DIY ED9 ( 88 gen2 CRX ) B16A Engine transplant

[ECU-MAN]

Disclaimer: The following is provided as a GUIDE ONLY, and neither myself nor Ozhonda take any responsibility for the outcomes of someone else doing the following. You follow these steps at your own risk!


Aim: VTEC yal


Required:

must have

- B16A engine with OBDO engine loom
- EF8/9 cabin loom
- PWO OBDO ECU
- Y1 cable clutch type gearbox
- EF8/9 power steering high pressure hose
- EF8/9 shift linkage
- custom engine mounts. Avid mounts used in this DIY
- DA6 drive shafts and mid shaft

optional ( you dont have to ghetto stuff and saves time to have these )




- EF8/9 front hubs and calipers
- EF8/9 BMC
- EF8/9 radiator
- EF8/9 clutch cable
- EF8/9 acelerator cable




Other comments:

Hi Guys.

I have always herd about what you have to do to a Gen II CRX to install a B16A, but never had to do a convertion. So I went into this convertion blind and took everything as it came, so now I can clarify a few questions and stories I have herd in the past.

I soon found out ( as you know ) that I had to get some custom mounts and a few other goodies. The owner of this ED9 got himself a nice EF9 frontcut so it comes with alot of the goodies we needed to do the job.

so here we go


STEP 1:

remove the B16A from the front cut. the basicly strip the crap out of it.

- drain all the remaining fluids
- remove the radiator, battery holder
- remove heater hoses from the engine side for now.
- unplug all the wiring loom connectors at each shock tower that go to the engine.
- disconnect the power steering hoses from the pump
- disconnect the fuel lines and Vacuum lines
- disconnect the throttle and clutch cables
- disconnect the starter motor wires and any earth leads from engine to body
- unbolt the MAP sensor and fuel pressure reg solenoid
- make sure the Air Con has no gas in it. if it does it needs to be vacuumed out by a pro with the correct equipment. undo the AC lines from the compressor

******** NEVER VENT R12 GAS TO THE ATMOSPHERE **********

- get under the front cut and undo the shift linkage and remove it
- remove the drive shafts, and the hubs while you are at it.

- undo the front and rear engine mounts. ( the ones on the front and rear cross members ) so the engine hangs from the gearbox and front of engine mounts

- secure the engine to an engine hoist and undo the remaining mounts. carefully lift out the engine.

- now remove everything els from the front cut just be carefull not to damage anything as you may need to use it in the install or you can sell off bits that are left over.






STEP 2

remove the cabin wiring loom from the front cut

go nuts and strip the dash out, the loom is hiding behind all that stuff. the bellow pic is what you will end up with once you have got the loom out.




pic of removed loom





its in your best intrest not to cut it.




STEP 3

remove the engine from the ED9




- drain all the fluids. power steering, engine oil, gearbox oil, coolant, Have your Air Con gas degassed by a qualified airconditioning place.
******** NEVER VENT R12 GAS TO THE ATMOSPHERE **********


- remove the battery and battery holder, remove radiator,
- remove heater hoses from the engine side for now.
- unplug all the wiring loom connectors at each shock tower that go to the engine. leave the injector resistor box in the engine bay.
- disconnect the speedo cable.
- disconnect the power steering hoses from the pump. high pressure and low pressure.
- disconnect the fuel lines, high press and return line. remove the vacuum line that goes to the booster.
- disconnect the throttle and clutch cables.
- disconnect the starter motor wires and any earth leads from engine to body
- unbolt the MAP sensor and evap purg solenoid
- make sure the Air Con has no gas in it. if it does it needs to be vacuumed out by a pro with the correct equipment. undo the AC lines from the compressor

******** NEVER VENT R12 GAS TO THE ATMOSPHERE **********

- get under the front cut and undo the shift linkage from the gearbox
- remove the drive shafts,



- undo the exhaust from the down pipe to the cat

- undo the front and rear engine mounts. ( the ones on the front and rear cross members ) so the engine hangs from the gearbox and front of engine mounts
- remove the front cross member and undo the caster rods from the lower control arms.

engine bay should be pretty stripped now and ready to lift engine out




- secure the engine to an engine hoist and undo the remaining mounts. carefully lift out the engine.





