f23egcivic

Ok everyone, well I have been contemplating doing something a little different in my EG coupe. I came across a wrecked 1999 Honda Accord EX 5 speed on craigslist, the owner was selling the whole engine, tranny, shift linkage and shifter box for $250. I first thought this was too good to be true, so I met the seller, engine cranked on first try and idled and ran fine. So I bought it. I did a lot of research into swapping this into the EG civic, and a lot of the research pointed to the fact it is basically like a H22 swap. And it really is. I am making this write up because it seems there is a lot of scattered info on how to do this particular swap, so I want to condense it and help anyone else who wants to do this.

So my 1995 civic dx is pretty stock, except for a y8 intake manifold, and y8 header. The d15b7 still had a lot of life left in her, even with over 200,000 miles on her.

So what you will need to put a f23a1 into a 92-95 EG civic.

-F23a1 5 speed swap, shifter cables, shifter box
-F23a1 accord halfshaft (female)
-F23A1 passenger side inner cv axle cup
-90-93 Accord dx/lx manual rear T-bracket
-90-93 Accord dx/lx manual driver side engine post
-90-93 Acura Integra cv axles
-H22 into EG mounts( Hasport, Avid, etc) I used Avid billet aluminum mounts
-Smaller belt to just go around alternator and crank (I just measured with string and took the string to Advance Auto and found a belt the right length)


**EXTRA ITEMS**

-oil, tranny fluid, misc. bolts, stuff like that.
-Fuel hoses, vacuum hoses, slim fan.


On to the pics:

My d15b7





Now we need to take the d15b7 out, basically this is pretty simple. No explanation needed for this.











All out, I sold the full d15b7 swap to a buddy for $250, so broke even on the f23a1 swap purchase.

Now here is some pics of the Avid racing mounts.

https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/40.../834/4bs34.jpg

Rear T bracket, and side post mount you need from the 90-93 Honda Accord dx/lx manual. Luckily in a junkyard by my house they had one, so I raped the parts off of it. It was hot, and not a lot of fun, especially the rear mount bracket, but hey for $10 a piece, cant beat that.







The reason why you need these to mount brackets is because the ones that come on the f23a1 will not fit the H22 swap mounts. The f23a1 rear T bracket sits to high, and will not seat on the rear swap mount, the f23a1 post mount is to narrow and not as wide, so the h22 swap mount will not fit.


Now, the F23a1 is on its way to its final home.



Cleaned and degreased.








Now before you can drop this engine in, there are a few things you need to modify. First off the passenger chassis mount bracket. The rear side of the mount bracket needs to be trimmed, I took out my grinder and put a cut off wheel on it. As for where to cut it, I cut right in the middle of the welded on bolt on the bracket. **remember to always wear safety glasses when grinding kids**








Next you will need to drill new bolt holes in this bracket, if you look closely at the bracket, to the left of the original bolt holes you can see tiny pilot holes already in the mount. That is where you drill.

As for mounts, I installed the rear mount loosely on the crossmember.
(do not install the rear T bracket until the driver and tranny mounts are in, makes life a lot easier)
The tranny mount I mounted to the tranny, due to the fact that the rear bolt that bolts the mount to the tranny needs to be trimmed down and you can only get the nut on the stud with the engine out of the car.

Now you are ready to install.




I got the tranny mount to line up first, put a bolt threw it, but didn't tighten tight.

then the engine should fall right into place on the driver side and you can mount the driver mount.











Now that the tranny mount and driver mount are in, you can install the rear T bracket to the rear mount.



Once you have the engine fully bolted in tight, then you can install the shift linkage, (always put engine in first then install cable style shift linkage, you want to make sure you get the proper angle and length)

Now to install the shift linkage on a F/H swap you will need to unfortunately chop 2 holes in your shifter tunnel. Grinder time again...

Now how I did this was put the shifter box right over a piece of cardboard and trace onto it, then took the card board and put it on the tunnel right over my existing shifter hole, then traced it onto the tunnel.









