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Hi guys, I picked up my 2nd civic wagon 2 months ago and I'm so happy to once again own a wagon!
Here's a picture from when I just got her home
the alternator was making a terrible rotational noise so I replaced it and kept driving car she was running okay for a good month and then the timing belt snapped. Before I bought the wagon I knew I was going to go b series, but since the timing belt broke on the d15 with 230k I decided to pull the engine and put in a b20b.
I traded a b16 head I had laying around and some odds and ends for my brothers b20b out of his crx. Last weekend we pulled the d15 out, and we are hoping to pull the b20 out of the crx and put it in the wagon this weekend.
Picture of the motor that will be getting put in
I also have some kosei k1's I'm going to be putting on
Koni Yellows with Ground Control springs are coming in the mail to replace the current ebay coilovers. :D
Made a lot of progress since the first update! I was having a lot of problems trying to upload photos but I got everything figured out now.
I'm using the ecu out of the crx so I decided to put in a xenocron 255 fuel pump because the crx had one. When we had originally put the b20b in the crx it ran like crap and was running very rich. We took it to YCU in York, PA where it was put on the dyno and the tuner, Art, got the car figured out and tuned. If I remember right the car made 124hp. At the time huge hp was not a goal, we were mainly focused on getting the car running properly.
Try and figure out what’s going on here lol but hey it worked
New fuel pump on the wagon’s hanger. I used the fuel sock that was on the oem fuel pump
Used the xenocron fuel pump relay kit and tucked it into the spare tire well
While dropping the fuel tank I accidentally broke one of the J bolts that holds the fuel tank straps. :/ Took it to work and welded it back together. I also lubed up the threads and spun the nuts all the way down.
Forgot to take a before picture but I used some goo-gone and cleaned up a lot of the grease that was in the engine bay
Wiring done and ready to drop in
Used some obd1 injector clips and wires I found on ebay, I'm also using injectors out a d16z6 that was in my shed. I followed multiple dpfi to mpfi how to’s and also watched Honda Street Garage’s series on b20 swapping a wagon many times.
I was going to buy a b series wiring harness from CJS Wiring but his lead time was 3 months out and I didn’t want to wait that long. I used the method I saw HSG use for power for the injectors. Luckily I had an obd1 wiring harness laying around because this swap would have been a lot harder without it. I tore it apart so I could match up wiring colors as much as possible, and also stole some of the clips off of it that were in good shape. I forgot to take detailed pictures of the distributor wiring:/ I added connectors on my new wiring so that If I were to pull the engine in the future I wouldn’t have to cut the wires.
The other 2 connectors on the firewall side. The red wire is for the fuel pump
Here is the wiring once I wrapped it all up in loom. If you have any questions about this wiring for your own swap feel free to pm me
New motor going in
The b20’s new home
I am using a set of hasport mounts I found used on ebay for cheap. I’m also using innovative b series shift linkage for an ef plus an innovative traction bar
Everything bolted up and running!
The radiator is not going to stay like that…I’m probably going to end up giving it a gangsta lean
The ebay coilovers that were on the car vs koni yellows with ground control sleeves
Koni Yellows with Ground Control sleeves, hardrace front and rear camber kits, plus hardrace rear trailing arm busings
The old trailing arm bushings were very torn, I'm assuming they were the original bushings
Here is how I pressed the new ones in
I also got new hardrace rear lower control arms since in the future I might try and rig up a rear swaybar, hardrace front lower control arm busings, hardrace rear toe arms, brembo stock replacement rotors and drums and hawk hps pads for the front
I bled the brakes and changed out the old brake fluid. The brake fluid reservoir and reservoir filter were both extremely dirty.
I also put on energy suspension swaybar bushings, swaybar endlinks, shifter bushings and steering rack bushings. I still need to weld up the exhaust and then lower the car down and adjust the ride height. Once that is done she will need an alignment and then hopefully she’ll be road ready! I am hoping to make it to a local autocross event in 2 weeks!
Unfortunately having some problems with the swap at the moment I swear I read on a forum somewhere that you could use the same clutch cable that was on my wagon on a b series swap but after attaching it to the transmission, it felt like it wasn't doing anything. I decided to take the clutch cable that was off of the crx I that we pulled the motor/trans from and it still isn't working properly. What confuses me is that the motor/trans worked just fine in the crx, we never took the transmission off of the engine when we swapped it in, used the same clutch cable that worked just fine in the crx but the clutch won't disengage. When the car was running it wouldn't shift into gear and if I started it in gear the wheels would start to spin (car is in the air). I saw other civic wagon owners complaining about the clutch pedal assembly cracking and needing welded/replaced but mine looks fine! I don't see any cracks in it and it doesn't feel loose at all. I decided to drop the trans because I thought maybe the clutch lever got bent somehow when we had the motor out, but everything on the transmission seemed to be acting fine and I compared the lever to another b series one that I had laying around and they looked exactly the same. After that I took the pressure plate off to inspect it and check out the condition of the clutch. They both looked to be in good shape with plenty of life left. I reinstalled everything and started it up hoping maybe it would be different but nope... It goes into gear now but the clutch is clearly not disengaging because it really slams into gear and then the wheels start spinning. I'm not really sure where to go from here. I've thought about buying a new clutch cable but I would prefer not to if I don't have to. I might attempt to take out the clutch pedal assembly and inspect it because I can't think of anything else that would be causing this issue. If anyone has any tips or suggestions please let me know!
