I just bought my first civic a 1989 hatch the other day. It is an automatic, my question is is there any engine swap that I could do with out having to convert it to a stick. I would like to do a swap but keep it an auto, as I may end up giving it to my brother down the road.

Thanks

 

Not worth it, just swap it to manaul. Not that hard really, the toughest thing is getting the new pedals in and out.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Hcivic89 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I just bought my first civic a 1989 hatch the other day. It is an automatic, my question is is there any engine swap that I could do with out having to convert it to a stick. I would like to do a swap but keep it an auto, as I may end up giving it to my brother down the road.

Thanks</TD></TR></TABLE>

I would not even try to attempt it. You will get no power if you stay automatic.

Teach your brother how to drive stick

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 31flavorscivic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Teach your brother how to drive stick </TD></TR></TABLE>

 

I say it is VERY doable... but not a good idea at all. Unless somethin is really preventing you from driving a stick.. I would swap it all. It is not real hard, just takes some time

 

Swap in a d16z6 and put on a small turbo..(t25,14b,etc..) and get a 2500rpm stall converter..Auto honda would be a great sleeper..

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Mr.speaker &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Swap in a d16z6 and put on a small turbo..(t25,14b,etc..) and get a 2500rpm stall converter..Auto honda would be a great sleeper..</TD></TR></TABLE>

I've seen people raise the stall in their auto Hondas, and it usually results in them peeling out at every stoplight.

There's too much that can go wrong, especially with the older Honda autoboxes (they aren't exactly known for staying reliable). Old Honda manual trannys usually hold up for a good long time.


Modified by 31flavorscivic at 7:04 PM 11/6/2005

 

Before you go doing a bunch of work to the car, leaving it automatic -just don't expect a lot of power difference....

There is not an easy swap that will allow you to stay automatic and have a lot of power. However, I would be one to tell you HAVE TO SWITCH it to manual. I can tell you to switch it to manual is not hard either.

If you are going to stay automatic, probably one of the better swaps to do would be to change over to a OBD0 ZC DOHC non vtec. This is a simple swap, all it requires is that change of the engine. You can reuse the tranny, ecu, etc etc. We can chip the ECU to have a little higher redline than stock, which will allow for better shifting in the automatic. Some other would probably recommend a OBD1 VTEC engine, but you would get into a lot of issues there with a conversion of going to switch to OBD1, or tryings to control vtec with the stock ECU. The power is just about equal, and the ZC IMO would feel betting in the auto gearing.

We have also swapped over B16A automoatics into the 88-91, and I will tell you it is a lot of work, and not something I would recommend for a non-professional installation at all.