EK performance

[seancornelis]

***DISCLAIMER: I do not claim any of this information to be 100% accurate as most of it is typed from memory of research I did on modifying the EK engine over four years ago. This is only intended as a rough draft and hopefully we can get some other info together and eventually make an EK section a part of the FAQ. If you are mislead because of any of this information I am sincerely sorry and do not recommend you attempt anything in this thread without doing further research on your own. IF ANYTHING CONTAINED HERE IS INACCURATE LET ME KNOW AND I WILL CORRECT IT**

I'm still loving that 3geez.com finally added these sections, as a matter of fact in the last couple days I've spent most of my free time reading through all of the threads in the 1/2g sections....but it seems as if a lot of people see the EK as a dead end as far as performance goes, whereaes the 84-85 models have the convenience of being able to take an A-series engine and a whole other world of performance parts.

While that's definitely true (EK is much more limited) there are some options, and at one time there was a decent amount of aftermarket support for these motors. There was a time when Jackson Racing and A/T Engineering catalogs were filled with parts for these with everything from swaybars to full turbo kits.

I'm just gonna rack my brain here and see what I can remember from my EK1 owning days, keep in mind I've never modified one in any way (just fixed em when they broke!) but I've done pretty heavy research so hopefully someone can take what I provide to the next level...

First off, these are all true E-series motors, descendents of the original EB 1200cc all aluminum motor in the 1973 Honda Civic. The ES series motors (84-85) are entirely different and basically early A-series. The only direct swaps are the earlier E-series (EB,EN,EG,EJ,etc,etc.) but those are all smaller displacement and less horsepower so I have no idea why you'd want one. There is at least one motor that is a direct swap that produces significantly more horsepower....but I'll get into that later as it's tricky.

There's (at least) 2 types of EK1 motor, the 79-81 (Accord/Prelude) 2 port exhaust head and the 82-83 (Accord) 4 port exhaust head. While nearly identical, externally, the oil and coolant passages between the block and head do not line up at all nor do the ports for the intake/exhaust manifolds so they're technically two different engines. The four port motor is good for a whole 3 HP more, stock, than the older one. There was also a JDM EK motor (not EK1) that was claimed as having 97HP stock although I know nothing about it whatsoever. The EK1 in the 82 Prelude (1st gen) I also know nothing about and am not sure if it was a 2p or 4p or some kind of total freak.

Stock specs are:
2port: 1751cc(77x94) 8.0:1 72HP@4500rpm / 94lb.ft@3000rpm
4port: 1751cc(80x79.5) 8.8:1 75HP@4500rpm / 96lb.ft@3000rpm

Both redline at 6000rpm and have CVCC heads....which is what I'll get into right now.

First order of business when modifying an EK should be upgrading to the EL (1602) head. This is the crossflow, non-CVCC head that came on 79-83 1.6l non-USDM Accords/Ludes. In the states, our closest source for these is Canada where they seem to be fairly common, although sourcing one might be tough without a connection up north. This is a direct swap, although you need to right EL head relative to your year - 79-81 EL is 1602cc and 82-83 is 1598cc. Not only will these flow much better and slightly bump compression, but they also are much less complicated and less prone to overheating. As with anything, a good shop can port/polish. Larger valves can be done but are expensive since they have to be custom made. I don't know what you can swap on the bottom end of things, but a 2v crank in a 4v block would make one hell of a stroker, which I just realized. No clue about this however. Of course the EK can be bored out as well, but I wouldn't go too far with it.

In 2002 there was a company still building cams for the EK1 but I'll be damned if I can remember their name anymore....they did have a website so if I come across it, I'll definitely post it here. In any case, it's probably even cheaper to have your cam reground to whatever specs you like, just find a quality shop.

Getting back to the "bolt on" ends of things....
There were at one time several kinds of headers available, Jackson Racing, A/T, Pacesetter and S&S being the bigger names although there were also some long since defunct brands out there. A couple years ago there was a "Hondo" (actual brand, not a misprint) header for the 82-83 EK1 that went for a whole $23 on Ebay, brand new in the box.

Dual carb manifolds also existed from a variety of sources (mostly the same listed above) so Deltoros, DCOES, Mikunis, etc. are all possible although this may be the hardest item to locate of all. I've seen a handful of 1st gen Civics running EL/EK motors with these on the web so they do still exist (scroll down to the end of this post for a link to 1st gen Civic info). I also remember someone telling me that the early EL head has the same port spacing as the ES1 dual carb motor from the 2nd gen Prelude, although I have no clue how factual that is. Those carbs aren't the greatest things in the world in performance terms, but that motor was good for 100hp (same displacement) and I owned one and never had any problems with the carbs whatsoever. Ran smooth and pulled hard.

