I just bought a 91 civic cx hatch from a former honda mechanic. It has been as babied and the motor is compleatly stock. But he did add some si wheels, interior,si guage cluster so he could have mph instead of kmh and a tack, si front sway bar, si stearing wheel. He also rebuilt and swapped in a 1.5 from a 94 civic that had about 90,000 miles on it, now has 111,000. The car is very clean. I dont really want to do a motor swap right away if even at all. I just want to add a little more power while still having the ability to use those parts for a potential swap. Any suggestions?

 

mini-me swap and a turbo.

 

I dont know what a mini-me swap is but I don't want turbo... I want to keep it na, and as clean as possible

 

A "mini me" is where you would put a 1.6 VTEC head on a 1.5 block. I had one in my 4door. It was pretty peppy vs the stock 1.5 dual point and spent less than $500 on the whole swap

 

wouldn't it be just as good to just do an intake and cat-back exhaust?

 

no

 

MPFI swap and I/H/E would bee good.

 

i'm bored so i'll hand you knowledge. just promise me you'll use it.
https://honda-tech.com/forums/honda-crx-ef-civic-1988-1991-3/diy-dpfi-mpfi-swap-made-easy-2889205/
that's for the mpfi swap

http://ef-honda.com/ben/EFtech.php
that's for amazing general knowledge

swap a vtec head on your block and convert to OBD1. all you need is a distributor jumper (on ebay or make your own, it's easy), an ecu and jumper harness (zerg industries on ebay is cheap, mine is holding up so far and it's -27 Celsius right now, +30 in the summer lol. ran it for a year)
oh, and the whole vtec head with distributor, vtec solenoid, spark plug wires...

it's easiest to convert to MPFI first, then convert to OBD1. You can convert straight to OBD1 but it's a lot more complicated and harder to troubleshoot.

https://honda-tech.com/forums/honda-crx-ef-civic-1988-1991-3/88-91-crx-ef-civic-frequently-asked-questions-faqs-1508680/
this is the faq, it has all the general knowledge you can shake a stick at.

 

Thank you for the info, this is all very helpfull. I will definently look into it. I dont understand why everyone is so sold on this mpfi swap... My whole deal is I dont want to molest and ruin the car.

 

It's not, your going to 4 injectors, which is more power. Plus you can do more with it than the dpfi. it's what I plan on doing

 

Then you shouldn't be looking for performance options.
Your car was designed as an economy commuter car and performance wasn't part of the equation.
You can go ahead with the standard bolt-ons that will cost you much money, but all you will end up with is your car being louder and maybe 10 hp if you are lucky.
Pretty disappointing in the end.

 

You HAVE TO do the MPFI conversion if you are going to do any type of worthwhile modifications. Everything begins with the MPFI conversion. If you don't want to do that, don't bother adding anything to the engine, leave it alone and enjoy the fuel efficiency and reliability.

 

With DPFI, you cant do any performance mods... Its pointless

 

you have to remember if your upgrading something you have to keep it in balance, to make power you have to change to mpfi because making "power" on a dpfi you may starve the engine, i wouldn't add an exhaust system on a dpfi engine because well it most likely wouldn't do anything and maybe even have the reverse affect and harm, fuel economy, power, or reliability.

 

im convinced. Are there any reliability issues with an mpfi swap... what are the pros and cons of of it. And are there any other upgrades you all think I should look into?

 

I think you need to understand what it really is. Your engine uses two fuel injectors for four cylinders. DPFI-look up what that is an abbreviation for.

There's no reliability issues unless you use parts in poor condition. It's not a pro or a con situation. Either you want to upgrade or you don't.

Let me leave you with this: If you plan on ANY swap, and you mention you might, you're going to do this anyway. Only difference is do you want to complete it with nothing else for potential problems or do you want to do it at the same time of a swap and have the potential for multiple problems. Given that it is absolutely clear you have no idea what you're doing, you should do it (or have it done for you) at a time when there are ZERO possible issues aside from the conversion itself.