I love this car.

We'll start with that. I do not love the lack of guts that I'm forced to deal with. I do not love the stock suspension. I hate the automatic transmission.

This car is a project to me. That project being: this is the first car that I've ever tried to revive.

Put plainly it's dying. The timing belt, water pump was changed about 30,000 miles ago. I live in Washington, so the five year run on it is nothing to be worried about. I'm concerned with other things.

I don't trust the car the way I want to.

-I'll be doing an engine swap asap. I'd like to put a JDM DOHC in. There are gas stations in town that carry gas with high enough octane. I can afford the foreign parts. I do not want to deal with this motor anymore. The hoses are drying up. The wiring looks like a child did it. Not enough hp, not willing to doa mini-me

-next will be a transmission switch, I want manual, and I want to put the drivers side on the right.

I imagine the transmission and engine swap will be one large project. I expect myself to have at least three civics before this is all said and done. The red civic dx that I'm talking about, another civic/crx to drive to work while the dx is in the shop. And it would be nice to have a parts car from Japan.

-then I will redo suspension.

-then the cosmetic stuff, paint most importantly.

I'm willing to work around this plan. Money isn't an issue. Time isn't an issue. I do need as much help as I can get. I have a mechanic, a close friend. He'll be teaching me how to do this sh*t as we revive the car. However, He's not used to custom jobs like this. And frankly, neither am I

 

I say go with a b18 they're cheap and plentiful and make decent power stock that's what I want to to then turbo it sometime down the road also parts can be found easier/cheaper than jdm motors
Where in wa are you?

 

So, you want a jdm rhd civic with a dohc zc? Why not just import a JDM ZC Civic??

Just slap a b series in it, do the manual conversion, and call it a day for the drivetrain.

 

I don't want to buy a japanese car just to have a japanese car. I want this car to look like it was made in Japan.

I want this car to be a mystery when people look at it. It will look like a sleeper in every way except for the RHD, and the sound of the engine.

as for the engine, I'm a little more flexible. I want it to be fitting. I don't want to waste energy trying to wrestle the wrong engine onto the brace. dohc zc is ideal. b18... now investigating

Also, I'm in Skagit County, Washington, ya know, where the bridge fell down.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HONDA-CRV-B2...-/251281635040

good call. But I don't know if the 91 dx can fit a long block in it. There are great prices on these b18s though

 

its an automatic? ive always wanted to get an automatic and throw in a H22 automatic you wouldnt have to cut the fire wall n stuff like that and nobody would shift faster than you im actually going to do this when my current sedan build gets finished and i need somthing for work and long trips its a good idea i think

 

b series is 98% drop in swap, you have to remove the front motor mount bracket off the cross member, message the drivers frame rail a little bit for the alternator pulley, and buy custom mounts

 

excellent, I'll update this soon with pictures of the car, and some maintenance records. I'm trying to weigh the maintenance costs to the swap costs. I don't want to fix something that I'm not going to use. Although, I could put the motor into another car that hasn't been maintained, keeping her around to commute with. Fixing everything wouldn't hurt.

there are other things as well. The suspension is as rough as a brick. Front right tire squeals over every bump in the road. Body creaks over rough roads. The entire radio panel and cigarette lighter are without power. No air conditioning. Heater works. Steering column is rattling badly. Left side of the front bumper has been clipped off by previous owner in a scrap with a fire hydrant, I can only assume. Good gas mileage.

 

just solved the o-ring problem that is so prominent in these engines.

The spark-plug wires were popping off the top of the gasket because the o-rings underneath had gotten brittle, and they were falling apart. (Note, all of them were intact, and whole. But, cracked, hard, non-flexible. Apparently, it doesn't take much to create a problem.) I had to take off the Valve cover, underneath was an ugly image. Oil had leaked into my spark plug holes, and chunks of solid grease and dust had started to build up. Cleaned everything out, closed it up with a new valve cover seal.

car runs better.