i would take out the pedal assembly and inspect it. unfortunately all non-si pedal assembly are weaker and prone to cracking. my brother had his dx pedal assembly break on him while in the colorado rockies. he had to shoehorn his scissor jack into place to hold it so he could get home
benji dude ok i had this same problem when i was doing my swap
ok first of all are you useing the da integra trans bracket for the cable?
and does your cable fit the bracket or does it seem too short and you cant get it on the bracket?
my cable was short it seemed
but its the cable for the set up
i forced it on there and started ajusting it makeing it tighter and tighter
pressing the clutch every now and then and the clutch pedlle was getting stiffer and stiffer
i had the motor running also when doing this to see if we get any gear in and release
and after the adjuster was about half way down youll here a snap in the trans
its okay its just the clutch lever adjusting and sitting in its new home and now the trans should work how its soppossed to
when installing a cable trans its a good idea to tie the clutch lever above the half way point of its traval
it makes that first ingagement so much easier
hope this helped
oh and ef cables and da cables are the same
when you do a search the da one is a inch or so longer on paper but its a lie there the same size
benji dude ok i had this same problem when i was doing my swap
ok first of all are you useing the da integra trans bracket for the cable?
and does your cable fit the bracket or does it seem too short and you cant get it on the bracket?
my cable was short it seemed
but its the cable for the set up
i forced it on there and started ajusting it makeing it tighter and tighter
pressing the clutch every now and then and the clutch pedlle was getting stiffer and stiffer
i had the motor running also when doing this to see if we get any gear in and release
and after the adjuster was about half way down youll here a snap in the trans
its okay its just the clutch lever adjusting and sitting in its new home and now the trans should work how its soppossed to
when installing a cable trans its a good idea to tie the clutch lever above the half way point of its traval
it makes that first ingagement so much easier
hope this helped
oh and ef cables and da cables are the same
when you do a search the da one is a inch or so longer on paper but its a lie there the same size
I want to say the bracket for the cable is off of a da but I'm really not 100% sure. I'm using a da integra clutch cable but mine doesn't seem to short, its almost like it's too long. The adjuster at the trans has to be spun almost the entire way down to take the slack in the cable. Thanks for the tip on installing the trans!
Good news! The wagon runs and drives finally. I dropped the steering column and didn't see any issues at all with the pedal assembly, so I decided to take off the da integra clutch cable and put back on the original civic wagon clutch cable. After putting it back on I remembered the problem we were having with it. When adjusted properly to where there is just a little bit of freeplay. Unlike when the DA cable was on, the wagon cable still had a lot of room left to turn down. I spun down the adjuster more and although there's no freeplay in the clutch lever at the moment, the clutch disengages fully and the clutch doesn't slip when i'm driving so it should be good. 2 months after pulling the d15 she makes it out of the driveway with the b20 The hood was hitting on the valve cover so I got some longer bolts and added washers in between the hood and the latches to space it up a little. I also got a mk3 jetta lip from a local junkyard for a dollar, trimmed on the edges to fit and zip tied to the bottom of the bumper.
For the exhaust I welded up a 30" magnaflow glasspack with a dynomax super turbo muffler in the rear. The exhaust is 2.5" the whole way back, coming from a plm toda rep header, also running no cat
The tires in this picture were some random wheels I had laying around that I put on to drive it around the block. ^ The exhaust is a little too quiet for my taste, but since I work night shift and come home at 4am I figured I'd leave it the way it is for now. For the bends I bought a kit from speedway with a bunch of different angles and straight pieces, and I still have enough pipe to weld up at least another exhaust on a car. All the car needs is an alignment and I'll be driving it everywhere
It's been awhile since my last update, but the car should be on the road shortly! I had gotten it tuned with the stock b20b on the ebay 50 trim turbo and it made 230hp 215torque on 9.5lbs on a mustang dyno. Being my first turbo'd car I had a blast driving the car for awhile but I wanted more. That's when I decided to go b20vtec and switch form 93 octane to e85. I found a b16 head with a blox intake manifold on facebook and purchased it for $400.
