It seems a little hard to believe, but this year Honda’s high performance K20 engine turns 20.
Two decades is a long time, and although the performance K engine has evolved from a purely naturally aspirated mill first seen in the JDM DC5 Integra and EP3 Civic Type Rs to a turbocharged weapon for the modern CTR era, its basic inline-four framework has remained.
In more recent times, the K motor has become a popular choice for Honda re-powers and cross-platform builds, and it’s not hard to see why. This is an engine that responds extremely well to tuning. Front-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive, all-wheel drive, street, circuit, drag – K engines are being used everywhere and for everything.
It’s little wonder then that Honda K-powered builds are featuring more and more often on Speedhunters. In the last few months we’ve seen a JDM K20 FD2 Civic Type R, a Rotrex supercharged K20 Integra Type R sedan, a K20/K24 EK2 Civic, and even a K-swapped Ferrari 308 GTBi build. That got us thinking about a special Honda K-Powered theme… and here we are.
Over the course of the month and in between our regular programming, we’ll be bringing you a look at a variety of builds from around the world, all with one thing in common – Honda K-series engines.
To finish the month off, we’d love to see some of your K-powered builds. Whether it’s factory-fitted or transplanted, send us a few clear photos of your car and its engine and a bit of information, and we’ll choose some to feature in a special IAMTHESPEEDHUNTER post at the end of October. Your photos need to be sized to 1920px x 1280px and saved at the highest quality JPEG setting, then emailed to iamthespeedhunter@speedhunters.com by Monday October 25, 2021.
To kick the K-Powered theme off properly, Paddy’s got a detailed looked at very cool and very quick Toyota MR-S. It’s up next so check it out.
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I have a feeling that the K-swap will be the next 2JZ-swap
AND one that's better for than just dyno numbers and straight line racing.
I hope theres an EP3 in the upcoming stories as its really the forgotten one. YouTube has some amazing ones going crazy around the Ring or European hill climb championships, and the K20 always sounds amazing when flat out!. I just found out my daughter cant use my EP3 Type R here in NSW Australia as it exceeds the allowed power to weight for L and P plate drivers. So now she wants an Integra haha
My K is factory equipment and still bone stock at 287k miles. It's gutless, but at least the car handles well enough that I don't need to slow down much for a corner to need to accelerate hard again!
I like many engines. But I LOVE the K20. Hope I'll always have one in one of my family's cars. Responds to tuning? Yup. Reliable, even bullet proof? Pretty much. Plus, it can sound nice and it looks nice!