1991 Civic Engine swap, Twin Carb to Twin Cam

1991 Civic Engine swap, Twin Carb to Twin Cam

Ziggy~2026

Foreword;

This document has grown substantially from a little civic writeup, to the largest writing piece I've finished since year 12 English, which I only ever got a B- in.  There are just over 13,000 words here, I hope some of them interest, assist or entertain you. What a document to bring back my professional writing career with, getting published on none other than the famous CORNERSTORIES.COM. Do Henry a favour and go check out some of his Stories here. Thanks for giving me a platform to spit my shit on.  

I would not consider this a guide or how to. I am not legally responsible for any damages to your car if you choose to play along at home. I'm just trying to add a little more information from my personal experiences into the ring of ED-civ B-swaps, since doing any amount of research lands you on 20+ year old forum posts with Photobucket links that don't work. Do what you please with this writeup.  Steal some ideas and claim they're yours. Print a copy and sneak it into The Great Library of Alexandria. Hell use it as toilet paper if you think my ideas are really shit.  

Now Blogger, which is the website you're currently on, tends to have a mind of its own and is a pain in the arse to use. Repeat issues related to struggling with image alignment and paragraph positioning would drain my evenings quickly. For example, I've had instances where after inserting an image, the paragraphs below would downsize the text size several times, then centre align itself and refuse to revert.  I would attempt to organise it only for the whole section above to change font(?!?!?).

That being said, I'd like to get back to building cars and not websites. This document has been in draft form for a over year and it'll be weight off my shoulders knowing it's done, and hopefully, of some benefit to any of you readers.  

Introduction
Why do I own this car

The Plan and the why?
Why B18 with no VTEC?

Parts List
List of every part used in the swap. Honda Lego stuff.

EFI Conversion
Fuel tank, pump, filter, canister and lines. I wouldn't recommend what I did here.

Hydraulic Clutch Conversion and Pedal Setup
Installing ED/EF Conversion Kit and pedal assembly rambling.

Loom, Ecu and other wiring
EFI Swap harness, B-swap loom, Alternator and 80Amp Main Relay.

Engine Mounts and Installing the Engine
It fits.  It's a tight squeeze but it fits.

Rear Disc Brake Conversion and front brake upgrade

Integra front and rear, Brake Booster, Master and Prop Valve.

AC
Never had it.

Gearbox Shafts and Speed Sensor
Honda Lego is real.

Custom Power Steering Setup
Mix of prelude and custom mounts. Why isn't there already a kit for this?

Shifter Linkages
You ain't shifting like me

Alternator Pulley
Put down the hammer, here's a quick mod to avoid bashing the strut tower in

Front Subframe/Traction bar
Get the hammer anyway.

Accelerator Cable
Honda Lego is a lie.

Radiator and Hoses
Various Engine bay hoses. Radiator and vacuum things.

Exhaust
This contents list is exhausting.

Intake and Airbox
This section is about the Intake and Airbox.

Trials and Tribulations
Featuring; fuel pissing out, a mysterious clunk and terrible rear toe.

Price List
I could not be bothered writing this out but it's about $6000.  

Extra Goods

Steering wheel spacer, cassette deck Bluetooth mod. 

Proof of concept

This is the ending. 

Introduction

I first saw the car on the side of a road in late 2024 whilst meandering though some suburbs, Henry at the wheel with no intended direction in mind. The next morning I returned and knocked on a few doors, the 3rd being the owner. 

 

He received the car from his aunt, who was a big fan of Hondas. The car had a hit on the front and she didn't want to let go of the car completely, so she gave it to him. However he never got around to fixing it, and was happy to let me make an offer. 30 minutes and 800 dollars later I found myself driving it home, cv joint clicking like Predator at each turn.

The ED6 was in great original condition, interior all intact with woolly seat covers.

 

The 15 minute drive home left my back awfully damp thanks to the covers despite it only being 25 degrees, but Mum wouldn't let me throw out "real wool", so the covers now reside in a bag in the basement, which I look forward to busting out for the winter. Also found a goldie under the seat bringing the total to only $799. The seats have no tears or stains. My only gripe being the original head unit didn't function, cassette or radio. The only paperwork I got with the car was for a new exhaust replacement fitted in 2018.  

The exterior could be in better nick, as before mentioned - ding on the front right, faded red panels and some rust crawling up the passenger side A pillar. Being a 91 facelift model, it did come with the better looking red Civic centre garnish on the rear. I remember coming home on the 1st of Jan, a bit dusty after the new years celebration, but eager to start fixing up this nugget. Armed with a racket strap and the veranda posts, I took apart the front panels and straighten the bent headlight surround to the best of my abilities. The fender had been bent and pinched in a way that I didn't think could be made straight again, so using a hammer I tried to at least tap it into a more presentable state. 

 

I should also mention the incredible amount of our 8 legged friends, dubbed "spidey cunts" increasing in both volume and size, littered behind every panel or hubcap the deeper I dug in. This issue still persists, I may bug bomb the car. I soon bought new driveshafts, completed my first axle job on a car, and was able to take it out for a spin. A month later behind the wheel I lost my license for a year. 

 

Time for a B swap.

The Plan and why

Why a non-VTEC B18b? Because it was there. A friend was K-swapping their DC4 Integra, so the engine and gearbox I scored for cheap. VTEC B18s go for like 4-5 grand in good condition, so at least if I started craving some VTEC, the car would already be setup for B18 and I'd just have to source a VTEC motor to drop in. The motor I used has over 300,000kms, but is pretty healthy and the compression stats back this. It had a timing belt done in the last 2000kms, and before dropping the motor in, we also checked the timing and valve clearances. I did need to get a starter motor and new throttle position sensor for it, and I didn't need the AC compressor or Power Steering Pump it came with.

A lot of the gear from this swap was sourced from my friends spare DC4 parts stash and from the self service wreckers available in SA, called Upullit. It was extremely handy being able to go in and measure parts on cars to see what I could make work. Around the time I bought the car, one Upullit had just stocked a DA9 Integra, and already having done some light research on what parts I would need to do the swap, I went to get some bits. I was able to get the rear T bracket, and post mount for the timing side of the engine. Then a few months later another came up, where I scored front brakes from.  

I was determined to make the B18 look stock in the engine bay, and leave the car completely original looking from the outside - down to the OEM wheels and hubcaps. As great as this car would be with some coilovers, wider wheels with stickier tires and a big wing, these might attract unwanted attention from police, who would most likely defect the car if they started poking around the engine bay and noticed the larger capacity engine. My intended purpose is just a cool practical buzz box that would be fit enough for daily use, and keep me out of trouble. (Albeit it's not great at that last part but that could be due to operator error).

