What's up all?
i recently purchased a base model 03 rsx in an attempt to get back into the import scene after leaving it for about 2 years.

a little history on myself:
i went to school for automotive engineering and worked as a technician at toyota for a year and at honda for 2 years.
previous cars i had were:
95 civic ex all motor d16z6
93 civic hatch boosted d15b
89 crx all motor b16a2
95 del sol boosted and fully built internals on a d16z6

I have no experience with k-series motors and have a minimal knowledge base on them.

i already have a full list planned for my rsx as far as performance and appearance mods, but heres my questions...

if i were to upgrade to the k20a2 thus replacing my k20a3 would i be able to just swap out the motor, tranny and ECU? or will i need to replace axles and wiring as well?

also
i know the a3 has like 9.8:1 compression and the a2 has 11.5:1
my question is(given i know there's many variables here) would it be worth it to swap to the a2 and lower compression for boost? or would it be more cost affective to simply build and boost the a3?

like i said, i know there's a lot of variables like what type of products i purchase, but I'm just talking general.

anyways, thanks guys n gals, hopefully I'll get some pics up soon and can start updating my progress with the build

 

Welcome back to the import scene

Whats needed for the A3 to A2 swap is the trans, axles, motor, ecu, complete wiring harnesses and linkage etc. if your car is an automatic. One of the easiest swaps to do IMO.

Now the A3 is lower compression than the A2 but it does have some serious flaws for higher hp. First, is that the crank is not fully counterweighted like the A2. Therefore, its not recommended to rev high for prolonged periods. Also, the rods are pencil thin and don't like anything higher than say 275 even w/ excellent tuning.

My advice swap in an A2, keep the five speed if you have one, lower compression to 9:1, Cunningham, Carrillo, or Pauter rods. Then Full Race the **** out of it

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by NJslvrtypes &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Welcome back to the import scene

Whats needed for the A3 to A2 swap is the trans, axles, motor, ecu, complete wiring harnesses and linkage etc. if your car is an automatic. One of the easiest swaps to do IMO.

Now the A3 is lower compression than the A2 but it does have some serious flaws for higher hp. First, is that the crank is not fully counterweighted like the A2. Therefore, its not recommended to rev high for prolonged periods. Also, the rods are pencil thin and don't like anything higher than say 275 even w/ excellent tuning.

My advice swap in an A2, keep the five speed if you have one, lower compression to 9:1, Cunningham, Carrillo, or Pauter rods. Then Full Race the **** out of it </TD></TR></TABLE>


well put

 

Hey thanks for the welcome back!
ya i had heard/read that the crank was not balanced as well as it should be, and that the rods were very easily breakable.

My goal (realisticly) is to boost my a3 on stock internals and get inbetween 275-300 whp.

I might end up keeping the a3 and building it instead of swapping, cause the money i would spend on the swap i can put toward the internals or a better fi setup.

I'm still considering my options, so we'll see what happens


Modified by Fl_civic_rider at 1:21 PM 3/23/2007

 

There is nothing wrong with building an A3 for boost, in fact some people feel that the lack of oil squirters increases necessary oil pressure. Of course with forged pistons you don't need the extra oiling around that area because they don't run as hot.

So you could always keep your A3 block, sleeve it or not, add an A2 crank, quality rods and pistons and make some power. An A2 head could always be added down the road.

My friend has a CN Base 5 speed that makes 290 at 10 PSI on a 60-1 turbo. Its been running strong for 2 years know, in fact I did a leak down with great results this past summer. Some people have luck others don't

GL