Baker

Most people tell you to expect to be out of the car longer than you think. I swore we coulddo it in 3 days but I guess something will always come up.

List of parts I needed for 1997 hhonda civic DX coupe to 99 Integra LS motor

Full swap (Engine, trans, ecu, axles, shift linkage)

Rear mount from a civic SI

everyone said you need the drivers side mount from a SI but its really more of a bracket that bolts into the block rather than a mount. Also you need to buy the studs for this mount, when you order it they don't come and its near impossible to re-use the old ones since they're pressed in.

Civic SI radiator and fan assembly

Throttle cable from a integra LS

intake designed for either ex or SI civic or integra

Wiring harness from 96-98 civic EX

A/C mount from a del sol (if you want A/C)

I also did an OBD-1 to OBD-2 Conversion so I had to trade the ECU for an obd-1 one and buy a skunk 2 conversion harness. If you are going to put a new clutch in now is the time, everything is right there in front of you rather than spending hours pulling it all out again later. I opted for a clutchmaster sprung stage four clutch, I was a little afraid of how streetable it would be but I really like it aside from the studder of the line at slow acceleration.

Basically the swap went rather smooth aside from having to find various parts. The first day we cleaned up the motor and prepped it for install. removed the power steering pump ( i didn't have it to begin with) installed the clutch, changed plugs, wires, cap and rotor. We realized two bolts that hold the half shafts in place were missing, lucking my friend had a pair. the second day (saturday) in We found out honda had sent me the wrong part for the driver side bracket this caused the biggest delay because I couldn't order the new part until monday and it didn't come in until friday. Because of the obd conversion wiring was extremely easy, basically the civic EX harness plugged right up (a few minor mods were needed) it helped that we didn't have to run wires for a secondary O2 sensor or a few other items that were no longer needed. This did present a problem of getting an obd1 catalytic converter but we weren't putting one in at the time so that could wait.

Once the parts came in from honda we put the right bracket on and dropped the new motor in, everything basically bolted right up. but while hooking up everything we found out my throttle cable was not going to work since the placement was a little different. Luckily my friend has a 94 integra with no motor in it that wee were able to harvest a cable out of. Also everyone told me my exhaust pipe and the down pipe would bolt right together, I guess this is true from what I've heard but my car didn't. I don't know if its something with dx's or my year or whatever but we had to get pipe clamps and all sorts of thing to ghetto-rig the exhaust together so it would't leak. I didn't have the del sol A/C mount so we just left the condensor and compressor out for now, at some point I need to decide if I'm going to strip the rest of the A/C garbage out or get the mount and put the A/C back in. I used the shifter out of the integra partially because it was already in the linkage but mainly I like the way it feels a lot better than the civic shifter.

Once everything was bolted in and wired and hooked up we started it up, it started rough and died a few tiimes. I had to hold the gas part way down for a minute or two to keep it started and then it idled low (around 800) and once it heated up it idled high (at 1400) and I had a check engine light. We pulled the code from the ECU and found out it was the coolant temp sensor. We grabbed the sensor of the old engine and tested it to make sure it was good and swapped them out. After resetting the ECU and stating it again I was still getting the same code. We test the connector and got very inconsistant readings. this was about 9:30 this saturday so we gave up for the time being.

Basically the sensor is good so either I got a bad ECU or theres something wrong with teh wiring harness. I'm going to borrow my friends ecu and see if that gets rid of the problem. If that doesn't work I have the choice of trying to re-wire that sensor or just buying a new harness. I think in that situation I'm just going to get another harness. Basically the car runs aside from having a little troubl;e when cold and idling high. Its MUCH faster and throttle response on the highway is much better

pissedoffsol

cool deal dude...

if you have pics and would like to write up a more-detialed story about this, i would love to put it up in the swap section

Baker

yeah, I'll work on something more detailed and more well written, pics come as soon as I drop the film off, if I have money after buying a enw tire and getting my exhaust fixed

pissedoffsol

no problem- take your time