Parts List

B18b from 1996 DC4 Integra
S40 Gearbox and Axles from 1996 Integra
DC4 Shifter Linkages
NRT Automotive B-swap Loom + EFI conversion harness
DC4 OBD2 B18B Ecu + OBD1 Loom to OBD2 Ecu adaptor from Elusive racing 
ED/EF Conversion Hydro Clutch Kit + S2000 Master Cylinder
ED Auto pedal assembly
Hasport EFB Engine Mounts
DA9 Post engine mount (Pulley side)
New RockAuto fuel tank
DA9 Tank Hanger and fuel pump
DC4 Fuel filter
DC4 Charcoal cannister

ED stock starter the battery harness
Rear T Bracket from an Auto DA9
Stock B18b intake with inverted throttle cable bracket
EK auto throttle cable
EK Master Cylinder and booster
DC4 40/40 prop valve from 1995 DC4
BA4 Rear brake lines
DC4 Rear trailing arms, hubs and brakes
DA9 Handbrake cables

DA9 Front Knuckles/hubs and callipers.
DC4 Stock exhaust manifold, stock ED exhaust
DA9 Speedo cable
ED stock power steering pump with BA4 PS pump pulley
BA4 PS top bracket
Custom PS lower bracket using bits off a 4AFE corolla alternator bracket
Stock ED power steering high pressure line
EK lower power steering line from reservoir to rack
B18 alternator with ED pulley machined to fit
Stock ED radiator
DA9 top radiator hose
ED bottom radiator hose

EF8 Airbox

EFI Conversion

I got the fuel tank from the DA9 at Upullit, including the fuel sender, hanger and pump assembly, and all the hoses and lines to connect it to the body. I also grabbed the pump wiring, cut it from inside the chassis, around about under the back seat.  No need for the sender or wiring, I could use my ED6 gear.

I later found out that the DA9 tanks are not a bolt in for the ED hatches. The filler points are different, for the ED it's in front of the wheel and the DA behind it. The DA tank, from what I've read, can work in an ED sedan, just the top of the tank has to be dented in a couple centimetres to fit. If I was desperate, the sedan tanks could be made to work for a hatch, by extending the filler necks, but I read that doing so can lead to issues filling up, with the fuel nozzle constantly clicking off.  I've also seen people cut a pump into the carby tank. I'd consider that a ghetto option.

Left: DA9 Tank.  Right: Original ED6 Carby Tank, brand new CRX EFI tank

So I returned the DA9 tank but kept the hanger assembly with the pump. I purchased a brand new fuel tank from Rockauto.com, costing about $450 delivered.  It arrived with one of the side clips that hooks onto the chassis slightly bent, so I just straightened it with some pliers and gave it a once over with some black paint to stop rust. I bolted in the DA9 hanger and switched the sender out of my carby tank to the new one. I used the original ED6 breather system on the new tank too.

What I used for the feed line was the original EK feed line off the tank, I just put it in a vice and hack-sawed the high pressure fitting off, then used a hose clamp on the end. It was already flared from factory too, so I could just shove a new fuel rated hose on and clamp it down.

For the fuel lines, the ED6 chassis has 3, a large, medium and small. There's no need to run any extra lines or run upgraded lines, the stock ones are adequate for EFI conversions. 

Left photo is a little confusing because the breather looks massive, but it's just close to the camera.

I used the biggest one for the fuel feed, from pump, through a filter and to the rail, the medium sized one as a return line from the end of the rail back to the tank and the smallest one as a breather, venting through the charcoal filter. Some setups I've heard of use commodore inline fuel filters just after the tank and before the bodylines, I think that would be the easiest way to do it and would keep the bay a bit neater.

So the biggest hard-line, feed, goes through a hose to a simple custom made hard-line fitting, which was flared at both ends and had one tube nut fitting, which would allow it to bolt into a stock DC4 fuel filter.  I made a custom bracket out of two Honda fuel filter brackets (I think EK and DC) to hold the filter in place, then I could use a stud sticking out of the middle of the firewall to mount the filter.  

Then the stock DC4 fuel rail line with the banjo bolt fitting can wrap around to the end of the filter. Seemed like a good idea before I put the engine in, but it got tight against the manifold. One of the first issues I had before starting the engine, was the filter lines squirting out of the ends, and to fix it I had to take the lines off and plumbers tape them, tighten them down harder, all made difficult by the limited access.

I used the charcoal cannister out of a DC4, as it is smaller than the ED factory one and has less points for hoses to connect, making for a neater look. I'm not 100% sure the cannister is needed, what was explained to me is that the fuel tank needs to vent, and it's not ideal for a fuel smell to fume out under the rear of the car with a breather close to the tank.  If it got in my way while working in the engine bay, it's easy enough to rip out and put back in, and saved me having a hard-line poking out the firewall not doing anything or needing to be deleted.

The fuel return line runs off the rail and back into the chassis return hard-line, just behind the clutch master cylinder in that photo. The breather chassis line connects down to the charcoal canister via that red hose.

The two fuel pump wires got brought into the backseat. I would later poke them through the same grommet as the sender wire. I used less than a metre total of fuel rated hose for the whole setup.

Hydraulic Clutch Conversion and Pedal Setup

These cars come factory with a clutch cable. Nothing wrong with the cable setup itself, but it won't work with the new transmission I installed with the B18 as the S40 trans uses a hydraulic clutch system. There are also cable activated clutches in some B18 boxes, I think they came in DA9s. There are two kits available, allowing Hydraulic boxes to work in an ED chassis that make this swap easy.  One kit contains a bracket with a lever that bolts onto the trans where the slave would be, this retains the clutch cable which pulls the lever into the clutch fork. The other ditches the cable entirely.  

EF'ED Conversions is a Queensland based company. They sell a kit which allows a S2000 Master Cylinder (sold separately) to be bolted onto the ED firewall, along with a custom clutch pedal assembly and clutch lines. I spoke to Mark Lamb who was very helpful with getting me a complete kit and S2k master.

 

This is not a paid ad. I am just a fan of this kit.

But first, the existing pedal assembly has to be removed from the car. God this was a pain. Honda makes all three pedals contained in one assembly, and they tuck one 12mm bolt really up high in the dash, above the steering column and behind 2 air ducts. The steering column must also be unbolted and lowered to remove the assembly. This whole swap would be significantly easier with the dash out, but I must like making things harder for myself as I didn't even take the seats out. My back still hurts.

The installation of the ED'EF pedal requires the manual pedal to be cut off the assembly. But before destroying a perfectly good manual pedal assembly, hear me out. Engine swaps aren't for everyone, some people would just rather convert their auto ED to a manual setup, and they'll need a third pedal for it, which are often hard to find.  What I did and what I'd recommend to do, is source an auto pedal assembly. I asked in a Facebook group and got one sent out to me from Melbourne, for just the price of shipping (Thanks Darcy!).  

This saved me of the hassle of trying to neatly cut off the manual pedal (and I could potentially sell that set for $150). I did however have to trim down the wider auto brake pedal, till the rubber fit over.

This also would mean a different accelerator cable is needed, which gets covered in a later segment below.  

Installing the ED'EF Clutch pedal is made easy, with the guide emailed out with every order. I don't want to reword everything in the guide here, but I'll narrate some photos. Working in the engine bay was easy with no fuel, coolant lines, or brake booster in my way.

Drilled the holes and loose fit the CM. Could I have used the correct type of hole saw and saved a shit ton of time and ended up with a much neater hole? Yes. Did I go at it for 15 minutes using a saw designed for wood? Also yes.

Had to trim a little bit off the Heater box support off, marked with green line, to clear the pedal once bolted in. I used a hacksaw blade and it also took me ages. I also forgot to install the old clutch cable hole cover, which comes with the kit.  Had to take off the angled bracket in photo two to get that in.  

Completed pedal assembly back in. Photo two shows what I think is a clutch pedal safety switch, left over from the old pedal set. That just got zip tied up and out of the way, and I haven't had any starting issues from it.

The clutch line comes with the kit and has a banjo fitting on the master cylinder end. This gives it some extra clearance from the fuel lines right next to it. I do not know why the slave end of the line has so many threads on the fitting? I left it as pictured and it has not leaked. Just a bit strange. Maybe a standard manufactured part.  

