Considering K-swapping Your Honda? Watch This First.

By Daud Gonzalez - July 24, 2019

Dropping a K20A into your car isn’t as easy or cheap as you think.

So you are thinking about swapping your Honda with a K-series engine. Your boring D16 non-VTEC finally blew up after 450,000 miles and now you don’t know what to do with your now “project car.” Doesn’t a K-series seem like the perfect powerplant for your EG or DC2? You have heard about people making crazy power, revving to 10,000 RPM, and running e85. However amazing that may seem, there are still a couple of things to really consider before making a swap happen.

Thanks to ThatDudeinBlue, AKA David Patterson, we are able to learn about exactly what it takes to get a K-swap accomplished and running smoothly as he recently did this swap into his own Acura Integra.

k20a integra

Unfortunately for Patterson, his old Integra engine did exactly what we described above: it blew up. Only a year into ownership, he was unsure what to do with the car. However, having friends in high places helps a lot of the time. David was able to link up with Hybrid Racing to make his K-swap dream into a reality. For those that don’t know, Hybrid Racing has been making Honda-specific aftermarket products for decades and they are known to be quality first.

k20a integra

Conveniently, Hybrid Racing sells a K-series swap kit for the Integra, which is mostly likely why David teamed up with them. For his K-series he decided on a baller K20A of out a JDM Integra Type R. Sounds like a proper build. David states that they spent over 3 months planning everything out for the build before actually starting to break down the car and pull the motor. Remember, measure twice, cut once.

ALSO SEE: B18C-swapped EG Civic is Pinnacle Golden Era Honda

After successfully throwing in the engine and driving the Integra around for its initial test runs, they noticed that the cooling system needed to be bled to continually to prevent the engine from overheating. Once that was sorted, the car was pressure tested by driving around in the intense Louisiana heat and stop and go traffic: the worst thing you can do to a car’s cooling system beside tracking it. After seven days worth of working on the swap, all the kinks were finally fixed.

One thing David doesn’t go into very much is the totally price to go a swap of this quality. If you go forward with Hybrid Racing’s kit, which includes right about everything you will need excluding the motor and transmission itself, you’ll be looking at around $3-5,000 dollars simply in parts. Add the motor and the trans, you are looking at another $3-4,000 dollars. Swaps like this are not cheap and they don’t just “drop in and plug and play”. You have to plan accordingly. Planning on swapping your car with a K20? Let us know in the comments.