Ok, so about a month ago I was driving home from college and my engine was knocking a little bit. I pulled over to put add some oil and the knocking stopped. I got about 40 miles down the highway and i heard a muffled pop and smoke poured out of the hood. I pulled over and there was oil pouring out all over the road. I got the car towed home and put it on the lift. I ripped the oil pan off because thats where the oil poured out and there was all kinds of engine parts grinded into the bottom of the oil pan.

Here's my question...

I know I need a new motor for the car but I have never replaced a motor in a car in my life. My family owns a garage but they have no time to help me fix it. What engine's can I put in this car? It's a 1999 Civic Ex with a 1.6 vtec motor in it already and it's 5 speed manual transmission. I have no idea what engines are interchangeable.

Also, what is the process for doing a swap like this? Is there a lot of work involved? If somebody can give me a detailed description on how to do this or give me some kind of information, it would save me a lot of hastle. I should have all the tools required to do the job.

I am very clueless when it comes to stuff like this but I am also very good at following directions and figuring stuff out on my own. But since i've never done it before, I figured I'd start here haha. THANKS!

 

I will speak from experience when saying, the first swap is tough. But it's mostly straight forward. Mine was just time consuming. It took us 12 hours to get mine swapped. Though I had bad throttle body sensors so that caused some headaches.

You can swap pretty much any D16 engine in with no modification. The easiest ones will be either a D16y7 (non-vtec) or D16y8 (vtec like your current dead one). You would reuse all of your wiring and computer and such if you can find a Y8. You would need a different computer and wiring harness with any other, like a Y7. If you want a performance increase, you can swap in a B series engine, like a B16a2 or B18c3. Those are the dual cam Honda engines from the 99-00 Civic Si and the Acura Integra GSR. Those are popular options for more power, but are harder to come by and more expensive. You would have to change out your transmission, mounts, computer, engine wiring harness, and shift linkage with that swap.

Swapping the engine itself is complex but straightforward. You remove the computer, pull the engine harness from the computer through the firewall into the engine bay. You start pulling all the easy stuff off: Intake air box, throttle cable, fuel line/filter/etc. You drain the coolant and oil (if there is any left, lol). If you have AC, recover the R132a at this time. You'll want to unbolt the AC lines and take the compressor off. Raise it up on the lift for that, and undo the shift linkage, rear engine T mount, exhaust pipe and manifold. You'll need to drain the transmission too. Pull the front wheels off and pull the CV axles out of the transmission. You'll have to undo some of the front suspension to get that out easily. Unbolt the torque mounts too. At this point the engine should pretty much swing back and forth in the bay. I would recommend lowering the car down, but have a stack of wooden pallets or something under the engine. Set the car on the stack, start unbolting the side mounts on the engine and transmission, and once it's all loose, raise the car (slowly!) up off the engine.

Swap wiring harnesses and transmission at this time if it's a direct swap, then you'll pretty much do the opposite at this time. New engine on the stack of pallets, lower the car onto it, bolt up the two main mounts, then raise it up. Bolt everything back up in the reverse order you took it off.

That's the most simplified version of an engine swap I can write at this point because I just realized that it would be much simpler (and detailed/complete/correct/etc) to just empower you with the knowledge of Honda.

Here is a link to a site with all the factory service manuals. Go here, download this manual, and skim through it. It will tell you how to do pretty much everything with the swap, and will tell you how to fix any other problems you may have. This PDF is amazing. It has taught me much over the years.

http://downloads.hondatech.info/Auto...e%20Manual.zip

 

Ok, I posted an ad on craigslist trying to find a motor in the area and a guy responded telling me he had an obd2 D15B motor. This to me is jibber jabber hahaha. Is this something I could work with also? He told me he'd sell it to me for 400 bucks and that he bought it for 675 and realized he needed an obd1 and he has all the paperwork and everything for it. Once again, this is all jibber jabber. Is this engine worth putting in for somebody with little to knowledge on engine swaps? I really really really wanna fix this car badddd. I frickin love the car but I dont wanna get in too deep and screw something up.

 

If it's a true D15B, it's a JDM engine. It's only a 1.5 liter (versus your 1.6), but it's actually a better motor. You will need to know if he has the engine harness and computer to go with it. If not, it could be hard to source at least the computer. Since it's an engine from Japan, it could be harder to find than a USDM one.

 

Yeah he does have the engine harness and computer along with it. It has everything i need supposedly for a swap. Is this gonna be a lot more tricky than the d16y8 swap? Once again, thanks again for helping me handle this situation. This is helping out quite a bit man.

 

you could also do what i did, i found a deal on 2 d16 motors, 2 for 300 bucks. i took the head from the y8 and the block from a y7. its called a minime.
but yea a d16y8 replacements going to be your best bet. MAKE SURE to adjust valve lash and check your valves to make sure you dont need new guides as well as do a compression test. my engines burning mad oil now and the compression test was good... soooo yea. id say get a chiltons manual and start having fun.
mine took me a lonnnng time because i was strapped for cash and i ended up replacing my entire front end suspension, did a clutch kit, polished all of my internals, and i prolly added 3lbs of paint! hah! if your going to do it, do it right! ya know?

but if your not crazy into performance just get all oem stuff from autozone, get some honda head bolts, and start taking the old one out. the easiest way is to drop it from under the car and wheel it out. its been done over and over, i think d series motors have problems with there bottom end. i through a rod through my block. you can check out my thread... https://www.hondacivicforum.com/foru...e-build-90093/
i log on all the time so if you have any questions, lemme know! ill try to help out!

 

Hmmmm I'll have to look into that procedure. Is it in my best interest to replace the whole engine or is it possible to get away with just replacing the block?

 

seeing as you said a bunch of parts fell out of the oil pan area when you took the oil pan off, your going to have to replace the whole bottom end. now if small pieces of metal were floating around in your oil and got into the head, id just replace the whole thing. make sure you get the right year because certain year d16y8s have air injection holes on the intake manifold for cold starts.
but like i said, after all the work i put into my car, the car's burning so much oil now, try to find a low miles engine, get a carfax on the VIN number if you can. spend the extra bucks getting a low miles motor so you have less of a chance of having an oil spitting and burning motor like mine. after all the work i did on mine, i have to pull everything back apart and put new rings on all the pistons and get all of my cylinders rehoned. (NOT HAPPY! lol) but yea hobo explained the prosedure the best. if you feel uncomfortable doing the repair yourself, try to find someone in your area thats done a swap, replacement, builds ect. before and what not. that what i did for the things i was really unsure on. now i can prolly disassemble the entire car in under 2 hours! hah!