STEP 4.

prepare the B16A. change the timming belt and adjust the tappets. check the water pump. if you want change the clutch and stuff like that.

I just changed the timming belt and checked the water pump and adjusted tappets. it is much easier to do this when the engine is out of the car.



STEP 5.

test fit the B16A with the new mounts.

- fit the side engine mount to the front of the engine. ( timming belt area ). you will have to use a nut and bolt for the left hole and a few washers and a nut on the right. the washers are important as you will find the thread stops on the stud that is on the engine.


- do not fit the rear mount that sits on the rear cross member yet. nor the front cross member mount.( their will be no front cross member mount )

- drop the B16A in




- you will soon find the engine is a tight fit . lower the geargox end in 1st so it goes under the gearbox chassis mount bracket, line up the front mount ( timming belt side ) with the chassis mount . drop it in and put the bolt in tempoarily.

- now raise the gearbox side up into place. fit the gearbox mount to the gearbox and then slide the bolt in to secure the engine to the chassis.





as you can see above the engine is sitting in there with only the two side mounts ( red arrows in pic above )

now its time to test a few things

- I test fit the clutch and throttle cables to find out they dont perfectly match up. since I had the EF9 ones ill use those rather than waist time and ghetto the D16A8 ones to suit, they will be fitted later.

- I placed the speedo cable in the area where it goes. the EF9 has a VSS not cable speedo. ( easy fixed )
- I also lined up the heater hoses. the hose that comes from the heater tap fits perfectly. the hose that comes directly from the heater core ( firewall ) did fit but was real tight. So I will remove it later and fit a new hose.

- the high pressure fuel line of the B16A fits perfectly
- the high pressure power steering hose does not line up so that will be swapped.
- the D series shift linkage will not fit either.
- the power steering pulley hits a AC line. ( red arrows in pic bellow )





- thats easy fixed with some gental action with the big screw driver.
- the exhaust wont line up, so Ill ghetto that to get the car to a exhaust shop.
- check the altenator clearance to the chassis. it comes close so mark the chassis on the high spot. ( where it comes close to the alteranor pulley ).
- tempoarily fit the AC compressor and do the same as you did for the alteantor. ( see pics bellow )







- everything else looks good



STEP 6



remove the B16A from the car.


STEP 7


prepare the engine bay

- remove the power steering high pressure hose, and fit the EF9 High pressure hose. one 10mm bolt on the cross member and the nut under the cover on the rack it self.

note the EF9 hose has a pressure switch on it.





- remove the D16A8 shifter and linkage. take the shift knob off, undo the center console screws and remove it. unbolt the shifter from under the car. 2x 12mm bolts in pic bellow





- pull out the D series shifter and fit the B seires shifter from the EF9. refit the center consol and shift knob.






- with your hammer. gently smack the chassis where the altenator and AC compressor pulleys come close to it. ( from the marking we made earlier when we test fit the B16A )

see pic bellow, yellow circles.





- remove the VSS and its pick up from the gearbox. undo the one 10mm bolt. ( yellow circle bellow )









- remove the cable speedo pickup from your D16A8 gearbox. and fit it to the Y1 tranny the way your removed it. lube the seal with some oil.

it will fit and work.

bellow is a pic of both the speedo drive pickups, the top one is from the EF9 and the bottom one is for the cable speedo from the D16A8 in the yellow circle.



__________________

[ECU-MAN]

STEP 8:

time to do some electrical work.

- remove the ECU. 4x 10mm nuts under the carpet in the passangers floor well




NOTE:


- In this DIY I will refer alot to a connector in the engine bay that we will remove from the EF9 B16A loom and add to the D16A8 loom, this connector will always be refered to as "Engine Bay B connector " and will always be blue in colour. the connector that looks the same on the RHS will be called engine bay A connector in RED

- also when ever I refere to a pin in a connector, you look at the connector from the wire side ( back of it ) and the top left is pin 1.

