Originally Posted by schmi220
Yeah, I've heard so many different numbers on the weight difference between engines I don't know what to believe anymore. The lowest reputable numbers I've found hover between 40-75 lbs. But even if it is only 40, the fact that the majority of the extra weight sits in front of the axles will greatly effect handling and braking stability. Weight distribution is huge in automotive design. If it weren't, automakers wouldn't spend millions in development to swing the ratio of their new sports car from 52/48 to 50/50. And as far as the difficulty of the swap I only know one guy who has done it and he said it was a bitch. Of course, he is an idiot. His car does handle like crap, though.
35-40 lbs will make no noticable difference in handling, I can vouch for that personally.
I removed my AC and all associated hardware and weighed it (38 lbs) and that is at the very nose of the car, out in front of the engine, and I noticed no improvement in handling. Honestly, when you consider the driver is a 200 lb fatass, the gas tank varies from 75 to 0 lbs depending on how full it is (and what model you're driving), your stereo may be upwards of 50 lbs, etc etc etc... this amount of weight is truly negligible. And whoever said that an H22 couldn't pull on a b18c, thats just crazy. More power and more torque = more thrust, duh.
Also a side note, an H22 crx was recently recorded at 1.03 G on a 200 ft skidpad, which is pretty phenominal for a FWD car on DOT tires.