Hello everyone,

I don't race or modify my car, it's just a car... a nice little car.

My engine died some time last week, so I called a few garages. I got a decent price, but they told me they'd drop a "VTEC" engine in the car. I asked them about the difference between VTEC and a standard engine from a 92 Civic, and the response was only that you get about an additional 12 HP.

I figured it was probably some weird cylinder change or something.... but... I looked it up, and as you all know... it is not that simple.

Well, the engine is replaced, it sounds a little louder, higher pitched, doesn't sputter and choke when I creep around parking lots in 2nd gear, so it seems o.k.

I figure these guys just dropped the engine in and didn't hook up any extra wires or anything... just a taking out a non-VTEC engine and dropping in a VTEC-E engine.

Reading up, it sounds like the VTEC-E with a non-operational VTEC solonoid would be optimized for low RPMs, and would be woefully underpowered at middle-high rpms (over 2200).

So... given my ECU died and was replaced a few months ago with one from a mildly wrecked 93 Del Sol (which may or may not have been VTEC.. but certainly wasn't VTEC-E) ...

1. What kind of performance can I expect?
2. How can I confirm that there is no VTEC hookup?
3. How can I convince these guys to do something under the repair's parts/labour warranty ("15 HP" claim)
4. What inexpensive method can I suggest they perform to fix it?

I mean, even if my ECU is good, I imagine that 1. it would trigger at 5000RPM, 2. the DX wouldn't have the wires in the wiring harness to hook it up to the engine.

Worst case, I guess I could pull a tach out of a dumpster, wire up some tinfoil clips connecting the vtec solonoid :-)

... Smack me if I'm wrong about this stuff. I really barely know what I'm talking about.

 

You can fully optimize the vtec-e engine by buying my vx ecu and making a few wiring changes.

 

The shipping would probably price the computer higher than a local guy with a warranty. It shouldn't be too tough to find the right ECU around here.

I'll have to see what I can do on the highway, small side streets and stuff are o.k., nothing spectacular, but I might just be so used to driving with a half-dead engine that I'm afraid to put any torque through the thing. The old engine had a blown cylinder and was slowly losing compression on two others... oh and it went through a litre of oil every 750km or so (tank and a half of gas). This thing runs about the same as the old engine before the cylinder blew... but I'm not afraid to make a left turn with the AC running :-)

If it runs as well on the highway as my old engine, it gives good fuel economy and I'm not killing it, I'll probably just put off finishing up any VTEC conversions until I trip over a good ECU and some good information about how to hack a fix.

There must be some information about what happens on a VTEC-E Civic when the VTEC solonoid blows, wire goes or ECU malfunctions... bad? Horrible? I mean, if I lose the reputed 12 HP all around, it's not that big a deal, but if I start bombing emissions tests, or the engine starves at highway speed, then it is a big deal.