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The car came with a new O2 Sensor and since its registered until next year it shouldn't be too bad. I just need to install the new sensor. The shifter is pretty shitty so I may want to fix that, I don't want the smog guy to struggle with it. Its got some kind of wonky short shifter but it feels more like a long shifter and it does not gate very well. Ill check that out, maybe its just adjusted very poorly.
Maybe ill get out to the garage this morning and check it out. I'm anxious to get the swap completed, even tho I have not received all of the new parts yet.
I may "may" change it out with OBD2 ECU down the road. I would like to get the extra diagnostic codes. I still have a small idle issue, it hunts for about 2 revs after I let of the gas completely. Its not bad and with the stereo on I generally don't notice it but on a quiet day with no radio its obvious.
I was also thinking about ordering a resonator to put in place of the test pipe. Well when I put the b20 in ill have a test pipe. The exhaust sounds surprisingly good but about 20% louder than I think a DD should be. I could put in the silencer but the car sounds like it has a blocked exhaust, wait that's exactly what the silencer does. lol
Well... Its not the short shifter that's the problem. The bushings are good under the shifter itself and all of the ones on the linkage near the transmission. But the actual fitting that connects to the transmission is loose. There is a bolt instead of pin as well. I tried to use some Teflon tape to fill the gaps but that didn't work. I added a piece of soft aluminum in between, which was a pain to get in but it still didn't work. Very strange. I think I can just swap the one from the other car, there is no play in that. I also ordered a set of energy bushings since I will be working on it anyway
Ok made more work for myself . I changed out the o2 Sensor, upstream sensor with the new one that came with the car since it was brand new in the package.(SG752) Once I changed it of course lucky me I got a check engine light.(P0135). I assumed it had something to do with the sensor but I grabbed a scan tool and yup. So my next thought being an OBD1 guy was to reset the ECU. Well apparently now I need to wait a good 100 miles before I smog again. Hopefully the engine lasts that long. Well it still didn't clear the code, it pops back up as soon as you start the car. I used the scan tool to clear it but same thing. I messaged the guy that sold me the car and he said there was something funny about the wiring on the old sensor that's why he purchased a new one. I pulled the sensor out and compared the wires and it has 2 black wires. a white wire and a green wire. The black wires match up in the same location but the new sensor has a blue wire and its located where the white was on the old one and the white wire is where the green wire was. So I swapped the wires on the connector and tried again. Same problem.
I gave up and swapped back the old o2 sensor that apparently has nothing wrong with it. Fired up the car and no errors.
I wonder what else i should do to get it past smog. Time for a little research. It may be perfect already but... i don't want to take too many chances.
Well crap... I went to take it to smog today and about 1/2 way there she started stalling. The tick got louder. I babied her home and now she will barely start or idle. Guess I'm doing the swap now.
Here are a few pics of the engine removed from the 99.
Dirty Engine bay I really wanted to make it to the car wash to clean this thing out before i started the swap but it died before i could smog or wash it, all of the cleaning materials are still in the back seat.
Been busy with Dentist appointments and Doctors appointments for everyone in my family so i have been slacking a bit. Also spending a ton of time playing Fallout. haha.
I finally got to work today and pulled the engine from the donor. Went extremely smoothly except i ended up breaking the TPS by hurrying a but too much. I have spares so no big deal. Took me about 3 hours from beginning to end also removing the complete exhaust and putting the car back on its wheels off the jack stands.
Here are pics of the misc parts i ordered from Amazon and Ebay for the swap. I did also notice that there was already an OBD2 Distributor adapter already on the engine so either way i'm covered on that side. Im not sure what i will be doing about the transmission top mount. Looks like the one from the 99 will work, its a shame since i payed over 100$ for the innovative one for the 94 but whatever i guess.
Well yesterday did not go as smoothly as planned
-Changed out the TPS Sensor, no problem.
-Ended up using the 99 Civic Transmission mount
-Looking at the exhaust i think i can use the stock exhaust which wont be a bad thing since it has a good Cat and this will be my wife's DD.
-The Alternator has a square plug so i swapped over the one from the 99 D16. I ended up drilling a new hole in the mount from the B20, im not sure if it was a LS mount or CRV mount but there was just enough room to drill the hole so the belt would be tight enough.
