Hey guys! I've been patiently waiting a few years for a manual DA Integra to hit my local junkyard and it finally happened last week! I knew I would need that specific rear T-bracket and the driver side post mount for any B-swap in my EF chassis, and from my research, it seemed like a B18A1 would be one of the easiest swaps out there for my mpfi converted 1990 DX hatch. Got to the junkyard and everything looked stock to my amateur eyes: the VIN confirmed it was a 1991 model, the tranny was cable operated, and there were OBD0 plugs all across the engine harness, no hacking apparent in the wiring. Then, after several hours of work, I noticed that the block was stamped B20B!



Saw all the OBD0 stuff and thought I was pulling a B18A1, about 3 hours in, I saw the B20 stamp!


Not what I was expecting to see, but there is no replacement for displacement so I continued working and got the swap home.



My DX in the background, OBD0 B20 was pulled from 91 teg at local junkyard.


Now I'm just trying to figure out exactly what I have, the tranny is an A1 which makes sense for this generation teg, the ECU and intake manifold are PR4, which also seem right; my guess right now is that everything except for the block is original DA but I really don't know how to identify the head, compressor, alternator, starter etc and don't really know if any of that matters. My concerns right now are pointed at the crank pulley, it's all kinds of chipped up around the power steering pulley and AC pulley. I don't care about the power steering so I left all that stuff at the yard but I would like to have AC soon after the swap and I'm wondering if you guys think I will run into issues with that big ol pulley hitting my radius rods? It looks like the owner of the teg had those problems at least.

Another concern is the driver side post mount, there was only one bolt in use there but it looked like the other hole lined up with the teg mount fine. Probably just a missing bolt. But with the unexpected block I figure it's best to post a pic and confirm that this is indeed the correct post mount:



Is this the post mount I need? Previous owner was only using one bolt here to mount the b20 into a 91 teg. All the other mounts seemed stock.

Thanks in advance for your expertise! I hope to get this swap in before my 30 day junkyard warranty expires, but shipping is often slow during this 'Rona thing and we will see when my mounts and linkage arrive. (ordered yesterday, "guaranteed" delivery on the 6th)

 

cool so you went in for a 1.8 and got a 2.0 this is a better engine

to answer your questions

no the crank pulley wont get in the way of anything

and that stock integra ac compressor will not work with your ef civic ac lines
unless you tig weld new integra fittings into the civic lines

and yes that post mount is the right one that you need for the swap

if i had to take a guess id say the integra b18a1 motor must of broke at some point in its life and it was changed over to the b20
everything else thats connected to the b20 is all the old b18 stuff

you do have to wonder why the integra was at the junkyard?
since you took both the engine and the trans one of the two might be broken
unless the integra was crashed?

 

Thanks for the reply @Marcos Barrios , I love your build thread!

On AC, I was thinking I would take some of the principles in this thread and toss that drop-in parallel condensor @DaX and @shortA25 used. I'll probably do that much right away with the swap (I'll keep it capped up for now but might as well install it with the radiator out). Then I'll have some custom lines made (I'm just 3 hours or so from @James89DX if my local AC shop tries to trip). I have all my EF lines and the first couple feet of the two B-series lines closest to compressor. Thinking custom lines may be cheaper than the B to D AC bracket? AC will be top priority after the swap, if I run into any problems with this plan, I will probably just pair a hasport AC bracket with the 94 sanden in that thread.

I hear ya. There is definitely some risk here. The teg had a beautiful interior too so it's a mystery to me how it ended up at the junk. There was some damage to the driver side fender and the left tie rod was snapped. But I would think anyone willing to swap in a newer block would have had no trouble fixing those two things. It hadn't been registered for 5 years and it felt like the swap was done much more recently than that because only a few bolts required a breaker bar. That's why I'm trying to get this done quickly, if the block is bad I can just get another for free; if the tranny is bad I cry.

 

i get you
you know you can test the engines health by doing a compresson test
you can rent the kit at your auto parts store and make sure the engine is healthy before you drop it in

and you know about that ac stuff theres a few ways you can go
i normally just go with the cheapest option that works

and yea i here you on the trans maybe being broken
for the most part the honda manual trans is bullet proof
the only thing that can kill one is running without oil

that and my little brother haha but thats a long story

goodluck with the wrenching
and hay lets get some pics of the civic ^_^

 

Hmm, ok. But she's not very photogenic, lol. I can think of only 2 shots worth sharing and they both are the previous owner's handiwork:

these lil 13" konigs can shine up pretty nice but i haven't bothered in at least a year


13" rims installed by previous owner.

And these SI seats up front are in excellent shape. I think they are the best I've ever seen in person


SI front seats.

And thats about it for the good stuff, besides those two shots, there isn't much here to look at, I haven't focused on looks at all and previous owner didn't do much either.

