Since the NSX’s engine is mounted in the rear, and the radiator’s mounted up front—for obvious reasons—Honda implemented a series of aluminum tubes to transfer coolant back and forth. Somewhere beneath the shifter assembly, inside a tight galley that runs underneath the chassis, some rubber hoses connect the aluminum pipes together. The rubber allows for flex but lasts nowhere near as long as aluminum. There’s one hose in particular that’s especially tricky to get to. Take my car for example. Each of the 25 or so cooling hoses appear to have been replaced at one point…except for this one. I guess whoever changed the other hoses figured this one was too difficult to get to. Check out the bulge. I think I got to this one just in time.
The first time I tried swapping a DOHC VTEC engine into an ’88-’91 Civic chassis was sometime shortly after the del Sol was released. The car was a base-model, ’89 Civic hatchback, and we’d planned on swapping a ZC into place, maybe even a B18A if we could find one but those weren’t all that abundant in 1994. I visited a couple of local engine yards but what I found at a wrecking yard in nearby Fontana changed everything. Perched up high on a rack was a nearly new and smashed-up Honda del Sol VTEC, complete with its B16A engine, ECU, and hydro transmission. We bought it all. Never mind the fact that the transmission wouldn’t work in the hatchback (nobody really knew that at the time) or the fact that the ECU wouldn’t plug in (nobody knew that either), we had ourselves a real-deal twin-cam VTEC engine, and we were going to make it fit.
Shortly after unloading it in the garage we realized that the engine would bolt in similarly to the B18A swap we’d just finished—our first one ever. But the transmission wasn’t happening. Although it’s obvious now, we failed to consider the fact that the del Sol transmission uses a hydraulic-operated clutch fork while the Civic’s uses a cable-operated one. Of course, the mounts are entirely different from one another too. We got lucky and found a repair shop that was “nice enough” to trade us straight across for the cable gearbox that we needed. Keep in mind though that in 1994, hydro gearboxes were a bit more valuable than the cable ones, but nowhere near as expensive as they are now since there wasn’t a demand for them yet. From there, the engine and transmission went in as you’d expect: we welded on a DA Integra chassis bracket to the transmission-side frame rail and used ’90-’93 Integra mounts and brackets to bolt it all into place. This was the swap that we started making front mounts for, which consisted of a DA front mount and two metal tabs welded to the front crossmember. It was crude, but it worked. Remember, early mount manufacturers like HCP, Place Racing, and Hasport were still a few years away from making anything, let alone even being in business, so if you didn’t have access to a MIG welder and some metal cutting tools, you weren’t doing a swap like this.
But the wiring is were we really got confused. The B18A/Civic Si swap we’d just completed was simple, but the del Sol/Civic swap we were looking at now was anything but. Today, you’d find yourself an OBD-0-to-OBD-1 adapter harness, reuse your old engine harness, wire VTEC, and call it a day, but we were under the impression that we had to use the del Sol ECU and engine wiring harness, no exceptions. And I don’t need to tell you that adapter harnesses were still several years away. As such, we went back to the wrecking yard to purchase the del Sol’s complete under-dash wiring harness and then proceeded to graft it into the Civic. The end result—after several weeks of wiring—was quite possibly the first OBD-1-converted ’88-’91 Civic ever.
Shortly after, we realized what fools we were for swapping the entire under-dash harness into place and began cutting and splicing in permanent OBD-0-to-OBD-1 ECU conversions for customers. Of course, this allowed them to keep their existing wiring harnesses but use the newer ECU. Who knew?
In a way, I’m glad adapter harnesses like these didn’t exist in the early days. There are few better ways to learn than by trial and error.
Filed under: New stuff, Shows and events | Tags: carbon wheels, Tokyo Auto Salon, WedsSport
I’ll admit, when I saw WedsSports’ dry carbon-fiber wheel at the Tokyo Auto Salon earlier this year I was impressed with its quality and construction. You can pretty much manufacture anything in carbon-fiber nowadays and somebody will buy it. But I’m not sure how practical such a wheel is. Despite how well-manufactured the Weds wheel looks, and despite how expensive they’re supposed to retail for—about $10K-plus for a set—carbon fiber is not meant to experience loads or compressive forces that regular steel, aluminum, or magnesium wheels do. Imagine hitting a pothole with these things. Despite that, I expect we’ll be seeing these on a few show cars in the near future. Oh, and they weight about six pounds each, and that’s for some of the larger, non-Honda sizes.
So the April issue of Honda Tuning is out now and, I’ve got to say, the cover is a little bit different than what we’ve been doing as of late. I’ve been wanting to get some track cars on the pages for some time, and this whole deal with the MFactory guys sort of fell into place at the right time. And since we decided to put a SFWD drag car front and center, it only made sense for us to profile another big name in drag racing, Mike Laskey. We also decided to run more features this month than usual, a trend that will likely continue throughout 2009. Beside’s MFactory’s 950hp Civic, there’s Mugen’s NSX-RR and carbon-fiber FD2-RR, an NA2 NSX, a K-swapped DC2 from the East Coast, a B-powered (for a change) EJ6 hatchback also from the East Coast, an EH2 hatch on Takata-green TE37s from San Francisco, and a real-deal Accord Euro R hailing from Ireland. If you still think Honda Tuning only features ’92-’95 Civic hatchbacks from Southern California, well, you’re crazy. Also inside is coverage from our trip to the annual Tokyo Auto Salon and a thorough write-up on V-6 engine swaps.
If you follow the engine removal procedure outlined in the 1991 Acura NSX service manual, you risk breaking the car’s delicate yet expensive aluminum suspension components. And we aren’t talking about sloppy, inexperienced home mechanics who have no business changing their own oil let alone swapping an engine—this was a problem that seasoned Honda- and Acura-authorized technicians experienced. As a result, the service manual was revised, instructing technicians to remove the entire subframe, suspension, and braking systems as a single unit, along with the drivetrain, just to eliminate the need to un-pop the suspension’s ball joints. Under no circumstances should any of the NSX’s ball joints be popped apart (unless you actually need to replace one), like you’d naturally assume to do when pulling most any other Honda engine from its chassis. All of this made me having to change my NSX’s two rear, upper control arm ball joint covers all the more sketchy. The trick is to use the uber-expensive NSX-specific ball joint removal tool and to center it perfectly over the joint. If you don’t, and pressure isn’t applied evenly, very expensive aluminum pieces will crack. How expensive? Well, an NSX’s rear upper control arm retails for just over $1100, it’s knuckle about half that, and there is not an OEM-replacement ball joint offered by Honda since it’s sold as part of the arm assembly. Needless to say, one false move and it’s all over. With the suspension off the car, I could normally change two ball joints in no more than five or ten minutes. The NSX’s took me about an hour…to do two, and that goes without mentioning the beads of sweat that dripped down my face and the trembling hands as I contemplated the likelihood of a several-thousand-dollar mistake.
