This CRX is AWD and Runs 11's Like Nobody's Business
The evolution of the scene
The Honda scene has been a fascinating thing to watch evolve over the years. What started as simple visual modifications and slight performance enhancers has turned into a full-blown hot rodding scene. These days people mix and match parts from different Honda models like a teenage girl deciding what to wear to a dance. The newest trend in this mix and match philosophy is the All Wheel Drive swap.
Power to ALL the wheels
AWD swaps have been around for quite some time, but with the needed donor cars getting cheaper and cheaper it's becoming more common. Combine that with the fact that the “formula” for what parts are needed has for the most part been figured out (with a large part of that formula being built here on the Honda-Tech forums) and suddenly it has gotten a lot easier to make just about any Honda AWD.
>>Join the conversation about this AWD CRX right here in the Honda-Tech Forum!
A rough start
Honda-Tech forum user K7-1Ktrevor (who I’m just going to refer to as Trevor from here) bought his CRX with the AWD conversion already “done”. A closer inspection revealed that the car still sported a d15b1 that had been adapted, poorly, to AWD. The motor was sitting crooked since the wrong transmission mount setup was used. On top of the shoddy workmanship, the windshield was cracked, both side windows broken, and the rest of the car was just in need of some love.
>>Join the conversation about this AWD CRX right here in the Honda-Tech Forum!
Big Power, Little Money
This wasn’t a big deal to Trevor, he had lofty goals for this car, and the skills to back them up. Out came the old D-series engine and in its place was put a B20 with a stock bottom end mated to a P75 head that Trevor reworked for increased flow. This setup was paired with a trusty eBay 35r turbo and the rest of the needed parts to make the AWD swap proper. After 4 months of hard work and a ton of cleaning the car was together and put on the dyno where it put down 332hp and 257ft/lbs.
>>Join the conversation about this AWD CRX right here in the Honda-Tech Forum!
Never Enough
Those are good numbers, especially out of a stock B20 bottom end, but that was not enough for Trevor. He had titled his build thread “K7-1Ktrevor's AWD CRX build, 500whp or bust”, and while he admitted later in the thread that 500 was just a number that sounded good in his head, 332hp just wasn’t enough. After enjoying the car how it was for some time the engine was torn back down. This time the quest for big numbers meant some work was going to have to be done to the bottom end.
>>Join the conversation about this AWD CRX right here in the Honda-Tech Forum!
Adding Strength
The 250k mile B20 block got new Skunk2 connecting rods and the deck was filled with Moroso block filler to keep the cylinder walls from warping under the extreme stress. Trevor also got a hold of a B16 head to replace the heavily reworked p75 head. Unfortunately, that head had cracks between the cylinders so he dusted off another B16 head he had laying around that also needed work but was fixable. This head got some port work as well, of course, before being installed.
>>Join the conversation about this AWD CRX right here in the Honda-Tech Forum!
Supercar Fast
After some teething issues, this new combo was able to put down 441hp and 303ft/lbs at the wheels. Not quite 500 but that is still enough to get the little CRX down the quarter mile in 11.9 seconds at 122 mph. Oh and that was on all season tires! With a little more work and some good tires, mid 11’s will be easy.
>>Join the conversation about this AWD CRX right here in the Honda-Tech Forum!
Making the best of a bad situation
As of the writing of this, Trevor's car has hit another set back and lost some compression on a couple of cylinders. He is not too worried though, this entire build has been an exercise in trying things and making things work for cheap. The Honda community has been built by people like that, trying things out, seeing if it works. Trevor summed it up perfectly in a post about pushing the limits of the B20 block. “the whole reason this sport is fun to me is to try to push the limits on **** and see what you can make it do. You can't fail if you don't try I guess. But if you try odds are you'll learn something from it.”
There is so much more to Trevors build than what can be summed up here, to see more and keep up on future updates check it out HERE.
>>Join the conversation about this AWD CRX right here in the Honda-Tech Forum!
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