-The Driver Side mount did not want to fit inside the new bracket, The Metal sleeve inside was just a tad too big and no matter how hard it hit it with the mallet it would not fit so i ended up cutting a very small piece off the end then was able to pound it in.
-The engine did not want to line up, it was a major struggle to get it in place. Trying to put it in with the header still attached was a major fail, the AC condenser was in the way, i ended up removing it and that gave me alot more room to work. I was able to get one bolt in the Driver side then one bolt in the transmission mount. After alot of adjusting with the cherry picker and a jack i was able to get the second bolt in the driver side and a screwdriver in the rear mount. Finally then i was able to get the 3rd driver side bolt in and the second transmission mount bolt.. At that point it had been 6 hours and I gave up for the day. The third lower transmission bolt is being a real pain and does not want to go in, its in a difficult spot.
-The last thing i noticed is that Distributor on the B20 is an OBD2 Big connector and the harness on the car is OBD2 Small. I didn't realize there were 2 OBD2 connectors. I think i can use the OBD1 to OBD2 adapter i have already and just re pin the Ignition Input wire to the #5 pin on the adapter. I'm not sure what to do with the #9 Blue Engine speed Output wire. I did read something about connecting it to the Ignitor but i will deal with that when i come to it.
- I purchased the adapters for the Injectors as well but i am starting to double think using them. I need to trim the corners out of all of the plugs so i can use them, i think the OBD2 injectors from the D16 are the same, 240cc maybe. Ill have to think that over.
I did snap a few photos yesterday. I decided to try to take photos where i can since a few people are following and it may help them.
Here are the AC mounts side by side, one is from a LS and one is Del Sol, reproduction. I was having a hard time telling the difference but looking at the pictures it looks like the holes for the AC compressor itself are spaced different. The angle on the tensioner is also different.
The hole in the alternator mount. Its not extremely pretty but it "should" not be an issue, The mount on the D16 is very different and i did not see a way to swap it over. I could have re-pinned the connector most likely but i am trying not to butcher the OBD2 harness.
Here are the rear transmission mounts. The upper one i have to assume is from a LS and the bottom one is the SI mount. They both mount to the transmission the same but the Shape and length are a little different. It was hard to capture in the pictures.
Spend some more time today. Motor mounts lined up relatively easily today. I did find the problem with the High pressure line for the power steering. The connector on the 99 is much bigger than the one on the EG and LS. I swapped the High pressure line from the EG, took me a bit of time to swap them but it eventually worked out.
I mounted the AC compressor then had to figure out what combination if parts would work for the tensioner. I ended up using the tensioner from the LS mount. I did run into an issue where the reproduction part i purchased from Amazon did not have threads all the way thru for the adjuster screw so it took quite a while to get it thru and tightened. Also one of the front bolts on the AC compressor was in the way so i ended up removing it, hopefully this does not bit me in the *** later.
I got almost all of the wiring harness back into place, i just need to modify the conversion harness to get the distributor connected.
I checked the D16 injectors but the tips are different and wont work without modification to fit the LS Intake Manifold. I ended up needing to modify the old injectors to work with the conversion harness. The injectors are ready to go, cleaned them up along with the fuel rail, i found 3 old o-rings inside the fuel rail, guess whoever had this engine before me was lazy.
Driver side axel is installed but i stopped to fix a broken Lug that came with the car but decided to call it a day. I put in another 5 hours today mostly just getting the AC and Power steering sorted.
I do need to see what is required to turn this back into a OBD2 Engine. This was originally OBD2, the only noticeable difference is that i don't see the extra connector near the crank, i would assume that is for the crank position sensor. Why doesn't the B20 have this connector? Ill search for that but if you know the answer, feel free to chime in.
Made some progress in the last few days, only got in a few hours each day.
-Injectors/Rail installed
-Replaced the one broken Lug. I don't know why this is such a pain in the ***. Honda really came up with a poor design on that one. I ended up grinding the back and front off the old lug then i was able to tap it out. That's the simple version of that story. The long story is that i attempted to use every tool in my garage, cutting banging, yelling kicking and crying and the only tool that was up to the job was the electric grinder with the wall plug, I killed both of my other batterys trying to get that thing out. I also ended up grinding the lip off the new lug on one side as well as grinding the hub itself to make room.
