98 Civic with 95 VTEC wiring issues

[Josh French]

I have a 98 honda civic ex the person who owned it piror switched the enigne out for a 95 vtec 1.6L but it got repoed before he could complete the full convertion... so i have a car the has a vtec enigne but the sensors (crankshaft and possble more unknowen at this ponit) are not be read properly so my car sputters and wants to die when sitting and idling... So my question is what needs to be done to fix this so my car can run like it is suppose to?

Please help

 

[boostin4fun]

You will have to be a whole lot more specific about your problem if you want help from anyone on here. Such as year, model,current engine setup, and wiring and computer setup.

 

[boostin4fun]

And exactly what you are having a issue with??

 

[Josh French]

well its a 98 honda ex.... i am not sure what the enigne setup it i am not even sure what the enigne is called i dont know much about the care in that sence i just found out that it had a differant enigne for the orignal less then 24 hours ago... All i know is that the enigne was from a 95 civic and that its a 1.6l single overhead cam... it was hooked up to a non vtec compter as far as i know the enigne was just dropped in and the convertion was unfinished

 

[Josh French]

the problem i am having is that my car runs great cold but when it gets warmed up it sputters like crazy, and wants to die it stays running fine when i rev it and hold it up above 1500 rpms... and my speedomter works when it wants to... and thats all i really know

 

[boostin4fun]

I dont know enough of the specifics about exactly what you have to point you in the right direction put i will try to give you some advice. If it is a vtec engine it will need a vtec computer. If it was a 95 engine I would use the intake manifold, distributor, injectors and everything else that was on the original engine and install them on the 95. I would also stick with the 98 civic ex computer as long as it was for a manual?? I dont think you specified wether is was a manual or not. But if its a manual use a manual computer, use a auto computer if its a auto. I hope this helps some.

 

[boostin4fun]

Also if your check engine light is on, that my point you towards the problem. Have someone scan it for you and tell me what it is, if its on.

 

[Mike Coday]

more details

The 98 Civic has manual transmission. The 95 engine that is now under the hood is a D16Z6. The engine runs great when cold, it sputters and dies at idle when it is warm, but runs ok warm at rpm above 1500.

 

[Josh French]

the car is a 98 manual transmission... my enigne is kind of a mix and match its got a 98 intake and 98 distributor, i am not sure about the injectors... or the manifold... the manifold was ground down so that the person looking at it couldnt tell it was a vtec... if we swap out the wiring harness the comptuer will be able to match up and enough to make my car run right?

 

[Mike Coday]

No engine light on. The ecu is a P75. I am thinking if we change out the ecu to P06 or P28 that the match will be better. Also thinking that we will need the obd1-2 harness adapter. We may need to find a 1995 distributor also because the crank sensor for the vtec comes through the distributor. Does all that sound right?

Thanks in advance.

 

[boostin4fun]

Yeah I recommend the p28 ecu. You only need the obd2-obd1 jumper harness if you are using a obd2 engine harness currently and want to run the obd1 p28, which is fine. If you change the distributor out and you use a obd1 distributor the plugs wont match up if you have a obd2 engine harness, so you would have to change the plug and match the wires up.

 

[Mike Coday]

New ECU

We put in a new ECU - a P2P that didn't require a wiring harness adapter, so that saved a few bucks. The vtec solenoid now kicks in at about 4500. It continues to run great when the engine is cold, but starts running rough once it warms up. It has the 98 distributor that was on the non-vtec engine, so we are not sure if the vtec ecu and engine can really run right with a non-vtec distributor, so that's probably next.

The speedo is intermittent and we are told that has to do with a bad sensor in the tranny. Could that bad sensor in the tranny be causing the ecu to read wrong and make the engine run rough when hot? That sensor in the tranny is expensive and a lot of work to get to.

Thanks for suggestions.