lucas

My girlfriend has a 98 Civic LX and the motor recently blew up, after speaking with her mechanic, the car needs a new engine which will cost over $2000, seeing as how her car isnt in the greatest shape and she doesnt have that much money, she doesnt want to go to with the new engine route.

I did some research and found out the cars engine is a D16Y7, but I havent verified this in person. I started looking for used engines locally but havent found any, however, I did find a local engine reseller that sells the JDM version of the D16Y7 for $575, or $1245 installed with a 6-month or 6,000 mile warranty.

My first question is, is the engine smog legal? The engine seller said it would be, and I found another website dedicated to Civics which said the engine would also be smog legal if used to replace the current engine in the car, if its the same year or newer, and same engine code/type.

My second question is, this is obviously the less reliable route, but how much less reliable? Does anybody have and personal experiences they can share about this? Is it a good idea, bad idea...dumb idea?

My third question is, is the JDM version any different than the USDM version currently in the car? Would maintenance be an issue in any way? Or are the engines basically identical?

Thats all I can think of right now, if anybody can help out in anyway, please do, Id really appreciate it.

Thank you all.

06CivicHybrid

well its a great idea but might be costly, over here the engines run dirt cheap literally, so i don't know it your choice.

lucas

Well I found a shop that sells the JDM Civic engine for 575.00 outright or 1245.00 installed, compared to 2000.00+ for a brand new USDM crate engine. But the JDM engines are used and I have no way of telling whether an engine is in good shape. But I think I might be able to get the mechanic who would perform the swap to look at the engine beforehand to inspect it.

Im also concerned about the smog, since I live in CA and we have the strictest smog laws.

06CivicHybrid

that is actually a good price, the JDM engines here from what i have seen are good to go. Though some may have been raced the japanese are pretty good about keeping thier valuables in good shape. As far as smog laws whatever CA has you can still modifiy it to the local and state laws its basically the same as a regular engine.

05blkrs

the only thing i'd be careful about is to make sure you get an engine that is the same year or NEWER than the current engine.. other than that, all the emissions stuff could be swapped onto the jdm engine.. at least most of it..

lucas

How would I be able to tell what year an engine was? Decode the VIN?

05blkrs

yes more than likely... sometimes you get lucky and they know what car it came out of

lucas

cool, thanks