Hello everyone I am new to these forums as right now I am planning to buy an EP3 in the next three months. I am currently in college and wanted a reliable but fun car and always wanted to get into a turbo honda! I love the way the EP3 looks and think it’ll be a great daily, so my plan is to buy a high mileage one for cheap and get a k20a3 online low mileage and just swap it in. As for power this is where my questions begin because a lot of posts I see are from many years ago. I want to go turbo after the new engine, but see a lot of people recommending the a2 from the type s? Is it an easy swap in terms of wiring? Will I be able to retain my ECU and is this something I need to save up a bit more for? I know the block is the same but the head on the a3 isn’t as good as the a2. If I do go down the turbo route of the a3 I’m not looking to make a lot of power, just however much I can make reliably without having to invest into internals and whatnot, at most if I have to do the head-gasket and studs. At the end of the day it is a honda but I want to do this right so that it will last me through college with simple maintenance. I’m not looking to spend more than 3k total if possible after buying the car. Any feedback/ tips help as I am new to the honda scene!

 

Bought mine a couple years ago with 225k miles. The engine runs fine so I'm not in a hurry to do anything with that. There is a LOT of info and how-to's on here re going A2 or turbo cuz that's been asked a LOT.
All the suspension is worn out on mine making that my priority and might be yours. I've been finding parts recommendations given on here years ago are no longer available so been searching out parts myself. Compared to my EKs parts seem more scarce and the EK forum is much more active so good luck whichever route you take.

 

Yeah man same to you. I have some parts already like brakes and spark plugs for it, but I am trying to see if the motor is too high compression to throw a turbo kit on it even with low boost reliably. Is there anywhere specific you could point me to that maybe has info on that or how hard the a2 swap is? If I can ideally just buy the car and swap it for another a3 and then put a turbo kit on it and send the ecu to get reflashed it would be ideal. Obviously if stuff like head-gasket and studs are needed even for low boost the I’ll hold off until I can get around to it but I don’t have a real power goal I just want a turbo setup lol. Any info is appreciated or any parts you recommend. I’m looking around right now for turbo kits that fit my goal and suspension I don’t want to lower it too crazy just maybe a little better than stock.

 

K2o swap is the 4th sticky down but I guess you'll have to search on boosting. If you're not looking for it it's everywhere! it's everywhere in the EK forum There's a D-Series engine forum where they get pretty in-depth but I don't know about K-series, sorry

 

Just noticed there's a K-series, a forced induction an an all-motor forum on here Doh! in case you didn't already find that...