First Gen Civic with modified 81 Accord Motor

[redr2]

Hey guys, glad I found the site. I thought I would share my '78 Civic with am 81 Accord motor running dual carbs, header, cam, ect.

I recently blew the head gasket and am looking at building up an 81 EK motor with a Canadian EL head (no CVCC!!)

I am also looking for a new header as mine has seen better days.

Here is my car:

www.roadsailing.com

Here is a video of my car:

http://videos.streetfire.net/video/c...c3477068e9.htm


- Kurt

[redr2]

I tried to upload pic...

[2ndGenGuy]

Sweet man! I've seen your site a bunch! Your car is super-badass. I've even posted a couple pics here before. Cool to get to talk to you! I think to get the 1800EK bottom end, you'll probably have to source it from down here. Your best bet might be to get the engine from an '82 or '83, since they had a little bit better design in the head and some better flow.

Now, I assume when you did your swap, that it was a bolt-in affair for that car, correct? The early E-series motors swapped around to different cars rather easily I hear. Being that they are the same basic block externally, like mounts, etc....

Here's some pics I pulled from your website! Glad to have you here!!

[88LXi68]

I love it! Welcome aboard

[BITESIZE]

Holy shiney batman!

[Hazwan]

Yeah I've seen your site before, and one of my favorite 1st gen Civics

Love the paint, engine, rims, eveything! Its just bad ass!

[DBMaster]

One of my best friends had a 78 Civic 24 years ago. This one's a lot simpler under the hood. Awesome job!

[87LXiR]

great ride man, sounds beautiful in the clip, very very nice.
oh and

[offthahook]

That is really sick! Nice work on that little Civic. You guys think old Accords are small, check out the old Civics.

[lostforawhile]

hey great car!! i did a lot of stuff back in the day with 81's, I liked them before they went to the non round headlights.

[xvok]

lol ya go for the 83 bottem end just make sure that you get the correct el head. thats what I am diong right now. it will be super chill to have someone to compare numbers with. good luck

[Civic Accord Honda]

badass car
and yeah lost is right the civics looked much better befor thay went to non round head lights
i used to have a 81 civic gl1500

[redr2]

glad you all like it ~

I am going to have to source the EK in the USA as Canada only got non CVCC versions (1600 EL Motors). Shouldn't be an issue though as I am only about 30 minutes from the border.

I was looking to keep it in the 79-81 range as I have a header that works for those years (although its on its last legs as well). Pacesetter and a company called Hondo (not a spelling mistake) made headers for these motors but are very difficult to find now, even used.

I am not against the 83's though but do want to confirm the intake ports are the same so my dual carb intake can bolt up to the block.

As for the swap, they swap in very easy but do require some minor welding and wiring to make them work. Easier than a D16 anyway.

[xvok]

intake is going to be the same but make sure that if you ek block is prior to 83 then you el head will need to be as wheel .

[redr2]

Ya, I know. The heads only interchange with the corresponding years...79-81 and 82-83. I'll obviously run the EL head on the EK block to ditch the CVCC design that came with the EK's.

I am trying to track down a motor that was already built up years ago but so far no luck.....

anyone hear have any leads on headers or dual carb intakes?

[2ndGenGuy]

Man, I'm not too far away. I can make it up to B.C. in less than 3 hours. If you need help sourcing an EK block just let me know. The 81 port design is WAY different from the 82-83. So if you want to keep your intake manifold and exhaust manifold, you're going to be SOL.



Here's a picture I took. The clean one is the '82-83 style, and the nasty looking one is the '81 style. Port layout is the same year-for-year other than the CVCC stuff. I've always got my eyes peeled for the intake manifolds and exhaust manifolds for any of the EK series stuff. There was a Hondo header for the 82-83 on eBay a few months ago, but that was the last I saw of it.

You can watch PreludePower.com as well, since the 1g Preludes also had the EK/EL motor.

