Field Report: The New 'K-Swap' For Drivelines?
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Honda are already well known for producing some of the best naturally aspirated engines in the world.
And what makes them better?
Adding a turbocharger.
Welcome to High Performance Academy's tuned in Field Report podcast series.
In these special midweek episodes, we look back through our archives to find the best conversations we've had through years worth of attending the best automotive events across the globe.
We've pulled the audio from these tech filled interviews with some of the industry's most well known figures and presented it in podcast format for you to enjoy.
As a quick hit of insider knowledge.
We're here with Mo with his EK Civic behind me.
This is actually converted to 4WD, built as a drag car by B2R Motorsport, and we're going to find out a little bit more about this build.
For a start, mo, let's get to the basics.
The car hasn't actually run down the strip yet, so we can't talk numbers, can we?
Yeah, no, we haven't done anything more than a few test passes so far, so yeah, OK, let's get into the build itself, and the most obvious part is it's no longer running a B series engine.
You've got a K series in it.
What drove you to make that K-Swap?
I think back in 2012, seeing them I think that was the height of the K20 era seeing them everywhere and it was just something that I really wanted to enjoy and discover.
I remember the biggest thing about a K-series back then was the torque.
So, like a 2.4
litre, the torque just naturally aspirated.
Feeling the torque was awesome.
So, yeah, that's what it was really.
Okay, obviously a bigger capacity to start with, and it has got probably arguably one of the best flowing cylinder heads anywhere for a four-cylinder engine.
However, the stock K20 or K24 wasn't quite good enough for you.
You've actually gone full billet as well.
What was the driving factor behind that decision?
Were you aiming for power levels that you absolutely knew the stock block was not going to be capable of?
Yeah.
So I would say it goes hand in hand with the four wheel drive.
Front wheel drive.
I don't think you'd ever really need unless you're drag racing more than what a stock motor can handle.
So about that 370 kilowatt range, that's on the edge of its life almost.
But as soon as you go forward, drive and you get that first first gear traction at raw racing or on the street or whatever, you automatically want more.
You know so it gets addictive at that point.
So then you know you, obviously I jumped a few steps, I went straight to 1,000 horsepower and then we started learning limitations with the, you know so.
You know you had headlifts, we had calling issues, we had bearing issues, we had whatever issue you could think of.
And these all start popping up around that 1,000 horsepower mark.
Yeah, and another thing is, I would say, in America, because these are big in America.
For them a sleeved block is much more cheaper.
So it would probably cost them $1,000 to $2,000 USD, whereas over here we've got to buy a block core, get them to sleeve it, and then the shipping is so expensive it's actually about half the price of a billet block.
So by the time you invest into a sleeve block that does crack, they do crack, it's just you're on a limited lifespan.
The other thing I was just going to add there with the sleeve lock, I think people would assume that it is a fix for all of the problems that you have when you're making high power.
But you also need to be very, very careful about who is doing the machine work to install the sleeves, because sometimes you're fixing one problem, but the number of times I've seen other problems created with the sleeves dropping in operation and then the head gasket leaks anyway, so you sort of fix one problem and can potentially create others.
So you need to be very careful about who's doing that sleeving.
In terms of the actual block itself, who is the manufacturer?
Bullet Racing Engineering, I think they're called, yeah, so Australian made well known in the billet block area.
So the other aspect is when we go to billet blocks, often people will go to a dry block for a dedicated drag application.
By that I mean there is no coolant passing through the block.
Great for strength and works well for drag racing, but really does limit you in terms of what you can do with the car.
I've seen a radiator in this.
Obviously you haven't gone that way.
Why did you decide to stay with lot I?
think you know we're not at that point yet where we need a full dry deck.
The other thing is we like to do a lot of road racing in Sydney and when you get to eliminations it's essentially pass after pass, after pass.
So I don't want the complications of a dry deck or you know, a separate head or you know block getting too hot, things like that.
So I thought you know what.
For now I'll just leave it simple keep it wet deck.
I know it's working.
We've figured most of the cooling issues out and we'll worry about that later.
Otherwise, if it goes to a full drag car, yeah, I'd say the dry deck never lifting heads and stuff like that.
There's two elements actually there that I just want to clarify as well, because you used the term dry deck and wet deck.
