A Honda transplant question

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Lathedog

New Member
I don’t think I’m in the right forum but it looks like you guys know your Hondas!
A little background. I am in my 60s. All I ever had that is a Honda is motorcycles. I still ride my ST1300.
I am wanting to build a mid engine 73 Beetle. I see all these high powered Hondas and since they are abundant and built so dependable I have decided to use a Honda for this. I built a 51 Chevy and put an LS engine in it by myself so I am somewhat capable but I followed LS1.com which had some great articles and information on doing it.
So basically I won’t have any kind of wiring in the car to start with.Is there any infro that can guide me in acquiring a Honda engine and hopefully a manual transmission to do such a thing. I know GM has Vats to lock the computer. I don’t know one thing about Hondas but I don’t want to read 500 posts and just get confused.I will read what I need too tho if directed to it. Like I said I’m kinda old but havnt grew up yet. Lol.. I would like to have 250-300 hp. I was gonna do a GM ecotec turbo 2.0 but they are too expensive to buy a wrecked car to get everything I will need. Pullapart is available so I would think I could gather up parts.
So.. can I have any help on selecting a engine and trans and control system? Should be a cool project but it looks like you guys are more in swapping from Honda to Honda. Ps. I am a machinist and have a nice selection of tools to use so I can modify as needed. Thanks Jim
 
Welcome aboard!

Interesting idea.

So, the core issue you're going to face with older honda engines (b,d,h) is that they spin backwards from most others.
most engines have the intake on the front and the exhaust on the back and the trans on the driver side.
older hondas have the intake in the back, the exhaust in the front, and the trans on the passenger side.

The newer honda engines, like the k series, switched that up and they follow the more standard set up.

k series aren't cheap, but they are around in the junkyard. the accords and crv's and what not all came with them nowadays, even though they aren't the highest performing variants. you can swap some parts and k24/k20 hybrid the block/head too to make a good 250+ hp all motor setup without too much concern.


Challenges you will have--

the shift linkage will be backwards. need to rig some servo to shift under up and around the housing.

mid engine could result in some odd axel angels if you're going to use the stndard trans which will likely just cause them to snap all the time.

also, how are you going to mid-engine a rear-engine mount car?

wiring, you'll need to do something like a kpro for the ecu. wiring, you're going to have to use the harness that comes with the engine and figure out how to get yoru dash/ignition to work i think might be the easier route.


https://k-tuned.3dcartstores.com/ is a good place for Kseries parts if that's the route you head down.
 
The engine will sit in the chassis just the same as it did in the front of a Honda. I had no idea on the transmission being on the right side. I was assuming the trans mission is cable operated So was thinking of using a rod to go back and then make a connection to the cable to continue on to the trans.
I’m not afraid of wiring but need a good schematic.
As far as mounting the engine I will be cutting off the beetles trans mount and fab up a whole new mount. I am not following you on the axle issues. If I have engine set down where ride height will have axles in a ballpark horizontal plane then all should be good.I will probably need shorter axles. Not sure if I can cut the splines or not.
Thanks for the reply. I was reading that the k24 is what I probably should get.Once again I can read and read and get sidetracked so easily.lol.
Was kinda wanting a turbo on it to make it more cool. I can fab a lot of the parts.I used Hp tuners on the LS in the truck. Can you use that on Hondas? Thanks!
 
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cable trans are from pre 91 b/d, and later k-series are cable. 92+ b/d are linkages. It's going to take a lot of engineering to make a series of connections work in the right direction (eg, 1st to 2nd in the car is
1
2
and then route that to the back of the car, and then flip it the exact proportion to move into gear... tons of trail and error here for sure)

mid engine implies it sits before the axel. the bug is rear-engine. so, if you go rear engine and straight out to the axels, you'll be ok. \ / won't last long. - - will be ok. You can cut/paste the rod with a welder. There's companies out there like driveshaft shop who can probably make you anything if you give them measurements.

Tuners are out there. Kpro from hondata and ktune exist.
 
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