ok. so my motor is crapping out. and i have a fairly new block in the garage with a min swap. but i need alot of parts to put the mini me swap into the car, and i have heard that mini swaps arent that good. so what i plan on doing is replace vtec head with a non-vtec head. i have 2 questions. how do i remove the head off of a engine that i have in a dead car in the garage. and should i replace the parts that are in the dead cars head with new parts. if i do how much is that going to run me. thanks. the motor is am talking about is 92-95 civic lx.

 

help me out 94civic.

 

I'd just install the mini-me engine as it's already complete and ready to go. If you don't hook up the VTEC it should run exactly like a stock D15B7 non-VTEC, and you can use the ECU etc that's already in your LX. The only issue might be dizzy mounting.

 

i also suggest using the mini they are good motors. all you need is to swap all your stuff from your motor over to that motor. then later get a p28 ecu and run 2 wires to the ecu. and call it a day. you can use your dizzy for now only the top bolt will match up then later get a vtec dizzy.

 

Well the reason why I wanted to change the head was because it looks kind of beat up. The top hole where the dizzy mounts is broken. Instead of being a circle O it looks like it broke the top and now looks like a U. I don't even know if it has a vtec solenoid. The t/b has a cardboard gasket. Don't know why. Some1 said maybe for a spacer. And there's some other broken stuff. I will take a pic this week and show the problems.other then that I have a vtec ecu. That's the p28 right? And I can get a vtec motor wiring harness if its easier then splcing vtec from the solenoid to the ecu.

 

The main difference b/w your harness and a "vtec" harness are only two wires I believe. And 94civichatchback already stated you can run them yourself. You say you want to save money?

If you don't know if the head you currently have has a vtec solenoid, look towards the backside, next to the fuel rail. It is has a small cylinder (about the diameter of a quarter) sticking up from it. There will also be a plug next to it.

Cardboard gasket for the TB? You sure it isn't just like a paper material? (I'm now trying to picture cardboard wedged between the TB and IM, haha) If so, that's what it should be.

Yes, the p28 is the correct ecu you will want to run.

Edit: I found a decent pic of the solenoid for you. Hope this helps.

 

yea a vtec wire harness wont work any way your car comes from factory without the vtec wiring . its only 2 wires that you need to run to the ecu. i can show you great pics and a diagram on how to do it.

but if you wanna pull a head off then just take the valve cover off and then you will see the head bolts i believe but not 100% sure there is around 10 head bolts. then head will seprate from block.

also all your stuff (im,em,alternator,starter,wire harness) will fit perfectly on the new engine.

 

I thought the top half of the hole the distributor fits in was a separate piece. You may be able to replace it without changing the whole head. Not sure if that's the case on a VTEC though.

 

yea the top hole to screw in dizzy is removable just unbolt urs off ur motor and put it on the new motor

 

ok. so i took a look at the motor and noticed that the motor has the wiring harness still on it. so can i use that with the vtec ecu. or no? and these are some things that i noticed with the motor. and i was not kidding with the cardboard in the IM.
lol.
and then i found that this clip was broken.


sorry for the bad quality pics. forgot my camera. using my blackberry phone.

i took a pic of what i thought was the vtec solenoid but did not match the location of the where it is in the pic above.