B18A1 into '90 Civic wagon

[cnotecivic]

Hey, all.
I'm working on swapping my wagon, and have found most of the answers here. Just a couple questions:
My donor motor has an EGR valve, but the '92 teg I'm pulling it from has no egr plug on the harness. Obviously not the OE engine, right? What year/engine started EGR? I pulled a spare harness from another '92 teg...it has EGR... what gives? The donor car ran fine, no CEL, so I guess I can just block off the manifold, right? Just wondering how to ID the engine and/or head, can you tell by serial number?

The other question: can anyone recommend a header, or tell me if performance will be noticeably different from the stock exhaust?

thanks!

 

[George777]

Check the stamp on the block. If it was from a 92, it should say B18A. Someone may have swapped motors in one of the donor cars previously.

 

[D15Beater]

Get yourself a 94-00 LS intake manifold and throw the one you have away....

My LS with 96 intake

 

[cnotecivic]

Tore down the swap engine. I'ts as i suspected, the head is much younger than the bottom end.

The head passed the gasoline test with flying colors, this one will only get a quick lapping-job and new stem seals

 

[cnotecivic]

Rods and mains are original,standard diameter, but well due for replacement.

pistons are far cleaner than the ones in the d15 I just did for the wife's car. Oil control rings are stuck some, but other than that no problems.

I was waiting to tear it down to see whether to order the $200+ oil pump... ordering it tomorrow.

In my expert opinion, this engine was well cared for early on, then was driven into the ground by a subsequent owner. The new head, new Honda timing belt, new water pump etc...

Anyway, with the evidence of heat and early stages of bearing failure, I figure the oil pump has the same scars. At least the journals are all standard, just rings and bearing inserts to do there.

 

[cnotecivic]

The easy way to clean pistons:

And the funny thing is that all 4 fit in a one gallon can

Leave them in overnight and just rinse with water...voila!

 

[cnotecivic]

The other question: can anyone recommend a header, or tell me if performance will be noticeably different from the stock exhaust?

thanks!

Anyone?

update: Got all the parts cleaned up, Started honing the cylinders.(Have to install new stones on my glaze-breaker) Almost finished the head, just a few more valve stem seals to go...Christmas is getting in the way, haven't had much time.

 

[cnotecivic]

almost ready...

 

[D16SiHatch]

lookin good

 

[MthaFuknGreen]

lookin good

x2

 

[cnotecivic]

Thanks, guys. Made some progress today...

Next I have to fab up a shift linkage, exhaust, intake, blahblahblah

oh, still gotta do the mpfi wiring at the ecu, too.

 

[cnotecivic]

Got her fired up today

what a mess!

got a couple of codes: O2 sensor and IACV, but I cranked it with an open downpipe and no coolant, so I'm not too concerned yet.

Merry Christmas.

 

[sufikation]

im digging this build...good work, keep it up.

 

[cnotecivic]

thrashing about wildly...

Had a family reunion today, couldn't get started on the car 'til late afternoon. Took the shifter off the teg, shortened the linkages, swapped over all my new bushings and boots from the OE shifter.

3 3/8 " shorter with the Hasport mounts.
Even used the teg stick and knob...a bit shorter and swept back more. I think I'll like it ok, if not I'll switch back

shifts good, now on to the exhaust...

 

[cnotecivic]

Do you see what I see? Wagon exhaust on bottom, Integra on top:

I'm sure this has been done before, right? I was checking out the exhaust from the integra to see if I could piece something together- looks like it'll almost fit!

The teg was welded straight, didn't have a flange from the A pipe to the cat. Cut the one from the wagon, did some mockup- voila!

decided to leave that flex coupler in, needed the length anyway. The tough part is doing all this with just one pair of hands

wish there was a fellow enthusiast in the neighborhood!

Note the piles of lumber

So now I've got the pipe run back to the rear axle. I THINK all I have to do is "flip" the muffler (cut the welds and reverse the offset inlet pipe). That will allow me the length I need to hit the axle-back flange and the ability to tweak the fit thru the lca 'window'. Not a custom hotrod system, but included in the $550 I paid for the swap car

 

[red91efhatch]

We have two things in common, same piston cleaner (stuff lasts forever) and the lumber HAHA, I had to hang the exhaust by myself too!

 

[D15Beater]

OBD1 conversion FTW...nice build. Smokey burnouts for you...the LS is a great engine. Do you know whick LS trans you have? They came with 4.26 and 4.44 final drives. I loved my 4.44

 

[cnotecivic]

It's a YS1 from a '92, not sure of ratio. I'm battling some CEL issues at present, looking forward to a test drive once I get that untangled!

 

[D15Beater]

It's a YS1 from a '92, not sure of ratio. I'm battling some CEL issues at present, looking forward to a test drive once I get that untangled!

A ys1 from a 92 would be a GSR...nice. Same as a B16 trans.. What are your cell problems?

 

[D16SiHatch]

ys1 is both the tranny code for the 92-93 gsr, and usdm 90-93 ls/rs/gs non-lsd trans. And all of these have a 4.4 final drive. the 94+ s80 ls trans had the 4.26 fd.