I've posted this same topic in Hybrid without any luck. I was wondering if any of the metro ATL H-T users know of a quality shop that can handle either an engine swap or a tranny conversion on a 99 Civic DX, engine code d16y7. Any info would be greatly appreciated. Name? Location? Prices? Procedures? Any info you can give, thanks.

 

Acura and Honda specialists will do it, look them up in the yellow pages, call and ask for Tom. They're on the southside.


I doubt he would advertise himself since he is a mod.

Notable mention goes to Madhavi Motorsports, which I think is in Lilburn.

 

Anybody else have any suggestions?

 

converting your ek to 5-speed will be a big project, expect to pay a lot of money.

 

Or you could do it yourself
Here ya go: (IM youngkow if you have any other questions)
Auto to manual swap
Now, I did a complete engine swap, so I do not know what entail the transmission swap itself.

So the manual transmission should come with the slave cylinder attached, but if not, you will need one.
You need a master cylinder and the reservoir, and the clutch line and the clutch pedal assembly and a brake pedal from a manual car.
I used a braided stainless steel, but trust me, your better off getting all of the hard lines from Honda. The stainless works good, but it was a b!tch finding all of the right fittings. Also I thought it was going to be a lot cheaper, but it ended up costing about the same.
There are two switches on the clutches, but I opted not to use them. If you want you can wire them in. I will tell you later on in this little write up.
First, detach the shifter cable from the auto shifter and the tranny and pull it out. Then remove the auto shifter. Yay! <IMG NAME="icon" SRC="https://honda-tech.com/forums/images/smilies/emthup.gif" BORDER="0">
Then you need to cut out the cable guide. I just bought aluminum and covered up the gaping hole.


Now drill two holes for the shifter stabilizer holder, called a rubber extension mounting (#16) @ http://www.hondaautomotiveparts.com/...y5=SHIFT+LEVER and I used a piece of aluminum for strength where it bolts up.


Now everything will bolt right up. Attach the shifter to the little rod sticking out of the tranny, attach the shifter stabilizer rod (#13){ from the HAP link above} to the tranny, and bolt up the rubber stabilizer holder.
Now for the wires. Remember, these color codes are for a 99 civic lx.
Yours might be different. A Helms manual will help a lot.
There is a big plug that connects to the shifter assembly.

What you need to do is cut the plug from the auto shifter assembly, and leave about 5 inches of wire.
There are two really fat wires. This is so that you can start the car. You will need to connect these two together. Or what you can do is, run these wires to the switch on the clutch pedal assembly.
Then there is a black wire you will need to connect to a green wire with a white stripe. This puts the car in “park” so you can take the key out. Now you can also hook this up to the other switch on the clutch pedal, but remember everytime you want to take your key out, you have to press the clutch.
Finally, you need to find out what plug you used on the engine wiring harness to hook up to your reverse sensor on the manual transmission.
Find out what colors they are, and find the colors on one of the ECU plugs. You should find it at the ECU plug that has all of the auto tranny sensors. A multimeter helps a lot because there are multiple colors.
Run these two wires to the yellow wire and a green wire with black stripe at the big plug that you cut off from the auto shifter. Now your reverse lights should work.



[Modified by 95hbMatt, 10:45 PM 3/27/2003]

 

bump for more info/suggestions. I would try to do it myself, but I don't have many tools and EVERYONE, except you, has told me that this is a job for a professional mechanic.

 

 

Help

 

It was my first swap, and yes, I did have to buy a lot of tools, but in the end, it was so worth it. A big learning experience. Best thing tho, if you do not want to do it your self is call around, and visit the shops. Too bad the archive search doesn't work. Anyways, good luck!

 

dont go to mahdavi. My friends and i have had a really bad experience with them. They will rape you on charges. I was charged $250 for another ecu when mine was just fine (didnt know til next year when i tried the old ecu out). They also couldnt figure out what was wrong with my car after 2-3days of diagnosising it...but still decided to charge me $1200 . After i got the car back, my friend did a little research and found it was the valves that needed adjusting really bad.

Mahdavi motorsports in lilburn

 

this is true but the ek is easier because their is no welded tranny mount bracket
which means no cutting and rewelding
but their is cutting involved in cutting the auto tranny linkage bracket that 95hbmatt shows above

 

Wow nice post guys. Very informative. Just did my bro's 92 DA and finding all them misc. parts is a pain in the neck. What we did was exactly the same the way you guys said. With the exception of frozen driveplate bolts (had to dremel them and vise grip them out), Action clutch, type R flywheel, new axles, generic brand short shifter, and the coolest thing: we left the auto gauge cluster so we could fool people with the automatic led's in the cluster. hehehe

All in all we spent only $900 thats including all parts mentioned above, tranny ($140 ys1), shift linkage, ghey ichiban shift ****, misc. bolts, shift boot, pedal assembly, and 3 full meals from McDonalds with 6 apple pies.