-I got the driver side front mount installed which went surprisingly easily for once. I had to remove the shaft from the old one which are generally seized but a few bounces with my body weight and by some miracle it came off.
-I installed the new energy suspension bushings on the B-Series Shift Linkage. Unfortunately i ordered the wrong kit so i didnt have the new one for the B-Series on the transmission side. I just ordered the correct part so eventually it will get installed.
-Shift linkage installed except the B*itch pin. I was just mocking it up to make sure it would fit properly. Im glad i pulled the B-Series linkage since the 99 D-Series one would not work.
-Header installed. The header install was painful.... I think i may have bent one of the studs when i tried to install the engine with the header attached. So that was a good hour of struggling to get it installed. I used the Stock Civic Exhaust since it lined up perfectly. I do need to re-attach one of the hangars. This will be my wifes daily so i think she will enjoy it being reasonably quiet and having the Cat and not the test pipe will make the exhaust smell a little better.
-Front Transmission mount installed. No issues again. Its surprising that the front mounts gave me little problems, i spent days on them the first time around, I guess having the correct parts really speeds things up.
-I did find an issue, i attempted to plug in the o2 sensor but the plug on the harness is male and the plug on the sensor is male. I tried to remove the sensor so i could rewire it but it was being stubborn. My Removal tool is getting a little worn so i gave up. Ill just make an adapter. I have 2 Female o2 Sensors so ill just use them as donors to build an adapter.
-I rewired the Distributor Conversion harness. I never really looked at it before and it was a home made harness. Pretty decent quality, all of the wires were soldered and heat wrapped. I just removed the wrap from Black and yellow wire and connected it to the empty spot on the OBD2 small connector. Re-Soldered it and wrapped it again. I simply removed the blue and black pin from the OBD2 Big connector so i can use it at a later time if i want, no cutting or splicing. I still didn't figure out what i need to do with that wire on the distributor end but ill worry about it if something doesn't work.
-I tried to mock up the stock Intake to the B20 for that stock look but there is no way, i have that large Skunk 2 throttle body and the spacing it too tight. No big deal ill use the short ram that came off the other car.
So all that "should" be left is the Passenger Axel along with the lower shock bolt, Axel Nut and Ball joint nut. I need to do a little work swapping the stereo and such but ill do that after this thing is running without any issues.
Ohh i need PS fluid, Coolant, transmission fluid and i need to bleed the clutch since the old slave cylinder fell apart, i had a brand new one on the old civic so easy swap. I also managed to pull a wire out on the AC Side so i will need to figure that one out, no big deal.
Well I am basically done, except the troubleshooting that will most likely come after i power her up.
-Got the Passenger side axel in, smooth no issues.
-Plugged in the o2 sensor adapter i built yesterday
-Put on the fuel regulator, the return line was too short so i used an extra bend from another fuel line and used that to extend the gap and get the angle right.
-Added the exhaust hangar that was missing.
-Plugged in the OBD1 ECU and adapter
I would have fired it up but all of the fluids that i bought are still in the trunk of my car that my wife took to work. Grrrr
I started stripping the additional parts from the old car i needed, speakers, stereo, shift boot visors, amp and woofer.
I will fire it up tomorrow and hopefully we don't get too many Cel Codes. If she runs well ill take her to the car wash and give her a good scrubbing then take some pictures of the finished project.
Tried to fire it up today without much luck. I am throwing a CEL but I cant figure out how to check it. I jumpered the 2 pin connector with no luck. I thought maybe the paperclip approach was not making good contact so I chopped the tweeter connector off the old EG and made a jumper harness and still no good. I plugged in the obd2 scan tool and it didn't make any connection. Maybe I should toss the OBD2 ECU back in and see what codes it pulls, maybe a few will help identify the problem.
The car cranks without starting, no life. I can pull the plugs and see if we are getting fuel.
Car runs with the OBD2 ECU. Fires right up and idles fine.
Maybe something is funky with my conversion harness.
I did throw 3 codes with OBD2
P0113 Air intake tempature sensor. I did not have that plugged in when I first fired it up. That code may/should clear
P1259 Vtec, since I don't have vtec that's to be expected
P1337 Crank position fluctuation sensor or whatever its called. I should be able to do a bypass on that.
I'm going to research those now. Its not surprising considering its the wrong ECU.
