Well, things have a funny way of coming back around; after nearly a decade, I bought another Civic. After owning three very different NSX's, ranging from street cars to all-out race cars, they are slow(not really), expensive(yes really), and are great baby haulers(no, not really). So, an NSX no longer fit our family's lifestyle.

That's right, we had a baby this past August. So, I needed a viable commuter car that would last me several years, would be fun to drive in all conditions, would serve for light-duty track use, as well as decent mileage. Having been spoiled by V6 torque for the past decade, I decided on purchasing a J-swapped Civic. Sure, I could do the swap myself, but I understand the stresses and expenses involved with building project cars. So, I "bought, not built."

And here is where the story starts.

Driving home from Chicago. AFR's were terribly rich, and since the car already had an AEM EMS Installed, I brought the laptop and tuned for a few minutes to get it efficient.



After arriving back to the shop pretty late, I slapped it on the dyno for a proper tune. I found huge power down low. Here are the results:





The next day, we installed a spare set of NSX brakes acquired from a customer in preparation for a track day the following day. Good thing we messed with the brakes, the pins for the master cylinder and clutch did NOT have retaining clips on them and actually fell out when touched. I would have died.



First day at the track with less than 48 hours ownership. Let it rock!





Brakes work!


Hauling a customer's C30A into machining. Block in the front seat, heads in the back trunk, everything else on the folded down seats.




And finally a quick video of the car in NA form on the street:


Well, as we all know, things get boring pretty quickly. Having owning a car NOT under 500whp in a decade, naturally things were getting a bit "old", after just one month of ownership.

Things were hectic at the shop, but I had ONE DAY to complete the car due to machining delays with customers, etc. So, I dug in.

To start, I didn't have time to build fancy headers, or a pair of turbo manifolds with y-pipe, etc, so I kept it simple. I used the CDM(China-crap domestic market) headers that were already on the car when I bought it, lopped off the exhaust flange and "up-piped" it. I will build something more "LoveFab" and run some tests later, but for now, I was concerned with drive-ability. So, wastegate priority was a must, and I wanted a turbo location that would work on a majority of swapped cars(aka, the NSX).







This was a budget-build, so I was re-using whatever I could out of the parts bin. Since the Pikes Peak Enviate was on an extensive rebuild process, I used the passenger side turbo from that, chopped up both exhausts, used the water pump which the outside had partially melted from the crash and resultant fire( ), and a Turbo by Garrett WAIC core that was leftover from the Enviate build. The heat exchanger was leftover from the 2012 LoveFab Pikes Peak NSX.

First TIG spark to initial dyno tune was 17 hours, so there wasn't much in the way of pictures, but here are several below!













The car completed, and on the dyno at like 4am!




Finally, after the turbo setup, the car is of proper power.


And earlier this month, I ran the car with no additional tuning at our Reach Out Worldwide Charity dyno day, and it made:



Impressions? This car is arguably the most-fun-to-drive car I've ever owned. Yes, NSX's are ridiculously fun, but you're always worried about damaging the car, or always being bothered about "how much did it cost", ricer flyby's, the list goes on. But this shitbox Civic, I LOVE. The mileage went from 24mpg NA to about 21mpg Turbocharged, but the fun-factor is off the charts, and our entire family can hop in for a Sunday Cruise(including our Great Dane, Thor).

What's next? Well, I think it's time for some real rubber under the car. Diamond Racing wheels come to mind, in a 15X10" rim. I'd like to run a 275 tire on all four corners, put some good suspension on the car, and possibly go larger with the brakes, and I might start prancing down the path of some big Aero. But otherwise, I plan on finishing out the winter as-is, cleaning up the inevitable damage, and continue the saga when the snow melts.

 

man i love the v6 swaps, and yours is nice. I want that swap so bad

 

thanks!

I should add:
ID1000cc injectors
Walbro pump
100% bone stock J32A2 engine
TL-S Trans
Spec S2 clutch, currently slips in 4th as that's when the car hooks.

I do want to toss some valvesprings in there asap to see what another 500rpm gets me, as well as find a better clutch. I think we can crack 450whp on 93 pretty easily with the setup.

 

How much boost?

 

i wonder if i could trade my b16 for this swap, hmmm, would be nasty in a del sol

 

7.5psi on the gate.

 

holy crap very nice man, keeping an eye on this build

 

15x10 Diamond racing whats? NO. just no. That's a horrible idea.

 

If you get a chance, will you corner weigh the car so we can see what the weight looks like f-r and l-r?

Thanks.

 

that's very dope.

 

V6 Turbo Civic, move over CRX this is God's new chariot.

 

And then there's this. Daily driven, year-round.

 

You drive that car in the winter!?!?!? How do you even move in it without spinning out lol

 

Of course. It fired right up at -8°F when the diesel wouldn't move out of its own way because of its jelled fuel. Work needs doin!

 

sick *** turbo setup man. More vids plz!!

 

15x10"s would be sick, I wanna see that.. Good to get a ton of rubber underneath the front tires.

 

Thats my thought Axis. I haven't driven a car on less that 275's at the track in about a decade, so it's quite a change. This thing can be insanely quick with some rubber and aero to match it's power.

 

Combination of old NSX Aero parts. The front wing from the PPIHC NSX mocked up on the rear, and the front aero/splitter from the PPIHC NSX before it was prepped for PPIHC. I'll take care of the proper sized rubber and suspension, and perhaps these old "scraps" will find their way onto the Civic during testing?

 

I bought a Civic with the cotter pins missing from the castle nut on the lower ball joints, and didn't find out until I was skidding into oncoming traffic... You definitely got lucky there!
Awesome build.

 

Keep up the good work.

 

Playing around with Aero while there's still snow on the ground. Why? Because it's awesome actually "seeing" what the air does around the car. More to come, sooner or later.

 

That's just bad ***! I love seeing the engine popping out the hood. So how did the aero affect it, visually as you've noted? Can you drive fast enough to make an evaluation?

 

Pecking away at it.

Very noticeable difference. The car is planted at just highway speeds, and the grip on ice and snow is to the point now where I can get the wastegate to pop open, where it would not before.