D14A8 to D16XX swap

[cd7lawsyy]

Hi everyone, long time visitor first time poster , 

I have a 1997 MB2 base model with a d14a8 in. Over the past few month i have been preparing the car as a track car. I have done a reasonable amount of work onto the d14 (Cambelt, aux belts, valve lash, oil change, z6 intake mani, cold air intake, new fuel filter etc) however, recently it has felt very down on power and the car is vibrating a lot. There is no audible knock or rattle from the engine however when doing a routine check i discovered metal filings on the dipstick.

Rather than plowing more money into a d14, which other D series would be a straight swap? 

I know its not as simple as that but I'm looking to do this swap over a weekend with a few a mates. I know the mechanical aspect of doing a swap very well however I am completely clueless with what to do with the wiring. Can anyone give me some ideas?

[KiNK43]

There will be a d16 out there that will simply plug in I'm sure of that. Have a look at the shock tower and the plugs there. 

Id would be surprised if d16w4 from mb MC civic doesn't just plug in. But I've never had one of those cars or looked into it.

[cd7lawsyy]

That could work. I've done a little research and it seems like a d16z6 with a p28 ecu is the best way to go around it

[dan1]

On 10/17/2022 at 11:35 PM, KiNK43 said:

There will be a d16 out there that will simply plug in I'm sure of that. Have a look at the shock tower and the plugs there. 

Id would be surprised if d16w4 from mb MC civic doesn't just plug in. But I've never had one of those cars or looked into it.

I'm planning on doing this myself (from D14Z4 to D16W4). As far as i can tell and from what i've researched, as both cars are OBD2a, the D16 ECU should just plug straight in.

If the OBD differs then it gets complicated with immobilisers etc.

The engine harness I have from the D16 should plug in at the strut towers like you say, but as the D14 doesnt have VTEC and the D16 does, I'll need to run 2 wires from the strut tower plugs to the ECU for the VTEC solenoid and knock sensor.

If you're going to reuse your D14 engine harness then i believe you'll need to do as here:

https://www.clubcivic.com/forum/threads/how-to-wire-vtec.166626/

 

When I get round to sorting mine out (don't hold your breath anytime soon however, this projects very slow moving!!) i'll post a step-by-step up.

 

[SirPaperbag]

Hope you'll get something useful out of my little essay. ;)

 

I swapped a D16Z9 into my MA8 around two years ago, came out of a USDM EJ1 but was also used in the MB1. It even ran very well with the stock ECU, believe it or not...

Regularly checked the sparkplugs' color and it didn't run too lean or anything.

Used that setup for roughly 18 months, in combination with my own 'VTEC-Controller' that I built and programmed, using an Arduino. VTEC Wizardry galore! :P

 

Then I finally got my grubby hands on a p28 this summer and it was a 'straight' swap again. Threw that self-built thing out the window the same moment. xD

The only mods that needs is wire in VTEC (already done before) and remove a few little plastic keys/guides on the ECU plugs that otherwise prevented it from plugging into the ECU. Though, I checked every single wire with my trusty ol' multimeter beforehand and the pinout is 100% the same. Drop-in replacement, so to speak.

 

My pops helped me with everything (car mechanic for 35+ years and an absolute magician) and even he was surprised just how easy an old Civic is to work on, really.

 

The other big thing you'd have to look up is plugs, e.g. the distributor, and that's basically it. There are adaptors for everything.

D-Series engine parts are so interchangeable it's ridiculous.

Example: The coil on my D16 dizzy went *poof when I tried to crank it after an oil pump upgrade with all of the plugs not grounded (big dumb-dumb), but I actually got the D14 dizzy to work. Timing was a bit off above 4000 RPM and I had to mount it with a single screw and around five zipties, but it worked until I got a replacement coil... :D

 

The only other issues you could encounter that I didn't would be immobilizer-related, just like @dan1 said.

But that should solve itself by using an OBD1 ECU, like a p28 for example, because according to my research OBD1 ECUs don't really communicate with the immobilizer that much. It's more like a simple 'OK'-signal being sent, no real data transfers like with the OBD2 ECUs.

And you could of course use certain methonds that I won't get into for multiple reasons to just ... get rid of your immobilizer and remove that factor from the equation. Racecar and all that.

 

Long story short: Go for it, swapping D-Series egnines is about the easiest engine swap one can do. The swap itself is going to take 8-16 hours total, btw. d(^__^)