Now, ugly stuff? I have plenty of shots to share in that department:

Got some cancer on passenger side quarter:


Quarterpanel cancer.

^^Also notice the front windows are tinted purple, the quarter glass tinted blue, hatch tinted plain gray.

Looks like some toolless bastid just ripped the hatch supports out by brute force


Hatch supports ripped out

I just carry around a 4' wooden level to prop open the hatch when needed.



My solution to missing hatch supports.

Speaking of ghetto solutions… I know most of us have no cupholders, am I the only one here that just hangs his drank in the passenger's face?



Cupholder lol

^^Notice that ugly black rug on my dash? Well I paid $8 at the junkyard for it because I got tired of looking at this giant hole:

Extra glove compartment.

I could go on and on about my ugly car, but she treats me pretty good. I can ALWAYS find a parking spot. She turns on a dime and stops on a nickel. She's not "fast" at all but I can keep her somewhat in the power band and slip n slide through Austin traffic like butta. I'm gonna love her even more after this swap, and maybe then I'll buy her some bling.

 

it doesnt look to bad to me
theres just a few things that need to be taken care of yes
but the important parts are covered
it gets you from A to B right ^_-

and hay i have 4 cup holders haha
one for each seat

 

I don't see any rust on your quarter panel, assuming that's what you meant by "cancer". Looks instead like somebody hit out the quarter panel from the inside with a totally incorrect tool (hammer).

What compressor is that exactly? Looks like the stock Integra unit?

 

@James89DX I'm not sure which compressor this is, the only identifying marks I could find say "178103 YZ1" and I didn't get anything useful searching for that number. Besides the block, everything I have been able to identify so far has been original DA, but if this isn't the DA compressor, I might learn a bit more about the block's birthplace. (probably CRV tho, right?) Anyways, AC is next month's top priority, I will most likely be purchasing some custom hoses from you. I'm just down the street (I35) from you in Austin.



Mystery Compresser


"Work" has already begun on the b-swap, mainly just assembling my new Harbor Freight cherry picker and trying to free up some space in the garage. My Innovative goodies (mounts, linkage, traction bar) have all arrived and I think the real work will begin tomorrow.



Mmm. Yummy.


Besides the Innovative goodies and the junkyard swap, I have a handful of other parts to install:

1) Parallel Flow condenser from Rock Auto (UAC part number CN4236PFC) will be a big part of next month's AC project and I will install it with the swap.

2) I've got this Aluminum Radiator Fan Shroud Cooling Kit that arrived a day or two after my junkyard score, it was purchased to eliminate one of the many unwelcome noises my D15 makes.


Knock-off Mishimoto


My cheapo D-series header rests like 1 millimeter from the stock fan. It has just enough room to be installed and stays clear at idle and during acceleration, but upon deceleration it starts banging on the fan and makes some pretty horrible noise so I was hoping to gain an inch or two of clearance with this item.


Header right up on fan


The choices as far as I could tell were to get a universal slim fan that zip ties THROUGH the rad fins for 30 bucks or so, the Mishimoto bling kit for $200, or this knockoff by Morakot for $65. I didn't want to run zip ties through my radiator, and $200 seemed like alot to spend to get rid of ONE noise when my car has so many, so I took the middle road. After opening the box and taking some measurements, it looks like this item would probably have eliminated that noise, because the thickest point was going to line up between the header's runners but I certainly would not have gained an "inch or two" with this mod, much more like 1/4". Anyways, it's going in; it's already here, and you never know, maybe that extra 1/4" will come in handy.



3) I also have a brand new D-series alternator that may get used with this swap.


Del Sol 80amp alternator


The 30 year old 60amp alternator on my D15B is still doing it's job for the most part; under normal driving conditions it charges the battery enough that she starts right up the next morning when needed. However I have always had a little trouble idling under even the smallest of electrical loads. This is most apparent when I hit Whataburger drive through in the middle of the night. I have to turn off my headlights, kill the blower fan and radio, I use the parking brake so my rear brake lights aren't lit, and I pray that the cooling fan doesn't kick on, lol. It never completely dies in the drive through, even with all those things on, but seems soooo close to death, all kinds of extra shaking and extra noise. Now I have no idea if this alternator was going to solve my problems, but the reason I went with this Del Sol one was because my OG alternator was rated at 60amp and the new one should be 80. I'm aware that car audio guys can purchase 190+ amp models in the original casings but I felt like 20 extra amps would probably solve my problems for 1/3 the cost, and that includes the cost of buying an OBD2 to OBD0 adapter.