So that's really talking about whether or not water is transferred from the block up into the head.
Advantage with that is if we go dry deck, where there isn't that transfer, if the head does lift we don't get combustion pressure making its way into the water jacket, which then means we don't get water under the tyres.
So that's really important for safety and reliability.
However, wet deck sorry that dry deck does bring in the difficulties of the plumbing where you're getting the water from the block to the head.
That's obviously external, so a little bit more complexity around there.
Now, in terms of the rest of the rotating assembly crankshaft, connecting rods, pistons can you give us some insight into what you're using?
Sure, so me.
I'm an OEM guy.
I bought a brand new K20 crank from Honda.
I've always kept OEM cranks.
I've never seen them break.
You know what I mean?
I have seen billet ones break and stuff like that and I think people move more towards the billet stuff when they de-stroke, stroke up et cetera, et cetera.
I think the Honda ones are so reliable.
There's really not many options, even if you did want to go off the market.
I think a lot of people overlook that some of these Fatsha crankshafts are actually exceptionally good and even though it's designed for a low horsepower naturally aspirated engine in stock form, these are a quality forged crankshaft.
Low horsepower naturally aspirated engine in stock form these are a quality forged crankshaft.
They are really really good and you can sometimes go well over 1,000 horsepower with that stock crankshaft.
The benefit is, if and when it does start to crack or fail, it's also much cheaper to replace than a billet crankshaft correct.
Much, much cheaper.
The other thing is as well off the shelf rods, off the shelf.
Rotating assembly period.
You know what I mean?
I know a few friends with billet or d-stroke or whatever it's six month wait for rods, just rods you know.
So having that off the shelf availability means if you need to replace a part, you can do it almost instantly of course I was.
I was going to do a 2.2
liter setup because this was a 2.4
, and then just looking into how long I had to wait for a set of four rods or whatever, or if I broke a crankshaft or anything, it was six months the car's out down.
So you know, and they're not cheap parts to really keep stock, or if the part fails then you've got to use this brand new part in the box there.
So you know, keep it, keep it simple, keep it OEM.
I want a combo that I can pretty much buy the parts in two, three weeks and get back together, because the reality is we are racing and you know things do go wrong.
Yeah, absolutely.
So ultimately you are at 2.4
.
No, no, it's two later now, okay, two later.
I was going to ask the difference there, or the way up between the 2.4
, the, the difference there or the way up between the 2.4
, the additional capacity, the additional bottom end torque and boost response you get with larger turbos.
How did you weigh that up against the ability to rev the engine?
I mean obviously you've decided to stay 2.0
litre.
Yeah well, I was originally 2.4
but I had loads of issues with harmonics.
So once you get up to around over 9.5
, 10,000 rpm with a 2.4
litre, you either have to de-stroke or just drop the rev limit down back to nine.
The reason why I went two litre was because that was Honda's engine that they designed to rev and you know I just thought, with the shorter stroke and all that, it would be much, much happier to rev.
The interesting thing, what we did see is the two litre actually makes more power up top with the RPM, so it carries power way better, whereas the 2.4
, you've got download torque brings on the turbo better, but it drops off a lot earlier than the 2.0
.
And I think it's all about sort of understanding your application as well.
The 2.4,
.
If it's a street application or maybe a hill climb car, you want that lower bottom end torque and the boost response.
But when you're drag racing or road racing you're launching off a two step, you torque and the boost response, but when you're drag racing or roller racing you're launching off a two step, you've got that boost and you're probably only operating between I'm guessing, maybe 8 and 10 and a half 11,000 RPM.
So you're always within that power band, is that right, yeah?
especially with the paddle shift, the clutchless, you never drop out of boost.
So the shift is that fast that you're always in boost between gears.
Now, the next element I want to talk about is the pistons themselves, and then the compression ratio, and that sort of brings up the other question is, what fuel are you running?
Because that obviously drives the decision on your compression ratio.
Yeah, so 9.5
to 1 compression ratio.
It's a Speed Factory Outlaw Aries piston made by CP Curillo and I think it's a BME alloy rod.
The fuel varies, so E85, e98, c85, really depends on the application Straight drag racing.
