This is my engine swap story with a purchased engine and transmission from Total Japanese Domestic Motor Inc..

As a semi-newbie to engine swaps in general, I decided to go with a simpler swap to perform. My chosen engine being a OBD1 JDM B18C GSR with LSD transmission, I searched for an overall good deal from a 'reputable' business (because I was afraid of purchasing an engine from someone that would screw me over). I contacted many different companies in hopes to get a broad-based amount of information.

Finally, I decided to buy it from TorontoJDM.com. Needless to say, this is a semi-rant about the repercussions of dealing with said business.



I called Total JDM and spoke with a man named Karim. He was somewhat helpful in gathering intel on what came with the engine, what type of engine, and overall generic information. I eventually hatched a quoted deal with him getting a price for all the components I needed (supposedly). He convinced me that the GSR shift linkage is the linkage I would need for an Automatic to manual tranmission swap (wrong...).

Next week, I decided to take the deal... So I called. Well, now Karim is on vacation so I am speaking to a man named Jack. Now Jack doesn't know if I'm trying to screw him or not about the price so he must contact Karim about the quote, perfectly understandable. So now I'm waiting a few days and finally Jack and I confirm the purchase. Great, now I'm excited.

I receive the engine. Horray!

I give an overall look-over and quickly realize that the transmission is non-LSD.


(note:not actual image of my tranny)

Well great. Now I contact TotalJDM and figure out what can be done. Over several E-mail correspondence and phone calls, eventually it comes down to me taking the transmission off and sending it back (where they pay for shipping and handling). I take the tranny off and ship it back eventually receiving a transmission with LSD but this one is an unmarked transmission. I brush that detail off, too excited to start my project. A wasted several weeks wait...

I perform all the basic steps on the engine such as: timing belt, water pump, thermostat, pcv, re-route wire harness, cleaned it out (there was all sorts of liquid in my intake manifold (another brush off), motor mount stiffeners, clutch (pretty worn if I might add), flywheel, spark plugs, and others I can't think of right now.

Now I begin my swap... Pull my engine, clean compartment, etc. Drop new engine in and Viola, swap complete! There were complications but not important to the story...

Well, now (stupidly not earlier), I start of the electrical and turns out, I got the OBD2a ecu with the engine. No finishing today...


(note: not actual ecu)

Great, so once again, contact and figure options. Over more time, send ecu back and get another one back (this time, I'm paying for shipping). Well I finally get an OBD1 ecu and turns out it is a (supposedly) Mugen Chipped/Socketed ECU specced for GSR. Its really a JDM P08. Honestly, I don't know much about the ecu, even now really. What I do know is that it is chipped with an unknown fuel map, timing advanced (i think), vtec pushed back, and rev limit set to 9700. Obviously not specced for a stock OEM engine (mostly found out by opening up the ecu and looking at the label on the chip. The chip is labeled Feel's, whoever that is)...

I play it safe and just purchase a P06, convert for VTEC and Socket with Uberdata stockGSR fuel map. I drive my car (after doing the safe startup routine of a 'new' engine).

Well, turns out that the limited slip differential clunks about on turns. I quieted the problem quite a bit by adding LSD additive into the transmission fluid but the problem persists. Once again, I'm angry but it is manageable.

3000 miles later, the synchros are going out in the tranny (so I'm losing reverse and need to watch how fast I shift due to grinding gears in 2nd and 5th).

In summary, I purchased for TotalJDM (Torontojdm.com). With this purchase, I got the wrong shift linkage, bad axles, wrong transmission, wrong ecu, unacceptable ecu replacement (in my opinion), bad transmission differential, soon to be bad synchros, unlabeled transmission, bad IACV, and other issues I'm not going to get into.

In their defense, they replaced the components that were obviously their mistake with so-so customer support.

I don't know exactly what to do now. I'm afraid to rebuild a transmission that is unlabeled (or even if it is worth it). I may just go buy a used B18B transmission on Craigslist. I was hoping to turbocharge it in the future so a transmission is rather important.

A few questions I have are

1) how much power does it take to start pulling the car to the side (with a non-LSD tranny)?

2) Anybody have any cost effective ideas?

EDIT: I understand and realize that I can't blame them for everything that happened. I just wanted to tell the cliff-note version of the story. Note: GSR shift linkage doesn't fit for Del Sol swap, as 94EG8 mentions later, it works for 92 - 00 civic swaps.

EDIT2: I was messing around with my old ECUs and found that the chipped ecu they gave me (the Feel's one) had a bent pin underneath the 27256...data pin 15 makes no contact with the ecu. Good job fella's... F A L E, that spells moon

 

Does the GSR have equal drive shafts also? If so I wouldnt think you would get much torque steer anyways. I have to say though, if you ever do it again go with HMOTORS. By far the best when it comes to quality and customer service. I would buy from them again in a heart beat.

 

ALL b series tranny's run a half shaft and a pair of equal length drive axles

To the OP, you did for sure get a non lsd tranny if your has the pin through it like the picture posted....i'd get on that

 

if your running a basically stock motor (bolt ons) you wont get torque steer, and if you do its from the road being unlevel usually. boosted cars and high HP builds will get it the worst, but its usually nothing noticable til over at least 200whp

 

I already took care of it. I kinda wish I just went with the non-lsd GSR transmission though. I have read that It has a fairly strong differential and sychros. I'm guessing my new LSD tranny they sent to replace the wrong transmission with is either a B16a or B18B tranny. Either way... bad diff, bad sychros.

