i've been planning this swap for almost a year now. I'm a gas mileage nut, which makes me a little different than the rest of you, yet still on the same level in terms of DIY'ers with these hondas.

I purchased a JDM d15b (d15z1 equivilant) last September or so. It's been sitting in the garage ever since. I also purchased a used 1991 CRX HF transmission from a H/T member. Thanks to RyWire I'll be going obd0->obd1 with ease.

i'm posting this on honda-tech in the event that someone wants to do this swap in the future. All of these posts are originally from my website, http://www.gassavers.org.

So let the posting begin

Click here for more discussion on the topic : http://www.gassavers.org/showthread.php?t=875

 

As I prepare for my engine swap I figured it was time for me to begin logging my progress, with pictures.

I tried and tried to get the crankshaft pulley bolt off using the air gun and I couldn't do it.

So I resorted to the method suggested by Dax.






I bought a piece of pipe to make the prybar over 3 feet long.



I had my wife stand on the wood and the bolt came off in a jiff. Awesome idea Dax! Oh, I also had to do the same thing when I put the bolt back on. Hopefully it's torqued tight enough.

Success! The pully and the cover are off. Now it's time to replace the timing belt and water pump (both pictured on the right of the picture below)



After lots of confusion and referring to my multiple manuals on the subject, I finally got it all back together.



This was all done yesterday. It was a very good day.

Then tonight I mounted the transmission to the engine. I replaced the Throw-Out Bearing a few weeks ago on the transmission, and I also replaced the axle oil seals tonight as well.

here she is



The next step will be cleaning up a few things (nothing big). I also need to put the alternator bracket back on and get everything labeled so when the other engine comes out I will know exactly where everything goes.

 

Day 1... sorta...

Started out by removing the impossible pin, as well as the axles. To get the axle nuts off I had to have someone push on the brakes. Since I was working solo, I had my lovely assistant help me.



AFter this I was able to remove the axles rather easily. I was surpirsed how easy it really is. I did notice a torn boot while I was down there, so it's good that I'm taking everything apart.

Here is the first axle:



And the second:



Oh yeah, it helps to drain the transmission fluid before you remove the axles *hits head*

Anyway, next step was to remove the hood:



And a close up of the Dual Point Fuel Injection which will soon be gone:



I removed a bunch of stuff today: exhaust header, battery, intake box, hoses, etc. I drained the coolant and the oil. I also removed the power steering pump thing.

The clouds started rolling in and I felt sprinkles. Fearing rain I packed up for the day:



I then took an hour (or was it two?) to assemble the engine hoist for tomorrow. I had lots of issues and currently my vice grips are stuck inside of the crane. It's a mess, but it's almost ready.

 

more work done today. I'm afraid I'm not going to be done by tomorrow like I had planned. THis may roll into the weekend or next week, which is unfortunate.

Anyway... pictures.



All chained up and ready to go.



I had to drive to four places before I found someone who had the engine balancer. I ended up just buying it at Checker for way too much money.

It kept raining off and on today, which was REALLY annoying.




Here is the engine part way out:



Getting this thing to tilt and not hit the master cylinder with the alternator and avoid the A/C lines is next to impossible...



All out!

Here is the engine in it's resting place.



Look how dirty it is.



Next I need to transfer the starter, alternator, wiring, A/C bracket, PS bracket, engine mounts, and other fun things to the new engine.

Oh, here was the one casualty of the removal:



I'll be going to the junkyard tomorrow or Saturday to get a new radiator fan.

Advice to anyone reading this and thinking of swapping their engine:

Remove the master cylinder AND the radiator first. I probably could have saved 3 hours today had I just done that to begin with.

 

Keep up the good work. Hope to see the rest of the prgress

 

Lookin great

 

I'M LOVING THE STEP BY STEP...

GREAT STUFF MAN...

GOOD LUCK WITH THE REST...

CAN'T WAIT TO SEE THE REST OF UR LOG...

 

i loved the way u took ur time and did everithing correctly.mistakes are acceptable everyone does them. keep up the good work man.!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by charlee ricer &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i loved the way u took ur time and did everithing correctly.mistakes are acceptable everyone does them. keep up the good work man.!</TD></TR></TABLE>

LOL... I've put 3 days into the swap and the engine is only out. I've yet to do wiring or put the new engine back in.

I think "taking my time" is an understatement

 

when you put in the new motor, do yourself a favor and cover your fenders
they can get scratched easily when installing motors from the top

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SiMateoAko &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

LOL... I've put 3 days into the swap and the engine is only out. I've yet to do wiring or put the new engine back in.

I think "taking my time" is an understatement </TD></TR></TABLE>

dam i wish i woulda taken my time when i replaced my engine. i had tospend a lot more hours just fixing the mistakes i made .lol

 

what's your goal for gas mileage?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SiRay13 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">what's your goal for gas mileage?</TD></TR></TABLE>

50+mpg on highway is my goal. After this is done I'm going to work on a belly pan and rear wheel skirts for better aerodynamic gains.

There is a guy on my website getting over 60 in his Del Sol with a combination of driving techniques and small modifications. I figure if he can get 60mpg in a del sol I should be able to get 50 in a sedan.

 

Nice work so far!

You don't need to remove the MC to get the engine out. But yeah, the radiator needs to come out, makes it a lot easier!

I feel you on those AC lines too. I had a hell of a time getting my engine in around those hard lines. I had to tilt it way to the left and go under the hard lines with the transmission, then drop the right side down.

