Hey everyone, so a few months ago, I was given a 97 civic coupe for free from a cousin of mine. I was told that all it had needed was a new axle and a new fuel pump, but after trying to start the car I realized that it would need much more; a rebuild at the least. After a compression test, it was obvious that the engine was finished. The compression in each cylinder: 1 - 100psi, 2 - 150psi, 3 - 125psi, 4 - 70psi. A wet test brought the 1st cylinder from 100 to 140psi, so I decided to pull the head. No surprise, there was sludge on the pistons. So, I set to work on pulling the motor, and planning what to do next, whether I should rebuild it, or buy a new motor. I ended up finding a relatively clean D15B7 block on craigslist for 50$ and decided to research a Y7 head swap for it, as the D15's head had broken valves. After finding that this could actually be a pretty good swap, a friend of mine helped me port and polish the head of the Y7, and clean up the D15 block. Now the block is mostly ready, except for a crank pulley key, and to install the crank pulley, although I might be buying a lightweight pulley for it if I can very soon. In the meantime while waiting for parts, I have almost completely stripped the interior (it was almost all molding and smelled terrible anyway), along with removing the A/C system, because who needs cold air when you can roll the windows down?

-also, I forgot to add, the car came with an Si transmission.
-And when I received the car, there was a lot of moisture in the distributor, so I bought another one from a wrecker.

List of modifications on the motor currently:
-Y8 Auto intake manifold
-Hondata intake manifold gasket
-Y7 Head, B7 cam gear
-Gasket-matched intake and exhaust ports
-Polished exhaust ports
-Alphawerks exhaust header
-MLS Head gasket

Pictures will come in the following posts.

 

What the question?

 

 

 

hahaha what question?

 

 

 

I have the same setup in my current daily. Not trying to be a downer on you here, but do not expect any power from it. It's a gas mileage setup. Save money where you can, Get that nasty header replaced, Pick up a stock crank pulley etc...

If you'd like more power, Get yourself a y8 vtec head and ecu. It still won't be pinning your head to the seat, but paired with the si tranny you'll have a fun little free car.

 

One more thing I forgot to add, I also purchased a Fidanza lightweight flywheel and Exedy stage one clutch from craigslist for 220$







And I took a can of WD40 and a paintbrush to my engine bay

 

 

I'll agree with Chris. This swap is a waste of time. If you're going to do a headswap at least use a v-tec head.

 

Hahaha, well the original plan for this motor was the save money, although I think I'm about 1000$ into it by now. But either way, yeah I don't expect it to push me into my seat, maybe 120-130hp most, but I mean, I'm not a fan of large power, I get a lot of laughs out of my friends because I prefer underpowered cars. how many miles per gallon do you get? or litres per 100km? just so I have an idea of how much this might use

 

Well, I would, but I'm running on low funds, and to find a vtec head, with the solenoid and everything I need, seems to cost a bit, and is a little harder to find, I'm just trying to get a car on the road quick, so I can get a better job and save for other things, haha, I have a non-turbo FC RX7 waiting for repairs

 

I have a d15b7/d16y8 combo and get around 30-35 mpg shifting betweek 3-4k with a dx transmission. You can probably expect close to the same. Although I don't think you'll be making 130 hp at all with that setup, both of those engines only have 106hp from the factory and your port and polish probably gave you maybe 2hp at the most if even that. You can find y8 heads for 100-200 dollars usually because people don't really want D-series stuff so its much cheaper than anything B related.

 

Hahaha, well, either way, I'll be fine with the amount of power output, I'm not looking for power yet. and as for the y8 head, usually when I see them on cragislist, it's either just the head, or it comes with everything for the swap, and they ask for more money for it

 

I'm going to be buying my friends D15B7 off of him later, it has similar mods, but he has an adjustable cam gear, A6 camshaft, and p28 ecu, I'll probably be looking into other things for that motor

 

I put on alot of highway mileage, and I'm sitting at just under 40 per gallon on average. All new plugs, wires, fuel filter, air filter, cap and rotor, you name it. EK hatch chassis with full interior, tools, mild sound system. It's a great little motor in terms of reliability, with proper upkeep it's really a money saver.

With that header you're running now, Depending on your state, you're going to have to do a little fabrication for the downstream o2 sensor. Since the cat no longer exists, you'll be faced with adding one and then doing an o2 sensor extension or simply buying a longer o2 harness.

Thankfully, I live in Minnesota and don't have to worry about emissions!

 

Hahaha, awe man, lucky you, hopefully our emissions are going to be gone this year or next. I kinda wish I had the EG hatch, I'm not as much a fan of this EM, I'd rather it be EK or EG. and yeah, the O2 sensors are going to be a little difficult, maybe I'll just run an O2 simulator in place of the secondary. and I more just removed the interior because I like the look better haha, I like the more race car look, as stupid as that sounds

 

man congrats on the work you are doing. everything looks great...Enjoy the excellent MPG!!

 

Heh, Everyone on this site has been guilty of doing something for the race car look at one point or another. Good luck on the build.

 

Haha, thank you, yeah I'm hoping for a reliable gas saver

Thanks man, haha, yeah my girlfriend isnt too happy about the car being stripped though

 

Okay, update: moved the car and motor into another shop (one that I am now currently renting), I've purchased an unorthodox racing d series crank pulley, next up is to set everything TDC and throw the belt on, although this was proving to be a little difficult, as it kept getting thrown out by a few degrees at the least

 

Okay so I lost all the pictures for this update since my old phone is now in the bottom of a river, but I have an update: I have now finished installing the new flywheel and clutch, need to tap one of the threads for the transmission bolts, as it is stripped, but once I do that, I can install the transmission and then it's basically down to dropping the engine back in the car. I had to buy flywheel bolts because the ones that came with the B7 are auto, so I got the bolts, along with new axle nuts, and am going to go down tomorrow to try and get as much done as I can. pics will be up soon.

 

what head bolts did you use? the b7 ones or y7 ones

 

I used the B7 head bolts, although the B7 and Y7 were the same