recently i have been hearin about the ZC engine. what year car is this from and sence it is a D series is the head interchangeable with the SOHC heads and if u can swap it what do i need to swap it. hardwear wise. also is this engine V-tec

lol, i have been askin a lot of those same questions. Bout all i have really come up with is the ZC heads come off of ZC motors which are JDM. I hear you can use the DOHC non-Vtec head with the D17 block, but as to which engine that is or if that is in fact true... i dont know. This is a good question as most of the time you get half assed answeres or incomplete ones like mine. i am still trying to research what i can when i can. I will keep this thread up to date as i find out more.

i have been doin a bit of research my self on google and ebay when i typed in ZC it also came up with D16a1 and D16A9 i tried to find some info to figure out if this is the same as the ZC engine or if the D16a1 and a9 are USDM versions of the ZC but i have found nothing yet.

basically, there were three ZC engines.

the first generation was SOHC non-vtec. i dont know much about this engine except it was in the 3G JDM Civic SI and CRX Si. it is very similar to the first generation D16A1 in the 86/87 integra, but not the same engine.

second gen came in the 88-89 integras. its a SOHC VTEC. ZC is the japanese designation but in the states its known as the D16A8 or D16A9. its important to note that the mounts on the A8/A9 are not interchangeable with the ZC engine. the intake manifold and valvecover are slightly different, but other than the mounts, IM, and valvecover its mechanically the same engine. now, since the 88/89 integra mounts are the same as earlier integras, the a8/a9 is often swapped into earlier ones. with the civic its different. to swap the a8/a9 you need to change the drivers side mount. however, the JDM ZC is a direct bolt in to any 4G civic/2G crx.

now theres a third gen ZC too. its the weird one. DOHC non-vtec. its a JDM only engine but is similar to the second generation USDM D16A1. im pretty sure it came in some JDM 3G integras and the JDM 5G Civic Si..but other than that i dont know their origins. theyre also a direct swap into USDM 4G civics and are what i recommend because theyre much cheaper than SiR-I's and put out a lot more power than your stock engines.

ps do a goodle ssearch for ZC engine, ZC info, ZC specs, stuff like that and you will get a lot more info from people who knkow a lot more about them than me.

edit: actually...the DOHC zc might have been in the 4G USDM CRX Si, but im not positive.