Now, with this swap going on, these problems might just go away on their own with the b-series alternator. But I feel like this alternator may still have some value to me. I think I have read somewhere here on HT that you can avoid banging in the frame rail by sticking with D-series alternators? Plus it's so shiny and new looking! What do you guys think? Use the junkyard one thats already attached, or this shiny d-series one I had laying around?

 

Such a nice difference over the d15

 

Well, didn't get terribly far on day 1, but work has begun:



Day1

Day1



Last mpg figure for D15

Will work some more tomorrow but probably won't finish. Then 3 days of being an "essential worker", then I hope to finish things up with 3 days off next week Wed,Thur,Fri

 

The D15 is out!



Day2

Once the engine was out, I spent forever getting one of those three bolts out of the rear mount. Two were easy, and can be plainly seen from above. The third lives in a tiny little hole with steel walls all the way around it; one tiny access hole above it and a finger sized slit beside it. No way to get a wrench in there.



Rear mount


I was pretty certain that dropping the rear crossmember was going to be necessary but I ended up following the steps in this GarageBuiltHondas video. Basically, I dropped a shallow 14mm socket into that tight spot and then shoved one of my fat fingers in there and flipped it around and around until it fell on the bolt head. (I think this took me about an hour and during that time the neighbor kids probably learned a dozen new cuss words) Once the socket rests on the bolt, I grabbed every 3/8 extension I could find and dropped it straight down the firewall at this point just to the right of the fuel filter:



Rear mount access point

It doesn't look like it's going to make it, but it does. The bolt wasn't even that tight, the hard part was just getting a socket onto it.

Anyways, I could drop the b20 in pretty quickly at this point, but I still want to replace my condenser while everything is out, and also need to extend my cooling fan wires. Both jobs are surely possible with the engine planted, but I'm thinking they will be alot easier with it sitting beside the car. That pretty much wraps up day 2, I will be working all night Sun, Mon, Tue so swap day 3 will start on Wednesday morning.

I still haven't made a decision on the alternator. Beating in the frame rail and using the b-series one seems to be the tried n true method so I'm leaning that way but it's hard to ignore the shiny d-series alternator just sitting on the shelf. Idk, would love some feedback from you guys on this one.

One last thing, since I removed the radius rods I will be needing an alignment, and the forks are already off so I might as well loosen a few more bolts and install these junkyard springs:



Junkyard coilovers

I grabbed em off an EF hatch a year or two ago and figured I would install them whenever I got around to the rear suspension. (I replaced all bushings, ball joints, etc up front in 2017 but still have done nothing to the rear) I noticed the previous owner had put a couple hose clamps on the fronts to keep the forks from dropping all the way on. This seems kinda sketch, but if he needed an extra half inch height, I may too. What do you guys think about the hose clamps setting right above the forks?



Hose clamp height adjustment on junkyard coilovers

 

 

So the junkyard motor runs! I can't test the tranny until Thursday because I didn't realize that I needed a bigger bushing for the Innovative swap linkage. It was going to take a week if I ordered it, but Autozone can get me one in 48 hours. This gives me 2 days to get my suspension back together and figure out my vacuum lines. I'm throwing code 5 (MAP sensor) right now.

 

cool
its nice to hear your making progress ^_^

 

Swap complete! I can't believe how lucky I was to get almost everything from the junkyard. Just a couple minor problems really:

1) I had to buy one axle because I didn't notice it was broken until trying to install it. The 90-91 axles look identical to me but all the parts stores have separate part numbers for left and right. I have a passenger axle on the passenger side and who knows what I have on the driver side but after removing the ABS ring, it fits and doesn't bind.

2) I had to harvest my old injectors and seals from the D15 (the teg had only two of the big seals under the injectors, and zero o-rings on top. Plus my harness didn't want to clip on the b20 injectors very well). My old parts dropped right into the new intake manifold and fuel rail.

3) The stock b-series exhaust manifold and downpipe extended about 3 inches too far beyond the start of the aftermarket catback. Like, they overlapped 3 inches or so when both were mounted up. I thought since the back was all hung up with rubber mounts I could pry them apart enough to mate them, but that just didn't work. So I had a couple inches cut off the downpipe and the flange welded back up when I got my alignment today. They said the welds were ugly so I paid half price! (I swear only welders care about "pretty" welds, I still haven't looked at em and don't care, its MUCH quieter.)

Everything else is working great, I will need to once again conquer the "Honda Hunting Idle" but I eventually rid my original dpfi setup of that problem, and then figured it out again after mpfi upgrade. Pretty confident I will solve it a 3rd time but she was so LOUD yesterday I couldn't dive into that at all. Coolant is topped up, will clean iacv tomorrow.

 

oh yeah, I completely trashed my caster numbers putting in my traction bar, but the shop fixed me back up:


Alignment sheet
Not sure how left front toe got messed up but it's much better now as well.