I have been searching all over and can't see any previous posts of such an idea(I'm not completely surprised tho).
I have a mate that has just run all the bearings on his ZC. The rings are also toast, as well as the oil pump & head gasket. He has a SOHC (D16A7) motor at home which has bent valves. He is in a serious financial dilema & now wants to see if we can make a temp plan to get the car running.

My question is:
Would one be able to use the SOHC bottom end in conjunction with the DOHC ZC head?
If so, what would the implications of such a strange matching have.

Obviously power will be somewhat lower due to the different pistons, but at this point I don't think that will be a concern.

 

afaik the head bolt locations are different, atleast on the zc head with a d15/d16a6/z6/y7 and 8... so my guess would be the same. perhaps his best bet would be to see if the valves from the DOHC fit into the sohc? just a thought.

 

If that D16A7 is equivalent to a standard D16 here stateside then the answer is the standard "it will not bolt up" response. As DCRB has said the head bolt locations are not entirely the same between the SOHC and DOHC engines. Having said that, if your buddy is willing to invest into some machine work the DOHC head can be modified to fit the SOHC block.

 

There's also a coolant passage that doesn't line up 100%.

 

So in short answer NO IT WILL NOT WORK. He'd be better off buying a cheap single cam for now, used from a trusted source.

If he has tons of money at disposal, he could make it work and probably be one of a hand full to do it.

 

Thanks a lot for the info guys!!! I have spoken to him about this and explained what you have said. He has decided that he would rather rebuild the ZC than go through the issue of trying to match the SOHC & DOHC together.
Unfortunately, it's his daily drive so he'll be taking a loan to get it up & running asap.

 

dang that's too bad. lucky though it shouldn't cost him too much money