If it’s not abundantly clear already, we love performance in any flavor here at OnAllCylinders. And that’s doubly true when you’re talking about engine-swapped Civics ripping down road courses and weaving through autocross cones.
In other words, if you haven’t been paying attention to the import performance scene, it has grown by leaps and bounds since it exploded in popularity during the late 1990s.
To prove that point, we brought our pal David Cordell from Hybrid Racing onto an episode of The OnAllCylinders Podcast. Hybrid Racing specializes in imports, particularly the art of swapping modern Honda K-Series engines into earlier model Civics. You can learn more about Hybrid Racing’s K-Swap stuff here.
You may also enjoy this article: Why Are the Honda K-Series Engines So Popular?
For well over 30 minutes, we discussed Honda’s motorsports heritage, the ever-evolving sport compact scene, Honda K-series engine swap tech, and the future of import tuning. You can catch the full episode in the embedded player here, plus we’ll also include some excerpts from our conversation below too.
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Talking Honda Performance with David Cordell from Hybrid Racing
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How’d You Become a Gearhead?
“Like all of us, it starts with your family. My dad was probably the biggest influence behind all of that—always with Corvettes, Camaros, Bel Airs, and, you know, all kinds of old cars always coming through our house. So I think that that’s kind of really where it started, as a kid.
“Then I got older and none of my friends were in that space, they were all import guys. One thing led to another. I had a Mustang, my first—very first—car, a Mustang GT. And when I saw how fast and cool some of these Hondas where I was like, ‘I got to get out of this tank and I got to get into a Honda.’
“And that’s honestly where it started, right there.”
Tell Us How Hybrid Racing Began.
“We started a local garage—fixing up, tuning cars, installing bolt-on parts, and things like that.
“And then we really got into doing engine swaps. This was early 2000, so right around when the new generation of Honda engines had come about. We said ‘Man, it would be really cool if we took one of these new engines, put it in one of these older cars.’
“We did the first swap, probably 2003 with a K-series engine and realized with the internet age, with all the people in the forums—and this was before YouTube and Instagram and all these things—people took all of the things that were posting on the forums and they said ‘Hey, I need this stuff and I need you guys to help me do this.’
“And so we turned it into a business, making all of the pieces and parts to make that happen, and the rest is history.”
How is Honda Perceived in the U.S. vs. Elsewhere in the World?
“Honda was founded on the principle of racing, the founder of Honda himself raced motorcycles. And so that really started the Japanese motorsports culture. I mean, Honda built the very first racetrack in Japan and it is still owned by Honda today.
“If you go into a Honda dealership in the U.S., and you walk in, you’re greeted with hues of blue and white and pictures of the sky and trees and things like that. Well, that’s an image that Honda is trying to, portray—that Hondas are efficient, reliable, affordable, safe, economical. They’re all these things that people value.
“While that’s true, Honda Japan has its own kind of department. Without getting into the weeds of it, essentially back in the day, there were two different types of Honda dealerships: one for those types of small economy cars and another one for their sporty, fun performance cars.
“And if you go to Honda’s headquarters or their lobby in Tokyo right now, you see the world champion Formula 1 cars, you see racing trophies, you see the drivers and the helmets and the suits, and you see the historic cars from the 1960s.
“You see the heritage of motorsports and winning—and that’s not really something that Honda brought to the U.S.”
How is Honda Charging that Narrative in the U.S.?
“So Honda is very, very successful in motorsports in almost every category, from the Dakar Rally to Formula 1.
“I think that has trickled into the United States through Acura, that was kind of their performance luxury brand.
“Now they’re branding Acura Motorsports, and they’re bringing Honda Racing Corp. into the US with Daytona and all those things. So they’re doing it now.
“And I think that kind of really started when Honda brought the Type R to the US in 2017. So ever since then you see a renewed interest in like, hey, we’ve been racing for 60 years and we win, you know, like they’re trying to change the narrative.”
How Has the Import Scene Evolved Since the 1990s?
“It’s pretty wild. I mean, obviously in the last 20, 25 years, there have been some serious advancements in cars and technology. Honda is always innovating. And so now, especially with the newer cars, the turbocharged big power cars, there’s a really heavy focus on track days and things like that.
“Cars from the 1990s were economy cars and they were affordable—everybody had them, they were easy to get, and it turned into ‘I want to make my cheap economy car fast and fun to drive.’
“Well, now you can just go buy something off the showroom floor at Honda that’s a serious performance car. And that just really wasn’t the case even 15 years ago.”
What Does the Typical Import Performance Enthusiast Look Like Now?
“Typically what we see is, a lot of customers will get these cars, do their bolt-ons, you know, have fun, go to track days, go to autocross. And truth be told, like that’s the majority of where our customers come from, you know, entry level enthusiasts that really enjoy tinkering and tuning.
“And then they go out and they use it. So yeah, definitely, I think that more of the Honda stuff is kind of geared towards fun track days—for that type of enthusiast.”
What’s the Difference Between Honda B-Series & K-Series Engines?
