I have a completely stock 1989 Civic LX 4 door automatic that recently had a hole put in one of the valves. Rather than change the vale I thought that since I had an old good D16A6 Si head I would put that on. Everything went on fine and when I went to start it up it seems to barely run like it not not getting enough gas, sputtering about the cut off. I have checked everything I can think of and the only two things I can see that might be an issue is the timing or the ECU.

I tried to check the timing but was having a very hard time seeing the marks on the pulley but I know they are correct matching up the camshaft and the top of the head. One thing I did try was unplugging the O2 sensor to see if that would pull a code on the ECU but it did not. I can try a different ECU but the only other one I have is for a automatic MPFI car where this is a DPFI.

 

the a6 timing doesnt line up flush with the head. it has a separate, single timing mark that is different from the d15 by just a little bit. check out this pic to see what i mean:

 

Oh, that's interesting, I never knew that. So do you think changing the timing would help it? It seems that whenever I press on the gas it does absolutely nothing and doesn't want to rev or anything.

 

If you are using the stock LX ECU then thats your problem. You need an Si (PM6) ECU.

 

But the car is still an automatic and DPFI, isn't the PM6 for MPFI and a manual trans? If I just replaced the head and nothing else I should still be able to use the same LX ECU?

 

I would make sure to set the timing correct. that could be the problem right there. Since you stayed dpfi, you can still use your old ecu. You probably wont see much in the way of a performance gain unless you swap to mpfi though.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by alupso &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">But the car is still an automatic and DPFI, isn't the PM6 for MPFI and a manual trans? If I just replaced the head and nothing else I should still be able to use the same LX ECU?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Oh, you didn't use the Si mani?

Sounds like you just didn't even bother settign the timing, correct?

 

It could be the timing because of the with the picture posted above, I just set it more to what the old D15 head would have been set to. I need to go back and take that picture with me and reset the timing according to the Si head from the manual. I didn't know there was that much of a difference.

 

your gonna have to get an adj. cam gear or a 96-00 civic camgear

 

first did you do a compression test if not and your block has mor than 40,000 miles on it and the si head does to the block and head surface mite not be strate after so many miles the engine will sag.Both head and block should be checked with a strate edege and feeler gauges good luck and if all else fails this is most likley the problem.

 

my ef 4dr AUTO was converted to mpfi three is only one problem lol geting the cable kick down cable pully for the throttle body lol i got a spair i marked up off a 91 acorrd had to do some re shapeing but it worked if ur able to find a 91 ex throttle body and kick down cable that will make ur life easy its total worth it lol my auto lays rubber 1 and 2 gear lol its jokes sounds amazing compaired to b4

 

I learnt that stupid timing thing out the hard way. Seems they just made it difficult.

 

I'll probably try and mess with the timing a little and see if that helps. If it doesn't then I still have a D15B7 head that I might throw on there and hope that it doesn't do anything worse than the A6 head did. The car isn't really driven and is more used as a backup car so I'm not really in any hurry or need for the car.

I thought about doing the MPFI swap, I have all the parts including the PS9 ECU so that might be an option further down the line.

 

Thanks sinimalp your my hero, I went out today, adjusted the timing just a little like the picture you posted and the car started right up and seems to run pretty smooth


Problem solved

 

IF THE CAR RAN GOOD WITH THAT SAME ECU AFTER YOU PUT THAT NEW HEAD,IS NOT YOUR ECU, CHECK YOUR TIMING .

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by almaxximo &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">IF THE CAR RAN GOOD WITH THAT SAME ECU AFTER YOU PUT THAT NEW HEAD,IS NOT YOUR ECU, CHECK YOUR TIMING .</TD></TR></TABLE>

1) Take off the caps lock.
2) Read the post above yours.