Hey guys ,

i have just purchased an EG civic with a B16a conversion
which is all new to me I have searched the internet for some information but thought
I'd join here to get some expert advice.

i bought the car with the speedometer not working the rev counter / fuel gauge and temp gauge
works fine I have no cel code so no indicated fault. Could this be down to a faulty speed sensor ?
The earthing looks to be fine earthed all in the correct areas , clocks look like original clocks also.

any advice on where to start with this would be great.

also I have noticed the the ecu installed in a P72 which I believe is for a B18 engine
v text doesn't seem to kick in very harsh as is in the cross over to v tec feels weak.

would you recommend changing this to a p28 or p30 ecu if so is this just a simple
unplug of my p72 and install the above.

could the p72 ecu have anything to do with my speedo not working ?

what oil would you recommend running the b16a engine on im located in Australia
it's currently winter.

any advice or helpful information would be much appreciated

regards josh

 

10w30 synthetic oil.

Check that the P72 ECU isn't chipped or running a custom tune. If not, swap it for a P30 OBD1 ECU.

Car looks very clean, love the red color. Very nice.

 

Thanks for the reply would a p28 be ok or would you recommend the p30?

Also any info info on the speedo not working apart from the speed sensor and bad earthing what else could it be stopping it from working ?

 

You stated that the odometer IS working and rolling up mileage, yet the speedometer does not indicate vehicle speed. This means that you have a bad speedometer. If the problem was the VSS, neither the speedometer nor the odometer would be working. You will need to change the speedometer/cluster. Also, VTEC would NOT work if the ECU was not seeing vehicle speed.

 

p28 will work but needs to be chipped for a b16, if the vss is bad I would think that vtec would not engage

what kind of temps down under in the winter, in florida I run 5w30, per the manual you can run 10w30 as long as it doesn't get to cold, helms shows 5w30 preferred, but 10w30 is also ok for -2* Fahrenheit or -20* Celsius

pic from 1995 del sol helms (obd1 b16a)

 

If there's no CEL for the VSS chances are the problem is with the speedometer head in the cluster. Usually if you just take cluster apart, remove the speedometer head from unit and touch the solder points on the back of the speedo head itself with a soldering iron it will fix the problem.

A P30 would be easiest. Simply unplug the current ECU and plug the P30 in. A P28 will also plug in, but it should be chipped and tuned to run the engine properly, you do the same with the P72 that's in it now though.