Loom, ECU and other wiring

I should start off here by saying that wiring frightened me. I had blind confidence in every other part of the swap, where I had faith in my ability to "dodgy something up". This fear nearly doubled when I first unravelled swap loom, which to an unexperienced novice such as myself appeared to be nothing short of a wire spaghetti abyss, with Relays in place of meatballs. Would it all end up as another listing on marketplace for $2000 and a description along the lines of '90% finished engine swap' and 'just needs a few wires connected'?

One of my main gripes with the swap was the lack of information on the carb ED6 Aussie civics online. It seemed most information and swap kits were geared towards American spec civics, which were all EFI. So not willing to risk running a cheaply made Ebay B-swap loom, I was drawn towards NRT, a company based in Queensland, and very happy I did because of the mistake I made when ordering the loom. I'll go into detail on that in a bit, more on the NRT kit now.

The B swap loom comes with a chassis adaptor, chosen on checkout. This was also the only website I found that actually lists 'ED (Carburettor)' as an available option, meaning it suits the Aussie cars. It also came with instructions, a few pages explaining what every wire and plug needs to connect to.

The NRT chassis adaptor for ED (carb).  

To start, the top plugs need to make their way to the big plugs near the main fuse box on the drivers side strut tower. Wanting to keep the bay neat, I cut the conduit back as far as I could, separated and looped the wires with the two plugs I needed, back on themselves, and routed them back through the grommet into the firewall.  From there I connected the plugs to the swap loom. The small plug towards the back of the tower got brought through and connected.  

I was then left with a loop of wires I put conduit around and taped up. My friends affectionately refer to this as 'the chode'. It doesn't bother me, with the rest of the wires brought through and the brake prop, booster and master in, its hard to see 'the chode'. I also taped up the two white wires running to the fuse box.  I may have got a bit tape friendly.

This photo is inside the dash, but next to the accelerator pedal. This is where those two engine bay plugs were brought through and can sit out of the way of the pedal.

Now the three wires, were labelled at the base, Main Relay, Fuel Pump Bat and Fuel Pump Load. The manual claimed all three wires are red, but my Fuel Pump Load was Blue. The Main Relay and Fuel Pump Bat, both red wires in my instance, got ran into the engine bay through the drivers side grommet.  

Once in the bay, I ran the two wires through an existing conduit, and brought them out behind the drivers headlight. Bottom left photo I've traced in green the conduit my wires run through. In the manual it calls for the Main Relay wire to have a 25A fuse inline if connected to the battery directly. And since I was connecting them to the battery, I needed somewhere accessible in the circuit for the fuses, in case they needed to be changed. I couldn't find a suitable holder in Jaycar but I found a double fuse holder on BambuLabs community made models page, and printed it out of PTEG.  It's able to hold the waterproof inline fuse holders I was using.  

I then tucked and bolted the holder behind the drives side headlight, and looped back the wires into the same conduit. This conduit also runs to the positive terminal on the battery, so the two wires were brought out there. They got Ring crimps put on and I could fit them onto the same bolt holding the terminal tight. This would still allow the rubber boot to cover the terminal and hide the wires.

These two red wires could run directly to the engine bay fuse box, but I thought I could tuck them away better by keeping them in the conduit and running them to the battery terminal.  

The blue wire that ran to the fuel pump was easy. 

I decided to run another fuse on this line to be safe. Maybe a bit overkill. I brought the fuel pump wires into the back seat through the same grommet that the sender goes through. I grounded the black wire of the pump to the metal cover of the fill neck on the floor, and the yellow pump wire through a 15a fuse, then soldered to the blue wire.

Before I received the engine and ECU from my friend, I was told it was OBD1. At the time I was trying to organise and gather all my resources for the swap before commencing, so I went ahead and ordered the NRT loom to suit OBD1. Lo and behold, the loom arrives and isn't compatible with any engine bay plugs. Crap.

OBD1 Loom plugs vs OBD2 Engine plugs.  Top Left: Distributor.  Right: Alternator. Bottom: Injectors.

So I had a an OBD 2 Engine and ECU, but a swap loom to suit OBD 1.  I was left with a few options;
-Buy OBD conversion harnesses for the ECU and all the engine accessories.  Because 90s Hondas have a huge aftermarket support scene, its common to see accessories mixed and adapted to work on different OBDs. Jumper harnesses are readily available, and I would be able to source harnesses for the ECU, dizzy, alt and injectors.  

-Source all OBD 1 engine accessories and ECU. This would be expensive. OBD 1 is preferred over OBD 2 for tunability and emissions reasons. This engine isn't getting tuned anytime soon so OBD 2 would be adequate for my needs.

-Contact NRT and ask if I could trade in my loom for a complete OBD 2 loom. Which is what I did. 

I shot Henry from NRT a message explaining my situation half expecting to be told to buy another loom. Thankfully however, he would let me post the loom back to him and get the engine bay plugs changed over to OBD 2. Henry also advised I get a, OBD 1 to OBD 2 jumper harness for the ECU, as it would be more cost effective than him having to change the loom side of it over. Elusive Racing sold this harness for $125.  

A few weeks later I received the loom back, this time all the engine accessories fit.  Hell yeah, thanks Henry.  

I checked all the loom plugs before routing it through the firewall. These looms are designed to be tucked and not leave heaps of extra cable around the engine bay, so this was also a good way for me to see how I'd need to route the wires around the engine.

The loom comes with yellow labels with abbreviated names for the connectors.  Ground points are GND, VSS for vehicle speed sensor and REV is the reverse switch for the gearbox, etc. Some connectors I was unable to use, there was one for the VTEC solenoid that my engine didn't have, I also didn't have anywhere for the KS plug to go, due to the B18b not having a Knock Sensor from factory (VTEC B18s do). The unused plugs just got tucked out of the way. Maybe one day I'll drop a VTEC motor in.  

I fed the ECU side of the loom through the grommet under the brake booster. It was a tight squeeze but going slow to not damage anything I got all the plugs through one at a time.  

The engine loom is in the braided sheathing. Note the two red wires for the FP and mains run next to it.  

Routing through the pedal area is hard. I couldn't find a good spot for the plugs to run over the steering column as the top of the brake and clutch pedal were in the way.  I definitely think that taking the whole dash out to install the Hydro Clutch Pedal and run the loom would the best way to do this. I needed this bit of wiring to be as direct as possible, as I didn't have enough length in the engine bay to reach some of the plugs, more on that in a bit. I ended up tucking and passing them through some existing wiring conduit with some zip ties here and there.

This isn't ideal. If I misplace a foot I could potentially rip the whole thing down. But I'm 6'3, and to be honest, the ergonomics of the 4th generation civic are that unaccommodating to the vertically challenged, due to the inhumane positioning of the steering wheel, that even in a barely tolerable driving position I can only just use the pedals with the tips of my feet. I should be fine.  

The B series ECU fit in the stock ED location with minimal modification to the footplate cover. It's like twice the size of the ED computer but fits. I was chatting to someone when first removing the ECU cover and managed to snap one of the studs that holds the cover. In this photo I had the plug side on the left, this was switched to the right side to get everything to fit better. I did have to cut off the top right corner of the plate for the harness to fit through. I sliced and glued on a bit of rubber hose to shield the wires from the sharp metal edge.

The ECU cover was previously rusty, so I did wire wheel it back and spray it black.  This photo was taken after the car had been driven daily through winter, where I discovered it unfortunately had a leak in the passenger footwell. The carpet would be soaked but it never gave me any issues. I would stuff a towel down there to try and keep the ECU dry. 

