Running a stock d15 engine with a 4spd trans, 91 hatch, ya'll know the deal. I'm about to get a 5spd trans and toss out this 4spd. It'll be just a little help on gas and speed and such until I can afford the B16/B18 swap. My question is what else do I need to get? I'm probably gonna throw a new clutch in since all is gonna be opened up anyways, but I read somewhere about a new ECU and such. Is there anything else I need or would it just be like an over-night project; up the engine, rip the trans off, throw the new clutch in (if I do), slap on the trans, drop in the bay, and hook all else up...? And IS this an overnight project or are we talkin' a couple days I'll be out a car? Thanks ya'll...

 

Or does anyone know the trans-code? (IE EK9 LSD, etc...) What all do I need to look for...

 

You'll also need the gear shifter part in the car and i think you'[ll need the ecu unless you have the seperate autotransmission controller thingy besides the ecu. I'd say this is a couple day process but then again for me lowering the car was a sevreal month long process lol.

 

No, you do not need anything else... make sure the tranny comes from an 89-91. If it's an 88 you'll have to use the smaller 88 clutch. you can tell the year as follows:
88 - 21 splines on the input shaft
89 - 20 splines and one groove cut into the tip of the input shaft
90-91 - 20 splines and two groves cut into the tip of the input shaft

If you get a DX trans, the gearing for 1-4th will be about the same as it is now and you'll add a 5th on top of it.

If you get an EX / Si trans, 1st will be similar to your 1st, 5th will be similar to your current 4th, and the gears are closer together in between.

There's a little circle stamped into the tranny case, you can't see it until the tranny's out of the car, on the EX / Si trannys it says PL3 / 1000 (someone please confirm this, it's been a while and I'm not 100% on the 1000 part) If it says PL3/0000 or PL3 and then nothing, you have a DX.

Cliff notes:
If you want performance, get the Si... If you want fuel economy, get the DX. Both will bolt right in with all of your current parts.

 

Stuff you will need

Manual trans
Manual flywheel
Manual flywheel bolts
Manual Ecu
Shift linkage
Shifter
Pedals

Side trans mount and rear trans mount from a manual, the pedals will probably be the hardest part. Here is some more wiring to help you out.

Installing the pedals (have fun):



This part sucks. Droping steering column and removing drivers seat makes life easier at this part. I cannot tell you how many nuts hold the assembly to the car, i can say it is all nuts though. One is really tricky to find and get to. You need a swivle, deepwell 12mm and 2 six inch extensions. It is above the air vents and steering column. Have fun getting it out. Remove cotter pin that holds brake pedal to brake booster. There is also a nut and bolt for it. Remove the gas pedal from automatic pedal assembly and move to manual assembly so the cable plugs up, or switch cable. Install the clutch cable through gromet that honda left on firewall in factory location. Rebolt all the nuts to the car that hold the pedal assembly.



Removal of the transmission:



To remove the transmission (you should know how to do this otherwise don't attempt). Please check my work with a chiltons or haynes manual as i will not be held responcible for damages that incure from this install. Remove both axels. Unbolt the bellhousing, remove the mounts (3 of them) and remove transmission, this is a unusually large tranny, it might require the whole engine coming out depended on how patient you are. I had the whole thing out cause i was putting a DOHC ZC in. Unbolt the torque converter from the motor, install flywheel (make sure not to reuse automatic flywheel bolts).



Installing shift linkage



This is a fairly simple task, remove the old auto shifter by removing 2 bolts on top and 2 on bottom. Then drill 2 holes where honda welded over them as picture below. Then simply install as a normal linkage would be. Take a piece of thin metal and glue to a piece of abs plastic and epoxy it on, the metal is to deflect heat and the plastic is to keep the heat form transfering inside.





Installing the transmission:



Torqure manual flywheel bolts down at 76 footpounds of torque. Install clutch with alignment tool, torque bolts down to 25 ft lbs. Before you install it all back there is one extremely important thing about the rear mount. Honda left 2 spots to mount the rear mount with 3 sets of holes, two are threaded, one is not. You need to move the mount location to the one that is threaded and then thread the other and place a bolt in there. Reassemble as specified in honda manual. Put new manual axels in.



Wiring with diagrams:



Drag two wires from under the hood (yellow and green on tranny) for the reverse lights to work when you are in reverse. Please note that the R light on the instrument cluster will not work without some decent knowledge of relay wiring. Connect these to wires to the ones pictured below



I found this one out the hard way, the key will not come out unless the car is in park and um, you dont have a park anymore. To fix this you can make the car think its in park all the time. Please understand, by doing this the P will be on in the instrument cluster all the time. This can be corrected one of 2 ways, disconneting the light or some extensive relay work.



This one is needed to crank the car because it no longer has a neutral or park. It is one of two plugs with only 2 wires. This one is easy to spot because it has two heavy black wires instead of the other with two yellow wires. Just connect them in a simple loop, or with some relay work to the clutch pedal because some decent current goes through them directly to the starter. I just left it like picture and allways crank the car with my foot on the clutch.

 

I thought he was talking about switching from the civic std 4-spd manual transmission to the 5-spd manual, If you're going from an automatic tranny to a 5-spd, then use 90blackcrx's instructions. Otherwise use mine.

 

Naw, you're right, it's stick to stick...

 

Youre also going to need the 5 speed cam too, right? Or is that just for DOHC?

 

so much bullshit misinformation in this thread i could puke!!

THE FACTS:
only thing you NEED to do this swap is the tranny, anything else is optional. period.

i have done this countless times, and i did it AGAIN on my personal hatch just this weekend.

so everyone, if your not sure, or just repeating hearsay... STFU!!

 

haha, nice monkey. I think ONE person has responded that it's all I need. Thanks for the help. Since you've done it, about how many wrench hours am I lookin' at at what difficulty? Thanks man...

 

plan on one day to take the tranny off and one day to put it on if its your first time. make sure you get some friends when your putting it back on. and dont forget to take off the ground strap and shift linkage.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by thumpu77 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I thought he was talking about switching from the civic std 4-spd manual transmission to the 5-spd manual, If you're going from an automatic tranny to a 5-spd, then use 90blackcrx's instructions. Otherwise use mine.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I thought you were talking about automatic to manual

 

Yeah the dudes right. Even-though he seems like a major *** all you need is the tranny. SOrry about the thing about the cam i was also thinking about automatic to manual.

 

hardcore. Thanks to all...I'll let ya'll know how it went...