After two months of walking, taxis, and getting rides, i am just a few short steps away from completing my swap. Im swapping a 2000 jdm itr motor into a 99 civic si and found out that their is no vtec solenoid to plug into. Ive read all the archives and it seems that i have two options. 1. i can buy a usdm vtec solenoid and use that or 2. i can splice into the v-tec wiring. Is the performance the same? Also can i use a vtec solenoid from a gsr motor of a similar year? obd2. Im using the jdm ecu that came with the motor, does this effect anything? I noticed that in the cases when the solenoid was switched with a usdm model they were also using a usdm ecu. Any information will help. tia

 

You have a VTEC solenoid on the motor, it's just that there is no pressure switch on the solenoid. If you are using the JDM ECU then you will not throw a CEL since it was designed to work without a VTEC pressure switch because it's matched to the motor. If you choose to use a USDM ECU or any ECU that controls a pressure switch then you would throw a CEL and the VTEC would not activate. That's the only time you would need to change the solenoid or wire around it.