2000 Civic EX thinking of an engine swap in CA... need advice!

[pegasixi]

Hi there! This is my first post here after a couple months of just reading through posts lolz I bought my first civic around 3 months ago and I've been trying to learn as much as I can about it. Well... I've now gotten into my head that an engine swap is the way for me.

After reading through some posts, I figured that a b16 or b18 is the best bang for the buck, but I'm still not sure of the "checklist" i have to go through for the engine swap... (Tried reading around the forums but its getting quite confusing oO)

Its a daily driver and I don't want to go turbo or sc because its an old stock engine and it'll probably kill it quickly even with low boost.

So yea... my question is how much can I expect the whole job to cost me? What do I need for the complete motor swap? Is it hard to get it legalized? And just general advice... Anything to get me started. This project is a couple of months down the road and I'm going to keep on reading up.

I know there are a lot of helpful threads and I'm working my way through them. If anyone knows a really good one, please link it here and I'll be really grateful too. In any case, thanks for reading through this rambling post, and I wish yall a great day!

In CA, to get it Bar'd, I heard the engine needs to be from same year or newer. So... since I have a 2000 civic, a b16 or b18 from 1999 won't work?

 

[Ej8Kid]

Hi there! This is my first post here after a couple months of just reading through posts lolz I bought my first civic around 3 months ago and I've been trying to learn as much as I can about it. Well... I've now gotten into my head that an engine swap is the way for me.

After reading through some posts, I figured that a b16 or b18 is the best bang for the buck, but I'm still not sure of the "checklist" i have to go through for the engine swap... (Tried reading around the forums but its getting quite confusing oO)

Its a daily driver and I don't want to go turbo or sc because its an old stock engine and it'll probably kill it quickly even with low boost.

So yea... my question is how much can I expect the whole job to cost me? What do I need for the complete motor swap? Is it hard to get it legalized? And just general advice... Anything to get me started. This project is a couple of months down the road and I'm going to keep on reading up.

I know there are a lot of helpful threads and I'm working my way through them. If anyone knows a really good one, please link it here and I'll be really grateful too. In any case, thanks for reading through this rambling post, and I wish yall a great day!

In CA, to get it Bar'd, I heard the engine needs to be from same year or newer. So... since I have a 2000 civic, a b16 or b18 from 1999 won't work?

Welcome to CC, thats good that you actually researched about swaps. I don't even remember how much I spent on my first swap, just take your time with it. I slowly bought things for it, first was long block, then transmission, etc. And its actually not hard to bar it, well it might depend on the station, some are more strict than others. They won't care that you put a big H22a in it, they are just making sure the swap was done correctly.

Good luck with your build.

 

[d16y7 98 dx]

my buddy swapped a b16 into his and didnt like it. he eventually but an integra ls motor in it [b18b1] and absolutely loves it. he says its way better than the b16, and he just boosted it about 2weeks ago and it runs flawless. ive never driven any of these motors so i wouldnt know. my y7 is weak and i met a guy with a 94 coupe with an h22 swap, and it was beyond awesome and pulled pretty hard.

 

[Ej8Kid]

my buddy swapped a b16 into his and didnt like it. he eventually but an integra ls motor in it [b18b1] and absolutely loves it. he says its way better than the b16, and he just boosted it about 2weeks ago and it runs flawless. ive never driven any of these motors so i wouldnt know. my y7 is weak and i met a guy with a 94 coupe with an h22 swap, and it was beyond awesome and pulled pretty hard.

I've had a GSR, JDM B16a, and a LS swap, some reason I liked the LS better than the B16 lol.

 

[d16y7 98 dx]

I've had a GSR, JDM B16a, and a LS swap, some reason I liked the LS better than the B16 lol.

yea thats exactly what my friend said. he said he thought the b16 would be awesome but he ended up hating it, and says he'll forever have a boosted ls

 

[Robin...]

B18b1 = torque
b16 = torqueless wonder...

 

[Robin...]

Double post...

 

[pegasixi]

B18b1 vs b18c1... is the b18b1 worth the swap for only 20 more HP over the d16y8? Sure, it has more torque but since I won't be boosting it, will I notice a difference???

 

[pegasixi]

Also, I hear that its impossible to get jdm swaps legalized in CA... Can anyone recommend me a good place where I can find complete usdm swaps?

Also, back to my original question (sorry for the long post TT) Would it matter in CA if the motor is from a 97 GSR when my car is a 00 civic? or a 99 motor when mine is 00?

 

[d16y7 98 dx]

honestly its rough to do a simple swap and have a fast civic. reality is, these arent very fast cars unless you drop alotta money into it. in my opinion, cheap power would be a b18b1, and yes youll feel a difference, but it wont be like night and day.

 

[Ej8Kid]

Also, I hear that its impossible to get jdm swaps legalized in CA... Can anyone recommend me a good place where I can find complete usdm swaps?

Also, back to my original question (sorry for the long post TT) Would it matter in CA if the motor is from a 97 GSR when my car is a 00 civic? or a 99 motor when mine is 00?

You could find complete motors on craiglist and local shops but just make sure its running or have a leak down test and be sure to get a legit bill of sales.

Yeah, they won't bar JDM motor any more unless its a replacement motor; for example, you have a DC2 GSR, you could throw a JDM SiR-G(Japan's GSR) into it. So I think you could throw a B16a into it.

http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/aftermkt/replace.htm

# The engine must be the same year or newer than the vehicle.

# The engine must be from the same type of vehicle (passenger car, light-duty truck, heavy-duty truck, etc.) based on gross vehicle weight.

# If the vehicle is a California certified vehicle then the engine must also be a California certified engine.

# All emissions control equipment must remain on the installed engine.

Then again, I've heard of people baring older engines, they just made sure it was the same OBD as the chasis.