Frankenstein's Monster K20/24 RSX-S

Sup guys, I'm in the middle of my 2nd swap right now...this one is a K20/24 Frank into an RSX chassis. Figured I'd start a thread detailing the build before it's too late. I'm just about ready to mount the motor to the chassis at this point...this is gonna be pic heavy so get your popcorn....

I bought an '02 RSX-S earlier this year. The seller brought it to the dealership with the motor locked up. She was a middle aged woman who had bought it for her son a few years back. Apparently, the son wasn't aware that driving the piss out of the car and not keeping up with oil changes tends to cause problems. I negotiated the blue book value of the car minus the cost of a new engine and took delivery early last May...

I got the oil pan off and soon realized the issue - rod bearing seized in cylinder 3. I removed all bearings, inspected the crank and looked for any other damage. Surprisingly, the crank was barely touched and the oil in the pan had zero metallic flake. The screen in the spool valve filter was also clear of anything so I thought I must've gotten lucky. I know I should've replaced the crank but considering replacement bearings were readily available and OEM cranks are stupid expensive, I opted for the former and replaced bearings only. The motor turned over super smooth by hand and once everything was bolted back up, the car fired right up. It got to temperature and idled fine, no codes present but had audible rod knock at about 2300 rpm in the same cylinder as the seized bearing. I was surprised the sensor didn't pick this up but figured at this point, let's do a swap and so now here we are...

Here's the car - 2002 Type-S in Nighthawk Black pearl with full OEM A-spec kit.....




Here's the motor - 2005 JDM K24a 3 lobe from HMotorsonline.com...









Shout out to Steve at HMotorsonline for the clean K24a. I highly recommend sourcing your engine from a trusted and reliable provider that's been in the game for over 20 years like these guys. The only catch was the wait time to receive the motor as it was just over a month for it to ship and arrive to me here in VA from Cali. The motor is super clean and came overpacked and strapped to a pallet as seen above. It's also in amazing condition as you'll see in the photos to follow...stay tuned.

-G