This is for my roomates car. Basicaly he bought his 97 civic ex 5spd from country hill motor (for future reference dont buy cars from them) and come to find out after he bought it, the car has the wrong motor in it.
Anyways what its doing is when you get up to 5,500 RPM, it redlines. Thus we figured out that there is not a vtec head on it which is supposed to come on an ex but the vtec computer is still trying to hit vtec at 5,500 rpm and getting no response so it redlines there.
In turn he bought a really nice vtec head for his car to be installed and a new crower cam to put in it. With the cobonation of the head and the block that is in the car, it will make it a "mini me" swap. we suppose the head install wont be as much as a trick compared to the cam since you have to time it and all. My question to all of you is how do we go about doing this whole swap such as materials, fluids, and tools ect.? Another question is how we can get this thing timed without a light if possible.
If its not possible to time without a light then im sure i can find someone with one but we would like to see if we can get this done on our own for 1. the learning experience and 2. the money saving.
If all else fails, he is considering just paying a shop to do it for him but we have been getting mixed feelings about different shops such as Modified by KC is too expensive and Revline half asses everything and the owner "chong" can be shady.
Anywho all the information we can get or a step by step would be awsome. Also is there anything else that we should do that wouldnt be a bad idea once the head is off? Thank you.

 

what motor is in the car now?
D16Y8 is the correct motor and P2P is the ECU for 97 Civic ex
What head did you get?
you will need a timing gun to properly set the ignition timing.
you should use an adjustable cam gear with a Crower cam

 

The ECU can't redline the engine. A "redline" is an approximate mechanical cutoff point at which it is deemed by the engine designer that the safe physical limits of the engine have been reached.

How did you deem the head "wasn't a VTEC head?" Does it have the VTEC solenoid? The ECU won't attempt to engage VTEC if numerous conditions aren't met, one of which is the presence of the oil pressure switch near the solenoid. If there is no pressure switch, you will throw a MIL. Any check lights?

Additionally, if you have to ask if you can set the timing without a timing light, you don't have nearly enough knowledge to properly remove and reinstall a head, nor install a cam. You don't want to attempt to gain "learning experience" on something so pertinent to the engine's operation without knowing what you're doing. You won't be saving any money in the future when your head gasket blows because of a poor head installation. Try learning on simpler things first.