RWD Honda L15?

Would make a great swap into a light British sports car - 130 HP NA, 170 HP Turbo, Honda reliability, affordable, widely available, small, compact, light. The SCCA thought so too, it's the replacement for the Kent 1600 in Formula Ford/Fit. Honda Racing crafted a bolt on adaptor for the transaxle. But what about us mere mortals, who need a suitable RWD gearbox solution? Other than crafting my own bellhousing (Amatuer aluminum casting is a hobby), does the GRM hive mind have any other solutions that are more of a bolt on?

if someone can figure out the adaption of a K to a miata box... this shouldn't be too much different.  But I think the K market is bigger, which is why we haven't seen it done yet.

Yeah, the L15 will never be 'for BiG Mad Power, Yo!', although there is a lot of aftermarket rods, pistons, etc.

Ironically, I did find that 'Air Trike' offers an L15 adaptor for driving a propeller, should you wish to use one in your Light Sport or Ultralight aircraft.

http://www.airtrikes.net/engines.shtml

I may have to just fab a pattern, and then either try to DIY cast it, or find a local foundry to do the job.

Then comes the fun of having it machined.

I'm considering having 3D scans of the L15 and suitable transmission faces (Toyota T50 or W58, or Ford T-9) to line up the shaft centers and fastener patterns in CAD, and finding a place to CNC machine it.

In reply to clshore :

Maybe not crazy power, but Honda is comfortable pushing the L15B7 north of 200hp in the Civic Si, so it's got some potential given enough boost jammed into it.  IIRC, they're feeding it somewhere around 20 psi to make that power.  

clshore said:

Ironically, I did find that 'Air Trike' offers an L15 adaptor for driving a propeller, should you wish to use one in your Light Sport or Ultralight aircraft.

http://www.airtrikes.net/engines.shtml

I may have to just fab a pattern, and then either try to DIY cast it, or find a local foundry to do the job.

Then comes the fun of having it machined.

I'm considering having 3D scans of the L15 and suitable transmission faces (Toyota T50 or W58, or Ford T-9) to line up the shaft centers and fastener patterns in CAD, and finding a place to CNC machine it.

Viking Aircraft is also in the business of sportplane engine conversions

any reason a simple flat bell housing adapter wouldn't suffice (thought that was the approach the k-swap took, but I could be wrong)?

It kind of feels like walking on eggshells bringing up anecdotes or examples without brand preference. But Honda did make a 250cc inline 6 that revved to 18k rpm in 1966. Sounds like a grump but put this side by side with an LS1 and have an expert panel judge the 'modern engine innovation.' What might have happened is collective we keeps spending all the technology points on cheap in other words let's use the resources to build 10 disposable cars instead of 1 good one.

In reply to plain92 :

Well that came straight out of left field...What in the world are you on about?

Driven5 said:

In reply to plain92 :

Well that came straight out of left field...What in the world are you on about?

I'm wondering if Honda ever put that 250cc engine in a boat?  Seems about the right size for a canoe... but, probably too much power.

Driven5 said:

In reply to plain92 :

Well that came straight out of left field...What in the world are you on about?

Honda fanboi's childhood dreams of being Takumi Fujiwara

I, for one, would love to see this thread return to the topic of putting an L15 in a little British sports car...

Is there a de-facto standard for the K swap so I can see an example of the best known approach?

In reply to Ransom :

 Look around to see what else Honda has put the “elf 15” motor into. If it came in something all wheel drive that might be the answer, although anything from Honda that is all wheel drive is still front wheel drive oriented. You could try to reverse engineer it and see if there’s anything that will k swap to an “elf 15” transmission 

sleepyhead said:

if someone can figure out the adaption of a K to a miata box... this shouldn't be too much different.  But I think the K market is bigger, which is why we haven't seen it done yet.

Kmiata makes the parts to put a Miata transmission behind the K series engine. They have everything to K swap a Miata. They also have other BMW transmission options. 

Which means you could use the same kit to put a K Series motor in to most British sports cars that can also fit a Miata engine/transmission.  Someone needs to be the first here, I already have my hands full with my current Spitfire project!

I've thought about an L15 swap into my Mini. The common honda swap subframes are for D series or B series engines and those are all getting old. The two smokiest Minis I've seen both had honda power. 

I didn't realize they added a turbo to it for the new Civic. 

In reply to T.J. :

Yes, the L15 Turbo got the nod for the Turbo Civic, rather than a turbo version of the NA Civic motor.

Not every enthusiast was pleased with that decision.

What are the odds of the L15 being just a scaled down K-series in regards to transmission attaching?

Just brainstorming as I know nothing about either engine other than the L15 is allowed in FF in place of the Ford Kent motor. 

I know very little about Honda's, but I thought one of the problems was they ran backwards from a typical engine.  Or was that just the older motors?  That would be a deterrent. 

You could use the Suzuki motor like this guy did in his Bugeye.  Swift powered Sprite.

-Rob

rob_lewis said:

Or was that just the older motors? 

It was indeed just the older motors.  The K and L series spin correctly.

Just an update, seems Honda have chosen a turbo VTEC version of the L15 as the base motor for ALL 2018 Accords.

BTW, the 'base' Accord motor makes 192 HP, 192 ft-lb (flat torque from 1500 - 500 RPM), with full Honda warranty, etc.

(I wonder if a S2000 transmission would 'bolt up'?)

In reply to clshore :

Did you get anywhere with this? I have been having the same hallucinations. Like in Close Encounters, when Richard Dreyfus made a mountain in his living room.

I feel like this motor belongs in a Spitfire. I think a turbo would be nice, too. I don’t think the S2000 trans will bolt up, will it? Did you come up with any viable options?

This thread just keeps getting weirder. 

I can't find anything about which direction the L engine spins. I know the K, J and F spin the crank pulley CW. Those are the only 3 that I know for a fact spin CW.

In reply to buzzboy :

Honda transverse engines always spin the same direction as the drive wheels.

Engine on the left side, engine rotates backwards.  Engine on the right side, engine rotates "normally".

Another way to look at it is all V6s and timing chain fours rotate "normally" and all belt fours are "backwards".

I'd like to say all longitudinal engines rotate "normally", but I wonder about the five cylinder Vigor engine, which was an F-series (reverse rotation) with one more cylinder.  Probably not relevant in 2020 because they are all probably scrap by now.  When the distributor would seize, it would snap the camshaft rather than break/strip the belt.

clshore said:

In reply to T.J. :

Yes, the L15 Turbo got the nod for the Turbo Civic, rather than a turbo version of the NA Civic motor.

Not every enthusiast was pleased with that decision.

After owning one, I am not upset but it's not the same as previous Si generations. It went from a very visceral experience to a very number experience in two generations. It is great on gas, still makes lots of power, and is a great DD, just a boring one. 

Anyways there are lots of variations of L15 which debuted in the early 2000s to the Civic Si variant which gets some forged internals to take the boost load. 

L15Ax are the early Fit engines with roughly 105-120hp.

L15B1 - are the newer generations of the L series. The 3rd gen Fit and HR-V has the L15B1 with 130hp.

L15B7 VTC - there are multiple variations of this used between the Accord, CR-V, and Civic. The Si variant of course has the beefier internals.

Then there are all the L series variants used in the CR-Z, Insight, etc. 

If you want NA there are probably much better options to go with like a K series. If you want boost than there should be junkyards full of these things soon. 

In reply to DirtyBird222 :

Will a K series fit in a place where a BMC A engine sat?