fiat x19 honda B series (b16,b18) rough guide

As I saw another person in the xwebforums site wanting to do the B swap, I was thinking would I do it again? hell yeah! and I think it would be much quicker this time. with the knowledge I gained what would be my quick how-to list? Well, here I go.  This is how I would do it again.

  1.  Remove fiat engine.
  2. Clean engine compartment
    1. remove cooling fan and mount
    2. remove fiat engine mount from chassis
    3. remove coolant tank mount.
  3. jack fiat about 30 inches from lowest spot on car  but level front to rear
  4. loosen Lower A-arms if not done with engine removal.  you will undo this and redo this MANY times.
  5. pull the engine up through the bottom, start to roughly place the engine/trans in place.
    1. you will have the intake off and the exhaust should stay on (for clearance). I also took the Dizzy off to keep it from getting broken
    2. transmission side A-arms will have to be unbolted to fit the engine in.
    3. You WILL have to notch the frame in the wheel well in order to have the space for the trans to fit.
    4. Height wise, dont make the mistake I did and put it to high. Watch the Shifter from the trans. if it is too high it will get in the way of the a-arm bolts.  This rod moves in and out, if you can put it below the suspension mount of the fiat it would be better.
    5. once you have the height close, put the a-arms back on (dont have to tighten)
    6. with the wheels on, either lower entire car or (much easier) jack up the suspension and put something under the tires so the car sits fully loaded in the rear.
    7. now you need to fully put the engine/trans in the right place.
      1. left to right, I found the front of the engine will be tight with the stock crank pulley really close to the frame. (single belt “race” pulleys will have more room)
      2. line up the hubs with the shaft mounts on the trans to be as straight as possible. I used wood dowlels  as fake shafts.
    8. once lined up, you need to block up the engine.trans to keep it from moving. this can be done in various ways. I kept the engine hoist on to hold most of the weight, then blocked up with wood on the bottom and wedged in the engine compartment.
  6. Time to start the engine mount planning.
    1. Several ways to do this and I am not going through all of them.  But here is the primer.
      1. front (cam side) of engine mount WILL involve cutting into the shock tower on that side.
      2. putting the engine in with the engine mount on the front of the engine is near impossible.  Works best to put it in place after putting the engine in as it would have to get around the frame rail.
      3. put the mounts on the engine and trans.
      4. create mounts from those to the car.
    2. Engine/trans will come in and out SEVERAL times during this.
    3. I did not use the Honda mount that it towards the front of the car. it isnt on all B series cars so I figured it wasnt really needed
  7. once engine is mounted, Order Drive shafts
    1. this can take time so once you can get it ordered the better.
    2. Yes the trans side is VERY short.
  8. Shift Linkage
    1. so, I originally used the fiat shifter and just extended the rod. to me I couldnt get it to feel right. someone might be able to, I couldnt.
    2. I decided to swap it to a cable system, not easy but feels awesome. For details, google both subaru mid engine shifter and 914 cable shifter
    3. when figuring linkage, I wanted to make sure this engine can be taken out easily so the shift rod configuration I couldnt get tight. if I welded up one piece rods it might have been better
    4. most people used the honda shifter/rods
  9. Clutch
    1. adapted fiat line to the honda slave.
    2. I had the cable trans with a cable to hydraulic adapter.
    3. next time would get honda hydraulic trans to make it easier
  10. put engine back in.
  11. intake
    1. intake WILL have to stick into the trunk a little.
    2. cuts will have to be made even if you plan on removing the access panel for good.
    3. Throttle cable
      1. I went with a new cable with using stainless tube as a guide.
      2. at the pedal, you will have to mount the cable lower than stock as if you leave it where it mounts in the stock location it will be too touchy. (know from experience)
  12. Wiring.
    1. After several attempts at modifying the stock wiring, I when the easy ($$$) route and ordered one from Rywire.
      1. about $500
      2. had loose ends for the parts that go to the car
      3. was built with no chassis wiring expected which the stock harness has them in ti and they wont be needed
    2. mounted ECU in the spare tire well
  13. Cooling.
    1. several ways again, but here is the info that is critical
    2. flow.
      1. main circuit
        1. out of head
        2. put in a bleeder valve in engine compartment at highest spot
        3. to top of radiator
        4. to bottom of radiator
        5. back to engine compartment with tee going to expansion tank
        6. to  thermostat at head
      2. Bypass comes from head to  back of thermostat
      3. Heater circuit
        1. from head to heater
        2. heater back to return behind thermostat
        3. NOTE.  Hondas are a bypass valve system, fiat is an on/off system.  honda people have deleted this circuit without issue so I dont think the on/off wil cause an issue. mine is looped with no heater.
  14. Instrument panel
    1. buy Honda dash and adapt
    2. Buy new guages
    3. I bought the tunerview RD-1
    4. Tunerview RD-2 is better, but more expensive and didnt work with my chipping software (crome)

well I think that is it.  a quicky primer.  with Walt’s power point

Things will make more sense

Leave a Reply