I'd say we'd use C85 just because it's much, much safer.
No interest in moving to a full methanol fuel as opposed to alcohol-based or ethanol-based fuels.
Look, there is interest, but the only interest would be, purely speaking, of how expensive E85 fuels are getting over a methanol fuel.
I think it really is getting ridiculous, because we can't rely on pump quality anymore.
So you've got to go to a race-grade E85.
Yeah, so it's not like a full.
I know everyone says streetcar, streetcar, streetcar.
But if you're driving your car to work and you need a bit of power and you put E85 out of the pump and then sometimes E70, e75, yeah, that's cool.
But when you're at this level, you don't want an e75 fuel.
So you want a guaranteed ethanol content.
So you buy a barrel that's e85 or higher, right, but the barrels are just getting ridiculously or there's no stock because everyone's buying them.
So you know, the methanol looks extremely, you know, tempting in terms of budgets, availability, etc.
Etc.
Etc.
Not, I don't.
You know, power is power.
You're going to make power the way, but you know, is it like a tempting in terms of budgets, availability, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
Power is power.
You're going to make power the way, but is it like a methanol is cheaper than 98?
Now I think the thing that is worth mentioning is that the methanol does come with some significant downsides.
First of all, you need to run around about twice as much fuel in order to make the same amount of power give or take.
And then obviously it affects your fuel system, sizing pumps, injectors, et cetera, and also I mean E85 has its problems, but methanol is another level of corrosiveness to the entire fuel system.
So there's those considerations as well.
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All right, let's get back to the engine.
The other element you've really gone top shelf here with is the cylinder head.
So the factory cylinder head wasn't going to cut it for you.
Talk us through what you've chosen.
So we've went for a four piston kingpin cast head.
So what happens with the factory cylinder heads?
Is they crack.
So after you stop cracking your factory blocks and you go billet, then you start cracking your heads.
So we're just chasing the problems down the line.
As you fix one and start making more power, you find the next weakness.
Yeah, so the head lifts third or fourth gear, whatever, and then head cracks whatever, et cetera, et cetera.
The kingpin head has three times as much material.
It's got more clamping force.
We've tested them.
The kingpin head has three times as much material.
It's got more clamping force.
We've tested them.
There's me and two other guys in Australia that have had very successful results where they've put their cars on methanol, put their cars on other fuels, done everything except for dry deck with a factory head, and nothing's worked.
We've put these heads on coolant pressure's perfect, right across the line 30, 40 passes.
One of the biggest problems with high output turbocharged engines is always that head gasket integrity.
And yes, there's different types of head gaskets, there's better stud materials, but the reality is, ultimately you end up limited by the amount of material on the deck surface of the block and similarly on the deck surface of the head.
So these aftermarket components, much, much thicker in those areas, makes it much more rigid, much less likely to flex and on that note we talked off camera you're actually not using anything too exotic for the actual head gasket itself.
Talk us through that.
Yeah, so it's just a multi-layer head gasket.
We've got a stainless O-ring machined into the block and that's it.
So it just crushes into the head gasket.
Talk the head gasket down.
You know what I mean.
Check your head studs every couple of passes, whatever you know, make sure they're still talked down correctly, and that's it.
Man.
You know, my method is always just keep it simple.
As soon as you complicate things, you're never going to finish the car Like you've just got to find that next issue, deal with it and then find that next issue and eventually you just get to a point where there's no issues.
I think that's solid advice for those building project cars.
It's always tempting to just continually iterate the car and never actually get it to the racetrack, but when you do that, you never really find out what the problems are that you need to work through, and you also don't get to enjoy the car on the track, which is just as important.
Alright, the next question that's going to be on everyone's minds is power level.
Can you give us some insight into, first of all, what turbo it is, what boost pressure you're running and what power level, even if you can give us a bit of a ballpark as to where you're at?
So the guys.
I don't want me to say any figures on camera or whatever, but I can give you a rough ballpark Right now.
It's sitting around 56 pounds at first and it is a very conservative, a very large figure, I'd say so.
Definitely in the four digits.
We're over 1200, I can tell you that.
But we are planning on taking this car to 80, 90 PSI.
It's really enjoying 56 pounds right now.
You mentioned off camera before 56 PSI and you referred to that as low boost.
