4.6l Cobra motor in an Acura Integra

Well guys, I would imagine some of you will hate this idea, some will love it, and alot will just ask why- I have been a Honda guy forever, and I recently saw the build where the guy took a wrecked corvette and fabricated it all into a Honda civic.

I figured why not use a car of similar size, like a mustang? Well it turns out the 94-98 mustang wheel base is 101.2 and the integra is 101.1 . I have had my Car for over 6 years and decided i wanted to do something that had not been done to an integra.

I think the only way to describe why i am doing it is simple. You would never expect it when i pulled up to a meet or a track.

So here it is, 97 mustang cobra is the donor car-!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So- It begins! Today marks the first day moving forward. This project started a month or so ago when i purchased the Mustang for the swap, but no work had been done.

last week i DROVE my integra WITH AC BLOWING COLD, around my block hit vtec, and pulled it into the garage for the last time… The tear down began.

I took a perfectly running (recently featured in a magazine) car and TORE IT DOWN!

Today was the day i REALLY tore into it. The motor is SOLD, along with the 5 lug conversion. This project BEGINS-
Here is the Feature from April 2010

The car as it sat last week- (with the mustang wheels because i sold mine)

the day i got the donor (cobra)

the MOTOR

So the first thing i did, was tearrrrrrr down the mustang, and part out as much as i could to regain some cash!

update

Well then i had to sell my motor, once i found a buyer for my 5 lug conversion and my gsr swap, i got to work!

MOTOR OUT

Motor delivered to buyer!

suspension and 5 lug out!

Stay tunedddddd for progress!

Update 7/22
This is the FIRST cut

We decided to cut the roof off in 2 pieces so the front half came off first-

My arms were tired as Helllllll after that- so taylor took over on the 2nd half

Taylors GET SOME face

Bustedddddddddd the back window! (not on purpose, but didnt care)

Roooooof OFFFF

Pieces to haul off to the trashhhhhhh

And how it sits at the end of the day!

The rear quarter panels and everything from the floor up to be cut away next week! Until then! Thanks for all the suppport!
Enjoy!

8/1/10

Ok i cut some more today– Quarter pannel goneeee

8/13/10
Had to move some wiring today so i wouldnt cut into the wires!

Then proceeded to remove the left rear quarter panel

Which left me with this-

SOOOOOOo i needed to cut that all off- which gave me-

So i figured out that the integra c pillar bar fits between the shock towers perfectly!!!! Here is me messing with it- my daughter wanted to take a picture haha

BAM the strut bar fits!!!!

I really like this picture for some reason

And finally. the cobra pedals which i think are sweet!

9/1/10
So today i unbolted the front end and the side skirts-from the integra, and decided to try them on the mustang shell, just to get a better idea of fitment in the future-

Looks like after lining things up, the motor WILL be higher than anticipated, but thats not too big of a concern for me. The side skirts fit like a glove, which was expected since the wheel base was almost identical. Here are some pictures so you can all sorta see how its coming together-

P.S my Cats found my speaker box… thanks cats….

Fenders and hood removed- along with sideskirts-

Sideskirt fitment (only tested for length and to line up the fender and “firewall” as a reference

You can see here, that my windshield will sit in a good spot, also you might notice the OEM mustang fender location is an inch or 2 higher-

Another shot at a lower angle to show where the motor sits-

I sat the hood on the engine bay, this does not tell me a whole lot, because the hood latch is sitting on the radiatior support and it is quite apparent that the mustang is a wider car-

Love the cats!

SOooooooooooo I stripped down the interior of the Integra today
Pulled out the front and rear seats, the entire carpet, the steering wheel, and dash board-
Took off one of the doors as well, will be taking off the other door and hatch on wednesday getting ready to weld some cross bars in there and cut out the floor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Finished stripping the Integra today- IT IS READY TO WELD SOME BARS IN AND CUT OUT THE FLOOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The doors are gone- the rear hatch is gone-

the entire wiring harness is out-

headlights are gone-

All of the components on the firewall are gone- (all ac and heater cores etc)

Guys let me repeat im ONLY CUTTING THE FLOOR OUT- not the fkn roof hahahaha

Pulled the mustang out of the garage, Started troubleshooting the motor alittle….
Wondering why the starter wont turn the motor over just make a loud clanking noise, but i can rotate it over with a ratchet and a breaker bar…. Still not to the bottom of it…. SMALLL chance that the motor is NOT locked up-

Got my steering wheel in-

Sold all of my right hand drive components. The full wiring harness, the rack and pinion, brake booster, proportioning valve. and all ac parts for the Right hand drive.fuse boxes and all. So, alot closer to welding the support bars in to cut out the floor of the integra-

not sure when i will be done- but aiming for april!

