I came across a 1990 Civic hatch "shell" for sale for $100 today, and I decided to take on the project of installing a small block chevy in it instead of just another turbo b18. my buddy is a GM freak so hes going to be the one touching all aspects of the engine and drivetrain. chances are we're going to wind up building a 400-450bhp 350 small block which will be carb'ed to make things easier in an already complicated project, mate it to a GM TH350 autotragic transmission once again to keep things a bit more simple, and run that to an obviously custom driveshaft spinning either a Ford 9" or GM 12 bolt rear end. oh i forgot to mention this is going to be RWD didnt i oh well you should have assumed anyways as for the front and rear suspension setup, thats going to be the worst part of the whole project. but its a hell of a challenge to face and if we can figure that part out, the rest will be cake. anyways i just wanted to see what you guys think about it, as well as see if anyone either knows of such a thing being done before(except that supercharged CRX) or has any tips for us.

 

Mini-tub the rear and run a domestic rearend. Makes things easy, as you can get axles any width you want. You'll need to cut a tranny tunnel. Aside from that, you just need to figure out the mounts, etc. up front. You could probably just cut the rear out when you tub it and weld in some ladder bars.

Also, remember to go to a low pressure fuel pump or the carb will flood.

 

yeah tubbing will most definetely be done, since we're going to want atleast a 10" tire under there, probably wider due to the fact that there will be so little weight in the back of the car to keep all that torque from smokin the tires. about the rear, i have a feeling we will use some sort of ladder bar/4 point setup. planning that out though will come after we figure out what we're going to do with the front end, which will the hardest part of the whole project. i imagine we're going to have to fab a custom tube frame front section, but im not going to speculate on anything until i have the car in my garage to inspect to see what the option will be. we'll see in a few days when i get the car to my place and start the brainstorming!! thanks for your feedback, hope to see more of it. i know this probably isnt the most favorable of all swaps, but theres just too many turbo civics running around where i live, and its time to do something no one has seen before.**** we're even going to have three LS1(vette motor) FC RX7's by spring time!! this should prove both a fun project, as well as a very rewarding one if everything turns out ok.

 

practical?
easy?
interesting?

Keep us updated (with pics )!

P.S. I am not a hater at all. Just seems like a LOT of custom work. Good Luck.

 

good luck! Keep us updated

 

there is a 70's civic hatch runnin around by me with a big block in it....

 

thanks all for the support!

lol its definetely not practical, but definetely IS interesting, which is half the reason we're doing it. the other half of course is you cant be an easy 450hp AND rwd in a car as small and light as a civic hatch.

i'll definetely keep everyone updated on the project.hopefully this weekend we'll be picking up the car if we decide 100% to go through with this. if for some reason we dont get the civic, a friend of ours has an 87 GOlf shell that he'd donate towards the same cause. rather do it with a civic though because its well, a civic!!

tihul can you find out a bit more about that hatch? maybe get some pics or something? i would be interested in seeing it for some possible ideas thanks!

 

that'll be cool

 

good luck getting all that power to the pavement and keeping it there.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by LsVtec92Hatch &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">good luck getting all that power to the pavement and keeping it there.</TD></TR></TABLE>

yeah thats going to be the biggest problem... i have a feeling we are going to have to add some 45lb plates in the rear :-/ the power might as not even be there if we can't get it to connect.... sacrifice weight for traction even though its going to be heavier it will still run faster due to not spinning. pretty much stupid but thats physics

 

LITTLE CAR/BIG ENGINE CONVERSIONS, LINKS TO LITTLE CARS WITH BIG MOTORS http://www.britishv8.org/swaps/examples.htm

 

hey owen i know who you are. youre on roclife under the name owen right? and tims buddy? this is zaks buddy rich using his name on here. we'll both end up posting under this one name since i know a bit more about the power/drivetrain. zaks the one thats buying the shell from roclife for $100 off of sikcrx. i noticed the LS1 FC comment in your sig and i remember tim telling me about you doing that. when do you anticipate it being done? we'll have to go at it next year as soon as our project is complete you gonna do anything special to the LS1 motor itself?

 

yep its me owen.
nah I'm not gonna do jack to the LS1.
it'd be a domino effect of needing more mods neded to realistically USE anything above "stock" 350hp/350tq... getting power above that to the ground would require a better LSD than the stock Series-4-T2 (like Kaaz, Quaiffe, etc), a much wider tire (like 315's), so then you need wider fenders so a paint job is required and oh yeah the custom 11" wide or more wheels, funk that... it all comes out to way much more $$$ if you do anything over a stock LS1/LS6 setup.

I'm going to keep my FC very mild... well, for what it could be.

but, actually Bnjmn is going to try the above route and possibly supercharge his LS1 in the future.

 

not easy to do but possible

good luck

 

A few months back grass roots motor sports had a CRX with a 350 sitting in the back.

 

frame needs to be strong enough so your not riding around with the front end twisted.

 

The 350 guys over and over again demonstrate their lack of imagination, and inability to understand anything but one platform, by ignoring the strengths of other platforms, and transplanting their platform into other projects.

Ok, maybe the roatary, B16 and 4G63 guys are the same, but the 350 guys are by far the worst offenders.

-PHiZ

 

That **** will be tight......i'd love to see i've heard of it done before with the engine located in the rear/back area part of the back seats.......keep us posted on the project good luck bro

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Crankdriven &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">A few months back grass roots motor sports had a CRX with a 350 sitting in the back.</TD></TR></TABLE>

they had another rwd crx in $2004 challenge