JwapDreams

Hi, I am doing a j32a2 swap into a civic in the spring and and finalizing the items I need to purchase. Any opinions would be appreciated.

I have decided to go n/a with AEMS.

I've decided that I do want to:

Stroke to 3.5 with cl-s pistons
RL cams
TL-S transmission
Dual throttle body (66x2)?
Custom headers/dual exhaust

This is about as far as I've gotten so far, just lots of ideas and a paper car. To me, it makes perfect sense to run dual throttle bodies because personally, I don't like how the air needs to split from a single tb. Also, at some point, wouldn't going too big hurt the engine slowing down air velocity?

I plan on running the cl-s pistons to up the compression. I was advised that this might lead to some heat soak so I'd ask, in your opinion what kind of radiator do I need? How big of fans? Is 11.5:1 acceptable to run on 91?

Also, does anyone know the exact size or part number of the spacers required to run 2nd Gen camshafts in 1st Gens?

Hopefully these questions are a good place to start because I have a lot of questions lol.

This car is a DD that will see the track maybe once or twice a year other than the occasional spirited driving. Why 3.5 and all the stuff in a civic? Why not.

So again, any input would be appreciated! Spring is right around the corner! I'm excited!

Lance10

Interesting choices of cars and build. Good luck on your zealous effort.

JwapDreams

Thanks for the support

I honestly feel like a guinea pig because a set up like this should have been tried and true already but for some reason it hasn't.

I forgot to mention also that I'm gonna be going with the modified RDX 410cc injectors with the scion clips. This is correct right?

So, honestly I hope 300whp but we'll see. I'm pretty new to this engine theory thing but I'm gonna a ha e to learn it sooner or later as one, I love cars, and two engineering is my major.

Lance10

I think the hardest part is the tuning. The injector size sounds ok.

A stock 300zxtt uses 376cc for about that HP and it's pretty safe/reliable. 555cc-650cc is where it becomes unreliable with too much boost, or it runs rich.

I believe the CL-S uses smaller but it's also stock.

I'm sure you're aware better than I that putting more fuel/air causes reliability issues once you start going beyond what the engine was designed for. That's great for racing cars, no so good for daily drivers.

JwapDreams

I'm going to be going to King Motorsports in Wisconsin and from what I've heard they're like a pro shop. So I would hope they would be able to tune this for me.

​​​​​​As for compression ratio, I don't think the 11.5 makes that big of a difference. I'm pretty sure my RL runs at 11:1 cr and uses 91. It also makes 290 to the crank. My engine is pretty much just a copy of that engine with another .5 cr. Race car territory is like 12.5 and above I believe.

gnuts

iTrader: (1)

When you say TL-S trans, do you mean the 01-03 auto?
you probably won't need the bigger injectors but they do have a better spray pattern and tuning will iron it all out.
I'm pretty sure P2R makes a spacer so you can use the RL cams in the CL head.
Dual throttle bodies will require a custom manifold.
Be sure to port and polish the runners and manifold and run as big an intake as you can fit. If you can, work the heads too.

JwapDreams

Ahh my bad lol. I meant to say the 06 TL-S base 6 speed. I heard that it has beefier sychros. Not sure it its true but they all cost same.

And yep, I read from people that the spray pattern from the RDX injectors are better because how they spray, mistlike they say, plus having too much injector is better than not having enough.

I'll have to check P2R out because that sounds very right now that I think about it lol. Thank you!

teh CL

iTrader: (1)

6 speed TL-S was only in 07-08, shares the same motor as the RL (J35A8). There was no Type S TL from 04-06 but there was a 6 speed model, believe it was called the dynamic package. Hope that helps you understand it better, easy for ppl to get confused.


As for your swap, don't want to sound like a broken record but here's some thoughts:

- Why build a 3.5 when you can just swap in a (J35A3)? Since your planning on using RL cams, why not just get a J35A3, mill the heads to up the compression a bit & go from there?

- Are you planning on building the motor yourself or paying someone to do it?

- As for the RDX injectors, I've read they have a better spray pattern but isn't really worth it NA, more beneficial in boosted applications

- Who's building the dual TB set up? Looking at close to 2gs for a proper set up

- Don't do a dual exhaust on the Civic


Also, your not really being a guinea pig. Everything your talking about has been done, there's PLENTY of info out there. Dual TBs aren't as common just because they cost so must to have them made & most folks won't pay.

