Evening folks, another noob here ready to start a new thread and unintentionally about to **** some people off. Unlike other idiots I'm an idiot who might put a bit of time and effort into a thread simply because I care about it. Anyway, here we go.

Story time? Yes story time!
If you don't like stories just skip to the "questions" part. I'll make it nice big and bold for ya`!

Well, about a week ago I was driving around in my Jeep and said to myself "I can't afford to keep using this thing as a daily, its waaay too impractical." Its a 91 Cherokee with the interior ripped out, no cup holders, and no cigarette lighter thingy to charge my phone. It had leaks in the windshield and back hatch, it was **** on fuel obviously and just wasn't practical. Looked as cool as hell though and turned heads. I bought it for $1,500.

If you really want to know, here's the mods that the Jeep had. I bought it like this.

Mods
2" Lift with 31" tires
Roof basket with lights, bumper lights with a protector bar
The engine was cammed and bored out
5spd manual. Not a mod but something I'd like to point out. Twas pretty quick and when I was going slow It was just impossible to get stuck.



Anyway after a few days of searching my local classifieds with a budget of what I thought to be about $300, I searched for cars at the price of $600 thinking I could talk the owner down to my budget if I pointed out enough problems. I needed a car that ran fine and was licensed. Something that didn't need too much work. I couldn't find anything at all. Nothing.

Then, only two days ago I just figured for ***** and giggles I'd search again to see if anyone happened to post a car I could look at in the ad. Bingo. Found a 98 Civic hatch with 178xxxKm's and it was only right around the corner from where I lived! Woah!

I call the guy, he only even posted the ad 40 minutes ago and I said I'd see him in five minutes. After having a look at the car I've realized I've seen it before. Its right in front of my friends house. I talk to him, have a good look over of the car myself not even being mechanically inclined. Checking wheel bearings, tierod ends, struts, etc... The car is rusty big time but other than that it could use a new windshield, brakes, and a lot of body work. After a quick test drive around the block I was sold. And such a clean interior for what I'm used to as well! Anyway I talk him down to $275; fill out some paperwork and was sent on my way with the car and an extra set of all season tires. Its a stick by the way and the clutch/stick itself feels amazing.
1998 Civic Hatch 5spd


Right now I have some questions, right now I have the option to keep the car and fix it up, mod it and call it my own. Or buy an integra for about $1,500 or so that I know very well that comes with a complete parts car. But I'm liking the Civic.

My goals.

My goal for the Civic after I get all of the repairs out of the way would be to achieve at LEAST 130Hp. I'd like to get up to around 150Hp or so to match a stock B18c. Its going to be a daily driver and a weekend track car as I plan on racing it LEGALLY.

Questions! Yes I have them. Shoot me.

I've read up a fair bit on these engines and from what I've read; they suck. . . Big time. Sure GREAT fuel economy! And thats awesome and stuff but I'd like power too. From what I've read these little D16y7 engines just have absolutely no potential at all. So with this being said here's my questions.

Option 1
Cam the D16y7, add a Y8 manifold. I'm removing the cat either way.

Option 2
I'm aware of the Mini-me swap. Its an option, my plan with this one would be to buy a donor car Acura EL and just swap the head over to the Civic. Do a little wiring if I could figure it out and have a neat little power gain with the potential to gain more with cams down the road.

Option 3
The engines from the EL and Civic are basically the same right? Just minor differences? Would I be able to just rip out the engine, harness, and ECU from the EL keeping my tranny from the Y7 and just swap it into the civic with no problems or engine mount mods? I don't have access to welding equipment.

Option 4
This is where its starting to get expensive and probable not doable. Like I said I have next to no mechanical experience with cars. I can do wheel studs, calipers, pads sway bar links, spark plugs & wires, oil changes etc... Nothing extensive. Anyway...
Third option would be to buy a Honda CRV and have someone (Yes not me) take out the engine, tranny and ECU etc.. And swap it over to the Civic. This won't be cheap by any means and a shop would have to do it. It would also be a lot more time consuming.

