swapping 2003 honda civic engine.

have a 2003 honda civic ex 1.7L v-tec engine. My question is
What is the possibility of me replacing the current engine with......

a. 2003 honda civic-si i-vtec engine or...

b. 2003 acura rsx engine,

i live in California so would this be even possible given the current
emisions restrictions. Any help answering this question would
be a major factor in me purchasing a more powerful engine, rather
than investing the money in a super or turbo charger

A base turbo kit will make your car faster than a 160hp or maybe even 200hp engine, and you'll have spent half as much. I've seen turbo '03 Civics making 180whp with base kits, and I think the RSX makes about 185whp or something. Plus you'll get that nifty head-turning sneeze every time you shift. However, if you want reliability, go with the motor swap. An engine like yours not meant for boost will probably last you to about 90k-100k miles at most then you'll start having to replace things..

my friend that owns a JDM shop in my area owns an 02 civic and has it turboed running at 11psi with stick internals..except he changed out the injectors cause they wasnt giving enough fuel and cat back exhaust... all for around 1,800... as for the swap you can fit an rsx engine in there easily with no adjustments.. all you need is a different motor mounts.. almost drop and play more like.. except for the wires of course... last time i heard swapping engines wont effect emissions.. but when you start putting on aftermarkets stuff then it might... thats why they have that stupid CARB exempt thing... and ricochet is right.. its cheaper to turbo the car then get a new engine if thats what your worried about... but if you want more power from stock then do a swap

Go with the K20 swap, Or if your really attached to the 1.7l boost the bastard.

well since you probably have the money because you're tearing into an almost brand new car, I say get a RSX type S motor...screw the turbo..that's so typical

that's so typical
Breathing oxygen is so typical too.. go suck on some exhaust fumes.
Point is, people do it for a reason, because it's more logical. Just speaking from experience since people with sohc turbos and some mods are putting 4-5 cars on me, and they spent just as much. Oh wow cool look at my nifty swap, compared to oh wow look at my cheap turbo blowing away your nifty swap. On the strip the guy who finishes first is the winner, not the cool swapped car. Just an fyi since you don't know what you're talking about kthxbye.

everyone has a good point in here.. if money wasnt an option then it all depends on your starting point on your horsepower... the rsx has more HP to start then the 1.7 of the 01+ civic.. if you had money to burn then go rsx with turbo... but if not just go straight turbo.. its all about you man.. its your car and as they say... each car is built with a different peronality and hard work

wow what a dickhead. how are you gunna get 200+ hp on a SOHC engine without modifying internals? how much do you think thats gunna cost after all of that? and how much do you think a quality brand turbo is gunna cost for that gen civic? ricochet, how bout you go suck on some dick, because you are what you eat, arent you>?

edit: ok i forgot he said it was an si, but either way, i think you're gunna have a much better result with a brand new motor, that will probably give you more horse to begin with. you even said it yourself moron, so stop trying to find a reason to fight with me.

My friend has 205 wheel hp at 9psi on his bone stock Greddy-turboed EX, bitch. Only mods he has is an exhaust, boost controller, and some fuel management shit. If you weren't such a benchracer and actually saw real life modded Civics getting dynoed you'd see it's very possible, and still relatively reliable. Instead, you sit back reading everything on here and formulate your own pool of unsure beliefs similar to many other forum-infesting rejects around here. If you haven't seen something, it doesn't mean it's not possible.

getting a little heated in here, I know that 200+ is possible on a sohc so dont be throwing around the word dickhead, not naming names. NOOB

how long is a piece of shit SOHC going to last with 200+ horse? please, you tell me.

i'll "throw around" any word i want, so quiet down poison. really, stay out of it. "NOOB"

oh and by the way:

big fucking deal dude, 5 more horse than 200. you go boy-ee. look at those SUPER DUPER GAINS.

no, you know what? fuck this. fuck this retarded thread, because nothing here is even getting acclomplished. ricochet i hope you have fun proving me wrong, because it's getting old having you have a smart ass comment to everything i say. go get a fucking life.

You are just mad cause you said "how are you going to get 200 out of an sohc" blah blah blah and then Ricochet proved you wrong. I dont have time to waste on little things such as yourself. And by the way using the word fuck in your common vocabulary makes it seem like you are uneducated.

big fucking deal dude, 5 more horse than 200. you go boy-ee. look at those SUPER DUPER GAINS.
Okay fine he has about 235 crank hp.

Please outprocess the overflow of sand in your cameltoe.

And just when defmusik thought the whole world was against him, It was.

oh i'm sorry if i offended your virgin ears poison, i'll try to "tone it down" for you.

EDIT: Also, i'd like to add that no I'm not mad that ricochet "proved my wrong." It pisses me off that a person can just go and contradict himself just to make someone else look stupid, or to be a smart ass to someone they particulary don't like for no reason. Read what he said in the first place before I had even said anything, and then read what he came back with to my reply, that's what pisses me off. just an FYI for the kid thats sucking on his pole..

thank you all very much for your suggestions, even
though u guys got off the topic there for a min. Anyways, thanx again for the info. and i'll sure take
every single one of your comments into consideration. I'll probably go with the turbo charger
given the amount of miles i put on my car on a daily basis (about 5miles, except weekends) so
that wont be much of a strain on the engine i presume, because the longevity of the engine is..
important to me. thanx once again :D

Havent posted in a while.

