I've been searching for a good daily driver for a while now and settled on a Honda/Acura brand product for their reliability and relatively inexpensive parts/maintenance. I wanted something fun so I narrowed my search down to stock '99-'00 civic si's and pre-2000 civic hatchback w/ GSR swaps. However, lately I've been focusing on used K swapped civics’ as they tend to go for not much more money than a stock '99-'00 si and, the K swap looks to be considerably more fun.


I know that K swaps will naturally be more expensive to maintain in terms of the price of parts and probably labor costs as well. I've also heard that the K swapped civics have a TON of vibration esp. when @ idle, and foremostly this car is supposed to function as my DD. Just how much more expensive will a K swap be to maintain I am not certain, I think I can stand a bit of vibration but only to a point...

I understand that there will obviously be trade offs in terms of effectiveness of fulfilling the role of DD by choosing a K swap car over a more standard civic, but just how bad will those trade-off's be? I keep having to remind myself that I am buying a DD not just something to have fun in. I am not a Honda expert, I have never even owned a Japanese make car until now (I have always owned Euro cars, but the maintenance costs are retarded & not worth the benefits)... am I getting in over my head by expecting a K swapped civic to function as a good DD? I know this is a Mitsu forum so many of you may not be very experienced with Honda's either but I appreciate any input. Thanks for your time,






P.S
I found a super clean Civic EK K24A4 swap in Nevada and felt it was too good to pass up, so I jumped on it & paid for a compression/leak down test (will get the results tomorrow). I am planning on closing the deal, I will put a deposit in if the motor performs well in the compression test.

So this is my last chance to change my mind. Let me know if you think I am jumping into something without properly thinking things through. I am pretty sure that the gentleman that I am buying the car from is a member of this website, hope he does'nt mind my post!

 

To those whom are interested, here's the specs on the EK k series swap I am about to pick up:

Engine-
2005 k24a4 from Dr Charles/ Skunk2 ef wagon
Stock k24a4 bottom end with k20a2 oil pump
Skunk2 Ported head
Head milled 25 thou
Skunk2 Pro Series Valves
Skunk2 Pro Series Valve Springs
Skunk2 Ti retaniers
Skunk2 Stage 3 cams (smaller than an a2 stage 1 cam)
Skunk2 68 mm throttle body
RC 440cc injectors
RBC Intake manifold ported and modded
Hondata Intake manifold gasket
Golden eagle pro series fuel rail / steel braided fuel lines
HKS Fuel pressure regulator
R-Crew Header
Rsr ex-mag exhaust
Visteon full size racing radiator with slim fan
Hassport motor mount kit
Karcept shift adapter box

Tranny-
RSX Type-s 4.7 final drive LSD 6 speed

Computer-
AEM EMS church dyno 251 whp@191 tq

Suspension/Braking/Wheels
ITR 5 lug conversion
JDM CTR Springs and Shocks
ITR Rear Sway Bar
ST Front Sway Bar
ITR Front/ Rear disc brakes
Steel Braided lines
08 civic 16" wheels 5 lug

-It also has hybrid-racing aftermarket axles. 40K on the motor/tranny, 70K on the chassis.

 

So wheres the picture and how much are you paying for it? Sounds like a pretty nice car. To never owning a Honda and jumping on this deal is kind of hard for me to say. To really appreciate the Honda heritage, you have to start from the bottom up. It will make you appreciate Hondas more. I see people jump on the Honda bandwagon getting crazy cars just to sell it off within a couple months because they didn't quite understand the hype about it. They knew it was quick but they didn't have the love and understanding it took to fully enjoy the vehicle.

 

Great DD, but idk about your area, but a car like that would be gone in a week on Long Island, no matter how good your area is...If people find out what it has, it'll disappear, that my take

 

A k24 EK chassis would make a nice DD and they're fast too but they are a thief magnet so please re-consider before you get yourself into one.

 

Evohung-
What aspects of a honda/acura car would I need to understand? How there power band & motor's behave differently than other makes?

I think I am getting a very fair deal on this EK, just over 9 grand and this is part of the reason why I am jumping on it. My only worry about this particular deal is that the motor has been stressed B/C of the mod's to the motor and the wear from aggressive driving that obviously comes with such a type of car. If the car does well in the compression tests I will then have peace of mind regarding the deal.


Pinky & Wicked 'n Evo-
I have heard about the problem with theft w/ these cars, and its something I am worried about. The car I am looking at has a kill switch, also the ECU is supposedly easy to remove and take out along with you when you park the car in a high risk setting.

 

So the car passed the compression test with 150 straight across all cyl.

looks like I'm going to place my deposit on the car. Any last thoughts from you guys? How bad do you think the torque steer will be?

 

there are a few around my area. I would expect tq steer to be kinda bad but idk much about hondas

 

I just parted out and sold alot my parts from my k swapped eg. I loved daily'ing the car. It was a k24/k20a2 setup and had plenty of tq downlow. I would be in 5th at 35mph hit the gas and still have plenty of acceleration. But I moved from a little city in the middle of nowhere to a big city and I was too worried about theft so I sold it all and got an evo.

 

Stock k20a2+ek= mid 13 sec car. I would do it brotha man. That's not even 200whp. Can't beat that. i love hondas. I also own an Ep3 with k20 swap. it's pretty nice. K swapped civic is a great daily driver due to lack of much torque. But who needs torque when you have i-vtec?

 

Not bad enough for you to pass it up..

Get some sort of security system and ofcourse lojack or some kind of gps tracking system. kill switch with out a doubt. That's if you don't think it will be safe in your area. Theft is high for hondas. But they are still great cars and you can keep it for ever as long as you take the right percautions.

Go for it either way.. if you don't, give me dude's number, i'll pay a visit and purchase it for myself.. lol jk good luck

keep us posted

 

pics pics pics!

 

sounds like a good - thatll definitly be a fun dd. Just watch out if word gets out of what kind of swap it has in it you may not see it for very long- those swaps get stollen left and right all across the country it really doesnt matter where you live. Def do the nesescary percautions ie alarm low jack - good luck if you decide to purchase the car

 

Here ya go. Thanks for the comments everyone.

 

Thats a great little car, ive been into hondas for years and the only reason i have an evo was my civics being stolen

Make sure if you buy that car you put lo-jack in it and garage it. I would also tell people its a stock d series