Bikewhorder

Hello, I'm replacing the engine and doing a auto to manual swap and I'm planning to document my adventures on here. My engine died in my car 2 years ago due to an impact on the highway with some debris that ruptured my radiator and I didn't know it until it was too late. I bought an 88 parts car that has had a ZC installed a few years ago and runs strong, A year ago I also picked up a nice clean stock d16 and I'm kind of torn as to which engine to use. I did a compression test on both and it came out pretty much the same, I'm leaning towards the ZC though because I've actually seen it run and it seems healthy. So far I've gotten the engines out of both cars and I'm about to refresh the new engine. I'm tempted to just leave the flywheel on the ZC and reuse the clutch since it looks like it has a ton life left in it. The pilot and throw out bearing feel good too, I know I should replace the rear main seal while its out but I'm also a big fan of the concept of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". Would I be a fool to not replace the clutch internals and seal at this point?

Bikewhorder

Here's some progress pictures. Both engines are out of the car and I'm prepping the new engine with lots of new gaskets and seals etc. It feels good to finally be getting this project rolling, you can see the blue car has literally been gathering dust patiently waiting for this swap to take place.

bheinen74

hope the brown one gets to the crusher, the rust is attrocious.

matt965

That's some crazy rust. Can you see through the floor yet?

Bikewhorder

The floor is soft but the crazy thing is the fenders are minty clean.

beansandrice

holy cow thats alot of cancer

bheinen74

think i will be pulling my rocker covers off and putting some fluid film inside those rockers on mine….

Bikewhorder

Ok so fast forward a few weeks, I got the engine in and I thought I was on the home stretch towards firing it up but I hit a major snag when I went to put these connectors together and found that they are way different and the old auto harness on my car has several more wires going to it than the one on my manual engine. This is the connector by the left strut that comes off the injectors. I never heard anyone mention this problem when doing this swap, is there easier solution to fix this than changing the entire wiring harness from the donor car?

smilindave

Lookup conversion from dual point to mu;ti point injection, it is pretty simple.
Regards
Dave

Bikewhorder

Thanks I will!

Bikewhorder

Sorry that's not the issue here. The old engine and the one I just installed are programmed fuel injection intakes. The engine i just swapped in is out of an 88 rt wagon with a 5 speed and the car its in now is an 89 rt Auto. The new engine is a zc but the harness in the donor car looks totally original so I don't think there were any mods made when it was swapped in a few years ago. Its possible the D16a6 top end was transferred over to the zc block but don't know . Any other suggestions?

Bikewhorder

I've discovered some other issues with the wiring and vacuum systems. I seem to have an extra solenoid valve that i'm not sure what to do with. I have a 4 wire plug going to this assembly on the donor car and only two wires on the good car. Its attached to this larger unit on the throttle sensor(?). Also the one vacuum line hook up I had on the old intake is absent on the new one. donor car
good car
good car
donor car
original intake
new intake
new intake
original intake
Any advice?

Bikewhorder

I can't seem to make any sense of my wiring/ vacuum issues so I'm just going switch out the entire wiring harness and every electrical component that might be specific to the 5spd set up. Wish me luck!

Bikewhorder

i really could use some advice here, I don't really know WTF i am doing. I'm planning to switch out my intake and wiring harness that is on the engine I just installed with the one that was on the car before so that my vacuum lines and electrical connections will plug in to whats in the car now.. Somewhere I've read that you should change the ECU because they are specific to the 5 speeds. Is this true? I also don't know what to do with the whole neutral saftey switch issue I keep reading about and I'm foggy on what to do for the reverse light issue I am most likely going to have. I've been digging for info but what I've found mostly just makes me more confused and realize I really don't have a clue and probably should have never attempted this. I have so much time an money tied up in this I can't give up now. Surely this is childs play for some of you guys. Please help!

Marcos Barrios

ok lets start fresh
part one
it looks like both of your intake manifolds are already mpfi easiest way to tell is if you have 4 injectors is this true?
to make it easier you can also use the intake manifold that was already in the blue civic so your vacume lines will have somewhere to go
let me know witch intake mani you decide to go with

part two
you need to use the engine harness that goes to the car your putting the motor in
so you need the harness from the blue civic to stay in the blue civic

part three
since your doing and auto to manual swap, there is going to be some rewiring needed, and ill walk you through it no problem ^_-
and yes you are going to need the manual ecu or engine computer most likely the one thats in the manual car will
work just fine
because the auto one will be searching for the automatic solinoids and crap and the car will have a check engine light all the time

let me know when you get these first three parts done and then ill walk you threw the auto to manual wiring and pedal swap and stuffs ^_^

Bikewhorder

Thanks! That's what I needed to hear. I'm going to start switching intakes tonight! Yes both are mpfi but the one out of the '88 donor car has a bunch of differences that were leaving me unsure how to proceed.

Marcos Barrios

yea if your swaping the same type of motors then i see no need to use a different intake manifold at all
when you do swap out the intakes thou make sure that you use a new gasket
and that you make sure that the old gasket is off
alot of times there made of this fiberglass paper stuff and it gets stuck to the head
i always end up scraping it off with razerblades

Bikewhorder

Thanks, the intakes are slightly different as I tried to show above and they create different situations for the hoses and wiring. I'm not sure if its because the donor car is an 88 or maybe this is a japan spec intake that came with the zc? I got the original one cleaned up and a Felpro gasket. Its been brutally cold out in the barn (i'm in Maine) but its tad warmer tonight so I plan to work on it.

Bikewhorder

So I started to get into removing the intake and began to realize what a PITA it is to remove with the engine in the car and so I looked to see if there was an alternative and what I've learned is that the only major diffenence between the two intakes is the location of the fast idle solenoid valve. Here the arrangement on the old intake with the valve on the left:
And on the engine i just installed the valve is mounted on the firewall with the map sensor and the purge cut off solenoid valve.


So to save a few hours of labor and aggravation I'm just going to try just swapping the harness and spicing an extension to reach the valve on the firewall. That should work right?

bbarbulo

why cut and splice when you have the correct (blue) car manifold in your hands? yes, so it's a little tight to get the IM out, but it sure beats having a car that's hacked together especially when (in your own words) you have no idea WTF you are doing. do it right, or let someone else do it right, please. these cars are getting older and rarer, treat them as such.

Marcos Barrios

yea bike if thats the only difference then id go for it
the plug is only going to be 2 or 3 wires i see no harm done
once you finish that and get the rest of the engine harness put together then youll be done with part 2 ^_^

Bikewhorder

Right, that's where i'm at right now, I need to make some forward progress and I figure there is probably a head gasket replacement in the not too distant future so i can always swap the intakes then. I really just need to see if this thing will run at all, i look at this car as a work in progress,

Marcos Barrios

its nice to get in the shop and do things like this thou, the feeling you get when it all just works is like no other ^_-

let me know when you get part 3 done

Bikewhorder

Oh man you have no idea how happy I am going to be if I can pull this off. I've been enjoying the process though, this could be habit forming. I've been working on it till the wee hours of the morning and I've almost got it all buttoned up, I just need to swap out the ECU, reinstall the cooling system, and put the air box back in and its pretty much back together. There are some wires dangling under my distributor now that used to go the AT. Can I just ignore those for now?

Marcos Barrios

for now yes, later im pretty sure were just going to snip them off but id wait untill you get the car working right first