- ECU connectors will be refered as ECU A, ECU B, ECU C connectors in black text.

- the original loom of the AUDM CRX will be called D16A8 loom

- the B16A EF9 wiring loom will be called B16A loom



so here we go

- place your cabin wiring loom on a bench
- locate the LH Side engine bay PGMFI connector. its the round yellow 14 pin connector that if found on the LH side shock tower next to the injector resistor.

- we need to remove this connector from the harness. So now we are going to split it from the loom. start by getting a stanly knife and carefully cut away the tape around the conduit on the loom from the connector back to the rubber grommit. see pic bellow.




- remove the conduit






- now work on the junction of all the wires. remove the tape and conduit all the way back to the ECU connectors.










- now some care should be taken and follow these instructions carefully. you need to understand how to look at the connector and understand what wire I am refering to.

- when ever I refere to a pin in a connector, you look at the connector from the wire side ( back of it ) and the top left is pin 1 then along the top row towards the right pin 2 then pin 3. Down to the next row under the top row. again from left to right pin 4 to pin 7 and so on. ( see pib bellow )



- start at the B connector and trace the following wires back to the ECU A connector one at a time and remove them from the connector.






to unplug the a wire from the ECU A connector you need to push down on the plastic lock tab in the connector and pull the wire out at the same time. ( see pic bellow )









- now remove some pins from the other type of ECU connectors. ECU B and ECU C connectors

this is a bit more tricky, but what you have to do is remove the locking plate by unclipping it and poping it out.











- now place a small strong long type of pin ( I used a small drill bit after I snapped my screw driver ) in the end of the connector in the middle hole and press upwards into the pin you want to remove then gently pull on the wire of the pin to remove it from the connector.













remove the following







now there is 6 wires still holding the connector to the loom. we have to cut these.

( cut near as possible to ECU connectors )

B12 (yel ) power for VSS
B13 (yel/red) VSS signal
B6 (yel/blk) to PGMFI relay
B7 (yel/blk) to PGMFI relay
B14 (blk) ground
Blk Power steering ground ( goes to ground )







- now you can pull all the wires one at a time from the b connector side off the rubber gromit and pass the wires through it

you should end up with this






red arrow = power steering high pressure connector
blue arrow = engine bay B connector
black arrows = wires we free'd from the B16A cabin loom


- make the loom one peice and add conduit and tape it up as in pic bellow.





- now in the engine bay. Jam a screw driver into the rubber seal above the loom ( red arrow in pic bellow ) this will make a hole in the rubber.




- now feed the new harness with the B connector on it into that hole. I used a coat hanger as a draw.





- plug in the power steering high pressure connector.

you should have somthing like this in the car





- in the pic above the blue arrow is the loom we just poked through.

- remove the sheeth of the 3 ecu connector looms ( yellow arrows above pic )

so we end up with this





thats it for now for wiring. more to be done later

[ECU-MAN]

STEP 9:


time to fit the B16A

- the mount on the front of the engine should still be on and tight.
- fit the rear mount to the B16A. ( the one that bolts the motor to the rear cross member that houses the steering rack.) Do not do it up tight.

- fit the B16A in as before like in the test fit.
- do up the two side mounts ( gear box mount and front engine mount ).




- check the back mount, see if it lines up with the mounting holes on the cross member. If it lines up, go ahead and put the two bolts in and bolt it down to the rear cross member, then do up the bolt that goes through the mount.


- if it does not line up, you have to loosen the metal braket from the gearbox, then bolt the back mount to the cross member. then do up the metal braket. ( sounds easy but its not. good luck )






- time to start doing things up.

- start with the heater hoses, the one that goes to the heater tap will fit fine. the one that goes to the engine from the heater core at the firewall willl need to be replaced as it is a bit of a stretch. I used the D16A8 one and cut it down a bit.

- fit the speedo cable to the gearbox, dont forget to pit the gold lock retainer.

