Any GRMers Ever Do a Honda Motor Swap?

My wife has been hinting that she may be ok with me upgrading her 2012 Honda Fit into something that we can keep around as an around-town runabout, but is more fun in doing so. It would be my primary daily driver, and I'd occasionally pickup kiddos with it. I love the Fit, but it doesn't "fit" into our long term vehicle fleet - mostly because I want something fun and manual. I love it for it's tight chassis, quick steering, unmatched utility. Our Fit is quickly becoming an old girl, nearing 150k. She bought it new for $18k, so we know all of its maintenance history. It also has a few dings and dents, some scuffs on one of the fenders, so I'm not sure we'd get more than few grand for it. It's lost $1300 per year in value. Ouch. 

Wife also understands that when she gets a new car (paid for mostly by my income), the Fit will essentially be mine to decide whether it stays or goes. If I sold it, she'd be sad. 

The K-Series swap is getting better documented for the Fit, and some new information has come to light that the K24 might be even easier. The engine harness is the same, so all it requires is a new ECU, Hasport Mounts, some axles and some shifter stuff. Total cost is estimated around $4000. 

Pros: 

- Unique Color (Raspberry Blue Metallic) K24 swapped Fit. 

- 6spd potentially with LSD - a good match in any car. 

- Practical daily driver and kid hauler. 

- Adding value back into the vehicle - the last couple of years have shown that old Honda's hold their value, and even more so swapped Hondas. I think even if I sold it after the swap I'd get the swap cost back out - ie roughly $4000. 

- We've got other vehicles to drive while it's down. 

Cons:

- Swap costs can very quickly get out of control when you find you're missing expensive parts. 

- It's still a base model Fit. 

- If the swap doesn't go well, wife will be pissed that "her" car is sitting in pieces. 

Anyone have any experience with Honda swaps and how it went, what kinds of hiccups you ran into, and whether you met your budget at all? 

I've done lots, including most recently a K24a2 swap into my EG hatch track car.  It is a lot of work to do well, but usually well documented.  The swap kits from reputable sources (like Hasport) are well worth it in the end.  Wiring can be a pain, so use a reputable swap harness if you can, it avoids a lot of downtime.   I did my own as it was a project and it still took a while.  

Everything will need to be custom, it's the little things that get you, like a larger radiator and getting it to fit with fans and whatnot, finding hoses that fit, making an exhaust all from scratch, making an intake, etc.  Doing that sort of thing properly takes time.  You'll need a dyno tune too probably (and want one as they wake up the power).  

I would expect a higher power K swap with a 6 speed to be in the $6k range when you are all done if not trying to do everything the cheap way.  Then you'll have the problem that the suspension and brakes will be completely inadequate, and the spiral continues.  

I've built IN MY HEAD - the fast salesman's Odyssey van that hauls butt along with taking customers to lunch.  

All new suspension with a V6 manual out of the Accord.  Four racing seats.  I think some Honda engineers built one. 

Larry Chen visited Spoon and in one of the videos they shot a built up Fit, real JDM stuff.  I would look towards that type build. 
 

Start at 1:09

In reply to Sonic :

I will say that I would have a slight advantage over your swap in that the EG and the K24 are a few generations removed, while the GE Fit shared many similar components to other cars of that same era (2006-2014). Harness, radiator, exhaust, etc don't need much in the way of modification. 

Some guys have ran K24 swapped Fits with stock (from donor) ECU just fine. Only using a K-Tuner to adjust for mods. 

I've driven two B-series swapped EGs (a B16 and a B18c). Both times I came away underwhelmed. They turned a slow car into a slightly less slow car.

That being said, I have a soft spot for the Fit, and truly believe they should have built a Fit type R

k20A2 swapped my DC2 this past summer. I spent a bunch on bolt on parts from Hybrid/Acuity/Hasport. 

The K20A2 Swap(Motor,Trans, ECU) was a wash for what I sold my B18c1 swap for out of my GSR. But I spent $6k+ from there. Could have been done way cheaper, but it was worth it and I absolutely love the car now, and dropping an easy 6+ seconds per lap was fun too. 

calteg said:

I've driven two B-series swapped EGs (a B16 and a B18c). Both times I came away underwhelmed. They turned a slow car into a slightly less slow car.

That being said, I have a soft spot for the Fit, and truly believe they should have built a Fit type R

I never understood why the fit didn't become the successor to the eg civic. It's light, cheap ish, modable...

Can the stock motor handle any amount of boost? A turbo kit sounds easier than an engine swap and would make a cooler noise than a k swap. 

Interesting.  It looks like an R18 may be a bolt in because of how similar the Fit and HRV seem to be.  Never considered a K24.

I think a K20 in a 2nd gen Fit would be just about perfect, myself.  And people have properly integrated the stock computer with the Fit's electronics?

Interesting title to this thread- given the challenge and whatnot.  OT- way back in 1999, I considered doing an engine swap in my '88HF for the $1500 challenge.  Even thought about if for a few years until an $800 Spider came along.

It's been some time since I've gotten into Honda powertrains, but I would suggest making sure the power/torque curve is what you are looking for.  

Other than that, the concept seems like a great one.  Like really great.  Like one you should heavily document, write about, submit pictures and articles, let David edit, and see your work published in GRM.

