I also have this posted in the eg/ek+ forum

before anyone starts saying "there is a search button" i know and i have used the hell out of it and found alot of helpful info but not exactly what im looking for. my friend has a 97cx and bought a wrecked 00ex for $300. motor and all is fine. we are going to swap the y8 into his hatch. what im wondering is since the car is a 96-98 model and the y8 is a 99-00 will there be a problem? by the way they are both 5- speeds. also if there are any other things you can think of let me me know. thanks fellas.

 

As far as getting it in and getting it running, these honda engines are so close to each other in general and easy to work on I don't think you'll have a problem getting all the sensor wires and vacuum lines routed correctly. Now I'd recommend leaving the engine harness in the car unless you're familar with going under the dash and disconnecting it and pulling it through the firewall. If you use the original 97 cx harness, you'll need to add 2 wires to it for vtec. This will be 2 wires (1 from the vt solenoid and 1 from the vt pressure sensor, right by the coolant neck and the passenger side of the cyl. head). Extend these wires, either inside the factory harness or along your own path down through the firewall and to the ecu. You'll also need a new ecu, or to convert yours (converting a obd 2 ecu -> vtec??) for vtec operation, and add these 2 wires to the correct pins on the ecu. Search "wiring up vtec" or "wiring vtec obd 2" or something, Katman took some great pictures and wrote down some useful info on this a long time ago. Good luck.

if you have a digital camera, take detailed pics of all the vacuum lines, routing, sensor wires, etc while the engine is still in if you think you'll forget where they go.

also, put both engines, the new and the old, side by side just to make sure that what you're putting in is the same as what you're taking out (no broken sensors, location of sensors, blah blah)

You'll probably be surprised to find just how wide a range of honda engines has nearly identical orientation and location of many of the sensors, mounts, etc etc..