- fit the power steering low pressure hose then fit the power steering high pressure hose

- remove the D16A8 clutch cable and replace it with the B16A cable from the EF8/9

- remove the D16A8 accelerator cable and replace it with the B16A cable from the EF8/9

- fit the B16A MAP sensor and fuel regulator cut off solenoid to the firewall.

- fit the EF8/9 brake booster vacuum tube and hose.

- connect the fuel main line and return line . they will reach and line up with out any probs

- connect the D16A8 battery positive lead to the starter motor.

- plug the PGMFI A connector in. then plug in the other two connectors on the RH shock tower.

- plug the PGMFI B connector in on the RH shock tower. also plug in the injector resistor.








- went to fit the radiator and I noticed the tubes where the top and bottom hoses fit on where to small. you can ghetto this with some clamps. but I fit the B16A EF9 radiator. I also had to swap the fans in the fan housings to I didnt have to rewire their connectors. see pic bellow.





the top radiator is from the ED9




- fit the radiator and connect the top and bottom hoses. then connect up the fans.

- fit the battery bracket.

- fit the intake pipe and air cleaner

- fit the earth lead from the gearbox to chassis, and roccer cover to body.

- fit anything else that needs to be fitted


time to fit the stuff under the car.

- I went to refit the front cross member. I got played on the AC compressor sitting to low. asfter looking at it for a while I relised it wasnt going to fit so I removed the AC compressor.

you can purchase a bracket that HA SPORT make that lets you use the D series compressor and clears the front cross memeber.

in this situation I will not add the compressor for now untill I get the custome mount for it and then append this DIY with that part.


- Connect the shift linkage to the gearbox. ( see bellow pic )

- I ghetto'd the exhaust a bit to make it sort of seal up, to get the car to an exhaust shop. ( see pic bellow )




- if your going to change the hubs, now is a good time to do them. just a note. you will also need to install the EF8/9 tie rod ends as well as the ED9 ones are to long and you cannot get the toe with in specs.

here is a pic as a comparison. left is ED9 right is EF8/9





- time to fit the drive shafts.

here is a pic of the DA3 shafts with EF9 hubs





pic of the two mid shafts as a comparison.

top one is B16A mid shaft
bottom is a DA9 mid shaft




- remove the B16A mid shaft and fit a DA9 mid shaft

- fit either DA3 or DA6 shafts. fit the shaft that has half splines on the inner CV joint on the RHS. With DA3 shafts I didnt have to remove the seal in the hub as other have recomended. you can if you want. then fit the LH shaft.


bellow is a pic of 3 shafts as a comparison

the top one is from EF9 B16A
middle one is from DA3
bottom is from ZC D16A8






- do up the hubs

- if you changed the hubs then use the EF8/9 brake master cylinder.

- bleed the brakes ( all four wheels )




Time to add fluids


- change the oil filter and drain any oil in the engine. fill the engine with oil.

- fill the gearbox up with MTF

- fill up the cooling system with coolant

- fill up the power steering fluid. use genuine honda power steering fluid.

- make sure your brake fluid is set right




at this stage everything should be in and bolted up, all fluid levels set corectly.

- double check that all your mounts are bolted up tight. make sure the center bolts for all the mounts are done up tight.

- check all your fuel lines are tight.

- make sure all the hub/brakes and drive shaft assembly's are in corectly and bolts are all tight.

- make sure your drain bolts and filler plugs are tight.



now the fun begines. time to wire up the PGMFI

there are a few of ways to wire up a B16A. you can rip your entire dash out and then rip your ED9 loom out and swap it for EF8/9 loom ( see below pic ). thats way to much work





you can also run extra wires from the ecu to the engine bay directly to the sensors. That will work and is less work but can be a bit messy.

also seen people wire up after market ECU's to their convertions

my way is sort of like running wires to the sensors but alot simpler and neater.

I stripped the wiring loom and split it up. I took out the engine bay B connector and poked it through the firewall. This will pretty much be all the wires that need to be run othere than two sheilded wires to the engine bay A connector.



- earlier we splitted the B connector from the main harness and poked it through the firewall. now we wire it up.