I bolted the relays for the EFI loom onto a vacant stud behind the glovebox. The stock ED plugs all get tucked away and discarded. The blue plug on the harness is a junction point, I had to ask Henry what it did as I was unsure. It just connects a lot of the grounds and powers together.

Pictured above is Kevin, much more skilled at soldering than me, extending some engine bay wires. Those are my legs, as I wrestled with the drivers side driveshaft.

When I dummy fit the engine without the clutch or flywheel in, I realised I would have to extend some of the wires on the loom. This could be due to how I routed the loom, either not very efficiently through the pedals section or which firewall hole I chose to have it enter the bay in. The extensions would have had to be longer if I didn't need the OBD adaptor harness either. As my car didn't have AC, I could have ran the loom through the firewall grommet that covers where AC lines would've routed through. But I did not.

 

The MAP, O2 and TPS plugs reached the throttle body and exhaust with no issues.

Most plugs worked fine but the section of the loom at the passenger side bay plugs needed extensions, the longest being 100mm on the alternator plug, if I recall correctly. Injector plugs 1, 2, IAT, and OIL all had to be extended by 50mm at most, to reach. I think the injector plugs would reach if I ran the loom over the inlet manifold, but I was trying to keep the wiring neat and tucked, so I got them extended enough where they could reach around from under the manifold and just clip into the injectors.

We covered extensions with car builders loom and tape, which has a similar appearance to the sheathing the swap loom came with. I didn't cut any of the yellow labels off the wires in case I needed them in the future, so I pushed them down the wire and put some black tape over them.

Electricity isn't infinite unfortunately, so the Alternator needed a direct wire to the battery. For testing purposes, we used subwoofer wiring, which was the thickest gauge wire we had on hand. This 3 metre cable ran from the Alt to the battery, and once connected, the battery would read 14v, indicating it was working. The ugly red cable was later replaced with proper red thick gauged wire, with heavy duty crimps at each end.  

The wire ran under the inlet manifold and around under the prop valve, then up into the engine bay fuse panel. I ran the wire onto the right side of the two positive connects, just under the main fuse. Speaking of, I changed out the factory battery fuse and swapped to an 80Amp fuse that I think I got from a Jazz at upullit. The reason for this upgrade is that the factory ED uses a 60Amp, but when swapping to the B series, the alternator would have a higher output and may blow the 60Amp.  The DC4s use an 80Amp with this engine, so I deemed it necessary for my car.  

I grounded the engine and trans with two wires, one linked from the battery to chassis rail underneath the battery tray, then onto the trans casing. The other smaller one was off the side of the passenger side strut tower, to the back of the rocker cover.

The swap loom comes with an engine ground too, I ran this onto a vacant hole on top of where the coolant temp sensor sits.  

Something I didn't get with the engine was the starter motor. I was able to get a new one for $300ish. With this new starter, the motor will literally start on the first crank.  I also didn't get the starter harness loom bit, so I reused the one off the ED. This has the positive terminal on it, and one end bolts to the starter, the other to the engine bay fuse box, next to where I ran the alternator charge wire. 

In the end I just had to run 3 wires for the NRT loom, being the fuel pump and the two relay wires, and the car fired up.The loom allows the use of an electric speed sender too, and also the use of a check engine light circuit. I chose to make it as simple as possible for myself and ignored these two operations.  

Engine Mounts, T bracket and Installing the Engine

I got Hasport EFB2 mount kit, specifically for B series with a hydro clutch gearbox.  Hasport give the option of Urethane to have in the mounts, options ranging from Street to Most Extreme Race. I wanted to turn my civic into a little buzzbox, but I chose the softest Urethane offered, being Street. I'm glad I did. it's stiff as hell, I can't imagine how serious a track car would have to be to warrant choosing any stiffer. They came made out of shiny billet. But I wanted them to blend into the engine bay better, so I painted them black.

For B18 into ED chassis, I had to swap the timing side mount that bolts onto the engine, called post mount, because my B18 came from a DC4 Integra. There are companies that make billet ones, but I got one off a DA9 and that worked fine. I believe all B18 into ED engine mount kits available require the DA9 post mount. My B18 came with a two stud mount, but the DA9 ones are one stud and one bolt, see photos below. To switch them I had to take the timing covers off and undo 3 bolts holding it on.

Left: DA9 one stud mount.       Right: DC4 two stud mount

I had doubts that the T bracket I got from the auto DA9 might not work with my swap. I read somewhere online that the brackets differed between auto and manual. So before fitting the engine I tested the bracket onto the rear engine mount, and I couldn't fit the bracket over it. I had to widen the bracket by about 2mm. I achieved this by squeezing it over a jack and slowly prying the bracket wider. I took the bracket out and checked it on the mount every pump, until it fit snug.

If it looks stupid, but it works, it's not stupid.

I had some trouble finding the right bolts for the T bracket to. I had either lost the right ones or it never came with them. I did a test fit of the engine and gearbox into the bay and I think I was trying to bolt up the bracket with a bolt too small and it wouldn't grab anything. When the engine came out I slightly widened the T bracket holes with a drill. I can't remember what my exact problem was here or why I drilled them, maybe I was struggling to get all the bracket bolts in with the engine fitted? But after this I have photos of the bracket bolted onto the trans and I've had no issues with them since.  

Note the subframe has 4 holes in it where the rear engine mount would go. The Hasport rear mount only uses the two on the right, circled in green above. Hasport provide bolts and washers for here.

Time to install the engine. I had to put it in and take it out a couple of times and took photos of the installing process to make my life easier. For more room, I unbolt the battery tray and traction bar. I left the alternator, intake and exhaust on the engine.

Dropped engine and trans in at this angle. I lined up the crank pulley with this hose clamp on the power steering line.

When the alt pulley was level with the strut tower, I put the rear mount in with just the rear bolt loose, and the T bracket on the mount with the bolt loose, to let me swivel that whole setup. The Hasport mount is also slotted and makes mounting it up much easier.  

Then I would lower the engine below the chassis, while watching the T bracket, making sure it didn't get caught on anything. Once I could fit the trans mount on the gearbox studs and in the chassis bit, I'd lift the engine till I could get the top bolt of the T bracket into the gearbox.

With a nut on the back trans mount stud keeping it in place, I used a magnet on a stick to drop the washer and bolt onto the front of the two holes on the rear mount.  This went surprisingly well, and using all my 3/8s extensions I could screw it in a bit too, but still left loose till all 3 mounts are on.

Then I'd get the two bottom T bracket bolts in, using the engine crane to align them with the gearbox bolt holes. Then I could go and chuck another nut and bolt onto the trans mount, along with the long one through the mount, but still leaving them all loose. 

I then loosely put the bolt and nut of the timing side mount onto the post mount, then pried the engine around until I could slide the long bolt through. Lastly I went around and tightened up all the bolts and nuts for the mounts, hopping from bolt to bolt, doing each one bit by bit, to properly locate the engine in the bay, leaving the rear mount and T bracket ones for last.

I fit the engine both times by myself. With a team and practise I reckon these motors could be 'hotswapped' for drag applications in as little as 10 minutes.

Front disc upgrade and rear disc conversion

All Aussie spec ED civics came with rear drum brakes. But since I was nearly doubling the factory power, I decided upgrading the brakes all around would probably be a good idea. This would be complimented by upgrading the Master Cylinder, Booster and Prop Valve.  