Nooooooooooooo... 

Fit K swap is wel documented, buy the best stuff you can afford and it goes smooth. 

Honestly a K fit feels very similar to an EP3, if you can live with a coupe an EP3 with a TSX engine is nearly as useful and way cheaper to get to the end of. 

Byrneon27 said:

Nooooooooooooo... 

 

Fit K swap is wel documented, buy the best stuff you can afford and it goes smooth. 

Honestly a K fit feels very similar to an EP3, if you can live with a coupe an EP3 with a TSX engine is nearly as useful and way cheaper to get to the end of. 

Well he already has the Fit. I haven't seen a decent condition EP3 in many years. The interior in the EP3 didn't hold up as well as the older Hondas or the more recent ones.

I think I've read at least one, maybe more, KFit builds here on the forum. Let's see if I can find one though...

While a k swap Fit sounds cool, that seems like a lot of work for a guy with a family. 
 

Personally, I'd sooner look for a Cadillac ATV, Hyundai G70, Kia Stinger with a manual transmission and rwd 

In reply to calteg :

Same. I came up on hondas. I'll die on the sword of built d series > b series swap. 

In reply to RaabTheSaab :

Yup, turboing is too cheap to pass up nowadays. Spend money on a good clutch, good engine management and (maybe) a name brand turbo. Then torque steer to your heart's content

Honda kid here too. Built a "mini-me" (D16A6 bottom end with a D16Z6 head) for my EF hatch, swapped that engine into an EG coupe when the hatch got too rusty. Bought an EM1, ran the stock B16 for a year before it spun a bearing. Did a rod/piston GSR block/B16 head with an LS crank, then that dropped a valve at 8300rpm and trashed everything. Finally moved to a K20A in 2013. Still in the car today. Putting together a 07' K24A2 for it now.

Haven't tried boost yet, but I'd like to. 

The Achilles heel of the D-series is the crappy ratios imo. The sportiest S20-B000 "Si" trans in North America has worse gear spreads than the tallest/longest B series transmission. Part of the reason why a B series feels so nice compared to a D series. The poor gearing really amplifies the low power numbers of a D. The B series feels so much livelier with it's tighter ratios and tendency to continue to make power as the rpms climb.

I digress. 

A K swapped fit seems like a pretty solid combo of fun and utility. I don't have any experience with the fit platform, but it's a Honda swap so any issues you encounter can be solved with a credit card and online shopping. How "finished" are you comfortable with, do you need to have a/c? I see the VTEC academy YouTube channel has a how-to for k swapped fit, that's probably a where id start. 

The HASport kits work very well mechanically.

Axles are often a challenge; my CRX took a few revisions.

Wiring is usually the biggest challenge and troubleshooting is sometimes difficult (CELs on my B16 CRX finally went away when I mail-ordered a good used distributor - if you get three bad sensors in a row you really suspect your wiring work!).

Plan on the car being out of service for a month.

More research in hand, I'm back.

Axles are solved by Hasport, they've got all the details necessary and a vendor can do the hookup. Only need one side custom, too. 

Digging into the wiring issue it seems like it is mostly cleared up by:

Matching the engine harness to the donor. (TSX Harness with TSX Motor/Trans)

Chassis wiring is adapted via 2NRS Jumper harness. 

Still trying to determine what else I should expect. What I learned doing house renovations is that if you plan for everything and have the parts and tools on hand to deal with one of the possible "known unknowns" - you're in the clear. It's encountering something you didn't expect that'll result in more downtime. 

Another thing I've noticed is that there is absolutely nothing wrong with buying a motor/trans in advance. K24Zs sell like hotcakes so even if I had one in storage I could probably sell if it decided not to do the swap. 

In reply to pheller :

I regret not buying a few when they were $600 shipped.

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

In reply to pheller :

I regret not buying a few when they were $600 shipped.

Indeed. At least now I know the floor of my 8th Gen Civic Si value should something happen to it.

Both of my swapped CRX's are here...one is a K24, the other a JDM B18C Type R motor.  Lots of build info in the pic albums.  Even a stock K24 is a torque monster in a lightweight car.  Make the car even lighter (1900 lbs) and build the engine to 300hp and it's a riot.

https://www.facebook.com/OneLapCRX

In reply to Andy Hollis :

I've driven a supercharged B20-VTEC in a lightened CRX.  I can only imagine

I think Honda missed the boat not coming out with a Fit SI or even better putting a bigger motor and better overdrive in the 6 speed trans for the highway. 

Just food for thought, a couple companies do make lift kits for Fits.

dxman92 said:

I think Honda missed the boat not coming out with a Fit SI or even better putting a bigger motor and better overdrive in the 6 speed trans for the highway. 

Or a K24 CR-Z...

Andy Hollis said:

dxman92 said:

I think Honda missed the boat not coming out with a Fit SI or even better putting a bigger motor and better overdrive in the 6 speed trans for the highway. 

Or a K24 CR-Z...

I never understood the CR-Z. It got only slightly better MPG than a Civic LX, had no backseat, much smaller trunk, was never really "sporty" and was more expensive (MSRP vs MSRP).

Didn't you have a K swapped miata several years back? I think it blew up on track but I never heard a definitive reason why. Scared me away from k-swapping mine.