- looking at the above pic we have to merg all these wire

use the bellow pic as a guide on identifying the corect wire





NOTE:


- In this DIY I will refer alot to a connector in the engine bay that we will remove from the EF9 B16A loom and add to the D16A8 loom, this connector will always be refered to as "Engine Bay B connector " and will always be blue in colour. the connector that looks the same on the RHS will be called engine bay A connector in RED

- also when ever I refere to a pin in a connector, you look at the connector from the wire side ( back of it ) and the top left is pin 1.

- ECU connectors will be refered as ECU A, ECU B, ECU C connectors in black text.

- the original loom of the AUDM CRX will be called D16A8 loom

- the B16A EF9 wiring loom will be called B16A loom




- On D16A8 harness ( in car )

Unplug from ECU A connector




5 total wires from ECU A connector

Unplug from ECU B connector




1 total wires from ECU B connector


Unplug from ECU C connector



1 total wires from ECU C connector







Plug In


ECU A connector, from B16A B connector Loom to D16A8 ECU A connector

- just plug the wires in from the B16A B connector Loom to D16A8 ECU A connector







Do a continuity test from B connector to ECU A connector as you plug each wire in as a test to make sure all is ok so far.




ECU B connector, from B16A B connector Loom to D16A8 ECU B connector





Do a continuity test from B connector to ECU B connector as you plug each wire in as a test to make sure all is ok so far.




ECU C connector, from B16A B connector Loom to D16A8 ECU C connector






Do a continuity test from B connector to ECU C connector as you plug each wire in as a test to make sure all is ok so far


Now from the B16A B harness you should have no wires left with connectors and 6 cut wires






Need to relocate





On the D16A8 loom we unplug B4 from the ECU B connector. Chop off the B type pin and solder on an A type connector. ( cut off from one of the D16A8 ECU A wires we removed ) Now plug it in to A10












- the above 3 picturs show me cutting an ECU A pin off a wire from the D16A8 loom and then cutting an ECU B/C type pin off and then soldering the ECU A pin onto the ECU B4 wire. then plug it into ECU A10.











__________________

[ECU-MAN]

Optional, go into the engine bay, get the connector for the purge control solenoid.
( which now will be fuel press cut off sol ) remove both pins and swap them over, This is solely just to match the colours and has no impact on the operation of the solenoid.












Solder In Cut Wires from B16A B harness

There will be 6 cut wires from the B16A B harness

1= Blk one silver dot ; ground goes to B14

Solder this to ECU A2 blk wire. Tap into it. Do not cut. Wrap it up with electrical tape. Now do a continuity test from B14 to ground.

2= Blk two silver dot; ground for power steering pressure switch

Solder this to ECU A4 blk wire. Tap into it. Do not cut. Wrap it up with electrical tape. Now do a continuity test from power steering pressure switch black wire to ground.


3 and 4= yel/blk; go to main PGMFI relay and ECU.

Solder these two together and to ECU A15 yel/blk wire. Tap into it. Do not cut. Wrap it up with electrical tape. Now do a continuity test from B6 and B7 to ECU A15 and A13. You should get continuity.


You will have two wires left

One Yel/red and a yel

These go to the VSS connector on the B16A loom. We are going to use the VSS in the cluster and it is already wired coz we have a cable Speedo.

Just tape these wires up.

















Now we need to run two shielded wires







Run a shielded twin wire to the engine bay A connector to the ECU. Solder a connector onto each wire. Leave the shield alone in the engine bay.



Plug one into A4 and the other into A8

note:

A4 will have a pin in it. ( old TPS ) I removed it and chopped off the pin and reused it see bellow pic






Get the ECU B pin we cut off ECU B4 and solder that connector onto the wire coming from A8 and plug into ECU B19.

Get a ECU B connector from your B16A loom and solder it onto the other wire and plug it into ECU C8.




At the ECU end get a piece of wire and join the two shields together and join this wire to
ECU A16 brn/blk.