Weber 32/36 is of course do-able and last time I checked, full kits were still available from a few sources (that was 4 years ago though, so again sorry if I'm wrong). If you want to upgrade your carb and don't plan on doing much else, this is definitely the way to go. If you wanna do a little rebuilding and fabricating of your own, used carbs can usually be had for a song as well - this is one of the most popular aftermarket carbuerators out there.
If you want a completely different method of fuel delivery however.....there was at one time a company called Mosselman that built a Fuel Injection kit for these motors. It was all mechanical and based off the early VW Rabbit system. Insanely rare and in all likelihood a piece of crap, but I just figured I'd throw that out there.

Custom built TBI injection wouldn't be THAT hard, however. A TBI system fits the motor in the same way a single downdraft carb does, however it's a computer controlled single injector system. To get this running, you would need a donor TBI system (best bet probably being the 4th gen Civic or a GM TBI system from a J-body 2.0l motor) an adapter plate to fit on your manifold (can be easily fabricated) an EFI pump, a return line ('85 SEi), a modified distributor (if you want spark control as well) and hours and hours of patience with wiring, tuning and adapting sensors. From a performance standpoint, all this work wouldn't give you huge gains - but it would improve driveability immensely. Plus it'll allow you to run a pretty wild cam without sacrificing as much fuel economy or idle quality. This is only an idea I've gotten in my head recently and if anyone is interested I can go into it a little more because in reality it is more complicated than I'm making it seem.

[seancornelis]

PART 2

Now I'm gonna get into turbocharging, motor swaps and multi port fuel injection all in one....get ready, this is where it gets really far fetched!

If you read through this whole thing, do you remember earlier that I mentioned there actually is one engine that will swap into a 1st/2nd gen Accord engine bay and produces significantly more horsepower? I wasn't joking! Here's the catch - this engine is the 1200cc ER engine from the 83-87 Honda City Turbo, an SOHC MPFI CVCC (that enough abbreviations for ya?) engine that was only ever available in Japan and Australia. Early models produced 100hp from the factory, later models were intercooled and produced slightly more although I don't know how much. I actually know very little about these cars and motors, only that the block has the exact same mounting points...as far as trannies go I couldn't tell you. People in Australia have modified these to produce 200hp or so although I've heard they're generally regarded as total grenades (fast though...City is even smaller than a 1g Civic!). Importing one would be ridiculously expensive, although the motor itself shouldn't cost much....finding one that isn't trashed would be even harder and you can't exactly go to Autozone and by parts for it....

Here's where the interesting part comes in.....while looking up info on them I stumbled across a City Turbo forum where some Australians are attempting to ditch the ER block/head and use an EL/EK setup although none have succeeded so far as I can tell....check this out

Colza and I found during our massive engine hunt that neither EP nor EK were particularily difficult to find, it was just they were impossible to find with the correct manifold config, it was most frustraing. The City turbo exhaust manifold bolts onto the EL motor, as does the intake manifold with the removal of two studs and their repositioning slightly wider. It also requires that you build up material on top of the ports on the head, either as I did by tig welding some ali onto it and getting the face milled flat, then you have to take to it with a die grinder or some enthuisiastic filing, this is require so injectors can squirt into the ports, and for the manifold to seal as the port surface on the EL is not quite high enough. Also need to block off the cvcc ports if using a stock manifold.

If that doesn't make any sense to you, it pretty much means that the City Turbo exhaust manifold and intake manifold will fit the EL head (not sure which one yet although it shouldn't be hard to find out) meaning that if you wanted to turbocharge an EK motor, instead of having to have a turbo manifold custom built, you could just bolt on a City Turbo manifold and go with the turbo of your choice.

Of course carbed turbo setups are a little backwards by nature, but this could theoretically be done with minimal fabricating. Jackson Racing sold a carbed turbo system for the EK that was advertised at 126hp so that's not really too bad if you're willing to deal with the lag.

