i currently have about 109,xxx miles on my motor. im wanting to convert to ls/vtec for a little more power and "fun" driving. but i was starting to think by the time i get into this project, there may be a few other things i should replace also. what im getting at is this : is it a good idea to mod this high mile of a motor? or should i save my pennies and do a full motor and 5 speed swap after i rack up some more million miles and isnt my daily driver. i want more power out of the car, but if i make the decision and wait, ill be happy with what i have. let me just get some opinions on what you all would do.
and also, what motor should i swap for? im not looking for rediculous hp/tq, but i want something that will get up and go and beat some bigger cars out there from time to time.

 

is your car auto? if so, stop right now unless you plan on doing a manual tranny swap, and, depending on the condition of the body of the car, thats where i would base my opinion on building the car or not.

 

ok besides the fact it is an auto, the car is in amazing shape for being a 95 and 109,xxx on the clock. with the exception of the rear bumper being slightly jacked up cause someone hit the car before i bought it. but ive already bought a new taillight and am just waiting for a 98+ rear bumper to come my way.

 

"Besides the fact that it is an auto"? Kind of changes everything. If the car were a manual in good shape then yes I would go ahead and mod it. I wouldn't modify any auto four cylinder, no matter the condition. Less power, less control, less strength, and most of all less FUN.

 

not worth building an auto, if your gonna build it, do a manual conversion, autos are teh suck. and if the body is in as good as shape as you say, build it, but swap to manual

 

ive searched for the auto to manual swap. but i havent really found an actual cost for this whole job. i know i cant do it, so would it be really expensive for a shop to do this?

 

Yes it would be extremely expensive at a shop because there is a great deal of labor involved. Depending on deals you find, what you replace, what you buy new or used etc you can probably expect to pay around $700 in parts. That's with a junkyard transmission.

 

would it just be best to look for a way lower miled engine and tranny together and then swap everything out at once? or can i swap the tranny, and then the motor? i mean, its a 109,xxx miles and i drive it at least 80-90 miles a day. so drive it daily and then swap out everything?
.....ooorrr! if anyone is selling a cheap, slightly damaged, already 5speed for cheap, that would be great. so if anybody has a DC2 for sale, let me know.

 

It's going to be a ton of money either way, because you have to change the transmission mount on the frame rail with a custom one made for auto-manual swaps, change the pedal assembly, run a clutch line, add the linkages and shifter, change the ECU, and probably more I'm missing.... I would expect you'd be hard-pressed to find a shop with experience doing such a conversion around Missouri. Maybe in SoCal or East Coast but probably not Mid-West.

Do NOT take it to a shop that you aren't 100% sure has done this very thing on a Honda before. Otherwise they will probably either screw up, or be sloppy with it, or both, and probably rip you a new one on the price, too.

My friend swapped a manual tranny in his Civic last year, did it all himself, but he has experience doing that kind of thing, and just read up on various internet sites to get info about the wiring and everything that's involved w/ a manual swap.