Sup Guys and Gals,
I'm pretty pumped up about this build and wanted to document it to the best of my abilities. If it wasn't for the net and all the info left behind by others I wouldn't have been able to do anything like this. So Thankz !

When I got this car (1995 VX) 3 years ago the only toolz I owned were made up of the bare home basics; a Hammer, couple screw drivers, vice grips, pliers, and 4 of those $5-$10 socket sets that everyone gets you for Christmas. I'm not a complete stranger to having to work on a car (poor folk do what that gotta do) but I never thought I'd attempt to rebuild an engine.

The reason for the build is mostly to get the engine(D15Z1) thats in my car now out. I want to rebuild the Z1 later. So why didn't I just do a quick swap with a used motor do ya ask, cause I can't stand the idea of putting someone else's POS motor in my car and just cross my fingers. Another thing is I was fed up and got sick of mechanics saying "Naw, I don't know nuttin bout dem dere Jap motors". So fine, SCREW THAT I say, I'll learn to do it myself!

The Goal is simple:
Build a reliable All Motor D-series with a lil bump in hp. This engine will be for a fun DD only and if it ever sees auto-x then cool. I just want to know I built it and it worked.



EDIT 7/26/2011: ^^^It's a nice story so I'll leave it unchanged (but things do change). A week ago today I bought a 1997 Del Sol S, D16Y7 w/ 138k miles, everything stock with A/C. Needing the extra cash I decided to sell the hatch, it was almost a hard decision. But the engine build goes on and will become apart of the new DD. The build continues.....


:::WARNING!!!::: User name Zen Chameleon is building his first ever engine, this said engine is not running yet. Asking user name Zen Chameleon for help could cause any or all, but not limited to:
headaches, frustration, blurred vision, dizziness, confusion, loss of sleep, constipation, diarrhea, projectile vomiting, bloody knuckels, unnecessary work and research, catastrophic engine failure, crying in front of your girlfriend, cronic ************, spontaneous combustion, suicidal thoughts, in some but rare cases could even lead you to achieving your goal or solving your issue.
If you have asked Zen Chameleon for technical advice and experienced any or all of these symptoms please seek professional help from somebody that has real world engine building knowledge and wisdom :::WARNING!!!:::



The "Accomplishment" List:


Head D16Z6:

Work done from Performance Porting:
Mild Port and Polish
3 angle valve job
SuperTech springs, new oem retainers
New oem cam and valve seals
Milled .003 for flatness
Hondata intake gasket
New extended intake studs
Freshly cleaned Z6 injectors

AEM cam gear
AEM fuel rail
B&M fuel pressure regulator
Marshal fuel pressure gauge
AEM CAI
NGK plug wires


D16Y7 block:

D16Z6 Crankshaft
Y/Z6, ARP head studs
ARP rod bolts
PG6 Pistons


P28 ECU socketed w/ Neptune RTP

98' EX Tranny





What's left:

Cam
Bearings
Gaskets&Seals
Oil pump
Water pump
Timing Belt
Machine work on Block= in progress
Wideband O2
Header

and most important Tuning



I think that's everything....if I missed something let me know please

Thankz for all the support



Performance Porting
Zealautowerks

A sneak peek of the '97 Del Sol, New DD/Project:

 

I snagged this D16Y7 from some random dude I ran into. He had yanked this motor out of a junkyard but it just sat around in his garage. I got the head still on the block and he tossed in some used axles, shift linkage, and some other junk. For the price of a pull it yourself short block I think I did alright.
This is the bottom end after pulling the head, crank pully and timing belt.







Sorry for the cell phone pix. I wish I would have waited to pull this apart so I could have done a full breakdown writeup but oh well.

 

After getting the engine mostly apart I knew I'd need a better work area so I built this bench:


I still have to add the shelf and light and bolt that vise down.

I used this site as a template to make it easy My link

I then added the peg board/shelf and you can see my lil power supply on the side there. Most of the materials I had laying around, I had to pick up a few things.

 

My favorite new tool takes some pretty decent pix I think.
I got the block stripped down and everything "looks" to be in ok shape.
For some reason this camera makes things look cleaner than they really are, with that said I still have to clean up most everything seen here:

 

I picked this D16Z6 head up from the local Pick'N'Pull (3hours away) during their summer blow out 1/2 price sale. I couldn't pass it up knowing I plan to rebuild it anyway.





The valve cover had at least 3 coats of rattle can paint over top of it, Blue, Orange, and Black.


After hours of work it's almost clean. You can see the paint left on the "inside" of the plug holes.



It was obvious the PO had literally lifted the hood and covered everything in black spray paint.

Here is the Z6 intake manifold after lots of airplane stripper, degreaser, and brake cleaner.

