Engine swap to my EF.

Hey guys,

i just recently got on my Ps and know abit about hondas in the past. At the moment i am driving a 1990 silverstone metallic (i think) EF Civic GL Sedan.

My dad tells me he planned to either overhaul the engine (d15 i think) or do a whole new engine swap. you can imagine i jumped at the opportunity to suggest a b16a. He tells me as long as i can find out and make arrangements (provided it is not too expensive) he will be more than happy to pay for the engine swap.

It sounds great but i have run into a few problems.

1) I have been told that my car uses dual carbuerettas which is different to the fuel injection of the newer 93+ civics. This means i will have to buy a new fuel tank and fuel pipe. I was wondering whether obtaining a b16a1 would eliminate that problem? I dont really mind which engine i get (b16a or D16y) as long as it has VTEC im quite happy to drive it. However the D16y apparently came into production in 1992 which means that it is most likely using fuel injection as its delivery method.

2) Putting in the new engine means that i will need to upgrade the brakes, gearbox and other various things. If possible i dont want to have to spend more money buying a new fuel tank and fuel pipe. I want to know what are the least things you need to buy to make this engine swap successful. New brakes can wait, i can substitute engine braking.

3) After all this is done, will it be road worthy? Will i need to pay more for insurance? In other words will it be legal to drive on the road.

Before i do an engine swap im trying to do more research. My bro has been telling me how it is "impossible" but i know friends who have done engine swaps before except in newer models.

Any information will be of great help thanks

The main concern is that i dont want to spend 5K+ modifying this car when i can get another one with a b16a already in it. I love this car and dont want to sell it off but i dont want to spend a bomb on it if i know that this car wont last

The easiest and almost cheapest swap would be the d16y.
You don't need another fuel tank to go efi either.

B16 swaps will usually start at at least 3k if your in the know.

Unless you have some particular attachment to the vehicle you are better off spending the money to buy a newer car. Not worth it. Keep maintaining this car until it is run into the ground and then buy a different car. In that time you can save a lot of money.

Spending thousands of dollars on a 17 year old Civic doesn't make a lot of sense.
And I am saying that owning the same car as you.

D16y could be done for appr $1500 if you know a mechanic.
Drive it for 2 years whilst saving for next car.

Hey EKVTIR-T
You said i dont need another fuel tank to convert to EFI? then what do i need?

I do have a sort of attachment to this car, it is the first car we got when we came down to australia so its sort of "part of the family".

I want to know whether its easy to come by a D16y? id expect it to be more common than a b16a, also will i get decent power out of a d16y? I want to be able to smoke some ford and commodores =P

d16y, no chance again fords and commodores. lol

but then again, if you're not looking for much power and just a pull the d16y should do fine.

1. you will need a new fuel tank, mainly for the fact that the carby fuel tank isnt going to cut it, with a efi system the tanks are different, however... if u cant get ur hands on a efi tank... which i do believe u would have a problem with, due to ur car is a ED sedan, im not sure if any of the ED sedans came in efi... the other solution to this is setting up a efi system using the existing tank... i believe u will need to buy 2 different pumps... i think (and this is at the top of my head) you use a EFI pump, and u use ur current pump as a surge pump... however... if u let ur fuel drop to about 1/4 of the tank you engine will suffer alot... however thats a wayward way of going about doing the efi system with no efi tank...

2. If your looking to do a b16a conversion, you'll deffinatly need to upgrade your breaks.. your could probably pick up some cheap breaks from a CRX werck of even just going to a local honda werck... im not sure if there will be other mods, such as needing new controll arms and what not so that they can fit... or in the worst case, you could keep your rear drums, and get the front breaks drilled or slotted... The main problem here is you need to get a engineering cert. if you ever wanna see this car registered with the b16a... im not sure if the front breaks upgrade will be allone enough to pass for this certificate. but where theres a will tehres away... (pull out the money and get a dodgy jobe done... hardly the safest way)

3. Insurance... u can will most deffinatly need to apply for a new insurance policy, mainly due to its not the same ED sedan it was when the policy was started. and believe me i would assume that it wouldnt be cheap insurance too....

