[8695Beaters]

You can do the swap without pulling apart the front end, but it makes life easier. The bumper and fenders are all held in by screws or clips. Pretty easy stuff.

For Hondas it's usually easier to lower then engine out from the bottom. Use the jack that you used to lift the car and then find something to roll the engine on (a board with 4 caster wheels works fine).

If you want to race it's easier to start out with a stock car. The competition isn't tough and it's a great way to learn the dynamics of the car. In SCCA you can swap engines between models as long as the entire car has been upgraded (so if you swap for an Si motor, you also have to handle the suspension, wheels, and other options for that model. The B18 is out of the question because it was never offered in the Civic). Certain mods will throw you in and out of classes, so if you want to race at all, build the car for a certain class and stick with it. And a stock car costs no money to modify.

BTW, the B18C1 was the GS-R engine and the B18C5 was the Type-R engine.