What is the cheapest swap from a 1.5 to something that has some power?

 

The cheapest/easiest swap for that vehicle will be one of three motors:

1. D16a6 (Civic/CRX Si motor)
2. SOHC ZC (JDM only motor)
3. DOHC ZC (87-89 Integra, JDM CRX)

#3 has the most power, however, the first two motors are easier to fool inspectors if you're in Cali....I'm running a SOHC ZC in my CRX Si right now, and both the police officers that have looked at it and the smog tech who have tested it have assumed that it's the stock Si Motor. All these motors can reuse your stock tranny and bolt right in, the only things you have to modify are the fuel harness (Search: mpfi conversion) and the ecu should at least be an Si model or better (JDM ZC or USDM 87-89 Integra maps).

 

does that go the same for a 90 hatch dx?

 

yup

 

If you want more pep on a tight budget, and your current engine is in good mechanical condition, just do an MPFI swap and get an Si tranny and keep the 1.5

This will do much better than running a ZC/A6 off of the DX/LX tranny and you'll have to do the MPFI swap regardless of what engine you swap in anyway.

If your current engine is toast, any D-series will be about the same difficulty (the VTEC models will be a little more difficult than the non-vtec) and are all very abundant.

 

A free one.

 

Thanks for all of the good info/recommendations! As for my engine being toast, I'm still kinda unsure about that. The jury is still out on the pouring fuel injector cleaner into the cylinders and that stopping the smoking. I've only driven it once since doing it and it only smoked up around 4000 RPMs I think it was. I notice a slight knocking sound when it is sitting in the garage idling. May try and see how much I can get that D16a6 Si engine and tranny for if my current engine keeps on smoking. Will the ECU have to be replaced, too? Thanks again.

 

what ECU do you have now?

 

Whatever came in it stock. I have that basic 1.5 that came in all of the 1990 Civic LX 4 doors as far as I know. I kinda new at this stuff so please forgive my ignorance. Thanks.

 

Dont forget about the d16z6 swap..

 

I'll have to look up what a D16z6 is. Would this be a cheap swap? This car is going to be for my 15 year old when he gets his license and at this point in my budget coupled with the fact that will be his first car, I don't want to give him too much out of the chute. That being said, I need to determine the absolute cheapest increase in power for the money and go that way at first.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by dbailey &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I'll have to look up what a D16z6 is. Would this be a cheap swap? This car is going to be for my 15 year old when he gets his license and at this point in my budget coupled with the fact that will be his first car, I don't want to give him too much out of the chute. That being said, I need to determine the absolute cheapest increase in power for the money and go that way at first. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Oh.. In that case get him a b18c5 swap, It has a little bit more power than stock, lol

The d16z6 swap it just a 92-95 civic ex/si motor that has like 125hp.. You need to do some other stuff since its a vtec motor and must have a way to engauge the vtec.. For the simplicity I would look into the dohc zc motor since its almost a direct bolt in..