If you wanted to go the extra mile, MPFI Turbo is totally possible as well although it would require much more work. As you see up there, just to get the intake manifold on requires some light machining but that's not the real hard part. You would definitely have to go with an engine management system different than the City Turbo. 600ccs of displacement is a huge difference and neither the turbocharger nor the computer will be up to the task. Aftermarket systems are readily available but extremely pricey, definitely worth it though. A GM MPFI system can also be adapted, 84-86 J-bodies had an optional MPFI 1.8l SOHC Turbo which would be perfect (though not as good as a real aftermarket system). The City Turbo is the only turbocharged car Honda has sold from the factory, so using an OEM Honda engine management system is pretty much out of the question.

...and then on the total opposite side of the coin, if you were so inclined - you could forget forced induction and install the City Turbo intake manifold minus turbo gear and have a Multi Port Fuel Injected 25 year old Honda four cylinder. This would also require either the aftermarket engine control or you COULD use later model Honda PGM-FI stuff. I don't really know much about it but I hear there's a decent amount of tuning you can do on a stock ECM with the OBDI stuff nowadays. In all honesty, this should be just as good for making horsepower as carbs, and much more driveable although I'm sure I'd get plenty of arguments on that.

Simply sourcing the Intake/Exhaust manifolds from Australia/Japan would cost a fraction of what an entire ER-T motor would cost as there are tons of these sitting in scrap yards. Again NO ONE has ever done this although some Australians are working on it and I'll provide a link to that at the end, but I figured why not throw this out as I've never heard mention of it before.

Other engine swaps are going to require custom mounts, although virtually any four cylinder honda has ever built will physically fit. From reading some of the newer posts on here, it seems as if an A-series motor shares the same mounting points except the front, though. I've often pondered a D16Y8 (96-00 Civic) swap as it's cheap as hell, easy to find in good shape, revs out to 7 grand and makes around 130hp stock - plus really light. Earlier D-series are a common swap into 1g Civics although it's not a straight swap by any means.

Now there's nothing but a couple loose ends to tie up!
Transmissions....automatics stink, and as far as the 5-speeds go I have no clue what the gear ratios are, but I do know that the 1st generation shifter linkage is awful and the 82-83 transmission is smooth as silk, one of the nicer FWD linkages I've ever used and in my opinion a little tighter than the 84-85 or 3g Accord for that matter. I think they may have used the newer tranny in 81 Accords too but I've got no clue.

No one builds an exhaust system for these cars anymore, but I know there was a company called "Forza" (possibly wrong) that did not too long ago, and I've seen a couple of these on Ebay (and one in real life). In all honesty, your own custom built one at the exhaust shop of your choice shouldn't be anymore expensive. Don't go overboard, 2" piping should be fine unless you plan on doing some really crazy stuff to your motor. Catalytic converter might not be neccessary to pass emissions (early Accords didn't have them until the EPA forced them to put them on) and if you're emissions exempt you should definitely ditch it. Please don't get a fart can muffler, don't make the rest of us look like retards

Suspension pieces - it seems theres a lot of info on here already. Those Koni inserts would come up every single week on Ebay when I was checking last, but at that time classiccargarage.com still had them in stock too....Tokico also made struts (not inserts) at one time. I've driven a car with these and it was night and day. Those seem much rarer. Refer to Phydeaux' posts for more info on suspension stuff, all of the 84-85 stuff applies to the 82-83 and possibly the 79-81 as well.

I've also got a bunch of info on weird interior and trim packages Honda offered overseas on these cars although I'm gonna save that for another thread.

Here's the links, as promised

http://www.1stgencivic.com
-Formerly civic1200.com although the new version is much nicer, the 1g Civic guys are numerous and knowledgeable when it comes to all things E-series related. They usually have some interesting parts come up in the classifieds as well AND they've got a 1g Accord section nowadays

http://www.cityturbo.com/forums/view...9fb9341afc458a
-Thread on cityturbo.com about a hybrid EL/ER motor, there's more info elsewhere on the site but you have to be a registered member to view it.

http://car-part.com
-Might be a "duh" for some people, but this makes it a little easier to track down SEi parts and Canadian EL heads.

Much thanks to Phydeaux and the members of civic1200.com - before this site existed the two best sources for 1/2g Accord info in the world. Hope this helps somebody!

