Background:

Bought a 93 CX hatch for the wife as a second vehicle for her. I put 195-60-14 tires on alum wheels on it.

The car was a dog, didn't feel safe pulling out of intersections, and wasn't comfortable to drive. The steering was way too stiff at low speed and twitchy at high speeds.. Probably a bad manual rack

Anyway, I removed the 8 valve CX head a put on a 16 valve DX head on it. Used the CX intake. I had to change the exhaust manifold, the CX manifold was cracked down the middle. I uded a 91 Civic exhaust manifold, pipe and cat.

The car is a bit quicker and has better throttle response, which is all I was really looking for. I also added a complete power steering system onto the car, which the wife loves.

If I did it again I would also change the CX 5-speed tranny for a DX 5-speed. The CX tranny is an odd tranny. The ratio's are WAY too high....

And yes I could have done a swap, but I work at a used parts store (aka junkyard), so all the parts I used were readily available and CHEAP. Plus its for the wife, and she doesn't need that much power.

 

you didn't have a DX intake mani available? BTW

 

sounds good. Get your hands on a D16Z6 or even better, a D16Y8 intake manifold and a D16Z6 exhaust manifold. You'll see some better gains there, and one of those trannies.

 

get a Y7 head and a gam gear. way better compression (compression = torque). a Z6 exhaust manifold, a Y8 intake manifold and a EX tranny

well maybe not that much, but you know...

 

I didn't want to mess with the intake at all. I just unbolted it from the head and left it in the car while I did the swap.

I'd like to swap the intake, but the wife would kill me since now she has the car back and can drive it. If I try to take it apart again so soon, she'll kill me or worse.... "shut me off"