“The B-series was really the first most popular dual overhead cam Honda VTEC motor that really came to the United States—most of the Civics that were sold in the 1992 to 2000 range had single overhead cam, 1.5 and 1.6 liter engines.
“So the B-series engine came in every Integra sold in the US and the Civic Si—high revs, legendary engine, they sound amazing.
“But as you know, technology came about and Honda moved to the Honda S2000 which got a new F-series engine. It’s kind of an enhanced version, or like a mixed version of a B-series and a K-series. The architecture is similar to a K-series, but it doesn’t have the full cam timing, VTEC system, and things like that.
“That F-series engine only got put in the S2000. After that, Honda turned it into the K-series. There are two versions, a two liter K20 and a 2.4 liter K24. The cylinder head is probably the biggest change. If you could point your finger at anything, it’s the potential that the cylinder heads have. Then, you have the camshafts and the VTEC—so you’ve got variable cam timing on both cams.
“Just the potential for that engine is much greater.”
Where Do You Find a K-Series Engine?
“The best K-series engines come from the Civic Si, pretty much any generation from 2006 to 2015.
“The Acura RSX Type S also got a 2.0 liter K-series K20 engine. That’s a fantastic motor. The 2004, 2005 Acura TSX has the 2.4 liter. That’s an incredible engine. Those are probably the best motors, just straight out of the car. Put it into something else, you’re rocking and rolling.
“But there are K24s in every Honda essentially sold from, like 2002, 2003 to even 2017-ish. They’re in CRVs, they’re in the Honda Elements, they’re in Honda Accords, the Acura TSX.
“So there are a lot of them out there. And while those engines are not exactly the same as say, what we get in the Civic Si, , the parts are interchangeable. The potential for those engines to make good power and be really great swap candidates is just some bolt-ons away.”
Explain the Evolution of K-Series Swaps.
“Oooh, that’s a good one. Back in the day when we did the first swap, everything was with discovery, right? Everything. You’re you’re trial-and-error-ing, you’re breaking things, you’re trying to figure it out. You’re coming up with solutions and you can only do use the tools that you have.
“20 years ago or so, we were cutting and splicing wires, jumping wires together, and we’re screwing shifters down to the top of the tunnel and running the air intake straight off the throttle body. You go to the parts store and find the best radiator hose that fits—you’re just trying to come up with a solution to make to make it work.
“Over the years, we have perfected the formula and the recipe to make most of these swaps 100% bolt-in. You don’t have to cut anything, the wiring plugs in, there are special radiator solutions, molded hoses.
“You don’t have to look for those types of solutions—all the little odds and ends—we offer them already done, essentially in packages. So anybody with a certain engine and a certain car—like , you buy the engine, you get the transmission, buy the package, and you’ve got everything you need to knock out a car in a few days.”
What’s the Biggest Challenge of a K-Series Engine Swap?
“Probably sourcing transmissions and finding computers. I think that those are probably the two biggest hurdles that most customers will have to overcome. Obviously they made tons of engines—but they made far fewer manual transmissions, right? And so there are only a handful of models throughout the last 20, 25 years or so that had manual transmissions.
“Naturally, if they’re harder to find, they’re going to be more expensive. And depending on which one you’re looking at they can get pretty expensive. Same thing with the computer, the ECU. If you wanted to continue to use a factory Honda computer, there is only a certain number of computers you can use.
“And by now, you know, they’re long gone. They were only made for three, four, or five years. The supply is likely dried up. So it can be challenging, I think, to find the right computer. But you know, there are other options for all of that stuff too.
“But yeah, if you have an ECU and you have the transmission, you can solve everything else pretty easily.”
Addendum: Rear-Wheel Drive K-Swaps
After this interview was recorded, we had a reader ask about the viability of using a K-Series engine in a RWD application, like a light duty truck or sports car. While you won’t hear his response in the podcast episode, we asked David if he had some insight into this topic, and here’s what he had to say.
“With any engine conversion there are going to be a ton of parts you’d need to source or make. RWD K-Swaps aren’t much different than the FWD swaps, meaning you’ll still need to generally come up with the same solutions. Engine mounts, wiring, fuel system, cooling system adapters, etc.
“The RWD K-Series swaps do add another layer of complexity though, since the engines were never intended to sit in a longitudinal layout. This means that in addition to needing custom engine mounts and brackets, you’ll need to source a transmission adapter plate as well as make adjustments to the cooling ports, as they would then point towards the firewall.
“There are a number of transmission adapter plates available on the market, a quick google search would yield Nissan, Toyota, GM, and Ford gearbox adapters easily.
“So, in general the swap is pretty straightforward and if you look into the RWD Honda S2000 K-Swap parts, a lot of them likely fit OTHER RWD setups. The K-Series Mazda Miata market is also large and has a lot of aftermarket support there.”
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You can catch the full interview in The OnAllCylinders Podcast section, where you’ll also find dozens of other episodes featuring famous celebrities, friendly gearheads, industry veterans, and really (REALLY) smart technical experts.
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