To start off with this is my first Honda and I have practically 0 knowledge about Hondas, I'm more of an old American car guy. I bought a 1991 CRX HF to have a cool little daily that gets decent gas mileage but the rings are shot at least, unsure about pistons and block but as you all probably know there are no pistons available for the HF. I have thought about checking the cylinders and pistons and just honing and throwing new rings in but Idk if that's really reasonable with these engines. The bottom end sounds fine when running so I don't necessarily want to count the engine out first thing. With all that said I am up to just swapping in a whole engine for better access to replacement parts and such in the future but I don't want to have to change a ton of things to get it to fit and I'm not looking for a bunch of power just something to drive to and from work. From what I've read a jdm d15b is an almost direct swap and many people also mention a "dohc zc" which is kinda where I get lost cause it seems to be a blanket term for multiple engines which I don't fully understand. Any help is appreciated

 

D16y7 with an obd0 crx Si ecu (pm7?) is probably the cheapest and easiest swap you can do.

 

It's 2023, there's a long history of swaps for the CRX.

But these replacement engines are no longer commonly available.

You get whatever 1988-2000 civic engine you can find. They're not being shipped overseas to the US anymore. Expect to pay around $1000 for 1.6L engines ppl would have given away.


Anything other than a D series is going to be more costly because of extra mounts and transmission and harnesses you'll need.

And everything but a drop in D series replacement is going to take some level of modifications, from very simple to full aftermarket wiring harness.

B is worth it, with the smallest extra cost. Don't even think K if you're asking what is the cheapest.

 

Honestly. I am in the same situation you are in, except I have been building cars and Hondas for a while. Honestly if I was building a car for a long term/life long companionship......a car that would outlast and compete with next generation electric car mania.....I would do it correctly from the beginning and build the car with a k20a2 or k24a2 swap. The support, parts and popularity of this swap will carry the car well into the future without losing interest and long-term drive ability. Access to future parts and maintenance is very important. I am building a car, spending the right amount of money, and doing it right, from the beginning. So I never have to fall victim to electric cars and the parts shortages that are coming or have arrived. Do it right, build it right. Do a K swap. K swaps are now cheaper than B swaps and good luck finding any D series parts. The D series parts were all melted down 10 years ago

 

I can speak to re-ringing and honing - my D16A6 smoked like crazy at 260k miles. I ended up replacing the rings and manually honing it. I had the head refinished at the same time. It wasn't too hard and it fixed my issues. The engine ran strong, and if I replaced the bearings would probably keep running forever. I ended up going B series, but still have the A6 in case it needs to go back in or for another project.

So, if you want a "cool little daily that gets decent gas mileage", fixing what you have would take care of that. As a side benefit, you'll have a chance to learn more about the car and you can decide what modifications/upgrades you want afterwards.

Swaps range in difficulty as Tyson mentioned. A D16A6 swap would be the simplest and you'd only need an ECU swap (AFAIK).

 

Thanks everyone I've decided to attempt to just hone and put rings in for now hopefully it'll run decent enough and depending how it drives (I've never actually driven fwd) I'm really debating a k swap. I didn't realize how relatively cheap they are and can be pretty quick. Everything else I've built/owned, like I said, has been 70s/80s dodges and euro cars which neither are cheap to restore or make very fast