Right now I have an 89 CRX as my daily driver, and I was just curious if anyone had done an LS1 swap into one. I know anything is possible, so i thought i'd ask around. I was kindof just thinking about it today, since its a really light car, i think about 1900 lbs, and it would really move with a 500 hp 402 in it.

 

that would be cool, but i think it would be mor work then its worth

 

Been contemplating an integra swap...would surprise a few but a crx may be too much work due to engine bay size and how far back the tranny would sit.

Jason

 

Man, I say go for it! The whole wow factor alone would spur me on.

I almost swapped my old 22r in my '82 Celica for my Mopar 440. But that's one combo that would have been WAAAYYY too much work.

 

you'd have to reinforce the crap out of it. something along the lines of a full tube chassis. seems like a waste of a 402, to me. a good sleeper, though.

 

ya ever seen the crx video on streetfire.net with a supercharged big block? There are 2 videos.

 

i've seen it done on a '94 civic cp with a full drivetrain from a wrecked '97 z. Outside looked almost stock. The car was still that ugly light green color Honda offered back in the day. Firewall was obviously modified to fit the motor and trans. I believe the owner said the wall was pushed back about 3 inches, then the middle third was cut out and fabbed to wrap over the trans. The upper portion of the dash was stock. The lower portion which is a molded center console was cut out and a fiberglass unit was fabbed to wrap over the new tunnel. The shifter was directly out of a viper. Only about 2 inches tall if that. The driveshaft was about as long as a long half shaft. The rear was narrowed a few inches on either side (I don't recall how much though) Full tube chassis is not necessary. Both cars, the Honda and the Chevy are unibody cars and would really only require heavy duty subframe connectors. (i guess if you want a large amount of power then you might to think about more stiffening) Many companies offer interior stiffeners for the civics/crx's. They are cross bars that tie the floor to the strut towers in the rear and under the hood-doubt the room will be there under the hood though. This civic even had the Honda 15" rims and tires over the gm brakes front and rear. Obviously, he had custom axles made to the 4x100mm bolt circle. I will try to find those pictures and post up a link for ya.
By the way, don't listen to people who say "a waste of a motor" If people listened to that crap, we wouldn't have an aluminum 427 available, no ls1, no cars, no light ect, ect. Do what you want! I personally say go for it. If I didn't already have 2 cars and approaching the mortgage payments, I would do something crazy and wild like this.

 

Hey, I am a big 4th gen /2nd gen rex Honda head.

I know those cars like the back of my hand i'm going to tell you the amount of work to stuff a 1.8L twin cam in is a bitch I know i've had 2 in my own 91 hatch.

LS1 I wouldn't even bother trying honestly. Even the other swapped v8 civics and yes they are out there are 5-6th gens they have more room to work with the crx bay is just tiny.

Honestly I'd just stay with Honda motors you can make them quick my best time out of mine was 13.7 on a road race suspension street tires open diff bad launch and first time running at that track or setup I should be near 12s with what now.

Had I only wanted 1/4 times i'd be deep 11s if not faster with what I've spent.

I know a ton about hondas and how to make them work you can PM me anytime if you want to work on that.

But as far as an LS1 into your rex i'd just stop dreaming it's not going to be anywhere near sane ever for pros.

 

do it....cut and paste method...bet the guy with the miata got a lot of negative talk too and look at his car. The crx would probably need more than that car though. You better be good at fabricating stuff before starting a project like this though.

 

Thats relative to how much enjoyment the person would get out of it. Some people including myself enjoy fabricating difficult things. what about you?

 

That just makes me juice though....1900 pounds....strip the car and it may be less than that....500rwhp....gook.....

 

you sound like a supra owner!! jk jk.

i say that it wouldn't be worth it .

 

the biggest problem with a Honda getting a rwd LS1 swap is that Hondas (integras/crxs/civics/accords) have the steering rack and the front subframe attached to the firewall.

so there is nowhere to put the tranny if you want to convert the car to rwd.

it can be done and has been done, but they turn out as pure drag cars with custom front ends to allow hotrod style steering racks/spindles/etc. with a custom fabbed front subframe.

uh, have fun! yikes!

 

http://www.mothers.com/coolcars/cust...dies84CRX.html
Yo, check this CRX out, very interesting!

 

bwhahahhah talk about a sleeper

Wanta race my auto crx ? \


owen,
I know what you mean but I've seen a few street cars at Honda meets that are RWD the one I saw was the most famous DC (94-00) Teg running a 6 of sorts if i'm not mistaken.

He had it on the streets tagged and all, he's sold the kit to others and reported some people daily them.

 

that looks really sweet. I was kindof thinking about trying to do something like that with the rear engine, but i dont really know how the transmission and rear diff would work. As for the fabrication, I have a really good friend who is going to wyotech and is gonna be doing chasis fabrication as one of his classes, so he was gonna do it as a project up there. And I'm going to SAM and could definetly build the engine. The car is my DD right now, so this would all depend on me getting some other transportation, since I dont really want to put a whole lot of miles on my camaro.

I definetly think it would be a fun project, but a lot of work. If I get the opprotunity, i think we'll try it, and see what happens. Do yall know of any links that would kindof show how the rear engine, rear wheel drive would work? I dont have any experiance with that, but it would definetly be an option.

 

I just found this.... http://www.dilysimotorsports.com/V8CRX.htm

I also found a few finished pictures, but I was wondering if anybody had seen this or knew any other details about it.

 

I know of the rwd dc2 Integra that was converted first to awd using Honda CRV parts for the drivetrain, then it was changed to rwd only, which was easily done by blocking off the front axles/etc. but the motor was still stock-like with the trans on the pass side of a transverse engine layout (L-R) and the LS1T56 being forward-rear layout will be so much custom work, ugh, no thanks.

that dc2 integra was sold to someone, pics are on honda-tech somewhere, i think it was built by Braille Auto maybe? anyhow, there was also an awd crx built with CRV drivetrain parts up in Montreal, but at the track it laid down something pitifulyl slow like a 15 sec. 1/4 mile, never heard from again....

 

Yes that was Braille autos car.

That CRX you are thinking of *granted if we are both thinking same one* was not using CRV parts it used the wagonvan of the same gen with a custom prop shaft and 6spd I think he had a bolt on z6? All the extra weight and 140 crank HP with his mods isn't going to help move it and the tranny isn't for sporty driving.

IIRC he went to a b18c1 and is alot quicker now.

Someone just turboed a AWD wagonvan on Hondatech rear seems to be holding well so far. I've read many a horror story about a good launch or 200 HP will nuke them, and being so rare no real aftermarket or easy upgrades.

 

That would be fantastic.

I would probably just go for the MR configuration though, like an old porsche 914. You need essentially what would be a transfer case, that would bolt up to the trans and send the power back 180 degrees back to the rear end as normal. It would be a pretty short shaft. In fact I saw something like that on Monster garage once. Their solution was a gear driven 1:1 device, the trans output operated normally, into the top portion of the device. It spun a yoke, on the other side was a gear, that meshed with a gear below it and spun a yoke on the same side as the top input, but pointed back to the rear. Short prop shaft to the diff and it was done. Had to add a cross bar to mount the device, and I dont remember how they hooked up the shifter.


Bound to be noisy as hell, but who would hear it over the 402?