Maybe I should just go ahead and order an OBD2 ECU.
There is an odd kind of squeaking rubbing noise from the AC area. I will have to look into that a bit, maybe just a loose belt.
I did have an issue with the fuel regulator. The rail is an aftermarket rail of some sort and the holes didn't line up properly with the D16 regulator, no big deal, swapped in the correct one and we have fuel pressure and no leak.
Last edited by Scott Little; 03-13-2016 at 02:34 PM.
Well I ordered it anyway, it was only 20$ so hopefully its the one I need. There's a lot to learn about obd2 I guess. I may still change over to OBD2 down the road, we will see.
Drove it yesterday a bit using the OBD2 Civic ECU. Had an emergency and needed a car for a bit. Worked ok, I wouldn't say awesome but I just drove it easy since its the wrong ecu. I noticed a bit of an exhaust leak at the header. I was tempted to swap in the stock B18 manifold but instead I just tightened up the header bolts again. Hopefully that clears up the leak, this Megan header has been a bit of a pain but since I got it in a trade, I cant be mad about it.
The throttle cable from the D-Series didn't want to work, there just wasn't enough room for adjustment. I pulled the one I was using in the EG and it worked well.
I still need to tighten the lower balljoints a bit and add the cotter pin, they were spinning so I figured I would try again once some weight was on the car.
Started wiring the stereo, the one that was in the car had speakers missing and the aux port was broken. Also its wired directly to the car harness so I ordered an adapter to go in between so next time we change the head unit we wont have to work with the short wires. I need to wire the amp and that's basically it.
Well got my first drive in with the correct ECU. She feels very good. I drove it about 1 mile to get some dinner. Of course that night my wife nuked the transmission in my Accord so I had to give up the Civic Earlier than I wanted to. Still have a few unfinished projects on the car but she put about 150 miles on it yesterday without any issues. Topped off the fluid today and rewired the AC fan so that she would have AC. Still have some noise from the Accessory area, some belt squealing and I think some noise from the PS or AC. Hopefully those noises go away but if not guess that will be a project for another day.
Changing over to the Accord again, it never ends. Again I spent countless hours fixing a car and I don't have one to Drive myself. Marriage is really a give and take, I give and she takes. lol.
Ill get her cleaned up and post some final pics soon and end this thread.
My wife called on the way home yesterday and said the car broke on the freeway and she thought the transmission broke. But then she said that the engine lost power. So my first thought was that maybe the clutch fluid was low or something. Then as she kept talking it sounded like maybe it was something on the ignition side but there was no check engine light.
The tow guy came and of course it was the same guy that towed the accord a few weeks back. He said it sounded like the transmission was done then he said it sounded like the engine was blown and it was running on 3 cylinders. So I immediately started shopping for a new B20, they are cheap so I figured no big deal.
We get the car home and I plug in the jumper to check the code and it was a code 3. Ok so Map Sensor. I open the hood and look and one of the wires was broke. There was a blob of solder on the wire near the pin so someone had done a crap fix to the wire. I grabbed an extra connector that I had laying around, removed the pin, wired it in, heat wrapped it and plugged it back in and good to go. It possibly ran batter than it did before the issue. In a 5 minute span we went from needing a new engine to a 5 minute fix.
I think I need to google search to see if there is some kind of good luck charm for cars that I can make my wife wear from now on.
02-25-2016, 06:14 AM
Re: 94 Coupe B20 to 99 Sedan swap. Questions
. I changed out the o2 Sensor, upstream sensor with the new one that came with the car since it was brand new in the package.(SG752) Once I changed it of course lucky me I got a check engine light.(P0135). I assumed it had something to do with the sensor but I grabbed a scan tool and yup. So my next thought being an OBD1 guy was to reset the ECU. Well apparently now I need to wait a good 100 miles before I smog again. Hopefully the engine lasts that long. Well it still didn't clear the code, it pops back up as soon as you start the car. I used the scan tool to clear it but same thing. I messaged the guy that sold me the car and he said there was something funny about the wiring on the old sensor that's why he purchased a new one. I pulled the sensor out and compared the wires and it has 2 black wires. a white wire and a green wire. The black wires match up in the same location but the new sensor has a blue wire and its located where the white was on the old one and the white wire is where the green wire was. So I swapped the wires on the connector and tried again. Same problem.
