It looks like the manufacturing engineers had a great deal of say when designing the newest Civic. With a minimum of nuts and bolts, the entire subframe, steering rack and lower suspension arms drop right out with the engine. After draining fluids and disconnecting the battery, begin disconnecting the steering inside the car at the joint closest to the firewall. Then unplug the electrical connections on the electric power steering rack.
Move on to the lower suspension points, disconnecting the steering arms and bolts that attach the lower A-arms to the hub and axle carriers. Remove the header (it hangs lower than the rear section of the subframe), disconnect the engine harness connections, including the ECU which is now under the hood near the left headlight, then go for the large bolts on the subframe.
Unless you have the ability to lower the entire subframe with the engine attached, drop the subframe at this point and then drop the engine. Even with a lift, this can be tough because of the large area of the subframe. Removing the engine without removing the subframe isn't possible. Because the cowl and windshield hang over the engine compartment so far, it is impossible to get the engine out from the top.
WiringThis is where the 2006 Civic throws us a curve ball. Unlike all the previous E-chassis, the ECU is under the hood. Likely this is a cost savings and assembly time move, but it makes the swap harder. Because Hondata doesn't have any reflashes available yet, we chose to step back to an ECU that's programmable.
That's the Hondata K-Pro. Now we're all set for any displacement, naturally aspirated or with forced induction.
Which brings up the next issue: where do we mount the K-Pro? It would take a very long harness to connect the plugs, which are now under the hood, to the usual location near the glovebox. To keep things simple, Hasport has used a modified RSX-S harness that plugs into the K24 engine. The harness was modified by adding an E plug for the K-pro ECU and key connections with the '06 Si body harness. The K-Pro was then mounted in the same location as the stock ECU. Since the K-Pro isn't weatherproof, there's no driving this car on anything but sunny days.
To make the connection to the body harness, Hasport spliced wires that are in the under hood portion of the chassis harness to wires from the modified engine harness. The important connections that had to be made with the cabin harness are ECU power, main and fuel pump relays, air-fuel sensor relay, radiator fan relay, coil power, and injectors. Honda's service manuals have the entire harness layout deciphered and labled.
Great, now you can run the engine, but you can't run the new double-decker dash. Honda has switched all the dash instrumentation to run on ECU CAN bus signals, which are basically an automotive digital protocol. The K-Pro isn't compatible, so you can deal with it or do what Hasport did and get an Xsport digital dash from Pi Technology. Pi is the standard for sensors and instrumentation used by most of the racing industry. Just feed it the signals for things like tach, speed, temp, etc., and you now have an even cooler dash.
By Tim Kelly
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