Starting with the front brakes, I went with DA9 front brakes and callipers, allowing me to run a 262mm rotor, compared to the stock ED size of 240mm. To make the job a straight bolt in, I took the whole knuckle and upright assembly from a car at Upullit, with the callipers with pads and rotor still attached, as they had enough meat left on them. Before I installed them on the car, I bashed in some new lower ball joints, as they would be a prick of a job once its all installed.  

DA9 on the left and ED6 on the right.

The DA9 brakes juuust clear the stock ED6 steelies.

For the rears, Honda Lego comes in clutch. Any EG, DA, EK or DC with factory rear disc brakes can be used. All EK sedans were sold with rear disc brakes, and they're probably the most common to find. There is a slight difference between using DA Integra parts and DC Integra parts, I believe the earlier DA gear pushes the rear track of the wheels out by 15mm from stock. 

I dropped my rear setups as one unit, with all the arms attached. Everything was covered in spiders and the bushings were rather crappy. I used DC4 rear trailing arms, that had previously been in a rally car, but before bolting on all the small civic arms, I pressed in some new trailing arm bushes. The other arms and bushes I would be able to replace later, but the trailing arm bushes need to be done with the arm out of the car. Then the Camber arms, Lower Control Arms and Toe arms got transferred from the civic trailing arms to the DC4 ones.

This was then bolted back into the civic, with some fresh $68 DBA rotors.  I had to then source different brake lines, as the ED6 drum setup uses a hard-line with a flare-nut to connect to the drum cylinder, whereas the rotor calliper requires a banjo style fitting. I wasn't able to get DC4 lines to match the arms, but found that 3rd gen prelude lines worked. I got the hole bolted in backwards on the trailing arm tab. No issues whatsoever. 

Handbrake cables also would need to be changed, I had to buy some from Melbourne and get them posted over. I used DA9 cables but I believe CRX cables will also work. I should add here that the drum brakes were unable to lock up the rear wheels. With this new rear disc setup, the civic does mad handbrakies >:)

Brake Booster, Master Cylinder and Prop Valve

I had to remove the brake booster to fit the master cylinder, and upon doing this I found that my booster had been leaking, and formed a rusty hole under the BMC.  The brakes always felt fine when I was driving, but I decided with the disc conversions, it would be appropriate to upgrade the Booster and Master too. 

 

Someone had nicked the BMC off the upullit DA9, so I decided to use an EK Civic sedan Booster and BMC. EK sedans all came factory with rear disc brakes, I believe the BMC is referred to as a 7/8 cylinder too. Side by side the EK BB+BMC was quite a bit larger than the ED pair. The cylinder was also longer, I became a little worried this wouldn't fit my ED, with the new Hydro Clutch Master right next to it too.

I squeezed it in there, had to take the cap off the clutch master and jiggle around some brake lines. With the prop valve in, the clearance is around 5mm to end of the BMC.

Keen eyed readers may have noticed that the EK Master has a hard-line bolt point on the end coming out of the top, in front of the reservoir, compared to the ED, where it comes out of the side. I was able to bend the line carefully in my hands, avoiding kinks, to get it to sit up and into the new BMC. All other lines work perfectly, the only other thing I had to do was to extend the wires that go to the BMC reservoir cap, they were about 50mm short. I may have taken up any slack here when looping back the body loom.

The Brake Proportioning Valve controls the brake fluid distribution between the front and rear of the car. Drum and disc brakes require different levels, so with the rear brakes now running a disc setup, the common consensus is to change the BPV to one that would be setup for rear disc brakes, such as the 40/40 prop valve.  Generally DA9 is the go to, also Concerto and CRX valves are a bolt in for the ED chassis. I got lucky, one of the parts DC4s I got bits off was a non ABS 1995 model, and had a 40/40 prop valve. Most DC4s use a different prop valve assembly that doesn't fit EDs. Unfortunately the valve was leaking from the seal in the middle, so I took it to a brake shop to get resealed. Prop valves can't be purchased new anymore, second hand ones are available but expensive.

Left is a comparison of the 40/40 prop valve and my stock 25/30 valve from the ED. Apart from the mounting bracket, I think the only visible difference is the labels stamped on the middle of the bodies. I had to swap the brackets over to mount the 40/40 in the car, just by undoing the torques bit security screws holding it together.  Prop valves have springs and seals in them, I didn't want anything to come undone while swapping the brackets, so I only took out one screw at a time to swing the brackets off while leaving the other screw done up.

AC

My car didn't come with AC. As of writing I have 5 cars, none have working AC. I've actually never had a car with working AC. As long as the windows go up and down, ignorance is bliss.

Driveshafts and Speed Sensor

I used the complete driveshafts out of the donor B18 DC4 Integra. No issues with the stock ED hubs, except, when I first lowered the car onto the ground after installing them it would not roll. The car was immobile and for a while I thought either the gearbox was stuffed, or the front brakes were stuck. After some quick research I remembered I forgot to remove the dust rings. The B series axles can bind up against the stock ED hubs and stop the wheels from moving. So axles out again, get a hammer and flathead in there to smack out the rings. Put it back together and happy days, the car moves.

Later on I installed the DA9 hubs for the larger brakes. I also removed the dust rings on them, although looking back, I'm not sure if that was completely necessary. The DA9 runs a B18, the shafts may have worked with the rings. 

Speed Sensor / sender was also easy. The DC4 uses an electronic signal sender, which can be just unbolted and removed from the gearbox, then the stock D15 cable sender can be pushed in. 

ED uses the yellow plastic cog. DC4 had the metal one.  

Now the speed sender wire that runs to the dash can plug straight in. At the time of writing this, I can't recall if I used the original ED wire, or used a DA9 one, which I definitely remember buying for the swap. I do remember being under the dash and feeding one of them into the back of the dash. I'm gonna say the ED one would probably been shorter and wouldn't reach the new gearbox, so the DA9 one is required.

Custom Power Steering Setup

Power steering actually seems like a bit of a joke in the ED/EF world of B swaps, most choose to go without it. However my car had power steering from factory, and intending to keep the car as a nippy little daily, I wanted to retain PS.  

What I've learnt is that around this era of Honda, they used two different high pressure hard-line connections, which align with the times where the OBD changes from 0 to 1 and 2.  I'd describe the difference as the OBD2 connection 3 holes are all aligned, where as the pumps for OBD1 have a smaller feed hole and the bolt holes are off centre making it look like Sid from Ice Age. Here's a comparison photo of two pumps and a photo off Google clearly showing the difference.  

 

So the first challenge is mounting the OBD0 ED chassis hard-line to a B series pump, being OBD2. This could probably be done with a CNC adaptor. Alternatively a custom hard-line could be made, I'd imagine this would be expensive. I think DA9 Integra's use the OBD0 fitting style, same as the ED. I read somewhere it's possible to change out the whole high pressure line to the rack from a DA9, but I couldn't find enough confidence in forum entry's to go down that route. Apparently there are also issues with those lines not reaching, I think some need extensions. I did have a look at using a DC4 line, but it was vastly different. 

The next issue is clearance, the ED headlight bucket on the passenger side sits awfully close to the stock mounting location of the B18s pump, next to the head at the front of the motor. There is much more space around the front of the motor in the DC chassis, as shown below. I think the pulley is what would contact the bucket, so it might be viable if a smaller pulley was used? This may be more or less of a problem on JDM EFs as they have slightly different radiator support panels. 

