Engine swap in 2003 civic dx

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shmarkham09

New Member
Hello everyone, I am new to all this so please bear with me. I am thinking of doing an engine swap in my 2003 civic dx. Everything on the car is stock, I bought the car brand new in '03 and just hit 111k. It is a 5 spd. The reason I am thinking of an engine swap is that I would like to get a little more power out of it, also the tranny is starting to give me issues. I believe the reason for this is, is that my fiance, love her as I do, does not drive a stick as well as she thinks she does. I have been driving one for 20 yrs and still have not perfected it. Her idea of downshifting is throwing it in neutral and jamming on the brakes. Pardon me, I digress, admittedly I know just enough about engines to fill a matchbook written in grease pencil. Any and all reasonable suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Personally if money were not an object I would just buy another Civic in a 2 door and make it a project car, but I think I will leave that as a pipe dream until I win my millions in the lottery...lol
 
Start searching "k swap" for your 7th gen Civic. You're generally not going to find information about much else, because it's technically not legal to swap an older model year engine into a car, and the K pretty much the only thing out there that's newer than 2003 and easily swaps in. It's not cheap though- once you start looking at prices on a K series engine swap, you might reconsider that dedicated project car. It's also generally not a good idea to mod your daily driver if you don't know much about engines. ;)

Welcome to the site!
 
Thanks for the info. I have considered a k20 series and the cost is bit scary. I do think I would be better off trying to get the present engine repaired, but that is just as scary. Can you or anyone else give me a hint as to why my tranny is grinding hard in 1st and 3rd gears around approx. 3 & 4k rpms? I say approx. Because I dont have a tach. I also need a new power steering pump. Again all suggestions are greatly appreciated.
 
A tach is an easy addition, whether going stock or aftermarket. Actually, one of the easiest gauges to install.

The K swap, outside of being legal (Not all states in the US have this requirement) is very worth while.

As far as cost, Hey - it's worth it.
 
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