1997 Honda civic lx j30a1 swap with 97 acura cl ecu running smooth no CEL's
#1
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1997 Honda civic lx j30a1 swap with 97 acura cl ecu running smooth no CEL's
I got some good news for folks who do a j swap with the slower 3.0L j30a1 engine and manual transmission swap. You can now use the Acura CL ECU from 1997 without the key being an issue. You can make this ecu work as manual transmission ECU with just hooking up the Vref port for the transmission circuit on the ECU to the throttle position sensor output by adding a jumper line. This gets the engine running smooth or you can substitute the 5 volt source from the ecu the the Vref port on the ECU plug. The TCU data lines can be soldered together to get rid of the P1655 DTC which says the lockup solenoid is no engaged on the C plug at ports 30 &31.
The Ecu powers up and I have no trouble codes. I went from the 1999 accord v6 ECU down to the 1997 Acura CL ECU because I had an issues with my rom on my 1999 accord ECU or it might of been a ground anyway I got frustrated with not having my main relay close and having to jump it to get the car started and a solid check engine light with no codes. So I did some research used the Acura CL ECU to run my j30a1 because the plugs are the same and engine is the same. All that was different was that I had to rewire the plugs to get it to work. I have to say I am loving a computer with no Immobilizers, so I can make all the keys I need without seeing greedy locksmith or dealer. The emissions equipment from the 97 CL is the same as the 99 accord v6. Nothing is different other the the shape and size of the ecu and NO immobilizer.
Basically my j swap is the red headed step child its an accord civic CL.
Best of luck if you need a manual transmission ecu and can't find one use the CL. By the way I have it in park mode but I will be testing to see if that is an issue or not. I have ran the RPM's really high up their so I think I got V tech engaging as well.
Update.
Today got the car on the road with the Acura CL ecu and it performed well with the manual transmission. It hit first and second gears fast. The only problem I have encountered was that I had to cut the park indicator signal wire off the harness because I had issues with engine avoiding v-tech at times so now it runs normal and has three times the power of the automatic could ever put out on the road. If anyone ever said a j30 is slow they are crazy, because with the manual its fast. I had to keep my foot off the fun accelerator cuz gas and tickets are expensive. I have to work out the odometer issues with some kind of transistor and resister combo to get it to stop the dial from spinning wildly in circles.
The Ecu powers up and I have no trouble codes. I went from the 1999 accord v6 ECU down to the 1997 Acura CL ECU because I had an issues with my rom on my 1999 accord ECU or it might of been a ground anyway I got frustrated with not having my main relay close and having to jump it to get the car started and a solid check engine light with no codes. So I did some research used the Acura CL ECU to run my j30a1 because the plugs are the same and engine is the same. All that was different was that I had to rewire the plugs to get it to work. I have to say I am loving a computer with no Immobilizers, so I can make all the keys I need without seeing greedy locksmith or dealer. The emissions equipment from the 97 CL is the same as the 99 accord v6. Nothing is different other the the shape and size of the ecu and NO immobilizer.
Basically my j swap is the red headed step child its an accord civic CL.
Best of luck if you need a manual transmission ecu and can't find one use the CL. By the way I have it in park mode but I will be testing to see if that is an issue or not. I have ran the RPM's really high up their so I think I got V tech engaging as well.
Update.
Today got the car on the road with the Acura CL ecu and it performed well with the manual transmission. It hit first and second gears fast. The only problem I have encountered was that I had to cut the park indicator signal wire off the harness because I had issues with engine avoiding v-tech at times so now it runs normal and has three times the power of the automatic could ever put out on the road. If anyone ever said a j30 is slow they are crazy, because with the manual its fast. I had to keep my foot off the fun accelerator cuz gas and tickets are expensive. I have to work out the odometer issues with some kind of transistor and resister combo to get it to stop the dial from spinning wildly in circles.
Last edited by Civicaccordswap; 10-22-2012 at 07:44 PM.
#2
Re: 1997 Honda civic lx j30a1 swap with 97 acura cl ecu running smooth no CEL's
Hello I just wanted to know exactly how you did this? Do you have pin numbers that I can short and then have that 5 VRef pin?
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