Looking for books on swaps / engine modding

[tainted_demon]

Sorry if I may be posting in the wrong area, but this section had the most posts and reads so I know it'll get the most reads and replies.


I'm looking to buy a Honda Civic sometime soon and I'd like to be informed on various things.

I'd like to get 2 books that cover:
Building an engine, (perferrably on the b series engines) including cams, pistons, crankshaft, timing ect ect.

Also guides on how to swap engines. I'd possibly be looking at putting a b18c1 (or b18xx for that matter) into a civic dx hb.

I'd probably be buying from www.amazon.com so if the books are on there, or if its a very good book that I can get from another site I will.

Thanks,
Colin

[CRXperiment]

Go to Pep Boys and Autozone and they have Honda engine swap books on hand, I think i saw one called "The ultimate Honda engine swap guide" or something like that. They also carry Haynes manuals which can be handy.

[tainted_demon]

Thanks, I'll look into that, but I'm in canada so we don't have autozone and pep boys :S.

I found this book online. A couple other forums were reccomending it so I decided to pick it up.

Anyone have experience with this book? +/-'s?

[CivicSpoon]

Your best bet is to just buy a manual for the car and for the engine you want (Integra one for the B18c1). And for the swap info, why pay for it when you can find all the step by step info online for free. Do a search around online, find something very detailed and print it out. Chances are that any info online will be more in depth than any book will, especially since most books out there are filled with out-dated info.

[Tony]

Yea, I'm with him. Most of your swaps for these cars have several in depth walk throughs online that are available for free, telling you want all you need and usually how to go about doing the swap.

And nothing can beat a factory service manual, which if you look in the right place, you can find those online as well for free. Haynes and Chilton books are about the same, and don't go into great detail about things, and can leave you scratching you head about somethings. Helms is the factory service manual and goes alot more indepth on things, but also cost quite a bit more if you go buy a hard copy. As far as pulling the motors, most motors have the same basic things you have to do in order to pull them. Ofcourse one of the first things you want to check is the wire harness, luckily on most Hondas they thought ahead and give you a plug for the engine harness so you can just unplug it at a couple places on the inner fender wells and not worry about the wires on the motor other than your ground wires(usually 1 on the engine and 1 on the transmission). Then you have to disconnect your throttle cable, A/C lines, Power steering lines, radiator hoses and heater core hoses. Pull your axles, and while your under there, go ahead and pull your front and rear motor/tranny mounts. Motor might move a little at this point, but just as long as you left the top mounts(usually just one on the motor and one on the transmission.....always check and make sure they are there and still connected before you do the front and rear mounts)its not gonna go anywhere. I believe thats everything, just walk around and look between your motor/tranny and the engine bay, try and check if anything is still connected. Hook up your engine hoist, get some pressure off your top mounts and remove them. If you don't have access to a car lift, or can't get the front end high enough to clear a motor, you will have to do some wiggling to get it out of the top sometimes. Most motors nowadays are getting so they are designed to come out the bottom rather than the top, which really sucks for the do-it-in-your-driveway type of guys.

I pull motors at a salvage yard now, and that the basic things I run through. Hondas are pretty easy and can usually come out the top with a little persuasion sometimes. Every so often there are ones that throw you for a loop, but most I just go through those guidelines and Ive got the motor and tranny out in no time.