[Ichiban]

i have more goddamned EL 1602cc engines and heads than i know what to do with....i have only ever seen one EK1 1751 EVER and it was in an imported 1g that was loaded to the hilt. all our canadian accords were 1602cc until 84, then they came with the 1598cc A16 12-valve engines until 86. bet you've never heard of those ever?

and yes, once i get my car passed a dot inspection, its getting a BT1 Fi motor, i've test fit it on my parts car and have to make the front motor mount, big deal, it should take me maybe an hour at most. the real screwup is the header design, because my 82 was designed for a rear exhaust engine, and the crossmember is about 2'' away from the front of the A20 block. i was thinking of routing the exhaust to the side and under the tranny. I might add that the EL 1602 head is still a counter-flow design.

more to the point, a turbo EK1 block in my 1g would be sweet...the last EL engine i threw in it made it 53km before it overheated and died. what a waste of time.

[2ndGenGuy]

Hmmmm... More differences than I know what to do with again...

There's (at least) 2 types of EK1 motor, the 79-81 (Accord/Prelude) 2 port exhaust head and the 82-83 (Accord) 4 port exhaust head. While nearly identical, externally, the oil and coolant passages between the block and head do not line up at all nor do the ports for the intake/exhaust manifolds so they're technically two different engines. The four port motor is good for a whole 3 HP more, stock, than the older one. There was also a JDM EK motor (not EK1) that was claimed as having 97HP stock although I know nothing about it whatsoever. The EK1 in the 82 Prelude (1st gen) I also know nothing about and am not sure if it was a 2p or 4p or some kind of total freak.

My 81 EK1 came with a 4-port head on it. So maybe this is a late '81 head! Man the differences year to year are astounding. This could take some serious time to actually research. We need to find somebody at Honda and get the official word straight. We're going to have to build an Accord engine database Wiki or something and update it as we find more information.

[79cord]

Ok here's some usefull comparison pictures

EF 1600cc CVCC 1976-78
http://slhondaparts.com/images/PCI/136710/016/2.jpg
http://slhondaparts.com/images/PCI/136710/014/6.jpg
http://slhondaparts.com/images/PCI/136710/014/7.jpg

2-port EK 1751cc CVCC 1979-80
http://slhondaparts.com/images/PCI/136890/021/1.jpg
http://slhondaparts.com/images/PCI/136890/018/8.jpg
http://hubcap.clemson.edu/~wstef/pix/head2.jpg
http://hubcap.clemson.edu/~wstef/pix/head1.jpg

4-port EK 1751cc CCVCII 1980-81
http://slhondaparts.com/images/PCI/136890/021/2.jpg
http://slhondaparts.com/images/PCI/136890/019/1.jpg
https://www.3geez.com/forum/showthrea...566#post690566

2nd gen EK 1751 CVCC 1982-1983
New head & manifold castings as intake & exhaust valves swap positions
http://slhondaparts.com/images/PCI/13SA50/015/3.jpg
http://slhondaparts.com/images/PCI/13SA50/016/6.jpg

1979-81 EL 1602 NON-CVCC photos
-Better warn you & only took these this morning so I haven't trimmed down the image sizes yet!
http://www.1stgencivic.com/albxpg140...0355/79EL-.JPG
http://www.1stgencivic.com/albxpg140...10355/79EL.JPG
http://www.1stgencivic.com/albxpg140...0355/79EL_.JPG

1980-81 EK 1751 CVCCII vs 1982-83 EL 1602 NON_CVCC photos
Note - Like 2nd gen EK, 2nd gen EL head also has new head & manifold castings as intake & exhaust valves swap positions -likely the same basic head castings.
https://www.3geez.com/forum/showthrea...566#post690566

Please note that I have refered to the EK 4-port Head as CVCCII which is how the Honda .JP factbook refered to this revised engine which Honda released in japan in May of 1980 and apparently adopted the 1979-81 EL cylinder head casting but was machined differently to accomodate the Auxillary Intake valve, valvetrain & CVCC combustion area. This head provided more power than the previous EK CVCC head but required the use of a catalytic converter to achieve the Californian & Japanese Emmisions standards & the resultant unleaded fuel ONLY requirement (lead fouls Catalytic converters), where Honda had previously prided itself upon meeting emissions standards without expensive & restrictive Cat. converters.
Still don't know where this leaves us on the

the oil and coolant passages between the block and head do not line up

question since it seems unlikely to have been a 2-port/4-port revision -this was possibly a 1st gen EK/EL to 2nd gen EK/EL revision? especially since some dealer service parts webites list different headgasket part No's between the two.

[2ndGenGuy]

Dude you rock! This should be a sticky thread now for sure.

