatic bracket didn't line up with the manual engine mount for the D15B so it had to be "cut-off" and welded in the proper position for it to work (the rubber mounts were going anyway). *I'll post up the video I took of the improper line-up process when it finishes uploading.

http://vid97.photobucket.com/albums/...3-15-04-23.jpg

The moment of truth, only revealed that the transmission only selects second, fourth and reverse. *The transmission grinds and doesn't engage in first, third, and fifth gear when I come off the clutch. so I have to be moving off in second (burning the clutch uphill) and over revving to jump into fourth gear. *Since I'm using the EP3 Si shifter (ordered through Kahlil) and cable (ordered through 2NR) for the K20A, the cable throw may be too short to "push" the mechanism far enough to select those gears. *The cable itself isn't adjustable, so I'm open to recommendations for anyone who can cut and extend shifter cables. *In the end, I just realised that the inspection plate wasn't even installed (they claimed it wasn't compatible) thus leaving this gap where the engine and gearbox meet, so I have to avoid dirt roads and rain water at all costs until I can get the transmission pulled apart again to fix the gearbox issues.

I used the manual ECU that (apparently) came from a manual ES3 D17A2 with code PLR-J13. *The starter wouldn't engage by turning the key, so the starter was bridged to the battery to get the car to the mechanic's electrician so that he could sort out the now non-functional vehicle speed sensor, reverse switch, and starter (since we aren't using the automatic part of the loom on the ECU). *That was a absolute mess when he was done as I was driving home later that night, the headlights weren't working neither were the dashboard lights, the power windows weren't working, *neither the wiper blades or window squirt. *I had to have a friend look it over and resolve most of the non-functioning parts as the electrician had even removed the "check-engine" light-bulb which was alerting me to problems during the conversion process.