I'm not really into shifting anymore. LA traffic.

I have a 95 Civic with a stick.

I have a perfectly good automatic tranny still sitting in a nearly identical Civic of the same year in my garage. (Thrown rod in engine.) It, of course, has everything; ECM, tranny, wiring, linkage, et.c etc. Thinking of switching it out for the auto.

Anyone ever done it?

 

It's way too much wiring to be worth it. You are better off selling and buying another with an auto tranny.

Or swapping the engine into the other car.

 

Yeah you might as well just sell the car and buy and auto or use the money you get from selling the stick to fix the auto.

 

Hmm. So, it sounds as though you guys actually did it? There are some variables, like me having an inordinately huge amount of time on my hands and every part on-hand that I would need. I'm still not convinced it's un-doable.

Assuming I do decide to do it, was it your experience that the most time was spent switching out wiring harnesses, or is there another consideration? And please, only if you've actually done the job.

 

Nobody has done it. There might be a few people, but you will never find them. This is pretty much unchartered territory.

 

Ok, cool.

I know it would be a painstaking task, for sure. But with all the running gear and other parts, I can't see it being any more difficult than a rebuild.

Engine/tranny out of both cars.

Wiring harnesses out of both cars.

Couple auto tranny to my current eng.*

Install Auto-trans harness/elctrncs in my car.

Eng/tranny in my car.
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*This is where there's a huge question mark. Not positive if these engines couple exactly the same way to their respective transmissions, though they're both the same model number. Gonna hoist one out and have a closer look.

And yeah, I realize there are a whole lot of other steps involved in each of the above general steps.

 

Why not just use your good long block and mate it to the identical automatic car, then part out the shell that's left over. Everything is already wired and working in the auto car, only the engine is bad, so why not change out the engine? You're making this much more difficult than need be. with all your free time on your hands, why not pick up another part time job and buy a factory auto car?

 

Sorry. I didn't mention that I'm not impoverished. Didn't see it as one of the necessary steps.

I simply like the color and configuration of the 2 dr over the 4dr. That, and I'm 45, and haven't pissed away huge buckets of liquid cash by buying a new car in decades.

Might be why I have the time to do what I want.

I'm thinking of dropping a small-block Ford into the car anyway, so this may be moot. But information-collecting will help me make my decision. The question isn't about really, personal finance, this being a mechanics forum, but about the mechanical processes in carrying out the question I posited. If anyone has done it.

 

I gave you suggestions, which is why you're here. I didn't say you were poor, nor did I tell you to buy a brand new vehicle (even though it will help the current crisis ). I said factory auto car. I, for one, will never purchase a new vehicle because of insane depreciation over the first few years of ownership, which is regulated by government anyway.

Bottom line, no one does what you're referring to because of the time invested into a car of little value doesn't make for common sense. The car will be worth nothing. If money isn't a problem, I don't see why selling and parting out the cars and buying a nice auto civic (that meets or exceeds your expectations) of equivalent value doesn't make more sense.

You can drop that small block into the car as well, it's been done before. I've seen a lot of small block chevys dropped into the 6th gen chassis'.

 

If you do it, you're gonna have to cut a bigger hole in the floor where the manual shifter currently passes through it.

Then you'll swap your transmission, transmission motor mount, the motor mount bracket on the chassis, your engine wiring harness, the dash wiring harness, the floor wiring harness, Shifter assembly, and the ECU.


What engine is in each Civic, and what years are each Civic?