The ED pump also uses a different pulley and belt that wouldn't work with the B18 crank pulley, using a single V type belt compared to B18s more traditional ribbed pulley.  The pulleys were not interchangeable between the two either, as the shaft and nut were larger on the B18s pump. The different pulleys are shown below, D15 single V vs B18 ribbed.  

 

The common solutions I see online are:
-Electric power steering, using Holden Astra power steering pump
-Cut the headlight bucket to fit the B18 pump, (Possibly run a smaller pulley), then either get the ED chassis high pressure line adapted (maybe extended) to fit the OBD2 pump fitting
-Delete power steering (which really isn't a terrible option, being such lightweight cars), which involves sourcing a manual rack or depowering the current rack
-Get a car not optioned with power steering from factory. 

Since I wasn't running AC, I had another option, mount the pump lower on the block where the AC compressor would have been, gaining clearance by going underneath the headlight bucket. I was hoping to find a solution using only OEM parts, so I started mucking around with the accessory mounts I had. The plan was the use the DC pump, and CNC a little adaptor block out of billet to fit the ED hard-line to the pump. I got close with some arrangements but they'd all have the same roadblock, I'd need a custom mount for the bottom holes. The B18 AC bracket is not viable to use in this circumstance, and at best I could only get one bolt in an OEM mount on the bottom. 

Left: OEM B18 brackets in factory spot. Right: Top bracket could almost work on the bottom with one bolt holding it in and a nut to space out the pump, using the B18 pump here.

Something like this could probably work, but it doesn't solve the issue of having to adapt the hard-line. So through the local wreckers listing a BA4 third gen prelude with the B20, I got the mounts and pump. I found these preludes use the same OBD1 hard-line fitting type as the DA9s and EDs, but the pulley is ribbed and not the silly V thing. The pulleys are also interchangeable with the ED pump, so I could convert the ED pump to use a ribbed belt, which would then work with the B18 crank, and retain the ED high pressure line.  

I then went through a couple of iterations but found a mount setup that would allow the ED pump with the B20 pulley fit on the B18. My conclusion was to use the B20 Prelude top PS mount on the lower B18 block bolt holes for PS, and a 12mm nut to space the pump out to line up with the crank pulley. Then create a custom mount using the lower AC bracket block holes, which the belt could be tensioned by swinging the pump and locking it in place with the lower bolt. The factory high pressure hard-line can be ran under the engine mount and is able to reach around and bolt to the pump, with no modifications.  

 

The B20 mount was only a M8 threaded hole, but the ED pump has a non threaded 10mm top hole. To make sure the pump wouldn't move around and only pivot from the top hole, I drilled and tapped the B20 mount so I could put in a M10 bolt in. I did practice on a junk corolla mount I had to make sure I could do it straight. This was done easily in a vice with heaps of INOX.

After mocking it up in the engine bay I also made an alteration to the ED pump, there is a cast tab on the top which is unnecessary in my case. I cut it off with a hacksaw and cleaned the remains with a file. This gives more space for the high pressure line to come in from and angle on the top. I had to bend the hard-line a tiny amount with my hands and the line bolted to the pump, so it wouldn't rub against the timing cover.  

For the custom lower mount, we used a spare B18 on a pallet to mock up designs.  For the first attempt we cut and bent one piece of steel angle bar to utilise both the AC bolt holes, then another piece tacked vertically off the end. This would then support a slotted arm which could be adjusted to line up with the bottom pump bolt, and tightened with a nut and bolt. We decided this was too convoluted and looked at a Toyota motor for inspiration.  

I found a mates scrap corolla engine in the shed, a 4afe from an AE92 hatch. The alternator bracket had a curved slot, and being mostly flat I could make it work.  I hacksawed off the tabs I didn't need it looked like it would work nicely. The slot didn't quite line up with the arc of the PS pump bolt, but at most I had to widen the slot 1mm up on each end with a round file.

With the bracket in place and bolted to the pump, we had to connect it to the mount. For extra strength I flipped the upright L piece of the steel arm upside down and had it tacked flat onto the bottom piece. Positioning this piece was important as it would determine how well the belt would line up with the two pulleys. 

I marked it out and after a final check in the engine bay, handed it off to my mate to get fully welded, then I ground it smooth and gave it a black coat of paint.

The pump could then be fully secured using the top and bottom bolts and the hard-line would sit nicely in between the timing covers and the chassis, under the engine mount. Because the top hole is also a threaded bolt into the prelude mount, that can also be tightened to secure the pump in place. The belt size I used was a 4PK700, with plenty of adjustment in the slot and space in front of the motor to run a longer belt.  

When aligning the car later on a hoist I was able to see how close the pump actually sat to the chassis. Bees dick, about 3mm clearance there. Probably just enough to squeeze a belt through. The engine doesn't rock or twist in the engine bay enough for the pulley to hit the chassis leg. 

The last thing to sort was a hose from the pump to the reservoir. The stock ED one wouldn't work because it's now too short since dropping the pump. I found a PS line off an EK fit really perfect here, over the engine mount. It came from where the hard-line connects to the rack hard-line above the subframe, next to the right passenger side strut tower of the EK bay.

I couldn't find any other examples of this setup online, I think it heaps neaten the bay, having the pump tucked away. While the rest of the engine bay isn't the prettiest, I'm just happy to not have cut holes in my headlight bucket. 

Shifter Linkages

While there are linkages available to buy specifically for a B series in an ED chassis, this cheaper method works just as well. With the B18 in, I connected the linkages back to the shifter and held the other end up to  the trans. The difference I measured was about 65mm. I've read online some people when doing this method would do anything from 60-75mm. In the straight lengths of the linkages, I measured out 65mm on both links and ran some lines down the sides to ensure the linkages would be shortened and welded in the same orientation. I gave them to a mate with a welder, first he tacked then together to try in the car and check for gears, I was happy with it so he welded them fully. I gave it a little grind and paint and fitted it to the car.  

I later went back to rebush all these linkages with firmer bushings. I incorrectly ordered a kit for the ED, not realising the S40 trans is different, meaning I had to order another bushing kit for the DC4. These were hard to get on but with a bit of grease and a big vice I managed.

I also bought and installed an $8 short shifter for the car. I hate it. I won't go into detail with photos here, but basically I put it in then the gearstick sat really far forward and to the left, so I shortened one of the shifter linkages by like 15mm, now it sits in the middle but all the gears are off centred and to the left so its super unintuitive and its hasn't made the fairly worn synchos in the box feel any better and everyone who gets in and drives it now makes a comment along the lines of "oh the shifter is really weird" and I have to say well it was actually fine but for no reason I decided to make it worse and it's ruined the driving experience and I hate it.  :(

Alternator Pulley

The go to practice for ED B swap alternators is to bash in the chassis on the right strut tower about 5mm in. This will give adequate room for the alternator pulley to fit.  I don't like that solution. I read some Facebook comments that said the D series alternator belt and pulley are smaller. While the B series use a 3 rib belt, the D series uses a 2 rib, the only other difference is the size of the shaft holes, D series was 15mm and B series was 17mm. 

The crank pulley has 3 ribs but I wouldn't need to use the whole thing, so no modifications needed there, I just made sure the belt sits closest to the engine. I took both pulleys to a local CNC shop and got them to widen the D pulley to match the 17mm B series hole.  I was also able to get away with running the same alternator belt off my D15, already being 2 rib and a good length. It's a short belt, 3PK760 so the alternator can tuck in close to the engine for some more chassis clearance.

I have not yet needed to change the belt so I can't say if this would be a prick of a job with this set-up.

