D Series City

[James]

Has anyone considered swapping a d series into a city? The bonuses are that you can use stock axles if you use an 88-91 civic/crx gearbox(4th gen) as they had the same no of splines and the right spacing, and then you can use any old d series, right up to the 2000 models and younger, would be nice to get a bit of fancier tech in there, and of course VTEC!!!!.
Also, because the city is fuel injected, you can use all the stock fueling, even the pump if you want to run a stock d series, then the only major is fitting that sucker in there. The side mounts should be easy but the front crossmember will prolly need quite a bit of mods or a custom "bulgy" one made. There are many pics of people on http://www.civic1200.com who have put them in first gen civics which have an engine bay about the same size as a city. The stock computer can also be chipped for about 5 bucks and all the map, and ignition values changed to suit boost (google "Uberdata" for more info and http://www.pgmfi.org). Would be a pretty phat swap if anyones up for it.
I plan on hopefully *fingers crossed* putting one into a 2nd gen civic in the chrissie hols cause they fit the engine a lot better than tiny little first gens.

So c'mon guys GO THE VTEC CITY!!

PS anyone got any clues to why my honda girl has stopped bouncing  ;) ??

[Colza]

But why? When a turbo city goes SO much faster, is SO much cooler, and is SO much easier?! Ill race ya 2nd gen when its on the road (i mean on the track in a safe and controlled environment), and you can watch my city turbo 1st gen dissapear into the distance....

[Bino]

Just a couple things to consider before completely dismissing this idea.

The D-series I believe is considered the easiest non-bolt-in (Bolt in:EL, EK, EB, ER, etc) motor swap for the 1G Civic.

Do some research at civic1200.com, but I believe the transmission from a mid 80's Civic SI yields equal length front driveshafts.  Also, the AWD transmission from the mid '80's wagovan will bolt to a d-series.  The CR-V has a nice driven rear suspension, seems like it would be quite possible to put together an AWD City.  People have done it with CRX's.

Also, the D-series has quite an extensive aftermarket. I can pick up a turn-key 30,000km d15 with a 5spd for $595 (USD).  They have VTEC, they make 125hp stock, cam's are available, intakes, etc.... and you can still boost 'em... just something to think about.

[Colza]

Hehehe dont worry, im not trashing is idea. Its an old habit of mine to completely disagree with everything bigelboe says. It leads for much more interesting conversations than if you agree all the time ;D

Oh, and with that 4wd thing, i have something on the way  ;)

[Smithy]

Maybe that engine would be better suited to a swap into a cabriolet....

I wouldnt mind a convertible city with a vtec in it...

....this is assuming I'm rich of course , which I am not.

....

[Colza]

Just a personal oppinon, but as much as city's are cool, if you were going to do a swap like that you would probably choose a better platform.

A cab would be cool cos the are rare, but a civic chassis will always handle better than a city...

[AnimaLector]

I know of a good Cab in Brisbane, good top on it, needs motor (current one blown) would probably be cheap.. car has been sitting at the mechanics for over a year doing nothing.
If only I had an endless supply of cash I would consider a swap like this!

Andy

[Colza]

Mmmm, endless supply of cash.....   ::)

[James]

Bino, about those equal length driveshafts, yeah the CRX that you steal the gearbox from, a fourth gen, does have an intermediate axle to one side and then equal length axles but the entire idea of this swap is that it is easy. To do that youd have to graft in the frame that hold the join between the axles and to get CRX front hubs on the city and probably shorten the axles, or more likely sleeve on the outboard cv's from a city and shorten the axles at the same time.

As for the AWD city, it would be a very tasty little car, with boost it conjurs up images of the Group B rally beasts. But to get it road legal, quite a lot of floorpan mods are going to be nescessary and a rear subframe fabricated to support the diff. Dont know how the back suspension works on  CR-V but an easy way to get driven rear suspension on a Civic is to graft the front susp onto the back, should be possible in a city aswell but might be a bit trickier cause of the whole not coil over spring setup. Sounds like it would be a mad paddock car, easy to get going but hard to get reliable and safe.

[city_cabriolet]

I've had a cabriolet for sale for soo long now... Nobody is ever interested  :(

Very cheap, no engine... but now it's getting broken up and sold seperatey... i didn't want to be responsable for 1 less Cab on the road, but i couldn't hold on to it for ever.

[turbocab]

although you are helping to keep my and others cabrolet,s on the road and lookin sweet

[Bino]

bigelboe:  I personally have not done the swap, but it has been discussed in great detail on civic1200.com.  There is a combo the yields equal length driveshafts.  No sleeve, no new mounting for the jack-shaft, nothing.  Just equal length one-piece driveshafts.  If you're really curious what it is, http://www.civic1200.com/discus then do a little research ('cause I don't know off the top of my head).  But several people are running this setup and all they've ever done is mess with the driveshafts (mix-n-match, custom, I don't recall).

[James]

Sweet as i thought i had read most of the d series swap stuff on civic1200 but obviously not! I thought the main prob with equal length driveshafts is the fact the diff doesnt sit in the middle of the car and the whole engine would have to be moved to centre it, but it must be possible if someones done it!!