Good luck with the rest!

 

yeah i've read about that del sol. That's prety cool, i just don't have the patience to drive like that

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SiRay13 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">yeah i've read about that del sol. That's prety cool, i just don't have the patience to drive like that</TD></TR></TABLE>

Oddly, neither do I. I don't want to get too hard core on my goals. I'd just like some built-in fuel economy.

Anyway, I did some more wiring today. I'm trying to figure out of I wasted my day because I used that gross liquid electrical tape because none of my heat shrinks would fit.

Oh, and here is a cool tidbit.

If any of you noticed the car in the background:



It's my second car, a 1971 honda n600.



It is my daily driver until the engine swap is done.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SiMateoAko &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Oddly, neither do I. I don't want to get too hard core on my goals. I'd just like some built-in fuel economy.

Anyway, I did some more wiring today. I'm trying to figure out of I wasted my day because I used that gross liquid electrical tape because none of my heat shrinks would fit.

Oh, and here is a cool tidbit.

If any of you noticed the car in the background:



It's my second car, a 1971 honda n600.



It is my daily driver until the engine swap is done. </TD></TR></TABLE>
lol thats awsome man. my gokartis bigger than that .lol

 

here you go dude

 

nice keep the 4dr alive!!!!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by droppedcrxsi &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">here you go dude </TD></TR></TABLE>

BLING!

I'm going to print this out so I don't lose it.

 

For anyone planning this swap and converting from DPFI, there will be a neat little trick for you if you like being sneaky.

The d15z1 has an EGR Valve AND an EGR control box. The EGR control box takes a 12v power source and another wire goes to the ECU (A11 I believe). If you're using a DPFI harness (and converting to MPFI at the same time) I'd recommend salvaging the wires from your DPFI tandem valve that is no longer being used.

One of those wires (black/yel) is 12v. The other wire can be repinned at the ECU to A11. The wires are already approximately inthe right place, and it will be one less thing for you to worry about.

Then again if you're going from MPFI you're just going to have to wire it up yourself

Wiring should be done tomorrow, and the engine will probably go back in on Friday or Saturday.

 

YAY!

Wiring is done... well, at least this stage.

Today I converted from Dual Point Fuel Injection to Multi-Point Fuel Injection. This included running four wires to the engine bay, which are the white wires in the picture below. The Red wire is a wire needed for the EGR Control Box (special for the Civic VX)

Two of the wires are for injectors 2 and 4, and the other two wires are for the distributor.

Anyway... here is my wiring with the obd0-&gt;obd1 conversion harness in-tact.



And the wires on the right are leading to a plug I installed to ensure easy removal of the engine if I need to the in the future, which is located here:



I added the extra plug for future ease. I'm not so sure the wiring on the engine is 100% pretty, but it'll do for now.

I know for a fact that I wired up my injectors incorrectly, but I'll most just fix those after the engine is in. I'll just depin and repin the conversion harness instead of tearing into the closed wiring harness that is already complete.

 

Lol, my wiring isn't pretty either! I got some cleaning up to do!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SiMateoAko &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

</TD></TR></TABLE>

Quick question for anyone reading this... rywire guys?

On my conversion harness I have two wires left over, a blue one and a yellow one, visible in the image above. Is this normal?

 

Started the day convinced I'd get the engine in. I cleaned up a little in the garage, moved the d15b2 (the old engine), and went to the junkyard to get a new engine mount for the new engine. I've been told to use the mount from the old engine, but since it won't come off I just went to get a new one instead.

Went to the junkyard and got the mount. Drove home. Surprise, the mount doesn't fit. I was under the impression that the engine mount is just the top part. Turns out the entire mount also includes the part that attaches to the engine block itself. Typicaly newbie mistake, but it was mine to make.

Ignorant of this, I proceeded certain that the other mount I had (from a 92 civic) would work. here it is:



I managed to get the engine in! Hooray! Oh, for anyone planning on swapping an engine the same way I did, I'd recommend removing the front and rear engine mount and attaching them after the engine is in place.



So it's all in and ready to rock, except the drivers side mount (the one above) isn't working correctly.

I'm convinced I can fix it with a hacksaw. For whatever reason i think I can just cut off the tabs on the side (metal interior) and it will fit. So i buy a hacksaw and start cutting. 45 minutes later I have this:



here is a picture my wife took of me screwing with the stupid air conditioning compressor trying to get it to fit while I put the engine in. I actually toyed with the idea of just removing the entire a/c system today because it's so darn annoying to try to put the engine in while the compressor keeps getting in the way.



So with the engine in and the mount cut, I start cussing because the mount still doesn't fit.

So I have to pull the new engine out.



at this point I'm upset because I had to pull the engine AND because I keep losing my 10mm socket. I've been through 4 of those sockets.

So now I have to remove the crank pulley in order to access the engine mount bolts. i have to do this for the new and the old engine. Luckily for me I have Dax's 2x4 trick to speed things up (see first page of this thread).

With the new (or should I say old?) mount installed, I had to trim the plastic on the timing belt shield so it fits. See picture below:



After wasting all day on this, I am finishing up and I notice my cylinder cover bolt keeps spinning.

Yep. You guessed it. Busted.

I've included a zoomed-in version on the left of the image.



Can anyone recommend what to do about this hole? I would use epoxy or something (as I have the piece that broke off as well) but I'm afraid it will fall off again and screw with my rocker arms.