Sup guys. Need some info. Wife has a 97 civic 2 door ex 5 speed. It slung a rod through the block last week. I ordered a motor for it from a salvage yard. Only has 71000 miles on it. I didn't know it then, but her car has a vtec in it. It is the only one ive ever seen that doesn't have "vtec" printed anywhere on the car or motor. But it is a D16Y8. Anyway, i ordered a non vtec D16Y7. Now that i know i screwed up, got a few questions. Im pretty sure i can put the vtec head on the motor i bought right? And if i do so, is everything else the same? Like all the mount points and wires and such? Thanks in advance for any advice.

google mini-me swap. you'll find a plethora of information. If your putting another vtec engine into a car that originally had vtec...... then you pretty much answered your own question about the wiring. wether you bought a y7 y8 y6 zc.. whatever, a d series is a d series is a d series, the mounts are the same. Now if i was you i'd see if i could return the engine and get a DOHC.... but that's just me.

Yea ive read all about the mimi me swaps. But most of them are starting with a y7 and putting a y8 head on it. I know im doing the same, but im starting with a y8 and putting in a y7. I havn't done any major work to any honda motors, so i was just doing my homework and making sure the bottom ends were identical, except for C/R and such.

maybe im not understanding you completely.... your significant other had a y8 ex civic. You accidentally purchased a y7 non vtec and you want to make it vtec. Isn't that a mini-me swap?

Clickitty here
http://www.jdmuniverse.com/forums/ho...-write-up.html

it was obviously a mistake. yeah I believe if you use the Y8 wiring harness you should be able to run the y8 head, it will bolt up to the block, I believe they use the same block. Id read some mini me swap guides though. or just drop a b series.

MAKE SURE YOU USE A DIFFERENT OIL PUMP! THE OIL PUMPS ON THE D SERIES ARE A JOKE!!!!

http://www.kmsengineering.com/info-lv2.asp?id=284

its costly but so is replacing engines.

Sorry for the confusion guys. I was just making sure that there weren't any differences in blocks and wiring on the y7 and y8. Like stated before, im a nooby to the inerds of the honda motors. Thanks for the advice

nah you should be ok throw some goodies in there now that you have the block open though

d series oil pumps dont suck. just the Y8 ones suck. Z6 pumps are alright.

ive had two fail one on a zc and one on a Y8 i don't trust them for ****. id get the one from KMS 200 for piece of mind..... 10 psi per 1000 rpm or something like that

One more question for you guys. Should i have the y8 head checked out before installing it on the y7? The car had about 197000 miles on it and ran really good until it slung a rod.

It never hurts to have someone check the head! The last thing you want is to install a head that has lots of issues.

Got the motor put in. Swapped the head, intake and exhaust manifolds on to the new motor. Runs good, but has a pretty good mis when idling. It is showing to have multiple cylinder misfires, bank one o2 sensor bad, and another code i can't remember. Not sure why tho. I installed new wires, cap, and button not to long before the old motor went down. And i installed new ngk's when i did the motor swap. Any idea's? Would a o2 sensor being bad make it run like this? Thanks in advance for any advice...

The throttle body might be dirty. Get some throttle body cleaner and clean your valves and and throttle body see if that helps. It is also possible that the head gasket was installed improperly. Does the car blow white smoke? Those are the two main reasons why it would run rough. The other thing you can do is take it to a shop and get a compression test to make sure that everything is okay internally.

Edit: I forgot to add that if you have a bad O2 sensor replace it, do not clean it. O2 sensors on these cars are very sensitive and cleaning it will not resolve the issue.

I'll clean the throttle body. Im sure the head gasket was installed properly. I will also do a compression test on it just to check. But it runs out great. Has plenty of power. Just misses a little when at idle. Thats what i don't understand. If it showed a multiple cylinder misfire code, it should run crappy no matter what right?

Injectors are good?

did you have the crank at TDC when you put the new head on? Was the cam gear at TDC as well? Maybe the gear is advanced/retarted not aligned correctly in relation to the crank. Try clearing the codes and see if the computer spits them back out, they may be left overs from the previous engine. Also, make sure your using the right temp plugs for that engine. The y7 and y8 have a degree difference in temp (makes a difference yes)

Crank and cam gear were both at tdc when installed. I havn't checked the injectors but they should be good. I have cleared the codes twice and it keeps spitting the same ones back out. Multiple cylinder misfires, and bank one 02 sensor.

maybe the o2 sensor is fouled. How long has the car been sitting? Could be water in the fuel or simply bad fuel from sitting for a while.... Im guessing here. Are the plugs the right temperature?

It was only down for about 2 weeks. I got the NGK plugs that it calls for. Don't remember the part number. Shouldn't be bad gas. I ran it almost dry and filled it back up with some good 93. I don't know. It has me puzzled. I guess ill pop for a new 02 sensor and see what it does

its worth a shot let us know

Will do. Thanks for all the advice

Hello Titman,
It seems I've just completed a similar swap, yanked out my D16Y8 (was a good running car b4 I did the swap), and in place I put a D16Y7 engine and its paired Trans that came from a 98 DX. One major diff btewn yours and mine is I did not swap the Y7 Head - altho I stiil have the my Y8 Engine/Head and Trans - I will have to swap the Y7 head w/ my Y8. Now at the end, my car would NOT start. It is very strange !!! Everytings looks OK, the grounding , Trans ground, Engine ground - but cannot find the problem is. I'm sure the problem is Electrical. Initially I thought it could be IM / TB; then I re-checked but could not find any thing obvious. Is there a special TB Gnd connector on the Y8 that I could have missed. Can you share your fidndings w/ me.

Thnx in adv.

PS: Thnx to Running Riot, he also had replied on this issue.

You should at least have the head milled, just to be on the safe side!

Hmm. Not real sure man. If i am remembering right, the only other ground that i had was one coming off the power steering mount. Are you sure that you got all of your electrical plugs hooked back up? I had one the took me forever to find where it hooked back up when i put the motor back in. Im not sure if putting a non vtec head in a vtec car would mess anything up with the tuning or the ecu?? Maybe.. Im not that slick on honda's.. If you need anything else, ill do my best to help

There should be a ground going from on top of the trans mount to the chassis. The one on the valve cover to the chassis is a real important one too, mine came off one night and my car wouldn't start totally stumped me until I saw it loose.

If you use a non vtec ecu with a vtec engine it shouldn't cause any problems since TDC is the same and maybe if there isn't a knock sensor on the non vtec im not sure but it should run it maybe with a few codes.

azhar, remind me again which post was yours so I can look back and see what your exact issue was?

There should be 2 grounds in the front, one on the top of the trans case and the second around the power steering area both going to ground.

azhar can you remind me again which link was yours?