Wht3ggsdo96

Hello HONDA-TECH,

As the title says I have a 97 civic cx hatchback with a 92-95 motor. I purchased the car from a douche and I obviously made a huge mistake 4 years ago and I've been chasing my tail ever since. So my problem Started with blowing FI/EM fuse's and had to get my car towed the first day it was on the road. I soon find the hack wiring job the previous owner did, while i was looking for a short or bad ground. Now I'm just completely lost and don't know where to start or look aside from buying a new 96-98 engine harness. I pulled the old harness out and every single wire has been touched and spliced into. I first tried to fix the crappy work then soon realized this will probably have me chasing my tail even more. Not to mention this is my first honda project.

My question is once i get the new harness, what wires will i need to match up and what wires don't need to be used. I also talked to Rywire and absolouley no help after talking to them 3 different times because i was going to purchase one of there ecu adapters.

Here is the specs so you know
>97 civic Cx hatch
>92-95 motor (non vtec)
>OBD2B ecu
>purchasing stock harness tomorrow


If anyone can please point me in the right direction i would greatly appreciate it. Ive tried searching this google HT and nothing. I know this is not a popular swap or even a good swap but i need to get the car running ASAP.

Thanks for the help

TomCat39

If you are determined to stick to the D15B7 motor in your 97 civic and keep the OBD2 ECU, you will need to research CKF bypass.

I'm assuming you need to stay OBD2 for emissions. Also I was under the impression the 97 civic was OBD2A not OBD2B, so you may also have the incorrect ECU to get by.

I also do not know how much variance there is between the D16Y7 ECU programming (fuel maps, timing etc) compared to the D15B7 ECU programming. You might still have emission problems even after bypassing the CKF.

Wht3ggsdo96

CKF bypass .??

yes I want to keep it odb2 and just make this work for now until I can get a proper swap. I'm not sure either, the problem is there isn't much info on this swap and it's hard to figure it out.

I will def price out an ecu and go from there .! Thanks for the help

TomCat39

Your car is OBD2 and there is normally a CKF (Crank Fluctuation) sensor down by the crank gear behind the crank pulley.

The D15B7 (OBD1) motor does not have this sensor nor is there provisions for it. I believe there is a CKF bypass method that can be done for this specific problem.

Other issues are the D15B7 motor has ignition timing of 16* BTDC firing while the D16Y7/Y8 have 12* degrees BTDC firing with ignition timing.

You will also have to contend with OBD1 Injectors and fuel rail while the car is expecting OBD2. As well as the Distributor that fits the motor is OBD1 while the car expects OBD2. The shock tower plugs will not be the same or even in the correct pinouts. If I recall, someone told me the 96-00 doesn't have shock tower plugs and instead the wire harness goes straight from the ECU, through the firewall to all the parts of the motor. The OBD1 motor has a separate engine harness and firewall/cabin harness. The engine harness plugs into the firewall/cabin harness at the shock tower on OBD1.

It's a wiring nightmare to put an OBD1 motor into an OBD2 car. It can be done but you have to do some hard wiring or change component plugs to accept the full OBD2 harness.

HondaPartsHero

2 threads I made that might help

https://honda-tech.com/forums/honda-...-only-1842858/

https://honda-tech.com/forums/honda-...-vtec-2987229/

Wht3ggsdo96

wow ... I definitely have my work cut out for me. I really appreciate the input on this. Time to get the hands dirty

Wht3ggsdo96

thanks a bunch buddy appreciate it