ok so i been trying to figure out what to do with this car for like 5-7 months now......It drinks oil (78k miles) and its a automatic.......Debating just getting a new motor and selling it or going ***** to the wall and doing a b18 swap with a GSR trans and boosting the **** outta it. couple things. 1) I will NOT do the trans swap lol. I know there is a DIY but i no longer have the space to work on my cars any more. (moved from house to apartment). So my question is.....

What should i do with the car?? Also what would be the cheapest swap?

1) b18 swap with GSR trans and turbo in the future.
2) pull the d16 get a new one and sell it.
3) D16Z swap and boost (manual swap as well)
4) sell the car as is and hope i can get $3000 LOL (pay off)
5)b20 w/ gsr trans swap.


Thank you guys. Look forward to the input.

 

btw this wouldnt break my heart to sell it....its not my DD. it sits. I have a 2005 bmw 325i and we also have a 2011 mustang GT with bolt ons. Mustang is the play/race car lol. but im needing to get rid of the beamer cuz the payments are stupid high on it and i cant afford it. i HATE being broke all the time and so does my wife lol.

 

cheapest?
swap a junkyard d16y7 into it... they can be had in running condition for under 500, and a shop should charge 600-900 in labor to do the work.

Then either sell the bmw, and daily the civic or sell them both and get something you like.

all your other options on the list are going to involve a motor swap, a trans swap, wiring, mounts, etc. That and/or no one in their right mind would pay 3k for a lx civic that needs an engine.

 

600-900 in labor? How long do shops take in the states to swap out a d16 to another d16?

 

^ Im in NY.... I dont know how much labor is other places but its over 100/hr here. Ive never paid for an engine swap (I do my own labor) but have heard that going rate for a engine swap is 600-900.

Obviously it should be cheaper anywhere aside from NY...unfortunately.

 

you made a lot of good points......I think i will just buy a new motor and sell the civic.....i could probably get my money back on it. sell it for like $4000. with the full sound system in it. Its clean and isnt a bad car....that or i may keep it and daily it for a while. just wanna get outta debt. **** sucks. I fucked myself over when i got rid of my 2004 SPEC-V sentra. It would have been paid off by now and i probably would be boosting that monster but i traded it for the beamer.....FML. And now im in about $14,000 in debt instead of $0. If i kept the civic in the long run im going to want to do stuff to it.....so thats why im wondering if i should just throw a motor and trans in while im at it or not. I just dont wanna do double the work. The BMW is slow as *****. (im used to faster cars lol). Our mustang is putting down around 410whp NA with stock internals so thats the car im really used to driving. I think i can hold off till tax season and just start saving up money from here till next march and hopefully save up $4000 to b20 swap and boost it. Then i can get rid of the BMW for what its worth and be better off. all though i do have my eye on a black 2003 BMW M3......LMAO. but its $20,000......I could always do a double trade!

 

i actually dont think it will cost much to fix the car first off. I just replaced the stupid *** ignition switch (twice....) and i am pretty sure the exhaust manifold gaskets are shot. The car sounds like its straight piped. STUPID loud all of a sudden. (stock header cracked all the way around so i bought a ebay header and used the shitty gaskets. But the 2nd O2 sensor couldnt fix cuz it was hitting the under body so im going to just get new gaskets. go to an exhaust shop and have them install a new O2 Bung and make the O2 sensor i bought fit. And see if that fixes the cars problems. HOPEFULLY so i can sell it. ill list it up for $4500 obo and see if i can get 4k for it.

 

Sorry to say it, but there is not way anyone will buy that car for $4,000. Even with a non-smoking motor.

 

its only got 7_,___ miles on it. and the inside si super clean. I have seen plenty of people pay that much for civic's specially people here using it for school. Im in hawaii. there is a TON of civic's so im sure someone will buy it.

 

a civic is a good car to always have. i bought mine for a $1000 and dropped a $1000 more in the first three months ive owned it. put about 10,000 miles on it. i kept debating about selling it and goin back to bmw. but i finally came to conclusion that im going to keep it forever! for-ev-er!! cheap easy to fix and you can find parts every where for them. just going to do some suspension mods and intake so im guessing about another $1000 into it and i will get another 100,000 miles out of it. o yeah and they get great gas milage. and new beemers suck. you have stick with the older ones. early 90's and older. just talking from experience.

 

yeah best thing about a BMW is suspension. a corner is like a warm knife through butter. Im actually considering just fixing whats wrong with it, changing the thing to a manual, geting a XSpower turbo kit and tunning it on chrome. might make the car more enjoyable to drive instead of crying when i have to floor it to go up little hills lol. the whopping what? 95whp isnt much to go crazy for. lol. i know the civic wont ever be as fast as my stang but i want it to be quick enough to stay with some of my buddies cars. but i wanna gut it and do a little bit of work to it.

 

i had intentions of doing that when i got my car at first. but now im just going to keep it bone stock except for some slight modifications. my buddy has a turbo kit he will install for $800 but once you start upgrading like that it requires a lot of maintenance. and for $800 i would rather get an e30 or early 90's 5 series and trick it out and be riding in luxury and sport at the same time! i just cant see myself dumping a bunch of money in such a cheaply made car. just my opinion.

 

well im actually suprised you dont need to many things to make the swap possible. i Mean yeah $1,000 in parts and if i have a shop do it probably another $1,000 in labor......Specially when i know a guy that does work for $70 an hour but hope he will do it.....Im actually kinda excited about starting a project like this......Come tax season time im going to pay off ALL of my credit card bills and try and pay for the swap. As long as i can get the tranny swap done i can roll around like that for a while......The turbo is only $620 for the full kit...........and then imma have my buddy at his shop probably either tune it with chrome or hondata as long as the tunes good it should all hold up. **** if it blows its only $500 for a new motor LOL. But if it does blow ill build the next motor. I only want to run 8psi any way and i think stock internals should handle that.....

 

ya if you got the money do it. everybody has differnt intentions for their civic. im just going to keep mine as a back up car and go back to bimmer for speed. with slight mods done to those old bimmers you can get them goin. and they handle very nicely! im just learning bout these whole honda things. to me it just doesnt really seem worth it. my buddy said i would be claiming over 300 horses with the stock d16y8 boosted. he has another motor in his garage that isnt boosted and he wants like 3 g's for it. hes saying i can hang with majority of the sports car with it. but im over all that. im just goin to make the civic look clean and get an e30 for button willow on the weekends! i cant go fast on the road no more or they will take my license from me...

 

I say sell the BMW, drop a new d series in there, and drive it as is until all debt is paid of. No sense in just rushing into another project. Besides, it sounds like you need a DD not a fun car(hence the stang) From what I've heard trying to boost on a budget is usually at the cost of reliability. Just my opinion.

 

Bmw's are fun...and that fun costs alot of money. (Hence the user name,lol)

The civic is the perfect daily. Reliable as a tank...cheap as legos to fix. Engines/trans/etc...yada, you pop one out, and pop a new one in. I'd never sell the civic, its just too good to me. I have less in the civic all together then I do in the bmw's tuning. No joke.

 

if you have extra cars sitting around just do the work yourself... it pretty easy. and this forum can guid you step by step. its saved me tons of money!