Hello Everyone.

Hopefully this is the correct thread. I've done several searches on this but my situation is slightly different than what I have found.

I own a 2001 Civic ex auto (D17A2) that was in an accident. The engine was just rebuilt from the bottom up with only 15k miles on it so it was disappointing. But we came across a 2001 Civic LX manual (D17A1) in fantastic condition. If I can get it for the right price I'd like to see if I can put the A2 engine into the LX car with the manual transmission instead of auto.

I've found out I will need the A2 wiring harness and ECU, which is fine because I still have the wrecked car. I would just need to reprogram the LX key to work with the A2 ecu.

My question is; would the engine install be plug and play into the manual trans? In other words; does the ECU care that it has a manual trans connected to its engine instead of auto? Is the wiring harness not even involved on a manual trans, so I don't even need to worry about it?

Any other issues to expect that I'm missing?


Any input on this would be fantastic!

Thanks

Neal

 

Your pretty much doing a five speed conversion... Yes this swap is very plausible just drop your motor in and keep your engine harness on the motor Nd swap out the under dash harness and ecu on the car your dropping the motor in and you'll be good its that simple

If you run into any more problems mag or email me..

 

OP, define "easy". We do not know what you are capable of, nor what tools your have access to, nor how much money you have for this swap.

I would suggest researching the differences between motors since I never mess with them personally. To answer YOUR question about YOUR ecu, YOU'RE incorrect. The ECU will throw check engine lights for missing Automatic trans sensors. Why not re-use the ecu from the damaged car?

 

You could put the VTEC engine into a non-VTEC car keeping the LX ECU and not rewiring anything, the only issue is VTEC would never actually kick in. But the CEL would stay out and the car would be OK for smog check.

You can't use an auto ECU with manual transmission or vice versa. If you wanted to make VTEC work you would need to buy a manual VTEC ECU and rewire the harness for the VTEC solenoid.

 

Great, thank you. That's pretty much what I thought. I guess to make it seamless, I'd need the ECU and wiring harness from an EX manual.

Thanks for the help!