77 Civic Swap - CVCC to D16A1

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JC777

Active Member
I have never owned a Honda vehicle before I purchased my 1977 Honda Civic CVCC Hondomatic about 2 years ago. It barely ran and drove at that time and had I originally purchased it to save on fuel inbetween home and work. I quickly became attached to the car but never had the money or time available at the same time to get the car running good enough for a daily driver. The car unfortunatley sat the entire time until now. I was able to get a new webber carb on the motor, fully replace the entire ingition system, and got it running pretty well only to find out tires we flat and tags were out dated. I began to save some cash for new rubber and dmv fees when my buddy found me a free 1987 Acura Integra LS 5speed with D16A1. According to the owner it ran great and only needed a fuel pump. Got it home and found it had an external fuel pump with a stud broken off. I soldered a wire to it and reinstalled it to find it had no power going to the pump. After a little research (I love google) i pulled the main relay, resoldered all the connections, reinstalled it and the car fired right up. Cant beat $0 for a running driving car.
So here is the begining of my CVCC Hondomatic swap to D16A1 5speed.
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It did come with a hood but I removed it for the tear down and dont have any photos from before this.
 
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About a week ago is when I officially started into the project. My buddy who found the integra for me also has a shop that he is letting me do the swap in. This is just one of the bays but plenty of space for me.
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Got the front torn down and motor prepped to be removed.
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I was surprised how quickly and easily I got everything out. I've never done something like this before and have mostly only mechaniced on utility trailers for the last 5 years. I have only recently been building my personal tool collection so im kinda buying the needed tools and parts as I go. Like the engine hoist from HF, fit my budget and worked great.
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Starting on friday afterwork, 2 days ago, my cousin and I got to work on tearing up the Integra.
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By Friday night we had the motor hangin on the picker. (And we might have had a few drinks)
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Yesterday we worked on the interior. And knocked most of it out.
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And today I finished getting what i needed off the integra, just need to figure out how to get it out of the shop with no suspension. And start prepping to rebuild the motor, just need to decide if should build it for high compression or turbo it if one will fit.
 
Hang the front of the integra from the picker and push it out.
 
im doing a dohc zc in my jackson racing widebody first gen, you really want 88+ mounts to be honest but it can be done with 84-87 mounts it just gives you clearance issues with the driver mount and the trans mount is super funky, the axles work only on driver side and passenger side will have to be custom made, you are going to want to overhaul that d16a1 and PUT NEW ROD BEARINGS IN IT AND OIL PUMP ! I grenaded 3 a1s in 3 months in my old first gen teg from weak pumps and old bearings, any questions holla at me im the 1G guy and dohc dseries guru , I also have a stockpile of misc obd0 dohc dseries parts , heres my never ending money pit
 

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also WELCOME TO HONDASWAP ! glad to see some good content and actually something getting motorswapped :p other than turbomirages korea beer cans
 
im doing a dohc zc in my jackson racing widebody first gen, you really want 88+ mounts to be honest but it can be done with 84-87 mounts it just gives you clearance issues with the driver mount and the trans mount is super funky, the axles work only on driver side and passenger side will have to be custom made, you are going to want to overhaul that d16a1 and PUT NEW ROD BEARINGS IN IT AND OIL PUMP ! I grenaded 3 a1s in 3 months in my old first gen teg from weak pumps and old bearings, any questions holla at me im the 1G guy and dohc dseries guru , I also have a stockpile of misc obd0 dohc dseries parts , heres my never ending money pit
Great info. Thanks
Im new to this world so all the info or suggestions are welcome, especially when it comes to the best way to build the motor.
Im sure ill be hittin ya up with questions as I go.
Infact if anyone can recommend a high quality full rebuild kit along with any other upgrades I should do while im in the motor, i would greatly appreciate it. And im trying to not be a cheapskate, like I am with my cherokee crawler, for this part of the build. Id rather do it right the first time so moneys not a huge deal at this time.
 
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your most straight forward swap is going to be carbs btw , having that rare vac advance distributor makes using carbs and a msd box superrr easy , you literally cut the intake manifold off into 4 runners and use couplers to put the carbs on and make a basic bracket to hold them up , if not you are literally pretty much going to have to use the entire integra car chassis harness because the dash and ecu harness run in a big loop on each side of the firewall in those or make a stand alone obd0 harness with a custom obd0 harness by monotech made mine and I used a chopped down crx dash harness to do obd0 or obd1, that integra is pre obd and would be a nightmare of wiring , what im getting to is carbs is most easy and effective route in that car and looks and sound dope and is oldschool and you are vac advance soo you dont have to worry about electronic ignition timing like my dohc zc uses, dew it
 
Ive read about running a carb on this motor but i really like the idea of fuel injection.
Im fairly handy with 12v wiring and have the complete harness from the integra that i will be using with my cvcc harness to build my own.
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The only part im really having a tough time with is what all to do the the motor.
Id like to have a reliable 200hp if at all possible. Just not sure where to get parts or what parts are crap and which are worth the money?
If anyone has suggestions, im all ears
 
I told you in your message you wont see 200whp on those pre obd electronics esp without a turbo, again 130-140 whp is most realistic but thats over double factory
 
i'd suggest you get it running reliably as-is, then worry about that stuff :)
Oh the motor ran great when it was in the integra. But now that its out, it seems like a good time to build it. Plus ive never done much engine work so im excited to tear into it.
 
I told you in your message you wont see 200whp on those pre obd electronics esp without a turbo, again 130-140 whp is most realistic but thats over double factory
Yea, sorry, never saw your msg until after i posted here.
Stock cvcc was only 52 or 53hp, or something like that. So yea over double is great but im wanting to compete with my buddies stock 17 civic si.
Probably a long shot, but i still wanna try.
If I can find or make enough room I'll probably turbo it. Time will tell
 
That’s cool but I mean in the civic. Get the wiring mounts trans etc. all in the car and moving.
 
Probably is a smart first step. Lol
 
if the engine is healthy just put it in and send it , will be balls fast as is and taking things apart delays progress hardcore (ask me how I know)
 
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