Innovative Mounts K20 Auto to Manual Mount Kit ZE1 Insight

Innovative Mounts K20 Auto to Manual Mount Kit ZE1 Insight

Yes, a K20 fits in a first-gen Insight, and no, you don't have to cut the car to do it. That's the whole reason this kit exists. The ZE1 is one of the lightest cars Honda ever sold in the US, an aluminum two-seater lighter than an EG hatch, and a K-swapped one is a genuine giant killer. This Innovative Mounts kit is the piece that makes the swap bolt-in instead of a fab project: engine mounts purpose-built for putting a K20 with a manual transmission into a factory automatic ZE1, 2000 to 2006.

What It Is and Why It Works

Start with the question everyone asks first: why does the kit specify an automatic chassis? Because that's the car you're going to buy. Factory 5-speed Insights are rare and collectors want them intact, while CVT cars are everywhere and cheap, usually because the IMA battery or the CVT itself, the two known weak points of these cars, has already given up. A dead-hybrid CVT Insight is the perfect donor, and this kit is engineered around that exact car. The distinction matters mechanically, not just in spirit: the automatic and manual ZE1 chassis have different mounting points, so there's no universal Insight K-swap mount kit and the kits don't interchange. This is the automatic-chassis version, and Innovative makes a separate 90751 kit for factory manual cars.

Second question: what does the swap actually require from the mounts? A K20 and a six-speed are a lot more engine than the 1.0 liter IMA drivetrain this car was designed around, and the brackets are stress analyzed for that job while reusing your ZE1's stock hardware, so the engine and gearbox land where they belong without cutting, welding, or drilling. The bushings are Innovative's no-tear polyurethane with the factory-style fluid damping deliberately deleted. In a swap car that's what you want: less engine movement means less wheel hop and less driveline slop when a K20's torque meets an 1,850-pound chassis. The honest trade is that you'll feel the engine, more at idle and more as durometer climbs, and the Insight has almost no sound deadening to hide it. That's the character of a swapped car, not a defect.

Third question: which durometer? Buy by power level, because that's how Innovative rates them: 75A covers 250 to 400 hp, 85A covers 400 to 500 hp, and 95A is for 500 hp and up. A bolt-on K20A2, K20Z1, or Z3 street build belongs on the 75A, full stop. The stiffer inserts are for boosted engines and cars that see the strip, and in a chassis this light and this loud inside, buying more durometer than your power level costs you comfort every mile for grip you're not using.

Specs

Available Options

Fitment

This kit fits one exact combination: a factory automatic ZE1 receiving a K20 with a manual transmission. It won't work for a K24 swap, that's Innovative's 90754 kit, and it won't work on a factory manual car, that's the 90751. Confirm which chassis you have before ordering, because the mounting points differ and the kits don't interchange.

What to Know Before You Buy

Now the rest of the questions you're already googling. K20 or K24? This kit is K20 only, and the K20 is the popular Insight answer anyway, since revs suit the car and the K24 needs its own mount kit. Which K20? A2 and Z1 from the RSX Type-S and Z3 from the 8th gen Si are the usual donors, all happy on the 75A mounts at bolt-on power.

 What else does the conversion need? Coming from a CVT you're into a K-series manual transmission and clutch, a clutch pedal assembly, shifter box and cables, clutch hydraulics, axles, engine harness and management, and cooling and fuel plumbing sized for roughly triple the factory output, so treat the mounts as the first line on the parts list, not the last. 

What about the hybrid system? Most builds delete the IMA entirely, which is usually already dead in the donor, and the K-series drivetrain outweighs the little 1.0 and its electric hardware, so budget an alignment and ideally a corner balance once it's running. None of this is a warning against the build. A sorted K20 Insight is one of the best power-to-weight bargains in the entire Honda world, and it starts with the right mounts under it.