radiator went out...time for swap

We may earn a small commission from affiliate links and paid advertisements. Terms

trash man

who put the "S" in lisp?
I have a '93 hatch. I also have a '94 LS and a buncha turbo stuff because I was planning on doing a turbo project. On my way home today, the Z6 was runnin a little hot, so I got it home and found coolant leaking at the bottom of the radiator. Since I was planning on doing the swap anyways, I figured what better time then now! I just had a couple questions before I take it over to the tuner.....

1. I have a shopping list created and with parts I'm looking at about $3100, but I have no idea what clutch to go with. How do you rate a clutch? By HP? Stage 1, 2, 3, etc is confusing to me.

2. Once I have it all in and let's say for argument's sake, I have the boost at 10 psi. If I want to up the boost, do I need a re-tune?

3. I'm budgeting $5000 to get this done. That's all the aftermarket parts, any gaskets, misc. stuff, and getting it all installed. Does this sound resonable?

My suspension stuff is already done and aligned. The timing is kind of shitty because my new wheels should be here around Friday. Guess I'll have to wait a few weeks before I put the new shoes on! If anyone is interested, I can provide my "shopping list" along with prices I found for the parts and maybe someone can kind of review it and let me know if I'm way off base.

Any help would be very very much appreciated.
 
Well that was my next question....is the radiator from a '93 eg hatch the same as the radiator from a '94 LS? I don't want to replace the radiator on a civic if I'm pulling the motor anyways. And can nobody answer my questions?
 
Well that was my next question....is the radiator from a '93 eg hatch the same as the radiator from a '94 LS? I don't want to replace the radiator on a civic if I'm pulling the motor anyways. And can nobody answer my questions?

no its not. 93 civic uses a half sized radiator. it will still match the b-series motor. just buy a koyo as stated before and get the radiator hoses for a 94 del sol vtec :)
 
Thank you. I dunno, I might just drop it off at the shop anyways. Trying to do this kind of stuff sucks...I work 14 hour days outside, I'm trying to get this build up to speed, and I'm trying to plan a wedding for October. Half of me want to just drop it off and say screw it and have all the stuff done and the other half wants to do it myself for the pride factor. I'm just worried that I'll cut corners and half-ass some of the stuff if I start doing it myself. Not because I'm a lazy person but because time is definately not my friend right now and I don't want to wait until winter when it's freezing ass cold. This type of thing is something I want to do right the first time to avoid problems later. What do you guys think...$5000 enough or am I highballing it?
 
Is that $5K your budget for the install? Or is that for all the parts including the install? An average shop normally charges between a grand and $1500 for an install. So getting a boosted motor in there with any add-ons for 5K might be tough...

A stock, boosted LS will probably be possible on that budget, but if you are going to want it done right, I would build the LS and have it installed without boost. I would take a built, non-boosted motor and piece of mind over a boosted, stock motor because I was working with a budget...
 
Last edited:
The $5K is the budget for the extras and the installation.....the motor is already built for boost. By extras I mean fuel rail, mounts, axles, etc. My extras list amounts to about $3K, but doesn't count things like the water pump gasket or any miscellaneous bolts, it's strictly an aftermarket parts list. So that would leave about $2K for the installation and tuning.
 
I say go for it...I'm sure you could tame down that list of "extras" and still have money left over if the motor is already built and in your possession.
 
Yeah, the motor is built, but the block is next to me in the computer room and the head is in the garage!! All the machine work/porting/sleeving/etc. is done though. Just need some ARP studs and a head gasket. Anyways, you convinced me.....dropping it off at the shop on Saturday!! Now we play the waiting game.................
 
Back
Top