Would I do it again? Most definintly.

 

If anyone here needs a pedal assembly, let me know, because I've got a set available from a 95 gsr. (hydro)

I'm also near the atlanta area.

 

You have many options if you live in GA. All these shops have their own horror stories. It's up to you but personally they will all charge you around the same and you still ownly have like a 70% chance of your **** turning out right. It's a shop, they all **** up and they all do good, just the luck of the draw.

You have where Tom(administrator of this forum) works, Acura & Honda Specialists Phone number is 770-603-9197 They are located right off of Tara Blvd in Jonesboro.

Then there is Mahdavi Motorsports Phone number 770-923-1550 They are located on Lawrenceville Hwy(Hwy 29) in Lilburn. (www.mahdavimotorsports.com)

Then there is Knowledge Performance Phone number 678-445-0688 They are located on Industrial Drive in Woodstock. (www.knowledgeperformance.net)

Then there is Crazy Import Performance Phone number 770-482-8226 They are located off Stone Mountain Lithonia in Lithonia. (www.crazyimports.8m.com)

Then there is Prestige Auto Phone number 770-482-5472 They are located on Lithonia Industrial in Lithonia. This is the shop I prefer as in price wise and telling the truth. He isn't known like the other shops are but he has done a hella lot of swaps, internals, and turbo buildups. He is cool. Brad is the guy you have to ask for b/c no one else knows ****.


I'm not biased of any of these shops b/c I do it all myself. I have been to all of them though and I do talk to a lot of guys who work for each shop or own each shop.

Put it like this- <U>GO WHERE THEY TREAT YOU THE BEST AND YOU FEEL THE MOST COMFORTABLE TALKING TO AND ASKING QUESTIONS.</U> If they treat you w/ respect and talk to you like a friend not some nobody then stick with them.


[Modified by jigga008_99, 11:06 AM 4/1/2003]

 

Hope that helps Or did I go too far??!! Sorry if I did just trying to have the whole ATL import family out there.

 

Uhhhh...thanks but no thanks.

I can think of ONE unsatisfied customer since I've been here, and it envolved an incident with a nitrous kit being installed incorrectly by a FORMER employee.

Call us if you want to man, but i'll tell you up front that the labor might be a tad expensive.

 

Dont most shops act friendly and respectful at first cause they want your business? A lot of places will do that and when it comes down to the work, they **** u off by:

1) saying it will be done a certain day, but just ******* it off and keep postponing it.
2) Overcharging you for parts you didnt need or labor u didnt need (Mahdavi motorsports at its best)
3) Not fix the actual problem in which u brought the car in for (mahdavi again)

I'm a diy guy also, i just got frustrated as hell that is y i took it to mahdavi(first time taking it to a shop; never again).

U just need to do your research first. Rumors doesnt exactly mean they are good. I went to Ed at balanced performance cause i heard he was good. It turned out he took forever putting my 3bar in and charged a ton for tuning my aem at only 9psi. Still needed more tuning, which meant way more money.

Overall, i've had many bad experiences....

 

http://www.opmmotorsports.com/ - Very good shop , Mahdavi does charge a arm & leg

 

Sorry Tom I really wasn't trying to be biased about the shops. I have my own opinions on shops but I wasn't going to say.

And for BoostedSi- I do think different places treat you differently. Some places seem more arrogant than informative. Of course they are going to say "Hi how cand I help you or something of that matter," but if you grill them or you ask informative questions or even ask them about their facilities they will all act differently. I'm really particular about how peoples demeanors are when they are around me so I kinda can tell. 1st impressions mean a lot to me.


[Modified by jigga008_99, 12:19 AM 4/2/2003]

 

I can get a DOHC ZC engine for around $800, would it be easier, and less $$ expensive to just swap engines, and then convert the shifter, pedal assembly, and other wiring.

 

Do the SOHC VTEC b/f you TOUCH the ZC. The ZC doesn't have the backing from aftermarket companies like the SOHC VTEC. Also the ZC is an ancient motor, might be shitty.

 

Well I could get a 1st gen b16a for $1100. Does this scenario seem or ?

 

stay with the hydro tranny swap. First gen swap will end up costing as much as doing it right the first time.

 

Bump for the good info for those that haven't seen this post..also for the 5th gen hatch guys with the interest of doing an auto to manaul swap, there is welding involved with the tranny bracket....or, you can do like I did and bought a place racing auto to manual conversion mount...got it for $80 shipped..not bad considering all the BS you have to deal with drilling the auto one out and getting the manual one welded and painted....here's some pics of her:

 

Just bumping for anybody else that has any more info.

Still leaning towards a tranny swap, although it would have to be under or around $1500 parts+labor