* must use shielded wire and earth at ECU end. Run Wire to the A connector from ECU earth only at ECU end to ECU pin A16


now you will be left with this









the yellow arrows are pointing to the wires from the B16A Bharness. the red circle is the left over wires from the D16A8 loom. we dont need these any more. so I cut off the pins and wrapped the wires up.








the test


make sure all the connectors in the engine bay are all connected. All sensor connectors connected.

plug ECU in

connect the battery . turn IGN to II pos

MIL light in cluster should come on and go out. The fuel pump should prime.

The LED in the ecu should come on and go out.

This indicated the ecu has found all the sensors. (Good start)

Turn OFF the IGN

Now its time to start her up.

Make sure all your fluid levels are up to spec

- coolant
- power steering fluid
- manual gearbox oil
- engine oil
- brake fluid
- fuel



Turn the IGN on to II the Off then On to II then Off

This will prime the fuel system

Then crank. After a few good crankings the engine will fire and run like shit ( coz it hasn’t been started for a couple of years ) give her a few revs and all the sputtering should iron out and it will run fine.

Booyeah, mine started on the 2nd crank and fired right up NO CODES


When it fires let the engine to run for at least 1 min to allow oil to get up to the cams.


Check the ECU for fault codes.



Now we can clean up the ECU wiring

Cut the left over 6 wires from the D16A8 loom . You don’t need them. as mentioned above.


Neatly wrap up all the wiring and add conduit where necessary, reinstall the ECU and ECU Cover.

Your done.


It took me 2 hours to wire it up the above way. Testing and taking notes for this DIY as I went along.


- run the car for a while and make sure you have no coolant leaks or oil leaks and set the ingnition timming once the engine has warmed up.


road test time

if you changed the hubs. GET A WHEEL ALIGNMENT FIRST



take her out for a drive, find a nice 80km zone so you can test the rev range

dont just jump in and drive it hard. Drive it nicely for a few k's to make sure no drive shafts pop out or any other silly problems.

in a safe area and with out breaking the law test VTEC.

when you get back to the workshop ( backyard ) check everything over. All fluid levels and drive train.


the end result








when the AC bracket is ready. Ill take a few pics of that and update this page.


On the road test this baby performed and behaved well its a real pocket rocket now. went hard



I spent more time putting this DIY together than I did working on the car



I would like to thank a few homies for helping out



- Tuen and Ying for their help
- Ying for sourcing the drive shafts
- Steve-O for his input and experience on what need to be done
- Grant for help with a press and ED9 AUDM schematic
- the misses for putting up with the mess in the driveway.





you can download a word doc with the wiring instructions here

any questions or comments are welcome, Just post them here




Disclaimer: The following is provided as a GUIDE ONLY, and neither myself nor Ozhonda take any responsibility for the outcomes of someone else doing the following. You follow these steps at your own risk!



No part of this DIY is to be reproduced with out acknowledgment of the site and author it came from, ie me and ozhonda.com. Do not rip parts off and claim them as your own.

[h22a accord]

awesome work john. props for taking the time to do a DIY

[90xsi]

A++ Excellent write up

planning on doing similar very soon

will be very very handy

[EGB18CT]

holy shitz!! alot of work! thank god i have a eg! but props to u once again!

[heist]

the ef9 driveshafts dont fit?

[Paul1985]

what a write-up!!!!
well done once again John.
Great work.

Its so hard to motivate yourself enough to take pics whilst working on a car, let alone to write up such an extensive DIY!

Well done!

[ECU-MAN]

the ef9 driveshafts dont fit?

no the ef8/ef9 shafts are to short, they will not fit,

you have to change the mid shaft as well.

they designed the mounts to suit DA3,6,9 shafts

Its so hard to motivate yourself enough to take pics whilst working on a car, let alone to write up such an extensive DIY!

yeah its a bitch. took me longer to make the DIY than it did to do the Job. sad I know

[Paul1985]

you quoted my name as pablo lol!
Its not sad taking the time to do this John, you have taken alot of your time to do this and it definately isn't for your benefit. You dont need this info.. You did it to help other people out and thats not sad IMO.

[egSi]

john ****ing owns this forum.

well done as always mate, this shit is tight!

props to ef owner too. jdm front b16 swapped ef = hot