Hey. I'm very new to this forum and had some questions about a project I am thinking about...

I have had a 1987 Honda Civic Hatchback for 2 years now and I love it. The engine is original and has 235,000 miles on it, and still running pretty well but definitely showing age. The whole car is 100% original. Anyways I was thinking about selling it a while ago and getting a different civic, (most preferably a civic wagovan), but now Im thinking about just overhauling my hatch. My plan would be to replace the whole drivetrain by either buying a low mileage one from somewhere, or rebuilding one. My question is which would you recommend for cost, and how difficult is learning to rebuild a honda engine? I have rebuilt old volkswagen engines before and they ran great, but that is about all the experience I have.

My other question is swapping a manual transmission into an automatic car as simple as bolting it in and hooking up the linkage? or is there some sort of difficult fab work required.

I know my questions are pretty general but I'm just looking to get an idea if what I want to do is within my means and if it would work. Thanks.

 

I think in my opinion is finding a lower mileage engine from a wrecking yard is the way to go. A honest yard will give you the mileage & will give you a warranty also. The issue is fining the years that just bolt in with low mileage might be difficult. As for changing from an A/T to a M/T is a fair amount of work. you almost need a whole donor car. Because of clutch petals, linkage, etc. doing that is never a real easy change over.
I have a 90 Civic with 155,000 miles & my goal is 300,000 before the engine & trans need to major of work.

 

Thats awesome dude! Yeah those older civics just run and run.

But yeah the more I started thinking about it the more i realized that there is a lot of work involved. In my head I wasn't even thinking about the clutch pedal linkage. lol.

Now Im just on the lookout for a wagovan....