I'm now realizing I should have taken more pictures... but I tore the head apart, lapped the valves, new valve seals, supertech springs and retainers and skunk2 lma's. When I first turbo'd the b20b I installed injector nation 1000cc injectors I bought off my brother. After putting the head on I also added on a fuel lab regulator and gauge. I also am switching from the ebay 50 trim to a garrett turbo my brother had laying around. I'm not 100% sure what the specs are. I'll have to update you guys when I find out. The only things I have left now is to make a new downpipe for the garrett turbo and drain the tank of 93.Plus putting back together the turbo kit. I'm hoping with this b20v turbo setup to make 350hp. Whatever she ends up making I'm sure will be plenty for now. If she cracks a sleeve I'll probably build an css lsvtec with wiseco pistons and eagle rods and shoot for 500.
Do you know what the stock compression was on your B20B? Was it the 8:1, 9.2:1, or 9.6:1? I have the high compression 9.6:1 and looking to boost it as well.
Do you know what the stock compression was on your B20B? Was it the 8:1, 9.2:1, or 9.6:1? I have the high compression 9.6:1 and looking to boost it as well.
Time for an update I'm not the most thrilled about making.
Here's how my car was looking with everything hooked up and ready to fire
I purchased hondata s300! Bought it off tri state motorsports, ecu with hondata already installed with boost by gear components :D
Got a basemap from my tuner and uploaded it to the hondata, she fired but it was a little rough, and then it got very rough... after some trouble shooting I figured out that the timing belt had skipped a tooth. The timing belt kept walking off towards the driver side of the car. After a night of troubleshooting and searching on the forum I found out I was missing a washer inbetween the crank pulley and timing gear on the oil pump.
Put everything back together and she started right up! It was idling pretty high, probably 2500 rpm, even after reaching 180 degrees. I think part of this issue might be the throttle body I had put on. It's an obx 65mm throttle body. I didn't use the same throttle that was on the b20 before because it would get stuck when I would pull up to a light and I would have to blip the throttle to get it to idle normally. I also didn't use it because the bore on the blox intake manifold is 64mm, while the throttle body I was using was only 62mm. I'm also not a fan of how my intake manifold gasket is sitting. Not sure why it bothers me but it's a speedfactory thermal gasket and I'm not 100% sure its sealing properly. Probably going to replace with an oem honda gasket if I can. After running it for a little while the car did not want to start again, and when it did it was very rough and sounded like the timing belt skipped a tooth again. I began to pull the plugs because I was going to compare tdc to the timing marks on the cam gears. The spark plugs were all drenched in oil, like the valve cover gaskets weren't doing a damn thing. I then remembered I had cheaped out on the gasket kit...
After this I pulled all the plugs and wires out and began to take off my valve cover hardware. While taking the alan head screws out of my skunk2 valve cover hardware I dropped one down cylinder 4!!! Tried to get it with a magnet, quickly realized the bolts are stainless. Tried to get it out with a gripper tool but I wasn't getting anywhere. Made the decision to just pull off the head already and found the bastard.
That's where I'm at now. Need to order a new head gasket (this was a cometic head gasket) and oem honda valve cover gasket kit. Part of me wants to put in ycp pistons and some eagle rods I can buy off my brother while it's already apart, but my funds are running low after buying the hondata. Not sure which route I'm going to take yet. If everything I order would come by this weekend I could throw it together quick and fire it up again. I've never put together a bottom end myself, guess it couldn't hurt to learn now.
that sounds like a shitty *** day man haha but it happens
i remember on my b20 motor when i was putting it together
i was at the part where i had the timing belt on and i was doing a valve adjustment
when i went to grab one of the feeler gauges and i saw the oil jet on the work bench
haha had to do what you did today to put that back in
messed up my day
but you live and you learn
my advice
wait
relax and take your time with it
dont rush the job
that way youll have less mistakes
07-28-2017, 10:15 AM
Benji's 1991 Wagon b20b swap
Re: Benji's 1991 Wagon b20b swap
I swear I read on a forum somewhere that you could use the same clutch cable that was on my wagon on a b series swap but after attaching it to the transmission, it felt like it wasn't doing anything. I decided to take the clutch cable that was off of the crx I that we pulled the motor/trans from and it still isn't working properly. 
What confuses me is that the motor/trans worked just fine in the crx, we never took the transmission off of the engine when we swapped it in, used the same clutch cable that worked just fine in the crx but the clutch won't disengage. When the car was running it wouldn't shift into gear and if I started it in gear the wheels would start to spin (car is in the air). I saw other civic wagon owners complaining about the clutch pedal assembly cracking and needing welded/replaced but mine looks fine! I don't see any cracks in it and it doesn't feel loose at all. I decided to drop the trans because I thought maybe the clutch lever got bent somehow when we had the motor out, but everything on the transmission seemed to be acting fine and I compared the lever to another b series one that I had laying around and they looked exactly the same. After that I took the pressure plate off to inspect it and check out the condition of the clutch. They both looked to be in good shape with plenty of life left. I reinstalled everything and started it up hoping maybe it would be different but nope... 
The hood was hitting on the valve cover so I got some longer bolts and added washers in between the hood and the latches to space it up a little. I also got a mk3 jetta lip from a local junkyard for a dollar, trimmed on the edges to fit and zip tied to the bottom of the bumper.