If swap is your option, K20's fit nicely in 7th gen civics. All you need are motor mounts.

http://www.hasport.com/News/Articles/ESK1.htm

This was done on a 6th gen civic. But ive heard a lot about swaps of a K20 in a 7th gen civic.

Sorry for getting off topic for one more post but, Defmusik: I'm not sucking on ricochets pole, there is a difference between that and respect for ones knowledge.

I'll probably go with the turbo charger
haha I win

now..... what type of turbo charger would best fit
my car. Again..its a 2003 honda civic ex etc. at that point i know i'll have to upgrade quite a few
things like breaks, clutch, intake. etc. Since it seems like you guys know what your talking about
and obviously passionate about it, id like to hear
(read) your opinions.

brakes and clutch won't be a big deal until you get up around 250+hp. A turbo kit replaces the intake so you don't need to buy one. Check around the Turbo section on here, there are plenty of posts about what/what not to do.

oh and FYI ricochet: the k20c is putting out 200hp stock, if you swap that in, and just sell whatever motor is in the new civics (D17 i'm assuming) you probably wont be spending as much money as you'd think, and you'd have an almost brand new engine with no worrying of failure years and years down the road. sorry if my opinion isn't what yours is.

the question would be defmusik....is the k20c engine
compatible with a 2003 civic?, and is the k20c engine the rsx engine?

yeah its the rsx type s engine, should fit fine from what everyone else is saying.

its fits perfectly just need some motor mounts and then your set... everything else is plug and play.. we just did a swap yesterday with my firends 2002 civic

damn man you guys got some $$$$

thats what it takes, and thats what i dont have.

word to that.

well defmusik we are starting to see eye to eye after all.

i found out that if id replace the d-series engine my
car currently has with the k20c engine, id have to
flip everything around...work, i know would add to
the cost of the engine itself. My goals is to be at
about 200hp or close to it and i know by spending the money on a turbo/supercharger, a few bolt-on
items and some technical adjustments hear and there i can achieve that and not mess with the engine itself. Your thoughts please...?

well, my opinion, is if you get the K20C, you'll have nothing to worry about years and years down the road, because it's practically a new engine. not only that, but with a few extra bolt ons like you said you would do with your D series, you could achieve well over 200hp, seeing that the stock output of the K20C is already 200 horse. I don't know if the RSX is lighter or heaver than the Civic, but I think your car would haul ass with a stock RSX Type S under the hood. If you got the money, and a well trained mechanic to do the work, I'd say go with the swap, but if you're more like me and don't have all that much money, just go with turbo, get a less restrictive exhaust, and maybe do a little engine work later on to keep the engine running under high pressure.

dude!! im screwd, i've been reading and it so happens that no one at this time makes
either a turbo or supercharger for my year car.:;(
I'm deppresed now!

http://www.turbo-kits.com/civic_turbo_kits.html

You're gunna wanna look for 01+ or 01 and up kits, thats all..

defmusik! your a genious. where u from?

hey.. even the shop i get my stuff from does custom fabrication turbos for any car make and model... but if you want a kit thats already made go here http://www.maxrev.com/

im from massachusetts

of they make it for the 01 civics it will fit anything up to 04..perhaps the 05 if they stick witht the same model

are the 05 civics gunna have a new design? its about time they did isnt it?

I agree on the new design. I would like to see what they come up with next. A company makes turbos for the 7th gen civics. Their site is www.staffordfabrication.com That is the most bought part on 7thgencivic.com I have not heard anything bad about it.

Dodger if you swap for the 2.0 RSX engine you're going to need some stiffer suspension in the front. I only swapped from a d16 to a dohc b16 and already the inside of my front tires are going bald because of the added weight. Just an fyi.

well, ricochet....like i mentioned before, i dont like
the idea of flipping everything around, just too much
hassle and added cost. thats why im going to look into turbo charging the engine. Here's another
question though, i just changed the oil on my car
and whent with CASTROL 10w30, but the guy at
the counter where i bought it said i should stick
with the manufacturer suggested weight, wich is
like 5w..something(cant recall) anyways...your thoughts on the affects of a diffrent oil weight.
I've never put anything other than 10w30 oil on any
of my cars under 100,000 miles. (my '03 civic has
13,000 by the way.) thanx once again.

all of you are morons cept for defmusik. you wanna boost a stock 1.7L? thats the stupidest thing ive ever heard. your boost is only as good as your internals. 8psi at 140 hp is nothing, so why dont all of you just shut up and build your engine instead of taking the "noob" way out and just boosting it...

Where were you 3 months ago when this thread was active and taking place?????

this thread is so old... and here i am still posting in it.. haha as for boosting.. in response to 91LSspecial... its cheaper to boost than to rebuild the engine... why not boost the stock motor han rebuild the internals later piece by piece so that way it can handle more boost