Now you will need to cut a smaller hole about 3 inches above the shifter box, this is to run you shifter cables through.





Now, I got under the car and ran the cable up under the crossmember, and to the tranny shifter attachment points. Then ran the other end into the car.
Got back inside the car and attached them to the shifter. Now at this point make sure the cables aren't binding, or tight on something or they wont shift right. Run thru the gears to see if it shifts good.

No I had to cover the holes up so I just used heavy duty gorilla duck tape and sealant. Kinda ghetto but whatever it works.

As for put the stock shifter console back on, I just trimmed the few things and placed it over the shifter box, the accord shifter box needs to be trimmed a little on the sides, nothing my grinder couldn't handle, I mean its plastic.






Now I don't have any pics of the axle install, because its pretty straightforward.

The driver side goes right in, the passenger side all you need to do is take off the integra inner cup and slide the accord inner cup on. then bando the boot back to the cup.

The reason you use the inner accord cup is the input shaft on the accord cup is longer than the integras. Just helps to make the axle stay in better.



Next is the wiring, which is very easy. The engine started on the first try.

You can reuse the OBD1 D15 distributor, it bolts on perfect, every leg bolts on.

Now the stock harness plugs into everything basically, as for vtec, it just needs to be wired to the stock harness. There is numerous places on the web on how to do that.

You will need to make a adapter plate to block off the IACV on the rear of the F23 manifold, it is a 3 wire IACV and it cannot be used, and it wont clear the brake lines on the fire wall.

I bought a aluminum sheet from home depot and made a template and put it over the f23 stock IACV location, and I made another plate to bolt my stock IACV to, and put a nipple on it, and ran it to the intake port on the manifold, engine idles perfect.

Extend the stock fuel lines, extend the alternator harness to the Alternator.

I used the Accord alternator, it is OBD2 so you will need to use the OBD2 nator wires and run them to your stock wires. The colors will be different: Here are the colors that need to be matched:

Obd1 wire color: black with yellow stripe = OBD2 wire color: black with yellow stripe
Obd1 wire color: white with blue stripe = OBD2 wire color: white with blue stripe
Obd1 wire color: white with red stripe = OBD2 wire color: blue
Obd1 wire color: white with green stripe = OBD2 wire color: white with yellow stripe


The F23a1 head also doesn't have a Coolant Temp Sensor in it, there is a block off plug screwed into the location where it goes. I took the one off of my d15 head, and screwed it into the location on the F23 head.

The stock d15 radiator hoses fit kinda tight, but perfect. The radiator will need a slim fan.

The clutch slave cylinder hooked up to my stock civic clutch line with a little modification, nothing major.


I am currently running a P28 ecu, its is untuned. The engine started on the first try, and it runs amazing!! It pulls which to me is equivalent to a GSR swap, but you can feel the torque big time, spins tires like nothing. And what is funny, I have never heard Vtec on a single cam before, but I swear the Vtec changeover sounds like a dual cam. Its kinda cool.

Also its really cool, because it looks like a stock D-series at first glance, gonna fool alotta people.

Definetely for the price and the upgrade, it is worth it. Thanks for looking. I hope this can help someone in the future.

thehatchninja

Can't beat that price/performance ratio. A 2.3L SOHC is a lot better than a 1.5L. Also the F23 is a great platform. If I ever finish my CRX it will have an F23 based abomination.

HiProfile

The F23A makes 140-150whp stock and up to 175whp with good bolt-ons & minor tuning - I know someone who's worked on several. It also makes that power before 6500 while making nearly as much torque. On top of all that, it's 9.3:1 CR so it can drink shitty gas.

I'd say you got a hell of a deal. Great write-up, it answers all the normal f-swap questions. I'm more of an H2B guy, but I have an F23A waiting for my next 97mm stroke project.

f23egcivic

Thanks guys, It definitely is fun to drive....

Regna

Can you take a picture of the engine and the set up so i can replicate it by chance? I'm doing the f23a1 swap as well. N thanks