Its safe to say I'm a noob in the honda world. With that being said, bare with me on this post. I have an 88 ef dx hatch, auto trans. I want swap my d15 motor/trans, but i would like to keep it d series, and keep it OBDO to OBD1. Ive read up on a lot of swaps, but i wanted to hear other peoples opinions on this. What is the best d series swap for my car? And is it difficult going from auto to manual?

 

Sorry, a little confused.
From what I gather from your post you want to go to a manual trans and swap to another D motor with more performance.
What were you saying about OBD0 OBD1?

 

I was trying to say I don't want to convert it to obd2. Which d series engines use obd0?

 

D16A6 used OBD0. The other worthwhile D-series swaps usually use OBD1 and have VTEC.

 

For OBD0 I would go with the A6 as Fremanananabananana said.
Or, if you can find one, the DOHC is a decent engine.
Newer engines are probably the way to go - a D16Z6 or D16Y8 are probably a lot easier to find and hopefully in better condition. They do have a few slight differences to install, but nothing major.

 

Are you referencing the DOHC D16? Is that the 'ZC' motor? I know they have a ton of different engine codes. I have been told the parts are becoming harder to find on those motors. They are interesting though.

As for the D16Z6/Y8 motors, I agree. Those are your best bet but require OBD1 conversions. The conversion is not hard though. Do some searching and see if you are willing to put forth the effort.

 

The DOHC is the D16A8 and D16A9 which is commonly called the DOHC ZC.
These are both JDM motors and not to be confused with the D16A1 found in old USDM Integras.

I find the auto to manual pretty straight forward. There is a lot to be done, but it's really not difficult work.
The rear mount gets swapped for one from a manual trans. The rear crossmember has 2 sets of holes - one set for the auto and one set for the manual.
The pedal assembly needs to be replaced.
The gear selector gets swapped out.
Easy wiring to defeat the ignition lock out from the automatic.

Probably the most technical points of the swap are the mounting of the shift stick assembly through the floor and the often overlooked firewall piece to be added for the clutch cable.
https://honda-tech.com/forums/honda-crx-ef-civic-1988-1991-3/need-run-my-clutch-cable-2829344/

 

This is very important! The D16A1 is definitely not what you want.

 

Adding to clear up a bit (or cause more confusion LOL) the D16A8/9 is European I believe, a JDM DOHC ZC is just stamped ZC but they are the same.

Also, there is a JDM DOHC ZC that is an equivalent to the D16A1 so make sure you know how to verify what you're getting if you go the ZC route.