A little over a month ago I bought a 1994 Civic VX with 289k miles, thinking the worst problem was the rust over the rear wheels. I was told the engine had been replaced but has stock transmission. It was hard to shift and finally almost failed on me a week ago, I had already bought a 96 EX transmission and spent the day Saturday replacing that. When we pulled the pressure plate the clutch came out in pieces (springs had come out). After putting in the new clutch and pressure plate and 96 trans with the shorter gearing, new rear main, and filling with Honda MTF, I've been thrilled. Car shifts great and is more fun with that gear ratio.

Today I pulled the valve cover because the previous owner had painted it a horrible blue color. I stripped the paint and repainted, went to install it and realized the previous owner had 3 of the 5 bolt holes holding on the valve cover stripped. Crap.

I just want a daily driver, not a race car, and I'm perfectly happy with it like it is, but the engine has oil around the head, at the oil pan, and with only 2 bolts holding the valve cover snug, that should be leaking too, it's possible that's why it looks like oil around head gasket.

Also seem to give off a little blue smoke when hard on the throttle, could be because I have a CEL for the O2 sensor or could be oil getting past the rings.

So, I could retap the threads in the head to hold the valve cover tight, but I would really like to find something to put in the car that is PLUG AND PLAY. I love the VTEC, but was told last week the d15 is not similar to the d16, so what are my options here since the d15z is a rare engine? I just want to drive.

 

Depends, do you want performance plug and play or do you want to keep the super high economy of the vtec-e?

 

My civic has the exact same issue, in fact the PO broke off a piece of the threaded hole by overcranking the valve cover bolt. I now am sitting on I believe 2 bolts that thread correctly, and i do leak a little oil down the front of the block but it isn't enough for me to worry.

 

I want plug and play as in "this drops into the same mounts and uses the same plugs and hardware."

I'm not currently getting the super efficiency because of my CEL causing it to run rich.

 

You'll have to locate another z7, or the jdm equivalent.

 

Yep, my bottom left bolt hole (under the plug wires) has part of the threads broken off, they threaded the valve cover and have an allen plug in it. so I have 4 bolts in the valve cover, the center one and the top left actually tighten up, and the center one is not even a factory bolt, just some metric threaded bolt from a hardware store with an 11mm head.

 

As of this morning I noticed that it is smoking only when I hit VTEC. What does this mean? haha

 

Well, any D series will drop right in with only a handful of changes.

One I believe is the IACV. Some applications are 3 wire and others 2 wire (easy fix).

The other is the O2 sensor, the 49 state VX uses a wideband 5 wire O2, some applications use a 4 wire (heated narrow band) and then another is the 1 wire (USDM CX 12 valve?). Once again, another easy fix. Other than that, all D series pretty much drop right in and then you swap the ECU to match.

The only other area I'm aware of that can pose a little challenge is whether the MAP sensor is firewall mounted or throttle body mounted. That changes a bit of the wiring on the shock tower and engine harness. But still not an overly difficult fix.

The absolute easiest of course is another 49 state VX motor as no change is required if you are a 49 state VX.

If you are a Cali VX, then you would need another Cali VX for a zero change swap. I think the Cali VX uses the 1 wire 02 sensor also but don't remember for sure.

Of note, motor mounts tend to be motor specific so you will need the mount to the motor for it to drop right in. Still hits the stock frame mount bracket though.

 

So any D16 will have to have it's computer, wasn't sure about this since with my old CRX with ZC swap I had the flexibility to run the stock ECU, ZC ECU, SI ECU and more, I was running the SI for higher rev limit.

Just want to have a VTEC engine and dependable.

 

You can't run the d15z7 ecu with any other engine, its different.

 

Like Tony said, too many differences in the 92-95 motor series to cross ECU's.

You could run the 12 valve B8 ecu on a B7 but eventually would cause problems and vice versa. You can't really run a vtec ecu on non vtec or even the vtec-e.

For 92-95 you have the following 4 motors in USDM:
D15B8 - 12 valve non-vtec
D15B7 - 16 valve non-vtec
D15Z1 - 16 valve vtec-E
D16Z6 - 16 valve vtec

Please note, just like Tony indicated, vtec and vtec-e are not interchangeable. And vtec or vtec-e are not interchangeable with non vtec and the two non vtec's use significantly different fuel maps enough to cause significant problems if run for any length of time on the opposite motor.

 

Thank you, I've been out of the game a long time. I'd love a B series, but my pockets are shallow.