Front Subframe/Traction bar

The stock ED traction bar has a mount which would attach to the D15 gearbox, I think these are called torque limiting mounts, to stop the engine from twisting out of the engine bay. Not sure how that would happen with the abysmal performance of the asthmatic D15b4. The mount becomes redundant with a engine swap, the other three mounts are made with much stiffer polyurethane to hold the engine in place.  These photos show how close the gearbox comes to contacting with the traction bar mount. Less than a millimetre. 

Aftermarket traction bars are available and are a good idea in big power swaps. I got an unbranded one off marketplace for $50, however when getting around to fit it, I found that the bar would hit the bottom radiator mounts, and I wasn't able to get both sides bolted in.

So out came the hammer and I flattened the shit out of the gearbox mount on the stock traction bar.

A neater way to do this would be to unpick the welds on the mount and chisel it off.  But the hammer is more fun.

Accelerator Cable

After converting the pedal setup to an ED auto set, the manual throttle cable didn't fit. Manual cables have a round cast bung end on them, where as auto cables use a thin cylinderical cast. I didn't want to swap the pedals over and use the manual throttle pedal, that defeats the purpose of keeping the manual set intact. I just needed to find a different Honda cable that would fit, my friend wanted to keep the DC4 one for their K-swap.

They did let me keep the bracket for the throttle cable, which bolts onto the intake plenum. I did modify this to try and make the ED cable work, which was a little short to the throttle body. I smacked the bracket in a vice and basically reversed the angle of it, then polished the crap out of it with sandpaper. This moved the adjusting part slightly closer to the throttle body. While this made the ED manual cable work, it still wouldn't attach to the pedal, so I would have to find another one.

Stock DC4 throttle cable bracket and ED Cable. ED cables have that round cog on them.

(Left) "Reversed" and polished bracket. I did not coat the bracket with anything and it has since gone rusty lol. (Right) Made sure the cable was directed straight into the throttle body, if a slight is present it would gradually eat through the cable.

I ended up trying 6 different throttle cables! 98 CRV, 88 Accord, 91 Civic, 88 Prelude, 02 Accord and eventually, EK civic D16 was the one that fit. I went through all of the available Hondas at the wreckers. Most cables didn't work for a variety of reasons, mainly the end that attaches to the throttle body was too short or long, with not enough adjustment. And it was a bloody good thing I got the matching cable bracket for the throttle body, one would think Honda would use the same bolt hole spacing for all throttle body cable brackets, but no, all the holes on every bracket differed to each other by 3-5mm. Why?

The EK cable is similar length to the ED cable, which is good because they were about half the length of the other cables I grabbed, so I wouldn't have this 2 metre cable running laps in my engine bay. And it was from an auto EK, so it attaches to the auto pedal.

EK auto (top) vs ED manual (bottom)

I also grabbed some cable brackets off random cars and made one work on the back of the valve covers, so the cable routes over the intake pipe and behind the valve covers, then over the injector rail.

Radiator and Hoses

I retained the stock ED radiator during the swap. If it ain't broken don't fix it.

       

The ED top radiator hose was too short, so I used the DA9 top hose. I had to trim it back a bit to better line up with the radiator inlet. The hose was also a larger than the ED rad inlet pipe, but I was able to tighten it down with a hose clamp, which has not leaked. Yet.

 

For the bottom hose I could get away with using the ED hose. This reached the thermostat housing easily.  

I'm not certain, but I think I reused the ED coolant hose that runs from the side of the head to the heater tap. This hose split just before the head a few weeks into driving the car. I tried to get away with cutting it back and pushing it on more, which held for a few months. I eventually replaced the hose with one from a EG.  The stock ED return hose worked here too.  

For the booster breather hose, I flipped the half after the directional valve. This made it line up a bit better with the near vertical manifold hose connection of the B18. I also replaced the small coolant hoses that loop around the throttle body.  They look like they would be unfun to replace in the engine bay should they leak.

Exhaust

This was the one of the only components of my swap that just bolted up without any modification. The stock B18 headers connected straight to the ED exhaust under the engine with no issues. How good.

Intake and Airbox

The airbox was something I left until last, with the idea that I could re use the original air intake system. Obviously I didn't give it too much thought as I remembered too late that the D15 carb motor's filter on the back of the engine, right before the carb, meaning the intake tubes don't have any filter at all. It's basically just a straw. 

To use a stock airbox the options with this chassis are limited, either EFI EF Civic, CRX, or Honda Concerto. I'm unsure if the intake tube off the EF will work on the B series intake (I'd assume not) so maybe a custom tube would be needed there.

What I did as a temporary solution was hack together an intake tube from a late 90s accord using a hard connector piece that I think came out of an Excel to plumb in a breather line. Then, on the end I strapped on the biggest pod filter I had lying around. It's not fixed down to anything and it's just being held in place with the bonnet and battery, but it does sound pretty damn wicked. I am still on the hunt for a stock EFI airbox for a more legal alternative. I don't want the cop to stick their head under the bonnet, see the huge pod filter, and then start looking for other things to poke at.  

Update: I bought an airbox off Yahoo Auctions Japan. All up including shipping it cost about $200 AUD, but I hadn't had any luck sourcing any local ones. It came with a filter and neck to intake tube.  

When the time came to fit the airbox, it became clear this was not a "bolt in job".  I am still unsure why the box which was advertised to fit EF6, 7 and 8 would not fit in my ED (I assumed any 4th gen EFI intake would work) but I wasn't going to take no for an answer.  

The first problem I ran into was the duct for the airbox wouldn't fit under the headlight. I solved this by cutting the bottom half of the duct off, to allow the wires space to fit underneath.

After jamming the box in there, the second problem arose, which was the front airbox bracket would collide with the inline fuses and existing relay behind the drivers side headlight. I had to cut off the airbox bracket entirely (as seen just below my thumb in the photo above). It was after that I found that none of the original airbox brackets lined up with any existing bolt holes in my ED. For the remaining two mounts, I made brackets that bolted to existing bolts, which I could then secure down the airbox with. The bracket for the front of the box would use the front battery tray bolt to fix down. 

Then my problem became the intake would not fit past the battery and would prop the bonnet up. I was unable to find a smaller battery to test with, so the solution became to trim the corner off the battery itself.  

And lastly, the bonnet would not sit nice with the guard. It would sit up by a few millimetres. After noting that it was only contacting the front corner of the airbox, I just trimmed the corner down. At this point I realised this was a ghetto option.

  

 

I needed to bend the cam cover breather slightly to fit into the intake tube, and trim a little bit off the coolant hoses that run to the throttle body.  

The outlet of the airbox is 3.5inch, so it feeds plenty of air, however the civic has since lost its addicting "growl" that would happen when being revved over 3500 rpms. Here is a link to a quick sound comparison.

With the airbox in, and the engine bay all done, I will now confidently say "it's stock officer".

Trials and Tribulations

The first real problem I ran into was when the engine and gearbox were installed with driveshafts. The car wouldn't roll back or fourth. I thought this was somehow the front brake being locked on, but turned out to be the dust rings on the insides of the hubs, contacting with the driveshaft. Knocked them out with a flathead screwdriver and she was good to go.

The fuel filter squirted out fuel from the hard-line end I had made when we primed the system with a battery for the first time. This was fixed with plumbers tape and hasn't been an issue since.  

The third week into daily driving the heater tap hose split and seeped a bit of coolant. The split was just past the bung so I cut the hose back a bit and put a wider hose clamp on it. That lasted a few more months before splitting again, where I then replaced it with a hose from an EG.  