Having said all the above... i think you could get away with the conversion fairly cheap... depending if you know the right places... engine and gear box... will be the most expensive part...
you could possibly get a efi tank from a ED crx, im assuming that they will fit your car... along with getting the efi pump, but you will need new fuel lines, but probably can use the main fuel feeding line as the return line soo u dont need to go all out there. Tank and lines and efi pump... will set you back at most a few hundread... 400 if not 550...
going the cheapest way on the breaks, drilled and or slotted a few hundread also...
installation of the engine and gearbox will probably be around 1-1.5 grand.

The conversion it self can be cheap, just seeing if u can get a engineering cert. and getting it re registered and insured might be the most trickiest part...

Long story summerised... IF you are VERY and i mean VERY VERY attached to the car, you could get away with doing it cheap. however the bother factor or 'cbf' factor will play a large roll in this, i dont think getting a engin certif will be easy. but ive been wrong in the past.

Hope it all goes well. if u have any other questions about the carby to efi pm me...


OHH and if u want performance from a D16y... the only way to go is TURBO! ahah

lol thanks but i dont plan to go turbo..want to keep a VTEC RaWR. Seems like a tough job and i probly wont do it then. Although vtec is ReALLY tempting..anyway i think ill change my mind about the engine swap. Whats a cheap way to raise power to my current civic without tampering with the engine and going turbo?

Im looking for things that i can upgrade that will add significant power but can remove to add to a EG or EK once i decide to scrap this sedan. High quality air filter maybe? Better spark plugs?

hey mate, there wont be any real mods that you can do that will really increase the power significantly, the best you can hope for is... customizing your air intake, on a carby its kinda different, i havnt done it my self personally but my mate has on his EF2 civic, and its quite fun, you get the whole mis fire affect going, (note in a carby mis fire is good)... Oh but try to get some NGK spark plugs, best spark plugs on the market... at try a Pivot volt stabliser kit...

mayb an exhaust... however... ur saying u want to change it to a EG or EK once your done... i wouldnt really say its applicable, unless your EG was another carbyy... all in all i would just save the money, and buy a eg vti thats efi and vtec, but i believe those a SOHC... if your looking for the real thrill u will want a DOHC vtec, mayb an integra vtir? lol

Im not trying to take anything away from the SOHC vtec'rs!!! dont flame me guys :o

but yeh short story again, theres not much u can do... good luck mate

heya Nairda, im pretty sure your car's an ED, as im pretty sure EFs are only CRXs and imported civics?

As Andw0o said, there isnt much you can really do to the d15b4 dual carb motor, but a cheap mod would be the air intake.
crack open the airbox (the thing that says cv dual carb at the back of the engine bay) and make sure theres a filter inside, feel free to replace this with a k&n filter or any other filter (k&n had a consistently high flow rate from a recent autosalon test compared to other brands). then bring the filter to your local supermarket, head to the cooking utensils area, and find a baking tray that is just bigger than the filter. then bring it back to the original carby lid, line it up so that the filter sits entirely within the area of the baking tray, and drill a hole thru the centre so you it can be screwed on as a replacement lid. then yank out a really short screw driver (phillips no.2, shorter than 10cm in length), and inside the airbox there should be a metal flap near where the cold air intake is. remove that flap to reduce the air resistance and improve flow rate marginally. then fit the filter, screw on the baking tray, and viola, partially exposed air filter.
minus the filter, this should cost you less than $5 if you have all the tools (replacement filter might set you back 50).

other option is to do the dual motorbike filter mod listed elsewhere on these forums. and definitely get spark plugs and ignition leads just to make the carby a little more efficient.

aside from that, not much else you can do for straight line power short of sticking in a new motor or turbo.