[79cord]

There's also the crankshaft/flywheel bolt pattern change to be aware of, changed from M10 to M12(?) thread late in '80. So you'd need the appropriate flywheel.
'81(?) Automatic blocks might be worth considering too; seems they had extra oil outlet holes drilled just aboue the oil filter for an external engine oil-cooler.
But even if the block has seen better days EL & EK blocks shared the same part numbers so presumably it's the crank & rods that give the extra capacity.

[redr2]

Ya, I already have the larger flywheel spacing (mines an '81) and its shaved down to around 11 pounds.

Its strange as I see most the headers for the 82-83 blocks but side draft intakes are always for the 79-81 motors....of course this is also because the intake ports match up with the Civic's CVCC (1500) motor. I have yet to see a side draft intake specifically for the 82-83....unless they are custom.

As for the oil cooler, my block has them (blocked off)

[2ndGenGuy]

Yeah, my block has a factory oil cooler for it. And it was an automatic originally too. FTW!

I think when it comes time for headers, it will be custom time. It's damn near impossible to find headers for the '81 blocks. In fact, I've never EVER seen one for sale...

[tomatofiasco]

i am in ur thread

gaspin at ur trumpets

seriously thats thinspiration for me. i'd love to do something like that. where did you get the cam and how much power do you suppose you have with that setup? and how much does that civic weigh? my hatch is reasonably light so your civic must be really really light.

damn that reminds me, the little delinquent brother of an old friend of mine scored a civic exactly like yours [may have even been a boot-back] for NOTHING $ Australian. it had a blown head gasket and a 1200cc motor, and when he fixed that it actually went quite well even with two people weighing it down.

but then he broke the top engine mount OFF the engine [!!!] and thrashed it around in a vacant block beside his house until it had to be towed away and crushed. it was silver and didnt have any obvious rust that i could find. i could have made a project of it with my spare motor if he hadnt been such a dweeb

[redr2]

you can still get cams for these motors from Shadbolt Cams and Colt Cams (both near Vancouver, BC but they also ship). I believe Web Cams also has a grind for them.

For weight its high 1700 ...closer to 1800 pounds - its very light.

As for power...its kind of hard to say. The EL motors developed as much or more power than the US EK Motors as we had the benefit of no cvcc heads... I figure it is around 100 HP. I was planning a having it dynoed but then the head gasket blew. The power seems low but its the power to weight ratio that counts with these things. As it stands I have raced my buddy with a twin cam Integra motor swapped into his first gen wagon and can pull on him (as long as he is not using the nitrous set up) so it can hold its own to many of the modern motors. The dual carbs is what makes these things move, power was good with a Weber down draft but night and day with the dual carbs.

[tomatofiasco]

100hp is a lot of horsepower! i dont know what my car weighs, under 900kg though so its not much heavier than yours. i simply must rebuild this engine with righteous mega-intakes.

how much more aggressive is the cam from stock? my 81 cam wore out and i had to replace it with a '77 but i dont really know how they differ. i'd like to get the worn cam built up. the standard exhaust sounds ok to me, certainly not like the one on my magna which you can HEAR choking the engine [on later magnas, the difference between the normal, slow version and the positively fast sport version was a high-flow exhaust delivering 165kw] so is the exhaust a mandatory upgrade with a larger carb?

i'd like to have maybe 85 horsepower, just a bit more to get it up hills but not enough to become impractical. i mean its fine as it is and reasonably efficient, but im thinking i should spend some money on this car before its too late.

i think my steering column is rattling from 30 years of turning too

[redr2]

its not overly aggressive. it allows for more up top. It is still okay for the street and the cars idles smooth.

The exhaust is not a must but the secret with these engines is air flow hence the bigger carbs, header/exhaust.

[xvok]

hey what did you use on your older car for the sidedrafts they look like ether solex or mankki but i can't tell i would totaly be up for fabbing a duel intake

[redr2]

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