[2ndGenGuy]

First order of business when modifying an EK should be upgrading to the EL (1602) head. This is the crossflow, non-CVCC head that came on 79-83 1.6l non-USDM Accords/Ludes. In the states, our closest source for these is Canada where they seem to be fairly common, although sourcing one might be tough without a connection up north. This is a direct swap, although you need to right EL head relative to your year - 79-81 EL is 1602cc and 82-83 is 1598cc. Not only will these flow much better and slightly bump compression, but they also are much less complicated and less prone to overheating. As with anything, a good shop can port/polish. Larger valves can be done but are expensive since they have to be custom made. I don't know what you can swap on the bottom end of things, but a 2v crank in a 4v block would make one hell of a stroker, which I just realized. No clue about this however. Of course the EK can be bored out as well, but I wouldn't go too far with it.

Please note when trying to do an EL head swap: "...you need to right EL head relative to your year - 79-81 EL is 1602cc and 82-83 is 1598cc" !!!

As I just found out. I just had the '83 1598cc EL head rebuilt, to put on my '81 1751 EK1. NOPE it does NOT work. The only reason it doesn't is because 3 head bolts near the exhaust/intake manifold are moved in ~2mm. Thats right just barely moved enough to make the heads incompatible. All the oil passages appear to be okay otherwise. The furthest left and right bolts were moved slightly, and the middle one is moved a bit more. Probably about 4mm.

[79cord]

So cylinderhead bolt pattern changed for the 2nd gen EK & EL NOT oil & water passages.

Lets correct the other misleading info as well. As guyhatesmycar said 1982-3 EL was STILL 1602cc and bore & stroke did not change, nor cranks, (although there was a change in flywheel to crank bolts from M10 to M12 some time in 1980 at which time Honda may also have changed cam pulleys cosmetically from 6 holes to a star pattern).
So building a stroker by combining '2&4 v' engine parts is not possible ! Though the later engines might have featured different pistons to raise compression ratio's & I have seen 1601cc specified by Honda once as a result.

1979-81 '2 & 4 port' exhaust EK heads should still be interchangeable with 1979-81 EL heads providing you don't cross the 1st -2nd gen Accord line to the 'out-board' exhaust ports of 1982-3. 1982 Preludes also picked up these engine revisions.

I believe this confusion might have occured by someone assuming all 1st gen Accord EK were 2 port exhaust & the '84-5 1598cc A16 engine was the same as the later EL.

P.S. more info -I especially don't trust the claimed power outputs since figures tended to vary all over the place & Japanese quoted figure were measured to a different scale so I've had to guesstimate that

'76-78 EF CVCC 1599cc 74x 93mm Bore x Stroke 8.0:1 CR 68HP
'77-78 EG NON-CVCC 1599cc 74x 93mm Bore x Stroke 8.4:1 CR 80HP
'79-81 EL NON-CVCC 1602cc 77x 86mm Bore x Stroke 8.4:1 CR 80HP
'79-80 EK CVCC 1751cc 77x 94mm Bore x Stroke 8.0:1 CR 72HP
'80-81 EK CVCCII 1751cc 77x 94mm Bore x Stroke 8.0:1 CR 73HP
'82-83 EL NON-CVCC 1602cc 77x 86mm Bore x Stroke 8.8:1 CR 82HP
'82-83 EK CVCC 1751cc 77x 94mm Bore x Stroke 8.8:1 CR 75HP

[seancornelis]

Ok, 9 months later!

I'm gonna go through and try to correct some stuff.

I was totally wrong on the bore and stroke of both motors, I don't remember where I got those numbers from, but looking in my Chiltons right now all EK1 motors were 77x94. I don't know what 80x79.5 is but it works out to around 1600cc so probably the A16?? (guyhatesmycar you're right, I've never heard of that motor up until this thread!). 94mm is the largest stroke of any E-series motor so building a stroker is definitely out.

I guess I'm wrong about the oil/water passages (as opposed to the head bolts being different), and the EL being the crossflow E-series head. Now that I'm thinking about it, I might be confusing the EL and EB in that regard....not sure if the EB fits either EK block however.

There's probably some other stuff too but it's late and I gotta be up for work in not too many hours. 79cord great work on those head comparisons!! I'll edit the original post properly sometime tommorow.

[Ichiban]

all our canadian accords were 1602cc until 84, then they came with the 1598cc A16 12-valve engines until 86.

I should clarify. 79-82 Accords came with the EL 1602. 84-85 Accords came with the A16, AKA the EZ engine. The EZ engine resembles the rest of the A-series engines (ET, BS, ES..etc) but has a shitty stamped valve cover with a "12-valve" sticker on it.