Hello all. I'm new here, and I have a 'new to me' 1992 Civic VX. The car is completely stock under the hood, and while it's fairly peppy and fun to drive around town, I'd like to look into some inexpensive ways to get some extra oomph out of my 1.5 liter. What have y'all found to give the most bang for the buck for your cars without swapping engines? I'm not interested in another engine, 'cause I LOVE the 45+ mpg I'm getting. I'd just like to know if there is anything I can do to the peripherals of the existing engine to feed it some espresso, so to speak. Thanks for your input and suggestions!

 

If you're dead set on keeping your d15, your best bang for the buck options will be to swap OEM parts off of upmodel civics instead of going aftermarket. Aftermarket parts won't make enough of a difference on that engine to justify the cost.

All of these parts can probably be easily and cheaply junkyarded in your area, or bought very cheap from the h-t marketplace.

I think the best gains you'll get will be from using a z6/y8 transmission from an si or ex. Shorter gears will make a big difference in the fun factor. I averaged about 38-40mpg on this transmission and a d16y8 engine for comparison, so you won't have too much of a mileage drop. If you're about due for a clutch, you might as well swap the transmission, because it's 90% the same labor. Took me about 6 hours the first time I did this, with air tools and no experience. I've seen these transmissions go for as little as $100 on the marketplace.

Also, a d16y8/z6 intake manifold, intake arm, and K&N dropin filter will make a bit of a difference. I've seen manifolds for under $50, the intake arm/airbox might cost you $20 at a junkyard, and the K&N will cost about $40-50.

Anything much beyond that is throwing your money away on a VX engine IMO, unless you want to swap the head for a vtec head or the rest of the engine for a B series.

 

Very good, Vindicator. Thanks for the input. I live pretty close to a big salvage yard, so I'll drop by there soon. Do I need to keep any parts that I get in the '92 thru '95 years or can I venture out of that range a bit?

 

get a short ram off of ebay for $30. Get a D16Y8 IM/TB, a bisimoto Intake manifold gasket and some E3 Diamondfire plugs. None of this will affect your mileage (it might go up by a little bit) but it will affect HP. And like was already suggested, put a EX/SI tranny on it.
The tranny has to be 92+. And if you wanna change the Flywheel, you can put a 8LB one on there. Lightened steel, it will make a big differece in response.

 

pretty much any d-series parts from 92-00 should fit. You're looking for cars with engine block codes that say either d16y8 or d16z6, which are pretty close to the same engine, with a few minor differences. Z6 engines will be 92-95, and y8s should be 96-00.