1.5 TBI to 1.6 MFI swap

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pizzajonz

New Member
Right off the bat I don't know squat about Hondas. I couldn't tell a DX from a EX if you told me but I've been a ASE Master for 25+ years so I'm no dummy. I need to put a new engine in my daughter's 1990 4 door civic. It has a 1.5L TBI engine in it. I found a 1.6L MFI engine for a good price and I'm wondering if this swap can be done. At the very least a harness swap is called for but will the engine bolt to the auto trans? Or should I keep looking for a 1.5L? I'm not looking for more power or anything like that. I just need an engine I can drop in and go.
Thanks
Greg
 
I had talked to a old Honda tech and he told me the swap most likely would not work. Said MFI motor was FI engine TPI was not. What about engine mounts?? I don't know what changing over a control harness is like on one of these cars but it might be easier than that wiring job. Thanks for the link.
Greg
 
I had talked to a old Honda tech and he told me the swap most likely would not work. Said MFI motor was FI engine TPI was not. What about engine mounts?? I don't know what changing over a control harness is like on one of these cars but it might be easier than that wiring job. Thanks for the link.
Greg

TPI is the same as dpfi. unless you're in a country other then the US then the car is definately dpfi, which is fuel injected. there is one main injector and a second auxilliary injector. for mounts use the ones off of the old engine. Although it seems to make sense to change over to an already mpfi engine harness, you can't do that. the cabin harness of the car is not setup for mpfi and therefore just changing the engine harness would not work. it would only work if you changed the dash/cabin harness as well, and i wouldn't recommend that cause its going to cost more money and its a lot more work then is necessary. the best thing to do is keep the stock engine harness and add the appropriate wires to run mpfi.
 
Or if your not worried about performance put the D15 intake manifold and distributor on the D16.

now where's the fun in that lol. but yea if you are just trying to get it running on the cheap then just do what he said, and nix the whole converting to mpfi thing.
 
Thanks guys. You've been a lot of help.I think I'll keep the Throttle body injection then. I would like to get this swap done in a day. God for bid my 18 year old daughter walk three blocks to work.
Greg
 
I ended up buying the whole car from the guy. Now I'm thinking I might do the MFI swap too. The donor car is a manual trans car and the soon to be Frankenhonda is a auto trans. Is there a difference in ECU's?? What's a dizzy plug and what's a EACV??
Thanks
 
I ended up buying the whole car from the guy. Now I'm thinking I might do the MFI swap too. The donor car is a manual trans car and the soon to be Frankenhonda is a auto trans. Is there a difference in ECU's?? What's a dizzy plug and what's a EACV??
Thanks

Most old Hondatechs are trained by the book, not by the street.

The MPFI swap is as easy as swapping the intake manifold,ecu and distributor, and running a few wires. It can also be done in a few hours by swapping the complete engine and dash harness. This is really easy if the engines already out, the dash isnt all that bad to pull either. I find this is better than splicing and soldering wires, since youll have complete harnesses I would go with the full harness swap.

Dizzy is short for distributor plug, the eacv is also sometimes referred to as the IACV which is yout idle air control valve located on the back of the MPFI intake manifolds.

To run a manual transmission youll need the manual ecu with it.
 
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So just so I'm clear...... the auto and manual trans ecu's are different. With that I think I'll just keep the car TBI. I can't see tracking down a ECU for this. Or can I keep the existing ECU and do the wiring conversion???
 
The swap went very well. I used a combination of the 2 write ups that were posted on this thread. I ran a total of 4 new wires. 2 for the distributor and 2 for the injectors. I ended up with 2 problems also. The check engine light is on and the shift interlock for the auto trans doesn't work any more. Other than that the car runs great and has power power than before. :D
Thanks for all the help. The write ups helped a lot.
Greg
 
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