Hope I've left enough information for you guys! I hope I posted this in thr right place and thanks to any replies that are helpful in advance. ~Cody

 

TLDR: swap/boost it k,b,h

 

If only you read past the third line.

 

You won't really make any power out of a D16. Swap or boost.

 

Is boost out of the question?

If so, I would just keep it simple.

My friend has a d16y7 with intake, header, exhaust and a Y8 tranny. Tranny actually makes a noticeable difference.
Surprisingly, it's not a complete turd!

 

there is literally almost this exact thread thats like 2 days old. the cost it would take to get a d series to 150 whp All motor would cost just as much as a b swap.

boost it. or spray it.

or if you wanna waste your money making a d16 all motor to only get as fast as a stock gsr then go ahead.

p29 pistons
y8 head
header
cam/springs
intake mani
y8 or z6 trans
tuning.

 

Boost is indeed out of the question. Like I said in the post I'm not much mechanically inclined. I figured that the EL engine has about 130Hp so putting on the head would get me close to that. Might just do the tranny swap. Its a direct bolt in right? Would I have to modify the mounts?

 

Try One Cam Only dot Com. there are many knowledgeable guys there who will actually entertain the idea of moding a D16.

i've owned a Y7 with Y8 (VTEC) manifolds. cost me about $60 to swap the manifolds. midrange responce and top end felt much better. I won't claim any power gains because i never put it on a dyno, but it was much better to drive. always put a smile on my face when i wound it up.

you can make affordable improvements to it if you can do your own engine building and you have the skills/understanding/resourcefulness to get more power out of anything... a tall order and a rare breed.

there are kits that make the B-swaps a bolt in job. for someone just getting into modifications and performance improvement a swap is the best way to guarantee success and rewarding results.

 

Are you looking for hp or whp? HUGE difference. 130hp is hardly 110whp to the wheels.
Either way you are going to end up speding more than its worth in the end. Cheapest upgrade for the quickest car? LS w/ a B-vtec tranny (GSR or B16).

 

cheapest upgrade is do a 50-75 shot

 

Well thanks for the info/advice guys. I just found a Honda group on Facebook in my area and lots of people doing swaps, selling engines for cheap and people who also know their ****. I think I'll just buy a B16 or so and have help swapping it in. Wish me luck!

 

Why a B16? its still a 1.6L engine.

So you swapping a 1.6L engine for another 1.6L engine?
Hopefully someone "who knows their ****" didnt tell you to do that...

 

B16B is the only 1.6 I would look at haha

 

that's probably the case tho

 

Sorry wrong button. "B18" is what I meant to type. If there was a facepalm button I'd hit it.

 

P29's with the y8 head is a bad idea. Yes people have done it, but you end up having to pull timing due to detonation, which negates the power you would have gained from the added compression of the y8 head. As far as I understand it, this is because interfering patterns of flame propagation produced by the y8 CC vs the dome of the piston. The y7 head has the same port geometry of the y8 head, and the same combustion chamber as the z6 head. There's really no reason to change it.

y7 block/head
z6 oil pump
p29's
delta cam regrind
stiffer valvesprings (lots to choose from, some just use y8 intake side springs all around)
y8 intake mani/tb
ebay header w/ 2.5in collector mod
2.5" exhaust.
ARP rod bolts

This ends up being a very inexpensive build and should get you into the 140whp range with proper tuning. The transmission is another issue. The z6/y8 gearing is still about equal to an LS trans. The characteristics of the built motor would be much better matched to a shorter geared transmission. Unfortunately this is not possible without hybridizing about 3 different d-series transmissions 2 of which are pretty hard to come by.

 

thanks for the correction. been a while since i was into the d series scene but now that you mention it i do rember that whole issue.

 

I bought the ek from HondaMark35, y7 with y8 manifolds, and it pulled on cars with the same chassis but one had a b16a2 and the other had a b18b1 with gsr transmission. So if you plan on doing a swap I would go with a b18c1, or better or you might feel like you wasted your money, like everyone I raced did.