JwapDreams

Yep, totally blanked out. You're correct about the trannies. Not the tls transmission, but the 06 base model 6 speed MT.

I've honestly thought about doing the j35a3 engine as the base because it's MUCH simpler. It would be essentially the same thing as what I want just less compression.

But I don't only want just a "fast car" I'm in it for the experience as well. I told myself one day I'm gonna have to disassemble/reassemble engines because this is a hobby I want for a lifetime and when I weigh the costs it's just simpler and more beneficial to do it yourself. So long story short I'll be engine building myself with some buddies.

It's like I've telling my fiance. She was born and raised where if you car was broken to take it to a mechanic and here I'm like no way man, I'll fix it. I've saved us probably a few grand in labor costs during our relationship and the cars are doing great.

Now there will the the obvious things you can't do without a shop, but I'm not looking to extract every hp out of the engine and make a name for myself. I'm just a normal dude who is mechanically inclined who likes cars. So along with assembling myself, I'll probably do a simple pnp job or have a buddy do it. Worst case scenario I got a couple honda heads laying around that I could use as practice.

Hey, idk what a dual exhaust looks like, I pray sweet. But it's not only dual exhaust, but dual tipped as well 😅 This mod is probably just for sound in the end because I don't wanna sound so Ricey lol.

As with the dual TB I'm gonna be putting it together myself. In the end, just like above I came to the conclusion that doing it yourself far outweighs someone else doing it for you. Plus there are two distinct examples of people doing dual TB on j engined and that's NVA-AV6 and Gerzand. In the end, the design is probably gonna be similar to those two, but it has yet to be decided.

From the forum posts I've read, it's unclear to me why NVA AV6 duals didn't work properly or why Gerzand dropped his. No tuning ability or wanted more power? To me, it makes logically more sense to run dual TB because splitting the air at one single big TB seems to be the smarter thing to do. A massive tb slows down air and will become a restriction. However two smaller ones will provide better response and more power up top. The cams were only designed to run like 7k rpms and it feels like, and this opinion has been expressed by many, that these engines starve for air up top.

So how I'm approaching this part of the build is thinking of both sides as individual engines. One intake on each side.

Would you car to offer opinions on this?

JwapDreams

Didn't notice the lots of typos until I was at work, but even now you're gonna get typos lol. But let me correct what I said and say that it doesn't make sense to split the air from one big TB. To me, it seems like honda didn't do this because it was the best way to do it, but because this design was more production friendly.

I'm looking at this like, one side is a 1.8 and the other side is a 1.8. Both sides are sohc. I came from the according scene and have some experience because I used to run a f22b1 which is also sohc vtec and has similar head flow.

gnuts

iTrader: (1)

I think the lack of aftermarket cams are why the power drops off.
​​​​​​also I believe I remember hearing about idling issues with the dual TB.

JwapDreams

Yep. I think you're right. I've read too much about regrinds and there hasn't been any good information or what really matters, dyno graphs proving anything.

There are a few members here that have had some regrinds, bisimoto/Web cams, but from what I can tell they really don't make a difference.

With the torque you guys lose down low, it'd kill the performance of a heavy car like the TL/CL/accord. It might help me in my civic, but having my cam reground by throwing off the cam geometry doesn't sound like a good idea, and even if the effects were minimal, I'm not paying for that. Hell, I'm having a hell of a time finding RL cams lmao. I'm thinking I'm gonna purchase a j35a8 engine from the junk yard or if the gf let's, buy a parts car for her RL. Either way is a win win and I get the biggest cam.

I heard about some problems getting the dual tb running properly. Not from J guys, but from information on the Web. I think right now I'm reconsidering running two j32a2 (66mm) tb and am thinking about running the J32a1 tb which is either 58 or 60mm. Two 60s is still better than like a 75mm with adapter and accessories in my opinion.

But even so. There's a dude who was on j32a, a guy people referred to as Quebec Fred who claimed 320/290 with a bottom end j35a4 and top j32a2. His only mods were pretty AEMS and a long tube header.

Imo, I think the biggest difference between let's say I love cars build and this one or Freds is LONG TUBE HEADERS. It seems to be that despite being 90% the same, a stroked j32a2 will outperform a j35a8 even with cams because of how much more effective it will be at moving exhaust.

What do you guys think?