So that's still no joke.
That's SP1 as we call it.
And the actual turbo spec you've got on.
So it's a next-gen 8085 Precision.
Absolutely love this turbo.
I think it's a match made in heaven for this engine.
To be honest, I never would believe that I'd be pulling a turbo this size before.
6,000 RPM on the 2.0
later.
To be honest, 6,000, that is truly impressive.
And what do you rev it out to?
Ultimately, we can go all the way to 12 if we really want to.
That is a very wide power band.
People think 6,000 is a little bit late, but it's not late in the case series.
To be honest, you feel it like that.
That's one of the things that I've seen since I stopped drag racing with turbo technology.
It's come so far, and back in my day I was running a 2 litre 4G63 and we weren't seeing full boost until after 7,000 RPM, revving to 11.
So if you can get that sort of boost at 6, that is simply amazing.
Electronics what are you running to control this engine?
Yeah, so ECU-wise Link G4X.
We've got MoTeC PDM, PDM30.
I've got ProWire, who's wired the entire car in Raycam DR12.
We've got Tafcel, whatever you name it Full mil spec loom, full mil spec loom.
You know a few things I didn't seal just for maintenance, like injector clips and all this and all that, because I knew I'd change them.
So everything else is sealed.
We've got the PRP new coil packs which are rated to 4,000 horsepower in the right application.
We have maxed the 35 ones out on this setup.
We've got a elixir fuel pump, custom made, 16 and a half liter per hour.
We have tested the fuel pump and on this setup it will do 1500 remethanol.
One electric pump okay so you've got enough fuel pump to last in eternity yeah, and when I'm idling, when I'm cruising around, whatever I like, you know I drive it to work and stuff.
You know, streetcar, streetcar, yeah, it runs like a 255.
You don't hear nothing, so it's extremely quiet.
It's like a factory pump that can flow to, you know five, six pumps.
It's crazy, you know.
So I'll give a shout out to elixir.
Ai aftermarket industry supplied the um hanger and the fc 1500, the ventura system and all that.
I love his stuff.
I've never had an issue with it.
I've used it for years.
His engineering is top quality.
Now I notice in the back you've got a nitrous bottle as well, so talk us through how you're using that nitrous.
Is this just to spool the turbo on a two-step?
I've never actually used nitrous in this car.
You watched the Fast and the Furious too much as a younger guy, didn't you?
It's just kind of one of those things like when I built the car.
I've noticed from past experiences if you don't put something in, you're going to not have a place to put it.
So when you build your cage and your boxes and your firewalls and stuff like that, put everything you think you're going to use and then use it later because so future-proof the project exactly, I don't want to.
I don't want a nitrous bottle sitting next to me where my hand brake sits and stuff like that.
So you know.
But um, in terms of spooling, I'm very happy with how it spools, until we start racing on a slick and see how it leaves the line.
I guess we might use it, you know.
But uh, if I'm not happy with the 1500 horsepower from this turbo, I'll put another 200 in it, whatever it takes.
Easy, as the other aspect of this car we obviously need to talk about is the four-wheel drive conversion, which is now, I wouldn't say, commonplace with the Honda platform, but it is becoming more and more accepted, more and more common.
What is the transmission that you're using and what is involved in that four-wheel drive conversion?
Yeah.
So I'd say the four-wheel drive is the next case swap.
That's what I call it.
So right now this is running a Quafi sequential.
It's the all-wheel drive sequential.
So you've got the Quafi part of the box, which is the casing, and I've got a Billet Bell housing that mates up to a CRV transfer case.
So the CRV transfer case is the Honda part that really is the key to this four-wheel drive conversion.
Yeah.
So you need the Honda transfer case and on the back you've got the Honda wagon or the CRV diff.
The ratios just work.
You know what I mean.
In the middle we've got a viscous coupler, so essentially the wagon is so much harder to find.
They're a 1980s car.
None of them came to Australia refined.
They're a 1980s car.
None of them came to australia.
Not many went to america.
They're more of a japanese four drive sort of thing.
Factory components are about three and a half four thousand us without shipping.
Then you've got to get them.
I've got to.
I had to get the viscous rebuilt.
