Hey guys! I just got my hands on a barn find! 1.5L 1983 Civic wagon 5-speed. I had milky oil so I pulled the head off thinking it needs a head gasket. There's more to it than that, apparently. One of the pistons cracked and you can see the piston ring if you look past it. My question is, where would one find one of these old motors? I want it remanufactured or rebuilt if possible. I would provide the core. Pulling the motor, replacing the pistons, and re-sleeving it is a ton of work. I also have no shops around me that do this. I would rather pull the motor, put a rebuilt one in and send the core out. That's the ideal. I can't for the life of me find even one reman shop with this motor. Has anyone had this car and put in a different motor? Any suggestions at all would be great. Thank you!! I really want to dump a b18b or a d16 but I am afraid I have no idea where to start. Does anyone sell a kit for the conversion? Anyone do something similar?

 

Welcome to the FORUM.

I've never dealt with that problem, but I did move the engine out of my old rusted '76 Civic body and put it in another '76 body in GREAT shape -- same color too.

There are a lot more '83" Civics out there than '76", so junk yards should be the "GO TO". If you are near a large city, you might get lucky. A lot of them end up in junk yard because of front end damage to the engine, so be careful. But if you find one, it will probably be cheap -- and will need some "help".

You'll also need to see what engines from the same year and other years are OK. For example, on mine, I can use the 1200 or 1500 engine from any year -- 1974 to 1979.

So you may have more options than you think. There are several on-line web site HUBS for junk yards.

Let us know how it goes

 

So far I have contacted junkyards all over the country; East Coast, West Coast, Midwest, South. This generation, mark II, has been pretty well picked apart and scavenged over the years. I only found one motor and a place wants $1500 and that's for unknown condition. Maybe I should reconsider rebuilding what I have...

 

Looks like I found someone to rebuild the motor - stay tuned!

 

That's great to hear! I wish I had bought a Civic wagon -- way back when -- but couldn't afford it.