I take it that the equal length axles eliminates/reduces torque pull?

 

I was aiming for a turbocharged ~250whp...eventually. Thanks for the ballpark number. That's what I was looking for.

 

was there with an ls tranny. VERY little to no torque steer at all - not an issue to worry about at 250whp. as far as puchasing swaps...always HMO - Steve is the man.

 

feels made that, just for a note its a JDM Tuner company, specializing in Honda's...But your right not a good ecu for a road car

 

i have driven a 247whp turbo civic and it did have a slight yug to the right, but nothing uncontrolable. there are sometimes though if i drop to third on the freeway (340whp) i will nearly get pulled out of my lane into the next one, but it also depends on the groves in the lane as well. overall you will need to learn to drive your car again and how to be in complete control of more power.

 

That's the info I needed thanks. I'll probably buy a b18b ls tranny for cheap off Craigslist then. And it seems that a lot of people like HMO, I'll definitely keep that in mind next time.

I have never even heard of Feel's until seeing the chip. The ecu was externally labeled Mugen while the internal ROM chip was labeled Feel's. I'm wondering if Mugen just contracts out their ecu chipping service to Feel's then(?).

 

Ugh! Sorry to hear about you woes.

The last pair of engines that I bought from Osaka Motors was a bit of a fiasco. I've found that as long as you just need a engine, or engine and trasmission, that you won't do wrong with these guys. If you need a complete swap, they are difficult. I had a lot of trouble getting all of the linkage, axles, ECU and other ancilliary items from them and ended up having to order a few parts new to make up for what they didn't send.

Problem #2 I had with those guys was an engine that had water in it. Not in the plug holes, but in the engine. I acutally drained muddy, oily water from the intake manifold. I have pictures of water inside the cylinders (very hard picture to take without removing the head!). I got into a huge argument with the owner of the shop. He said to install it and see if it works. What? The rust on the cylinder walls from the water made it almost impossible to turn the engine over...once I did get it to turn over (with a breaker bar on my garage floor) you could hear the rings grinding on the rust. Awesome. Back to the comment about installing it and trying it my final statement was something like this: "if you want to pay me for my time to install it, prove that it is competely ruined, then remove it, I will go ahead with your idea". After a short pause, he told me to put it back on a pallet and the shipping company would pick it up. Once they received it, the guy quickly said that it was definitely a junk motor. Thanks.

I'm glad to see that there are better shops to order engines from. Hopefully, I won't need one anytime soon!

Good luck sorting out the rest of your issues. I definitely feel for you!

 

Unless it was going in a Del Sol a GS-R shift linkage works perfectly fine in any '92 - '00 civic

Bad syncros wont lead to a lack of reverse, reverse isn't even syncronized (i'm not saying you didn't get a bad tranny, but your reverse issue isn't syncro related.)

 

It is in my 93 Del Sol, sorry for not mentioning it in the post.

And as for the reverse, I didn't know that (the reverse synchro thing) but I am also starting to grind in 5th and 2nd as well. It came about the same time as the grindings, so I figured they were related somehow.

 

The shift fork, internally, for reverse is the same for 5th gear. It is probably broken. I managed to break part of the fork. It work but ground into gear at anything higher than idle.

 

Makes me sick to my stomach but, you do get what you pay for. It make me wonder maybe you bargained too much.

 

seems like the only reputable dealer is hmotors these days.

 

I have had good experience with HMotors, although some of the sensors on my B were broken when it arrived, it was clean though.

 

I think it is common practice to smash the TPS before the engine is shipped

 

It seems that may be a universal law of the universe.

I'll probably go that route next time (because it seems that everyone trusts them)

That's good to know. I am afraid to break apart the tranny unless I know exactly which type it is if I need to buy replacement parts for it (i.e. is it a B18B, B16a2, etc tranny? I'm not sure)

If anyone knows how to identify a B series transmission without a nameplate, I'd love to hear it...

Oh, and thanks for all the support/responses. I appreciate it (although my problems seem to pale in comparison to civicgsr's (the whole internal engine rusting thing)).

 

Honestly, I didn't think the situation was that bad. If I had installed it and realized what was wrong, then yes, it would have been bad! I was able to resolve the problem before it became "my" problem. The part that cracks me up is that each shop says that they compression test the motors before shipping them out. What? Big Lie #1. Nearly every engine I've installed has little to no compression prior to the rings warming up and breaking loose. Engine #2 of the two that I got, had so little compression that it took nearly 5 minutes of warming up before it quite misfiring. <sigh>

I may be wrong on the trans identification, but I've always understood that there is no good way other than to take it apart and start counting gears

 

interesting.. remember you get what you paid for.. if the deal sounds too cheap then most likely they wouldnt give a **** how the motor was pulled off or whether to test it out or not.. they have other things to do and are busy. But other companies like HMO actually take the time to inspect and clean their motors before shipping. They care about their rep as well as customer service. I usually just go to the shop in burbank and talk to steve when I need something.. great guy.

 

dude it has to be...seen it a couple of times as recent as 2 weeks ago. haha

 

hopefully everything works out for you. I ordered a set of LCA's from them last summer and they only sent me one. It took a while for them to ship the other one...

 

Seriously? How hard is it to put two control arms in the box? "invoice: 2 - box: 1" Yep, good to go. <Where the heck is that face slap emoticon?>

 

To be honest, the pricing of Osaka was on par with most places. I had had decent luck with them in the past.

I'm a bit far away to just stop in and say high though