Hey guys, I tried to do a search but most people seem to want to swap the a2 for the a1, or the a1 for the a2...not a2 to JDM

I own a 2002 civic EX w/ 180k. It runs fine for now, but I know nothing ever runs forever and I will need to swap engines. I drive 30k a year. I already swapped the transmission 30k miles ago, so I have the old one out I can rebuild in the meantime. I plan on having this car for a pretty long time. I want to have all the knowledge so when it happens im ready.

Here is the JDM d17a vtec: http://www.ebay.com/itm/01-05-JDM-HONDA-CIVIC-EX-ACURA-EL-1-7L-SOHC-VTEC-ENGINE-JDM-D17A-/371084096785?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&vxp=mtr&hash=item566655f511
My question is what can I expect once I end up doing the swap? Like what will I need to bring over, what codes am I going to get, etc. I cant imagine it is a simple drop, plug and play and everything works.

Thanks.

 

i dont think there is any benefit over the jdm d17a vs the d17a2, i would personally just replace the engine with the a2 when it comes down to it

 

Thanks for the response. I'm not looking for any extra benefit, I'm looking for the cheapest, easiest swap. I know dropping another us market d17a2 would be easiest drop in plug and play, but they are harder to find, seeing as around 10-20% of 01-05 civics had the a2 engine. All the other models have the a1( dx, lx), and I know the ecu, harness, transmission are different.

If there is too much hassle going from a2 to jdm d17a vtec, I won't do it, I'm here to learn.

I can buy a complete remanufactured d17a2 longblock with gaskets for $800 which isn't bad, but that's twice as expensive as the jdm.

 

No expert on this but, I bet you can just drop it in and go being as it's VTEC to VTEC. The only difficulty I see is if the sensors have different plugs but, you can always swap sensors too.

Anytime you swap an engine it's a good idea to do the headgasket and timing belt so that USDM D17 isn't too bad a price.

Also, that's a hell of a price on that JDM engine considering the PS pump, alternator and A/C compressor are worth $500 by themselves.

 

Thanks for the insight. Has anybody done a VTEC swap with a JDM engine? if so can you chime in...

 

acually d17a has 140hp and d17a2 has only 127hp.

i know I've done a d17a1 to a jdm d17a

 

d17a1 to jdm d17a.... is that very similar to d17a2 to jdm d17a? if so can you explain the details of the swap.

 

im currently doing the same swap for my sister. any info would be much appreciated

 

D17A
Found in:
2001–2005 Honda Civic (Japan, Canada)
Displacement : 1,668 cc (101.8 cu in)
Bore and Stroke: 75 × 94.4 mm (3.0 × 3.72 in)
Valvetrain : SOHC VTEC (4 valves per cylinder)
Power : (lean burn) 115 hp (85.8 kW, 117 ps) at ??? rpm; 130 hp (96.9 kW, 132 PS) at ??? rpm
Torque : 115 lb·ft (? kg/m, ? Nm) at ??? rpm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_D_engine#D17A

 

hello,

I myself just installed a d17a i bought from a JDM distributor on eBay and wanted to post my findings. First of all I installed it on a 05 civic EX which had a D17A2, and for some people who can't understand why you would do this swap, it is because the JDM d17a is a cheap replacement. Anyway buying the d17a was all i needed no new parts or retrofitting or anything was necessary. I started to strip the D17a of its harness, I used the original harness for the car which made sense to me. I found all of the sensors to be the same and plug and play no differences except, there was 1 sensor on the transmission side of the head that was not present on the d17a that was present on my d17a2. This was no matter as there was only a plug in its place, remove the plug swap the sensor over and good to go, the sensor was tied to an oil passage, don't think it was for vtec, wasn't really concerned either way. Second, the civic i was installing it in had cruise control which means 2 throttle cables, the d17a came fitted with a throttle body only ready to accept 1 throttle cable. I kept the intake that came with the new engine but swapped my throttle body to it, the gasket was made of rubber and had no issues reusing it. The third issue i ran into was the d17a had a steel oil pan, this is fine I would have just left it but my jdm engine did not come with the aluminum stiffener that bolts on the underside to the engine block and transmission. The d17a2 that had the aluminum pan also has stiffeners but instead of 1 piece its 2 and instead of bolting from trans to block the two pieces bolt from trans to oil pan. the long and short of it was i swapped my aluminum oil pan over rather than throw the stiffeners in the trash because i'm ****. No problems swapping the oil pan, just needed a little honda bond HT. and thats it, so again nothing special needed other than a tube of hondabond, was able to use the intake manifold that came with it and was able to use the exhaust manifold too, although I know that for certain years you can't.

 

I know this is an old post but which JDM Distributor did you pick up your motor from, I'm in the same boat as you. We have a local distributor engine-world but they have some bad reps on yelp.