The biggest problem I've had is the rear drivers side rear wheel. When the car would sit the wheel would appear the be cambered in, but upon reversing, the wheel would shift camber, clunk, then somehow tilt over itself and camber out.  Then when driven forward, the wheel would tilt back in and sit with negative camber. Adaptive camber? Not ideal here.  

Now initially I blamed this on a poor toe adjustment, as it did appear fairly toed in, but after having the car on a proper alignment hoist it was clear there had to be a deeper issue. We could max out the toe adjustment with a prybar, but the whole arm would be under heaps of strain, and the wheel would not sit where it had to.  The passenger side was strangely faultless and aligned straight with no issues.

The first fix I tried was new adjustable camber arms, thinking that it would stop the wheel from tilting. I ordered Whiteline adjustable camber arms, which were specifically list to suit 88-91 Honda Civics (SKU: KTA332). They did not fit.  

The arm was barely able to be squeezed into the provided space in the chassis.  Then, the cross section wasn't made flat the whole way, one side had extra round metal and would contact the chassis when bolted in, not allowing for flush fitment.  What I did to amend this was cut the extra metal off the plates on one side, the image below shows the unmodified arm on top and my fix underneath. 

The Whiteline arms were also too long. Screwed all the way in, they would be just as long as the factory Honda arm, which would only allow adjustment for positive camber. I ended up cutting something like 8mm of each side of the middle connector. I adjusted them to the same length as the stock camber arms before installing. These were also weird and large spanner sizes, like 20mm or some 38/15th of an Inch American shit. Fuck you Whiteline.  

Before I installed them however, my car also decided to play an April fools joke on me two months into daily driving it. On my way to work on the 1st of April, the bolt that held the camber arm to the trailing arm somehow jumped ship. The whole trailing arm then twisted in and the camber arm was rubbing against the tire.  Luckily I heard and felt the rubbing, pulled over, then ubered to work. I got a friend to meet me afterwards with a spare bolt and racket and by pulling the top of the wheel out we were able to get the camber arm bolted up without a jack. The tire actually polished the tip of the camber arm.  

 

Something else I tried to help with the alignment issue was slotting the trailing arm bushing holes. I don't have any photos but the bushings I pressed into the trailing arms did not have a oval hole for the two 17mm bolts to move, they were just round holes. I figured being able to loosen these two bolts may help the arm adjust straight, then tighten them up. With a round file and a Dremel, I slotted the holes in the bush to allow 15mm of movement.

I got to do this on our two poster, which made it easy. When I next took the car in for aligning, the driver side actually came out really good. The passenger side however, which I did not touch, and originally aligned good, did not, and somehow developed toe in which we were unable to get straight.

I'm leaning towards the trailing arms themselves being the issue. They came from an ex rally DC4, and could be bent. I'll wait for an EK sedan to show up at the wreckers to nab a new set of arms from.  

Apart from a minor fuel leak at the tank which was just a hose clamp that needed tightening,  that's been all the problems so far. Considering I've touched nearly every bolt, wire and hose in the engine bay I was expecting more issues there. The rust patch on the A-pillar also lets some water in to the footwell. My fix for that is keep a towel under the glovebox when it rains.   

Extra Goods

The factory steering wheel sits way to close to the dash for my liking, and doesn't tilt nearly high enough. I think the ergonomics is one of my least favourite things in the car, but to be fair the civic was just a cheap get about car for small old people.  To stay true to the OEM look, I wasn't keen on swapping the seats or steering wheel out for obviously aftermarket units.  

OEM steering wheel hub spacers are available for EK civics onwards, that have a column with 33 splines. There is not anything of the likes available for EDs which have a 29 spline column, of which there are boss kits to suit, but none that would allow the OEM steering wheel to fit, so I decided to make a plate that could bolt to a boss kit.  

I ordered a short boss kit from NRG, then measured out the bolt spacing and drew up a plate in CAD and did a few test prints in PLA. I also went to Upullit armed with a hacksaw and cut the column off a ED destined for the scrap, saving me the hassle of trying to get a splined column machined up. I had to add a slight recess in the bottom to clear the original steering column.

I sent off the file to a local CNC shop and a few days later I picked up the steel plate. The shaft would fit super snug inside, then got welded to the plate and painted black. I gave it a decent stress test before the first drive, of course. It's bloody strong, although the middle is recessed there's still 4mm of steel there. I may come off in a severe crash but the car is just a tin can anyway.  

So the hub gets bolted to the car with the big 19mm, then the plate to the hub with 6 M5 bolts, which the steering wheel can bolt on to. I also had to shave down the NRG in width, as it was far too bulky. It would then all need a cover to make it OEM looking.  After a few prototypes I found a shape that would work, and to give it the texture of the rest of the interior plastics I threw it into the BumpMesh website, fiddled with the settings a little and found something that looked good. I printed it in matt black ASA and was super thrilled with the result.

To top it off I threw on the sweet 4 spoke steering wheel I nabbed out of the old accord at Upullit. It has extra buttons for cruise control which I'd just love to hook up to nitrous in the future. Also the horn doesn't work now either and I really can't be bothered running a wire through to make it work.  

This gives me enough legroom even when wearing work boots, and looks OEM. I've been pulled over twice since having this installed and the cops haven't even bat an eye.

The civic came with the original head unit and it was so damn cool. Only issue was it didn't work, radio or cassette, I think the onboard amps were cooked. I took it to a tech repair place and after a $90 inspection fee, they told me a board needed to be replaced and it would cost $300. I threw in a emotionless Bluetooth unit for the time being.  

On one of my Upullit trips I found an EG sedan, with the original head unit. When I got home and hooked it up on a test pad it asked for a key. I had to get the Vin number off the EG sedan, then ended up ringing up a Honda dealership in Perth (I was impatient and all Adelaide ones were closed, 6pm local time was only 2:30pm in Perth and the dealerships would still be open) then after the struggle that was communicating the 17 digit vin across the terrible quality phone call, the lady gave me the pin. Punched it in and it unlocked the unit, which thankfully had all functions working. I soldered in a Bluetooth chip to the cassette tape player, which would allow me to connect my phone and play audio through the head unit with a blank cassette in the deck.

It didn't fit well but I was able to force it in there. Plugs are the same for EG and ED too. Still retains the ability to play normal cassettes, with AM and FM stations too, and with some really basic EQ controls. The fade adjustment doesn't do anything as the ED hatch never came with rear speakers.  

I'm a big advocate of not having those fucking ugly 17" touchscreen units in any car made before the 2000s. But the EG unit looks sick, suits the rest of the interior, and fits in with the velvet lined Personal Box. For Nonsmoker. Hell yeah. 

Proof of Concept 

I don't know how to wrap up this write up so I'll put a some photos below of my adventures so far with the B-swapped Wheelbarrow, as I refer to it. The boot space in these things is insane, its about 1.5 m2, or exactly one 1UZFE engine.  

Special thanks to;

Henry for driving us down that side street and finding the car

Kaiden and Jess for their Honda knowledge and picking up the engine mounts for me

Kevin for wiring help and very good price parts

Anthony for driving me to a wreckers in a $40,000 Mitsubishi for bits for my $800 civic

Anyone a part of our shed that gave me a ride while I was sitting out the licence situation

Mason for some help with fab work

Ryan for letting me ask him heaps of questions

Darcy for sending me his Auto pedal set

NRT/Henry for fixing up my loom situation