Alright, I went up to a performance shop earlier today to talk about engine swaps.

He told me that I should go with the b series swap. (i think he said this ould boost me to around 320hp?)

But the problem is, my civic is an auto. So I wouldn't only get a swap, I would be getting a manual switch along with it. He said I prolly should go ahead and sell my civic, and just buy a standard, but If I want, I could go ahead and pay the extra that it will cost to convert it. He said it would end up being around 3.4k (for the swap and convert). (I would rather keep mine, Im payin 350 a month for it, so i dont want to sell it and have to buy another one...pointless right?)

He also told me if Im keeping my car, to wait until I get a engine swap to convert it to manuel, otherwise It would be a waist. (he said it would be around 1k for a manuel convert to a sohc) ...alittle confused here heh...

So whats the best thing to do? I love my 97 civic ex...only 130k miles on it, and cleanest I've seen for a civic around my town.

Thanks

 

Perhaps I'm daft, but I don't see how putting an, at best, 200hp B series engine will give you 360hp.

As for the manual swap, my guess is that you're running a D series right now. If that's the case,my guess is that the D series transmission differs from the B series, so if you swapped it to manual now, you'd end up paying for the D series manual transmission that you'd just have to replace again for the B swap.

As for new car vs swap, that's up to you. Financially, the swap makes more sense if you're still paying on it, but with a $3.4k bill, it's also a good chance to look at alternative body styles and generations if you were considering it.

 

I'd find another shop as the one you're talking doesn't seem to really know what they're talking about. Even if you swapped in a JDM B18C from an Integra Type-R (not going to happen for $3.4k) you'd be sitting at 200hp at the crank, which roughly translates to ~170 a the wheels. There actually isn't a honda engine available that can put you at 320 (even at the crank) stock. Even if you managed to stuff a C32B from an NSX into the engine bay you'd be sitting at 290bhp/240whp.

Personally, I say go with one of two options. Either swap the engine yourself and change out the transmission at the same time (you'd need a few small pieces to do the transmission conversion, but they wouldn't be hard to find) or keep your engine, swap the transmission, and the turbocharge the engine (swap the trans first and research turbo systems for a while, then piece a setup together). Either way you go, I say do the work yourself. Trust me, both things are relatively easy to do yourself, and both would be a great learning experience. B-series swaps are some of the easiest, but even if it's your first swap and you have relatively no mechanical experience, you can probably expect to have it done in a weekend with hand tools.

A B-series swap will range from ~$2500 to $4k+ depending on what engine. A GSR swap would be between $3k and $4k and put you at around 180hp at the crank. Turbocharging your current engine could put you at 200+ to the wheels with no internal work (meaning just slap the turbo kit on there, have it tuned, and call it a day); swapping the transmission should cost between $500 and $1,000 depending on what deals you find, and if you piece together a custom turbo setup, you could be paying ~$2,000, bringing your total cost to right around the lower end of the GSR swap range and at more power to the wheels (180 at the crank would be ~140 at the wheels, so it's quite a difference). The only downside to staying with the single cam is you'll never get that "in your face" vtec engagement the twin-cam engines have.