If only you could have seen the before pics lol

 

98' EX Tranny

 

Guess that mostly puts the build up to date. I'm gonna continue to clean all these parts. I also have to get some mic's and other measuring tools to check everything for spec.
I wanna know how healthy the motor truly was/is before I send it off to have any work done and before I choose internal parts and the like (even if most of them will be OEM).
I do however have some things up my sleeve but we will just have to wait and see how it turns out B) .

In the next couple weeks I'll be able to start taking measurments and post my findings.

All Criticism is Appreciated

 

in for this. Love all motor sohc's takes lots of heart and guts to attempt one. I would look into a bisi cam(JG cams in my highschool days) and some PM7 89 integra or JDM Zc pistons. Those are what we used in highschool when building d16a6's

 

Subbing this so I can follow your build. Great job on cleaning the parts up. I'm sure when I get get some place to finally yank my motor out I'll be doing the same thing and rebuilding mine too. Good luck and keep us all posted.

 

I agree with tempsohc, ZC slugs will give you perfect CR for a daily, id also try and find a Y8 manifold and Bisi replica D headers are going for 250 on ebay

might be wrong but the bisi cam may be a little much for a DD

 

Yeah and nippon has pistons for the integra which only cost 100bucks haha way cheaper than my day.

D16 block
ACL bearings
New Factory Oil pump with a washer installed to increase oil pressure
fluidampr
Bisi header or Dc sports 4-1(only available for vtec models) will fit and perform on non-v's thoug

65mm throttlebody to a Z6 or Y8 manifold(skunk2 if money's good)
Bisi or blox camshafts. Zex 59300 is proven gains

 

Thankz for stopping in. With it being my first jump into engine building I thought a N/A sohc would teach me alot at a fair price. This will be a slow build but I hope to do it up right

I have a slightly milder aproach I think.

D16y7 block
OEM bearings (most likely)
Crank Chamfered and micro polished
New OEM Oil Pump Ported not shimmed (by me)
DC 4-2-1 Header, ran to a catback prolly 2.5 (keeping A/C)
60mm TB, portmatched Z6 manifold (money=no sk2 lol)
AEM 3" short ram or if I run into a whale ***** cheap

I'm gonna have to look into those Nippon pistons
I will be looking into possibly a stage 2 cam of some sort too

 

Nice build. I agree with the others about the ZC pistons. Nice High Comp SOHC motor. I'd go for a Skunk2 D-Series IM too but thats just me.

 

Try to find a Y8

And stage 2 comp cams are nice for a DD

 

Thankz Shift! I wanted to start somewhere and also thought this thread would be a good way to give back. I'm following many others footsteps for this build, and hope that it helps others as it will aslo help me.

I've read so many oppinions on those pistons. I want to be able to tune on
91oct so I'll have to play it out and see what needz to come off the block and head first I'm thinking. Though if he's right about how cheap Nippon has them for then I may go this route.
I'm on a slow trickle budget so since I have the Z6 mani that is what will be used. I also plan to keep the A/C so I think the Bisi header is out of the question. I'm also confident that the stage 2 cam will be fine as long as everything else is matched up to it.


I'm just a Newb and I am learing as I go guys. I'm thankful for all of your advice

 

You would be good on 91octane with the ZC slugs.
And I mentioned the Y8 cause it is very affordable I got mine for 30 at the scrap yard

 

Thankz nus_dogg

I've been researching these pistons and will prolly give them a try. The SK2 can always come later, the guts are my main concern for now.

 

Find the user Madmood, he can tell you how to do a sohc he got a d15 that's dialin in quite impressive #'s

 

Cool! I know whatcha mean, but from what I've found even dyno wise the Y8 is good but the Z6 isn't that bad either. Since I already have this Z6 cleaned up and all and I don't have to mod it, it just seems the way to go. I just don't see there being a huge gain vs the trouble. The Z6 will be fine with mild head work, intake, and exhaust. I don't dissagree with you just saying the noticable difference between the 2 at that low of HP would be negative.

 

Your right, I've read alot of his posts and threads. That guy has worked hard for what he does.

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/NIPPO...item230d0b2cdd
Do people really use these pistons from e-bay with good results?

 

Nippon pistons are awesome. I have personally used 3 sets. One set on my b16(just a rebuild) Another B16(ctr slugs) and im gonna use them again on my b20(p30 in 84mm)

never had a problem awesome stuff. give it try they wont fail you.

 

Awesome thread man, I'm in to track your progress. I'm doing my first build in my garage right now (H22), so it's good to see someone else doing the same, even if it's on a different engine.

However, one of these days I do plan to rebuild a junkyard D-series and shoot for MPGs rather than HP

Keep up the good work!

 

i have a question im doing a auto to manual swap and i have a d16y8 im trying to buy a tranny and i got one in mind only thing is its from a d16y7 anything wrong with that???or shud i bee fine ....d16y7 vtec????

 

Ah, gotcha. Get'er done bruh. Can't wait to see it running. My bro and I wanted to do something similar to yours as we got this y7 SOHC sitting here in the garage.