 

I have done the same swap on my 02 EX coupe and now I have a oil light on my dash that I cant get to go off. I have 80lbs of oil at the oil sending unit above the oil filter. Also when I hit 3900 RPM it hits the rev limiter. Can anyone help me with this?

 

Did you remove the oil sensor from your old engine and install it into the head
of the JDM motor like LudwigRocker77 did in his post. I did the swap in another Honda Civic 02 about a year ago and had no issues did the same as LudwigRocker77 did. I asked for a new distributor as I got the last JDM motor from Engineworld but read bad things about them maybe I was lucky but don't really want to try my luck again with them which is why I'm looking for a new distributor. Pulling the motor and trans this weekend going to rebuild the trans as it has 200k on it.

 

Hello all.

Im giving my personal experience on this subject, please forgive me ahead of time for how crazy this all may sound.

I bought an 04, Canadian made Civic DX, Auto Trans, 1.7 non Vtec, $500, clean title, clean interior, 9.5/10 body, deep blue, it came with a new EGR Valve, a new radiator, as well as water pump and timing belt. 235k miles.

The motor had a crack in the wall of cylinder 3, but I drove it home to test the trans since I lived around the block; it shifted like butter and you couldn't even tell it had a loss of compression beyond a rough start.

Im located in Central North Carolina, everywhere I searched on Craigslist or part yards the cheapest I could find in my low budget was 180k miles for $500. I checked Craigslist once more and refined my search which led me to a JDM importer from Charlotte NC, they posted an ad saying they have D17A's with 50k to 70k miles for $550 with a 90 day warranty. My other choice I was led to was a distributor in VA for $450 with a 30 day warranty and theirs were 45k miles to 70k miles, both distributors were selling long blocks so that was a steal. I ended up going with the Charlotte distributor since it was only 2.5 hours away and the junk I was driving to pick up the motor would've cost me another $100 just in fuel to get to VA where the other store was.

When I arrived it was a large import warehouse and the owner and manager both came right out to greet me, both were covered in grease and I could see them pulling motors inside, they invited me right in and let me walk anywhere I wanted to view their business, some engines were pulled theirs and some were imported already finished, they 3 I was showed were on a pallet and one on a shelf directly behind the pallet, he didn't speak good English and it was a hellacious time getting up there so I was rushing, he offered me a D17A with already mated trans for $850 cash if I bought it right then. 50k miles. Looked great from where I was standing. So I bought it, they loaded into the back of the crap Explorer with a forklift and I went back home.

I'm a full time student, I own a cattle farm, I work, and I'm married so I have zero time to do this swap. I call my cousin who's a mechanic and ask him to find me somebody out of shop that can swap this motor and trans for me cheap as possible but they can't be a shade turd, I wanted somebody legit that wanted a side job for the week.

He refers me to this idiot that has my car at his house for three weeks, calls me and says he's going to jail and I need to pay him the money he's owed so far to get out, blah blah long story he gets out without my help, I pay him, don't care what condition the cars in just want my stuff before I hurt somebody lol, so I go to this idiots house and he can't get in because his old lady put him in jail and how TF am I supposed to get all the stuff still missing that's locked in his house? I can't... so I drive the car home with new engine and trans, 41 miles, in limp mode, no exhaust, belts squealing like an animal dying, no air box, no trans speed sensor, no nuts holding anything to the top of the engine... it was like driving a jet, that needed 4 minutes to get up to 55mph, getting caught by every stoplight in multiple towns...

And yes, he broke my trans sensor...

So I wash my hands of that dummy to avoid an aneurysm and decide that if I want it fixed I'm going to have to do it myself.

I find out I was actually sold a D17A2, my DX comp didn't have VTEC so that worried me.

First off my D light was blinking, I hooked my laptop up to my OBD2 port and ran my diagnostic software, some cheap crap but it worked well. I couldn't get my cat's to warm up for inspection so I just let it run for awhile to monitor my engine temp and check my cooling system. It started to climb above 210 degrees so I assumed my thermostat was sticking, went to Auto Zone, bought the ultra with the Valve interior to the supports, and there being three supports instead of just 2, temp was for 170 degrees. Installed it and monitored it again, this time it got up to 210 then dropped to 205 and that's where it maintained itself, myself being paranoid I ran it in the yard for 3 more hours at 82 degrees outside in the sun and it never overheated or increased above 205.

The cats still didn't warm up so I ditched the idle plan and decided to get the bastard 10 day tag and drive it to school for a week (110 miles a day). Before I did that I bought 2 new Gates belts, pulled the power steering pump out the way and threw them on, no more squealing. Then I bought another sensor for an 04 Civic DX and it's not the same as the one I need because it was freaking huge, the gear was twice the length of the one in there, now I have a dilemma because I'm realizing I've made a mistake somewhere. I go pull the broken trans speed sensor that was just sitting in the hole to prevent leaking and head to Oreillys, they look up an 01 Civic EX and that's the sensor I had in my new engine. I put the EX sensor in and it still was blinking Red around the D, I pop my hood and look up under there to see if anything was left unplugged by him and what do ya know the freaking shift solenoid wasn't plugged in but half ***, so I plug it in, turn the car off, let it sit for 10 seconds and start it, no more blinking D! I put it in drive and no more hellacious bang feel or lurching, it actually shifted just fine and didn't feel like I was stuck in permanent 4th gear again.

