Engine Swap

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Engine Swap

By ktang
- Tue Jun 02, 2015 10:53 am #354005 I was looking to get a replacement engine, in case the head gasket fix on the D15B7 didn't work. Got lucky and got a 3rd-hand B18C for a good price. That was 2 years ago.

It came with the axles. However, these axles' inner CV joints needed to be fixed. So that was the first thing to be done.

1st axle's boot was OK, just needed grease and reassembly.
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2nd axle's boot was torn, so I needed to remove the tri-pot to put in a new boot.
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2nd axle's marks put on.
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2nd axle's tri-pot disassembled.
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New CV boot slid on.
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Tri-pot put back on.
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CV joint grease packed in.
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Both axles banded.
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By ktang
- Tue Jun 02, 2015 11:08 am #354006 About a year-and-a-half ago, I decided to start the swap.

After a lot of effort, I got the axle nuts off, then re-attached them while I daily-drove the car for about a month.

Then, once the tank was empty, I filled it with premium, and took the axles off the D15B7.

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And took off the manifolds.

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The next weekend, I disconnected everything else, and pulled out the D15B7.

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And the car sat for a year because I was too busy to continue.

Here is a shot of the old D15B7 in the back, and the newer B18C in the front.

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By ktang
- Tue Jun 02, 2015 11:40 pm #354011 Transmission case's mount stud was cracked.

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Separated transmission from the engine:

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Split the transmission:

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Set aside the transmission parts:

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Put on the new transmission casing.

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By ktang
- Tue Jun 02, 2015 11:47 pm #354012 With the transmission fixed, it was time to put the engine into the car!

Like I said earlier, I decided to put the engine in from the left hand side, so that I could angle the transmission under the frame rail.

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This is the angle moving in. The intermediate shaft is attached, but the alternator is removed to give me more room.

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Angled down, at the right spot. Luckily the Euclidian geometry worked out.

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Here's why the alternator was removed.

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Left-hand and rear mounts attached.

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Transmission mount attached, and about to be attached to the car.

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It's in, except for the front mounts now.

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And the hood closes without needing a cutout.

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By ktang
- Tue Jun 02, 2015 11:54 pm #354013
iLLson wrote:might as well power wash your bay.

have fun with the new motor!


All I could do was wet-wipe the bay a little bit.

No pics, but I re-did the original OBD1 harness to route the 4-pin O2 sensor from the front to the back, and added lines for the VTEC solenoid and the knock sensor to the shock tower connectors. Then I added the lines from the shock tower connectors to the ECU. So far so good, with no CELs.

The motor has been running for 2 weeks now. Much more power going uphill than the old D15B7, but it's a lot louder too.

The only new things were the transmission seals and a Yonaka dual-core radiator. I was able to get Integra shift linkage and shift torsion bar from the junkyard. It was hard, but I used a c-clamp to get the shift linkage pin in.

I learned a lot from this site, so maybe I can contribute a little bit too. I haven't seen anybody else putting the motor in from the side to clear the frame rail, so maybe that might be an option for somebody else doing this by him/herself.

By ktang
- Wed Jun 03, 2015 7:12 pm #354022
teal_dx wrote:Great job on the swap and also documenting it all. I know it's a pain to stop in the middle of progress to snap pics. :thumb: :thumb:


Thanks! I used so many of the DIY step-by-step threads on your site, I just wanted to document mine.

At first I was thinking about putting the engine in from the bottom, to get around the frame rail, but I wanted to try angling it down from the left hand side and it worked.

I also looked at the B18 swap threads for inspiration.
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