Ok so i'm dropping the b16a in my civic, and the one i found is in Hudson, FL with 20k miles on it. the engine company says that someone had the car shipped from japan and was meaning to have everything switched from the right side to the left, but ended up getting in over his head and sold it to them for a bunch of work on the other car. it seemed a little fishy to me, but they're going to change the computer, do the exhaust, change everything and drop the engine for said and done 2100$. Anyone have any suggestions or advice for me? I've been told I should have a leak down test done to make sure the engine is okay, others say just do a pressure test. I just want to make sure that this engine really does have 20k and everythings going to work out. If it does I have alot of plans for the vehicle as far as upgrades go. Anyone have some advice?

 

Ask them to show you the papers in the motor from the jdm shipment. Also ask them if they have the jdm cluster which is sometimes sent with the swap to prove the mileage.

A leak down test would be a good idea, however it will only tell you so much.
Pulling the valve cover to inspect the oil/valvetrain is always a good idea.

Do your self a favor & make sure it isn't a older b16 with a cable transmission.
Ask the shop which is going to do the work if they have ever done a swap & if so how many have they done... Ask them to see or get references so you can look at their work in person etc...

My suggestion to you. Consider what you want to do power wise in the long run. A b16 transplant is great if you plan on running around all day making 150-165 whp. and 110-115 wht. If you plan on getting power hungry down the road, go with a gsr motor or a ls turbo setup etc.

 

Alright, i'll give them a call tomarrow. They said they'd give me a year warranty on all the work and the engine and everything they do. Whats wrong with a cable transmission? Is it more of a pain in the ass to install? The other option I have (which i don't really care to do) is to rebuild the engine thats in their now, it has a cracked head. IF i was going to stay with the stock motor, would it be a good idea to do that or would it cause the engine problems down the road?

 

You car is designed to use a hydro tranny. You would have to use a conversion kit to run a cable tranny in your car. Concerning rebuilding the motor you have now. A cracked head is very uncommon. What motor do you have now ?

 

I'm not 100% sure, its the stock 1.5. its pretty slow 70hp on the sucker. Whats going on is that the temp. gauge would go from normal, to almost hot, to back down to normal, all the way to hot, and would bounce like that all over the place then finally overheat. ontop of that if i drove it for about 5 min, and stopped to run in a store, id come back out and turn the car on, and the car would start shaking, and a burning smell would come in thru the a/c vent.

When id apply gas to it the engine would start to sputter. so i took it to a mechanic and they said that oil got into the sparkplug area for the engine, so they replaced those. then i got 4 miles down the road after picking it up, and the car just died. took it back and the coil went bad, so they replaced that. So after that i picked the car up, drove it a bit that day and it was fine, next day i went to work, and it started overheating again. i said fuck it, its probably the thermostat. had them change it, and they noticed that i was missing about a gallon of radiator fluid.

I had been constantly putting it in too. they say that the radiator fluid is mixing in with the oil of the engine, and thats whats going on, they think i have a cracked head and thats why all these problems are happening. they want to charge me about 1100$ to take the head out clean it etc. and if it is cracked they want to charge me about 1500-1600 to rebuild it. at this point im like fuck it, i want to drop a faster engine in it anyways, so here I am at this point.

I dont have alot of money to go to another engine, because it seems the b18a is atleast another 1.5k. the b16a is only about 1200-1500, and thats the amount of money i have to work with. if there was a nicer faster engine that i could drop in there for the money, i'd be more than happy to.

 

Take the car to a reputable honda/acura performance shop instead of a normal mechanic. Check the honda/acura shop directory: https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/h...directory.html

 

ya, but are they going to have the engine i need? i thought it was a pretty good deal to find a shop that has the engine, is willing to do the swap and guarantees all the work and parts for a year, plus they'll do it all for 2100$

 

2100 includes the swap itself and all the install? if so i doubt its a b16a1 motor its most likely an older 1st gen motor which is 88-91. thats a much cheaper swap and it would make more sense why the price is what it is. most shops sell that obd-1 swap for 1800 alone complete so find out what gen the motor is you dont want a old beat up motor