Hello all, I am looking to build my civic eg into a weekend track car. The current setup is a d15 turbo, however it has a fatal flaw - it is not to legal for the 1.6 or 2.0 liter classes I would like to race in my country. Mounting a turbo if it did not come originally is not permitted, along with major internal engine mods. Light engine mods are allowed, but you cannot change the compression more than 0.5. Engine swaps though, are allowed, so naturally thats what I want to do.

The question is to what engine. Based on the engine size limits, it would seem that the go to swaps would be either a B16 or a K20. but we are in 2023 and everything that is desirable from this era is skyrocketing in price, hence this post. I lack the knowledge of which specific variants of these motors would be best suited for my application, and would greatly appreciate some insight from people that have experience on the topic. I am located in Europe, so keep that in mind. The budget is not dead set, but the goal is the best bang for buck build right now.

B-series was my first consideration, but apart from the high price of the swap it self, my main gripe is that these engines are just getting rarer, and that doesn't seem like what you want for a racecar which will inevitably have problems and require parts or even a whole new block down the road. Am I correct in this regard, or are these swaps still manageable today? If so, which engine codes would be suitable? There seem to be many modifications of the same motor, some varying drastically in price. Similarly are K-swaps. Although they seem to be slightly more obtainable and in some cases cheaper, the list of required parts and works is daunting. Though I guess extra power of a K-series should in theory make for a more capable car in the long run. Same question in terms of engine codes. If a B or K swap proves to be infeasable, the other option I guess is to stick with the D-series, but here there are also doubts, if the car will be at all competitive, considering that I cannot do much more than just bolt-ons, which would just about put me on the lower end of stock B-series hp numbers..


In short, if you were to build a 90's civic for a track car in 2023, in Europe, which engine would you pick and why?

 

In my opinion, you would be better off with any K series engine that you could find over a B series. To my knowledge, even the lower horsepower K series from the accord makes 180 hp (unsure what the EU equivalent is) which is probably what you would be making with just bolt-ons on a B series. Especially with how expensive B series engines are getting know, I just don't see any practical reason to swap in a B series if there are K series engines available to you.

 

And to add to the above the K makes torque and has such a wide power band that a B could never make.