Ok, I've been looking all over the net for a solution and haven't found one, so I am hoping someone here can help me.

Here's what I have:

I just bought a used southern '97 Civic EX Coupe for $700. The guy said the engine had seized up, so i bought it based on the great condition of the body(I planned on replacing the engine if I had to). So I went and picked it up, brought it home, and charged the battery. I hopped in it and tried to start it. It started to turn over(so i knew it wasn't seized). So I talked to my uncle, and he said to check the timing on it. Sure enough, the timing belt had never been changed, and it jumped 2 teeth on the previous owner. I changed the timing belt, and it starts right up now. Idles fine, doesn't over-heat or anything. Now my main problem I can't figure out is when I put the car in reverse, It jumps right into reverse smooth, goes into neutral and 2 fine. When I try to put the car in D3 or D4, I have to rev the engine up to 2k RPM's before it finally kicks in and starts moving. Once it is finally in gear, it shifts up and down fine. I just can't figure out why it would do that. I changed the Transmission fluid to see if that would help, and it did nothing different. I'm in a guessing game now for what could be wrong, so I am looking for some advice from other civic owners.

Thanks in advance guys!

Kris

 

I don't know much about the automatics other than don't use generic ATF in Civics. It needs to be Honda spec. It may get better if you drive a while with the proper fluid. Can you start off in 2 then go smoothly to 3 and 4 after the car is moving? Revving up the engine until it grabs is obviously bad for it.

The car can be converted to manual transmission if you can round up all the parts. It is a bolt-on swap.

 

Thanks for the quick response. As far as I know, It still doesn't shift right if I start out in 2 and shift smoothly into D3 and D4, I might have to switch the transmission, but I don't have my Civic on the road, so I can't drive it more than up and down my private road to see if it just needs to be driven. I was also thinking, could it have anything to do with the solenoids? If they were bad/going bad, would that affect it in this way?

Another question: My engine is a D16Y8, If I was to do a complete engine swap, What model engine can be used as a perfect fit without any modifications or buying extra mounts/wires/etc.(I'm pretty new to all this).

If anyone else has any advice, that would be great.