I have a question for anyone that can help me with a problem i''m dealing with. I''m running a d16y7 in good condition, in my 98 civic. My freind recently blow out his 95'' d16z6 and I started to rebuild it. One pistion and rod is bad. Dont have money right now to buy new one. So I was thinking about taking out of the y7 pistions/rods out of mine, since the compresstion is more: 9.4 Everything else look good on the blowin block/head. The bottom line is I want to go vtec. Since I need to do all that work is it better if I do a mini swap with my 7y by adding the z6 head or should I keep rebuilding the z6 blowin motor with my 7y pistions/rod? What would be the better way, especially performance wise?
d16y7 vtec head or d16z6 vtec?
- Thread starter tipsy412
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Luis998
Honda Enthusiast
Performance wise you are better off buying new pistons and rods, especially if you are thinking of turbo'ing it. That is just my own personal two cents as I would prefer to do it right from the start. I would just put the Z6 head on the Y7 block for simplicities sake and call it a day. You'll have to do an OBD conversion and replace a few things, but it's somewhat a straightforward head swap, except for the few obvious things. I also would not get rid of the block as you may be able to sell it or run into parts later on down the line. Best of luck. 
I get what your saying with buying new pistion/rods, which makes sense and was thinking about turboing it later on. I already have the small stuff like the convertion hardness and ecu. Tell me if i wrong would it be harder to do the oil lines for vtec if i do the mini swap for the 7y? since it already the on the z6?
K2e2vin
Senior Member
All of the "D16Y" blocks are worse than the D15B/D16A/D16Z blocks. This is attributed to the oiling issue.
Ditto on the oil lines. No need to run any. Just pull out the oil restrictor plug if it has one. Pretty much a straight forward head swap affair.
Also, as asked before, what exactly is blown? If the bearings went bad in the Z6, then go ahead and use the Y7 block. If the Z6 block is good, use that.
This thread is four months old dude...next time, check the date...
Retrozalex
New Member
Imo I do believe the y7 block is stronger than the y8. My initial y7 block lasted 400k miles no issues before the swap.
Retrozalex
New Member
Personally on my 96’ I went for the y7 block with the y8 head. I was in a somewhat similar problem, due to my friend going back to a y8 head from a z6, ending in him saying I could have it for 40 bucks. Overall I found the simplicity of swapping a y8 head on a y7 block a little more complex (very slight) but if you’re initially trying to go for power with the build, I’d say just go with the route of swapping your z6 head onto your original y7 block. My opinion since it is a a better time to money spent ratio.
Also, adding my 2 cents (not everyone will agree with) but if you do end up going vtech, I would recommend upping the type of oil from the 5w-30 to like a 10w-30. Personally that’s what I decided to do with my civic, just because since it’s an older car and such.
OP last posted 5 months after my son was born. My son is now applying for college. Hopefully he's figured it out.
Changing from 5w30 to 10w30 won't do anything. When the engine is warm, both oils are 30 weight. Going to a thicker cold viscosity oil just makes it harder for the oil to circulate through passages designed for a 5 weight oil when you start it up from cold. I think 99% of mechanics would disagree with you on switching from 5w30 to 10w30 when you're adding a cordless phone to your engine.
Maybe going to a 5w40 would be better, but a high quality synthetic 5w30 is just fine.
