Well, time constraints ended up in me swapping in a motor that i wasnt initially intending to put in, but since i broke a timing belt at 8000 rpm's on the stock motor, and i had to get the car back on the road, i had to settle, but its ok, i got a long term (1 year) plan for it....

First off, its a 95 civic dx, the stock ECU was custom chipped, no rev limiter, no speed limiter, advanced timing, remapped fuel... I abused the crappola outta the motor for 160,000 miles, and yes, i didnt change the timing belt at 100,000 miles like i was supposed to... Oh well, lesson learned... For a 4 banger it was fast in 97, but with cars coming out lately with alot more HP and being a lot quicker i had stopped my light to light runs... Throwing the timing belt was a blessing and not at the same time, another 2 months, and for sure i woulda had all the money i needed for the swap i had originally wanted.

Before i threw the timing belt i was going to do a b20z vtec swap with a gsr lsd tranny...

Unfortunately, since the timing belt went about a month or so to soon i had to settle for a japanese d15b (VTEC 130 HP)

This was my first DIY swap, and right now it stands as motor in car, with a used untested tranny and clutch... My first 'start' test was yesterday, it ran smooth, started on the 2nd try, the only serious complication i had in the motor swap was with the suspension system, not the motor itself...

My main question is, and yes i did search, but the DIY for it is very vague. How do i wire up the VTEC. I started the motor, and it ran and idled smoothly, np, but i had a check engine light, which i assume to be because i dont have the vtec wired. I had to use my stock harness and stock exhaust manifold. The engine is straight from japan, and has 50,000 miles on it, i picked it up for 375$... I picked up a p08 ecu which is the proper ecu for the engine (35$ good deal, or i woulda got the p28)... since i couldnt use the harness that was originally for the engine i did save the pieces that connect to the vtec selinoid... Figured i'd need to splice into it later... This is the only thing left to do as far as the engine is concerned...

As a repeat to my previous question for those that skim long posts, i need a how to for wiring vtec on a non-vtec harness...???

If anyone can help with this, i'd greatly appreciate it....

As for the swap itself, its been a week since i started it, mind you, i work full time, and at night, so its about 2-4 hours max i've worked on it a day since i started, and not everyday.. if i had to guess the total hours ive put into it, i would put it at about 10 hours... Seeing as i have had previous experience in breaking, and stripping bolts, i was real carefull in the removal and installation of this engine to not repeat previous mistakes, if it meant taking another 30 minutes to figure out how to get something apart then i took the time.. Overall i would rate the difficulty of changing an engine on a scale of 1-10 a 7... It's hard, but not that hard... The only time consuming and cost absorbing complication i ran into was my suspension... I changed the tranny, clutch, and cv joints myself at 60,000 miles, the suspension came apart then no problem.. At 110,000 miles i had the CV Joints replaced again, i blame the lowering of the car for them going bad both times. However the second time i had alot of extra money so i had a shop do it, which i blame for my current complication. I know for sure they used an air gun to tighten the bolts, which of course they always do... When i was in the initial stages of the swap, going for removing the CV joints, i was trying to seperate the lower and upper ball joint... after 2 hours of pounding the sh** outta the side, top, and pulling and tugging, and anything else i could thing of, i decided to hit the bolt itself... problem is its softer metal, and its got a hole in it for the cotter pin to go thru.. well, the bolt of the ball joint compressed, not allowing the nut to go back on... I had to buy, one a new lower ball joint for 60$ and an upper ball joint for 30$ so thats 90$ for one side, or Ebay i got a bundle deal, 150$ for lower ball joint, inner and outter tie rods, upper control arm with upper ball joint... FOR BOTH SIDES!!!! hmmm, guess what i got... Anyways, moral of the story, DON'T, that is DO NOT, hit your upper or lower ball joint bolts to try to remove them!!!!

Other than that. the engine swap went pretty smooth, the only other time consuming task was getting the right water pump... Since i was doing a swap, and the engine was drained of water for atleast the time it took for it to be pulled from whatever car it came out of, to be sold to someone here in the U.S., shipped, pass customs, sit in the wharehouse i bought it from, i decided it would be a good idea, since its out, to change the timing belt, water pump, and thermostat... well, since its a d15b vtec, japan spec, i had a hard time finding the right parts, i exchanged water pumps like 4 times, before finally i got the right one... Turns out, and i'm not 100% on this, the american equivilant of the japan d15b is the d16z6... even though the d15 is a 1.5L engine the right water pump, and thermostat was the one from the american d16z6 engine...

Anyways, im drunk and tired, so time to end this msg!!! PLZ help anyone that knows, how to wire the vtec....

pz

Def

 

Okay, the first step is to get yourself the proper VTEC ecu, i.e. a P28/P08. Then, take a look at this pinout diagram (courtesy of Katman @ ff-squad ) and bookmark it, because im sure you will need it again down the road.



DISCONNECT BATTERY BEFORE ANYTHING

Now, the wire coming out of the solonoid switch itself (VTEC solonoid switch) will need to be wired into pin "A4" as shown in the pic. If you have a VTEC pressure switch, it needs to be wired into pin "D6". The wire you run into the computer has a special 'pin' on the end of it, and it can be salvaged from any other ecu plugs you have lying around, or i believe they're available at radioshack, etc. After you do that, ground the wire coming out of the pressure switch to a good ground, and you should be good to go.


Modified by NAisBEST at 2:19 PM 1/12/2006

 

A P08 is a VTEC ECU.. Will the pin outs be the same?

 

pin outs should be the same. i ran both ECUs on my old jdm d15b vtec. i ran the p28 first, then the p08. the p08 never threw a CEL and vtec worked.