My friend and I have an old '91 Civic DX 5-speed hatchback. What's the name of the engine in there? What is the difference between that motor and the motor that was in the Si model of that same year? How much $$$ does it normally cost to rebuild that DX engine? Ours still runs ok but it spits enough smoke to make Smokey the Bear cry and the car's got 245k miles! Any idea how tough it'd be to rebuild that tranny?

Also any little trivia would be appreciated too


[Modified by A, 6:13 PM 10/9/2001]

 

Hey, why don't my cool pics in my sig appear? And why isn't my avatar animated?

 

Don't know what the engine code is for that year but, you can find it on the front of the engine to the left of the header...it will be about 1/2 an inch in size and start like D15.... I know that it is a D15 D meaning SOHC (Single Over Head Cam) and 15 meaning 1.5 liter or 1500 cc (cubic centemeters).

If you are looking for perfomance out of that engine your nuts......if you want just the car running good then rebuild the engine however, everyone here will tell you to swap the engine for a bigger one. B16.....B meaning DOHC (dual over head cam) and 16 meaning of course 1.6 liter or 1600 cc.....yeah yeah blah blah blah. N-E-Way, swap the engine man.

 

the engine family is d-series more specific a D15B7 (1.5l Dual point injection),
Si came with a D16A6 which is a (1.6L MPFI Multi point injection), either one can be swaped....just don't rebuild the d15b its cost too much and it has no power...locate yourself a D16A swap it.,...with it you will need the ECU, some wiring changes, tranny would help too, because a 3.88FDR in the DX is not the best for acelertation (si=4.25FDR) (another way is to just use the D16A6 (complete block minus the INTAKE manifold, and add yours and you will have a D16A6 with DPFI), will be good for some torque as well as hp improvement....

other good mods are ZC engine which very cheap and easy to swap or go with a mount kit and b16a (1st gen)

all depends on how much you want to spend...

but defiantly do not go to a shop and rebuild your d15b....get one off some JDM importers, or some board members...(you can get sometimes for free....or for less then $100 complete).....

 

No we'd be doing the rebuild ourselves. I don't really care too much about any performance out of that car, just good gas mileage and reliability. We bought this car to commute back and forth from the university (when we get there) to save gas and to save wear out our cars.

So I can get a complete d15 (SOHC 1.5L) engine for ~$100? That sounds really good! Is that a typical price or just a possible one? (Or am I just reading that wrong?)

 

That sounds about right becuase most of the d15 engine people are swapping out for the zc or the d16. the swap should be easy since you are replacing the current motor with the same type of motor. Good luck...

 

Cool. How about the 5-speed? Hod much money does a transmission normally cost? I just got done rebuilding the tranny on my other car a few months ago and it wasn't pretty. Any idea what other cars have this same trans?

 

3 different tranny will fit. The zc has the closest gear ratio but a long final drive. The si has a less steeper with a shorter final drive. And the dx has the best for gas mileage. If you are looking for the best get the zc and swap out the final drive for the si. Cheapest would be to find a dx tranny. Have fun...

 

Heh....we normally give those motors away....or throw them away. OR....NO2 them to explosion...hehe

 

That's really good news!

What's a zc tranny? I'm not familiar with Hondas and the nomenclature
Was zc a trim level or something?

How much would another DX tranny cost? Gas mileage is the key here at this point in time, I could care less if it takes 20+ sec. to get to 60 Later on after we're done commuting/having no money, we have a lofty dream of putting some evil J-spec motor in it and becoming auto-x gods but that's wayyyyy off in la la land right now

 

zc tranny came off the zc motor... which is a jdm (japanese) motor.. i believe they were offered in a few other countries as well.. but i'm not sure about that...

the zc motor is a DOHC non-vtec motor that came out of the JDM CRX Si... and i think the older integra...

someone correct me if i'm wrong... hope that helps.. but if you are looking for good gas mileage... i think you might as well stick with the DX tranny... it would be much cheaper.. and easier to find... (try a junkyard)

 

If you are looking for a good gas mileage tranny....Get the HF trans. 60 mph is like 2000 rpms. Loooooooooonnnnnnnnnngggggggggggg gearing. ZC also came in the canada crx's SOHc...its either canada or european...I cant remenber

 

i remember reading somewhere about it being in europe.. but i can't remember where...

forgot about the HF... that actually is the best gas saver.. hehehe... yea... i like the 60mph at 2000rpms... hehe