Let me begin by first saying this is far from my own project. It was a huge group effort from everyone at my shop, Simply Performance, in Arcata, CA. Now that I've got that out of the way...

This started when we acquired a bone stock 97 Civic DX with a cracked head. 5spd chassis, and very clean. The plan was always to do a cool build with this, with the thought of doing an AWD swap floating around more often than not. We eventually came into a 2000 CRV EX, but an automatic. The plan at the time was to use all of the CRV drivetrain, auto trans included, in the civic.

Yanked the engine and basically the entire front end out of the civic

(ignore the butt plug on the intake manifold)




Took a long shot and dropped the front subframe and suspension out, they looked close enough to maybe be interchangeable...



Sure enough, it bolted right up!


Dropped the engine in using a combination of factory mounts




Shortly after that we decided that an automatic would be kinda lame after all this effort, so we ditched the auto for a 5spd. Unfortunately the auto transfer case is different, so we also had to get a new one of those




Now, onto the rear. Obviously nothing bolted up here, especially considering this is normally where the fuel tank sits. Dropped the taank and focused on the rear suspension.

The CRV control arms are WAY too long to use the civic mounting location



Looks like it was made for a driveshaft



So we had to make a new subframe to mount the control arms and the differential







The CRV trailing arms were also too long, so those were shortened and boxed for strength









The body was also reinforced inside to help support the differential



Cut the driveshaft down to make it fit in the shorter wheelbase, and made a new carrier bearing bracket





Back inside the car, we used the CRV shifter assembly and cables



Used the spare tire space to mount the OEM fuel tank, which made wiring and plumbing much simpler.





At this point, I took on the wiring portion of the job. Using the original civic engine harness, it was modified to work correctly on the new engine. Used a Rywire OBD2b-OBD2b adapter harness for the ECU (5spd CRV) No exciting pictures for this portion.



Back on the ground, here's a comparison of the car next to a stock civic:



Of course, since this is going to be our off-road mud machine, we HAD to make a cool bumper






First time out, the driver got a little overzealous in a mud pit and this happened after a questionable clutch-kick...lol



shattered the inner CV joint. We realized this was partly due to how we mounted the differential more in the center, as opposed to offset like the CRV. Shifted the diff over 2" and we are using two long axles vs one long/one short and havent had an issue yet


Currently the interior is stripped out and we are in the process of building a cage; Partially external, with a roof-mounted LED bar :D (no pics just yet!)








After the cage we are planning to build a new motor (possibly a turbo setup) to help cope with all the extra weight of the cage. As it stands, it's already pretty quick! Bilstein shocks and lift springs are also on order to dial in the suspension.

I'll try to keep this updated as the project progresses! Thanks for reading Any questions I will do my best to answer!

 

Awesome thread! very helpful! thanks guys! good job sick build!

 

Getting a little further on everything. Been crazy busy at work, havent had much time to work on the toys.

Rock sliders on the side, and some pics of the cage an roof basket/light bar







You can see the new seats going in as well.

 

looks great! so many awd crv builds these days. must be fun!

 

This thing is pretty cool looking

 

Awesome project!

Where are the videos?!

 

It has no front or rear glass on it at the moment, so no driving videos quite yet. There will be plenty to come though!

 

bad ***

 

ummm...'raises hand'...why didn't you just build a crv for off road?

 

Pretty cool man. Nice touch adding that little bend to the rear of the roof rack to follow the roof line. In for more pics and video.