Burning

Well guys i picked up this 96 EX with 136k for a womping 400 dollars. The guy sold it to me running really weird, wouldn't idle and was misfiring pretty badly. Well got home started digging into the parts in the trunk and rear seat to see what all i could sell to fix it up some more. I find 3 ECU's... out of curiosity i looked each one up, turned out the guy had a ECU for the HX model plugged in and had the EX model one in the truck. Plugged it in idles fine, but has some weird acceleration problems seems kind of punchy and laggy. Ill video of it tomorrow after work.












Now my questions are as follows:

See this picture, there are 3 connectors here that are not connected to anything, i could not find any open connectors either. What are they? they seem to come off of the same section near the distributor connector.






Also i have a chance to get a freshly rebuilt y8 head, can i run it for a while on my stock ECU and harness without wiring in the vtec solenoid?

I am currently in the process of stripping the front end so that i can remove the radiator core support and install a new one. The previous owner had hit something i guess, tweaked the front end pretty good. Ill be ordering new fenders, hood, and bumper as well.
As you can see below, all i have left is too remove the radiator, and horn and such and then start drilling sport welds.




Im not worried about the rear quarters because im going to flip this car for some quick profit. I figure put in a maximum of 900 dollars including price of the car and i can sell for 1500.

mk378

Those plugs are for the VTEC solenoid and pressure switch. Looks like a non-VTEC head is in there, thus nothing to plug into. You need a DX or LX ECU to run non-VTEC properly. Is it manual or automatic? The manual EX has a different idle control valve than any of the others.

Burning

Weird, so engine harness is for a vtec car? I thought the D16y7 was a non vtec motor? I am sorry im new to these honda's. I have a DX and a HX ECU spare. So its safe to say i can pick up the rebuilt y8 head and throw it on there without issues as long as i plug in the DX ecu?

The car is a manual.

Also you named the 2 plugs, which after looking at some more information regarding vtec i should have seen that. But i still have this one that is coming off of the Intake which is in the same loom as what i assume is the MAF sensor.




Just an update for anyone who is interested in following. Today i am going to go through the car and remove any non factory wire. The previous owner had a Clifford alarm installed (**** installer IMO) which left loose wires everywhere, also a low budget stereo and fog light hack job. Im assuming i need new hinges for both sides since the doors wont adjust by loosening the bolts. I lift the door all the way up and tighten down and it still a half inch to low towards the rear.

tony_2018

IAT

Burning

Thanks! Anyone have a vtec solenoid with mounting bolts?

mk378

There is no place to bolt a VTEC solenoid onto the D16Y7 because it is not a VTEC engine. You need to change the whole head to a Y8 etc to have VTEC.

DX, LX = D16Y7 engine, non VTEC.
EX = D16Y8 engine, VTEC.

As I said before manual EX (most likely what this car originally was) is the only one with a 2 wire IACV, so you can't make the car a DX simply by plugging a different ECU. You will also need to change the intake / throttle body to the DX type and rewire for its 3 wire IACV.

Burning

If you read above i am buying a rebuilt y8 head. This car is a 1996 EX manual. Since i already have an EX ECU, i might as well buy a vtec head that pretty much bolts to the D16Y7 block. I never stated that i was going to bolt it to the Y7 head. If the car still has the original harness from the Y8 then i assume all i have to do is mount the solenoid plug everything in and it will be all fine and dandy.

Just to clarify, when the car was bought and not running nearly at all it had the P2E ECU installed. I have change it out now to the P2P ECU and it idles fine, but still has some acceleration issued below 3k. I also have a spare P2N ECU.

mk378

Yes sounds like a plan. You do need the IAT sensor that someone else mentioned. Wrong cam or spark timing is also a cause of a lot of "won't rev up" issues, but if you're replacing the head anyway you don't need to concern yourself with that now.

Burning

Like i said i know nothing much about these civics, i am a mustang guy and i bought a 94 EX coupe for a DD but couldnt pass this project up. It looks to me from the pics on the internet that the intake manifold is the Y8 manifold. All this leads me to believe that the Y8 got trashed, so they swapped in the cheaper Y7 and strapped the Y8 intake manifold on. Is there any way to tell if the engine harness is indeed a Y8 harness? I tried searching but found no clear info.

mk378

The Y7 harness would not have the VTEC plugs. And I guess you have confirmed 2-wire IACV on the back of the manifold, with a harness plug for it. So I think you are right, someone just threw a Y7 block and head in and didn't change much if anything else. Also the real EX has a conventional iron exhaust manifold with cat converter under the car, the DX LX had a combination manifold/cat unit on the front of the engine.

Burning

Ill have to check the manifold when i get home, the exhaust on the other hand is all aftermarket. I am gonna look over the headers and muffler to see what brand they are. More than likely it is eBay special but who knows. I went to get some more bolts this morning for the Pipe to Pipe flange, had a huge exhaust leak where the flange only had one bolt holding it together. The damn gasket was just hanging down. Hopefully it will make it a little quieter.

Appreciate everyone's responses. I'm sure ill be continuing to update this thread as it comes along.

The plan is to get the front end straitened out, clean up the interior and wiring. Get the engine running pretty decent then turn around and post for 1500 bucks and try to get a minimum of 1200. My budget is 800 bucks including the cost of the car. So far with the purchase of the Radiator support and the complete head i am left with 250 bucks lol.

Burning

Im looking online and it says that there is 4 bolts and a lot of spot welds that hold the radiator support on. I found most of the spot welds but upon initial inspection i cant locate the bolts.

Can anyone give me a direction to go in?

Eh2Guanaco

Maybe the bolts they speak of are the bumper reinforcement bolts?...

tony_2018

Honda radiator supports are welded on.

Burning

I dug into it a little more, they were not referring to the crash bar. It was a vague post with pictures that were outdated from 2005 so the server was obviously gone. I did find a new picture from someone that has done the bolts and he put bolts through 2 holes that line up through the frame rail and support on each side. Further more he added bolts to the locations of spot welds.

I know this isnt the OEM standard, but wouldn't grade 8 bolts be just as strong? Plus with bolts i can kind of move it around to get it just right.

Who knows i may bring my welder from work home and use it. But id prefer bolts for ease of use.