I had to get the diff rebuilt it like I'm going to go out on a limb and say these stock components probably really weren't designed by honda to support 1500 horsepower either.
How reliable are they in a drag application?
look, I've never broken anything and I've been launching this car, so it does hook to, yeah, yeah, so I would say like I don't like to refer to america just because you know, I feel like we don't see a lot of stuff that break.
You know what I mean.
But they're saying they're going sevens on factory components.
We have seen them go 6s.
So yeah, look, it's an awesome bit of kit and the factory stuff will do you anywhere up to 1000.
It's just when you really want to go drag racing, like you're going to have a freewheel drive or you're going to have a, so you want to have those D in the back and all that, etc, etc.
But yeah, Alright, ultimately, I know you haven't really laid down a full pass in this as yet.
Can we get some predictions on where you think it might be running?
Yeah.
So the real reason why we haven't run a pass in this is not because of engine troubles et cetera.
It's actually we've had trouble finding a clutch to support the power, because the car does get a lot of grip surprisingly.
So you know, there's a lot of times where we do pass.
We get a really good 60, then by third gear the clutch is slipping and the pass is gone, you know.
So at kudamandra I did a one five on straight tires with 30ps on the tires and then the clutch just let go and I did like a 10.5
at 100 mile per hour.
So you know, I was on the brakes halfway down the track.
Hopefully I've got a new clutch system in it now and that's just like the next thing.
You know what I mean.
So if the clutch holds, we are aiming to go low.
Eight sevens, we're trying to.
For Australia, the current ET is 8.00
.
You need to be in that seven-second bracket.
Yeah, so we're trying to break the Australian seven-second the brick wall we're trying to shoot for and no one's on that drag car, et cetera, any Honda.
No one's on that drag car, et cetera, any Honda.
You know what I mean.
So that's what we're aiming to do right now and hopefully we get there.
I have taken a lot of weight out of it.
There's a carbon roof, there's lots of carbon components and, yeah, hopefully we get there.
Oh look, mo, the car is an absolute credit to you.
It is a really unique build and we definitely wish you all the best with getting into the 7s.
Thanks, mate, I really appreciate it and I love your channel.
Cheers.
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About this episode
Exploring the evolution of Honda's K-Swap, this episode features Mo's EK Civic, a unique 4WD drag car built by B2R Motorsport. Mo shares insights into his decision to swap from a B series to a K series engine, emphasizing the benefits of torque and power potential. The discussion covers the challenges of building for high horsepower, including the choice of a billet block, the intricacies of a wet versus dry deck, and the importance of reliable components. With plans to push the car into the 7-second bracket, Mo's journey highlights the complexities and excitement of high-performance builds.
Original notes
You won't see this B2R Motorsport 2.0L 1200hp++ EK Honda Civic up at your local skifield, but it actually has the AWD/4WD system to get there faster than you could imagine if wanted!
Use ‘PODCAST75’ for $75 off your first HPA course here: https://hpcdmy.co/hpa-tuned-in
Making over 1200hp at 56psi boost and plans to hit between 80-90psi with a Precision 8085 turbo, Moe El-asmar's EK Honda Civic is aiming to be the first in its class to hit a 7-second pass on Australian soil. This build focuses on keeping it simple and solving one problem at a time, as opposed to going crazy and creating more with too many rushed changes, and it certainly seems to be an approach that is working.
Off-the-shelf parts for engine components are one of the aspects that follows this building principle with an OEM Honda K20 crank, SpeedFactory pistons, and BME rods housed in a Bullet Billet Block sandwiched to a 4 Piston cast head with an MLS head gasket.
Interestingly, Moe discusses how the cost of sleeving was halfway to billet but with a much shorter lifespan, helping him make the call to go with a Bullet block that is also a 'wet block', enabling him and the team to do more passes back to back vs a dry block setup.
Electronics wise, a Link G4X ECU, MoTeC PDM30 and ProWire custom wiring harness keep the smoke in the wires, with Platinum Racing Products coil packs Elixir fuel pump and Aftermarket Industries tank and hanger rounding off the electrics and fuel system.
The 4WD conversion is something Moe sees becoming more and more popular over time, with an AWD conversion from a Honda CRV mated to a Quaife sequential gearbox.
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