(special thanks to Taylor for helping me cut, and my neighbor Dave for welding in the bars for me!!!)

Went Fishing tuesday night… (was just ok) Then wednesday i got cracking on it! Went to a steel place here in town, picked up some square tubing. welded in some braces for the body, and cut out the entire floor/engine bay and firewall! Getting alot closer to dropping this body onto the mustang!

cutting through the floor-

cutting through the framerails-

The whole floor from engine bay back is sitting on the ground-
only the rear is sitting slightly on the jackstands at this point-

here is a clear shot from the back-

Ok worked on the car today, Got the floor and firewall out and cut into 3 sections to load up and take to dispose of. Next week I will be adding the frame rail connectors to the mustang before cutting it down to size. Getting very close!!! car should be ONE car within this month!

Well, it was a cold and rainy day today….. SOOOOOOOOOOO We did some Work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And i am more excited now than when i first started!!! I cant thank my neighbor and Taylor enough for their help today!!! We are getting SOOOOOOOOOOO Close!

We started by welding in the subframe connectors!

GOT the welding done, and painted them-

Proceeded to cut the right side of the mustang off-

I then decided i should remove the radiator support from the Integra-
It seemed to be the smartest way to drop the body over the mustang.

So we got the mustang cut down to size! Time to turn it around and back it in.
Im not sure what Taylor is doing here.. but i think maybe he is surfing the car down the driveway?

I thought this would be a cool picture, with the integra body in the shadows.
But here it is turned around getting ready to reverse in

AND NOW- one of the moments we have ALL been waiting for

Better believe that wasnt the only picture taken!!!!!!
And my FAVORITE shot of the day… (not sure why)

And the last picture- THis is how it sits now, Will do some more trimming next week! and maybe even start welding the body!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is a shot from the trunk- showing you how super close i am to getting everything flush!!!! Things are lining up actually better than i had hoped for, and looks like ill still have windshield wipers!!!!!!!!!

Here is the rear frame section that lines up EXACTLY on both cars– fenderwells are perfect as well!

Sooooo closeeee

And for my favorite shot of the day-

Only spent 2 hours today working on the car, Got alot done though! Also spent about 8 hours in the hospital with my sister and she gave birth to my new niece!!!!
Here is the side shot as requested to show the length of the mustang(not too bad if you ask me)

As you can see here, the rear fender well is lining up PERFECTLY

This shows how much further down it is.

Here is a shot at the interior, looking at the firewall

Here you can see the car is all the way down. I will need to cut the mustang firewall down to lower the integra body the rest of the way.

Cut the firewall out, in a “v” pattern so that the integra windshield would drop down all of the way.

The rest of the pictures taken, show the car sitting all the way down at its final resting point. From here on out, will be trimming, patching, and welding to get this car finished!!

So there she sits, In the final spot. The rest is just details!!!!
Wish me luck !!!!!

Radiator support is cut now– seems that everything is going to work as planned!

I made the mistake of buying a steering wheel hub from Ebay- (Fail) it wont go on for shit- So i have to buy something better- Looking into a Nrg short hub-

My 8 point cage is being built, And will be getting shipped out soon-

I ordered a drivers side seat bracket, it will be here 12/7

I have not started on the welding yet. My neighbor has been busy, he wants to get together and spend a full day welding it up. I might wait till my cage gets here.

I bought a new left hand drive dash board- and the steering collum support bar- will have to customize the mustang steering collum to bolt up to it.

Sooooooooooo Close– Should be ready for the motor swap in January!