Note: the power steering pump, AC, EGR, wiring harness, and throttle body/ Intake were put on the engine I bought from the original engine. And the VTEC solenoid wasn't hooked up either, still running factory DX comp. I also installed a cheap Intake tube with cone Filter for better gas mileage, and hooked the exhaust back up.

It shifted smooth, but when given more throttle I noticed it staying in gear longer than I think it should, almost like it was waiting until the last second to shift up, and once I was in the higher gear I actually could accelerate pretty well. Almost as if the comp was confused or "off". Still, the engine was almost too quiet to hear, no grinding or hard shifting so I was at least happy I got this crazy situation somewhat under control. I go to the DMV and get my ten day tag.

I drive it to school the first day and it's a lot slower than what I'm used to driving but it got me there.

The 2nd day it's pouring rain and I'm going about 85mph on the hwy and it starts to red line overheat, I pull over immediately and turn it off, steams pouring out from under the hood so I assumed I just blew this thing...

I can't figure why it'd overheat with all new cooling system products. Previous owner is a 45+ year family friend and he said he'd already replaced the radiator cap but I replaced it anyways since it was the only thing I hadn't directly done, filled it back up with fluid after about 6 hours and started right up, ran perfect and about 10 degrees cooler.

So far I've put 1500 miles on it. And it still runs Great, I've gotten to where I'll give it 3/4 throttle when I go to pass somebody and the ECU comprehends that better than flooring it and actually accelerates much faster than flooring it, throttle Cable is perfect. Still have an issue, I was in traffic and tried to manually shift and it felt like I hit a wall so I instantly threw it into neutral to avoid doing any damage. Drove it home in D and was fine.

I get home and while sitting still I try to shift through all the gears with the auto shift know and I notice it won't drop into 3rd, just 2 and D, the more research I do says I need an SLXA range sensor to fix that little problem, not sure what the old trans was considering that dummy still has it.

So far I'm still driving it daily, as for the higher RPM and semi odd shifting, the smaller torque converter is what I've narrowed it down to, the ECU is seeing higher number due to the size difference. And am still shooting a code for "Torque Convertor Clutch stuck off", but it's just a fault due to the mismatch. I'm also averaging about 34mpg with a lead foot.

Also, with it still shooting that code I had to unplug the battery to turn it off, drive across the street to the inspection station and then get it inspected, worked great.

 

its the same **** plug and play

 

do you know what the sensor is called that the d17a didn't have that you had to switch over or do you have a picture of the sensor or something

 

I'm doing a vetch swap in my non vetch car. I was told everything would hook up fine just can't take advantage of vetch. I'm ok with that. Just want car to run for my college student. Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated. Did notice fuel injectors have different part number. Keeping ecu and harness original from non vetch. 2004 civic vp.

 

Now I know why I need to change out oil pan. JDM aluminum oil pan is to wide and the bracket will not fit anymore. Don't know why I need the bracket from motor to tray. 5 speed.

 

i have the same exact issue man if you figure out what is causing it can you please let me know I took my car to the dealer thinking the computer may need reflagged but Honda told me the computer could not be flashed

 

The thing about the jdm automatic transmission is... that the shift cable is different between the JDM an American so it doesn't line up when you shift gears so you can't shift it manually. the torque converter sensor stays on due to the fact that the torque converter from JDM and American has one tooth less so the ECU doesn't read it right and will detect something is wrong. So if you are trying to get no check engine light for that transmission sensor you will have to buy another torque converter from your local parts and swap the JDM torque converter out.

 

i had the same issue it turned out to be the camshaft position sensor.

 

Am I able to use the stock 5 speed trans on the JDM motor?
Thanks

 

rednex99 im trying to find the same answer I honestly don't see why it wouldn't work since it is the same engine technically speaking im planning on a jdm d17a swap for my d17a2 since my block is cracked and I am somehow still able to drive it with oil in my coolant and in my exhaust, engine light comes on once in awhile indicating my o2 are not working but doesn't bother me too much, as long as I can get to work im doing good, my a2 is still the original engine I bought it with 283k miles never been rebuilt which says a lot about this engine im not much for the b or k series so gonna stick with the d series and keep it going strong

 

How where you able to fix this I’m having the same issue

 

Hi guys! It is good we now can exchange opinions here on the forum. Of course, producers give enough of the reasonable recommendations but it is always the best to have feedback from real users. I am based in the UK, and you may need postcode finder to check exact whereabouts. Actually, I am looking for a professional mechanic in my area. Send your suggestions, please.