WonderBart

I was busy with some other things the last few days so I didn't have time to work on my engine but yesterday after work I decided to go at it. I called my friend Tracey to come over and help me label my parts bags and help me disassemble the motor. I first took of the exhaust manifold and then followed by the intake manifold. Once those were off the engine was easier to maneuver on the engine stand.   I then unbolted the cylinder head and placed it in a plastic tub to drain any oil that was still in it. Once the cylinder head was off it really started rolling then. We unbolted all the external brackets and accessories of the block and drained the oil. Once the oil was drained I flipped the engine over and started to pull the oil pan bolts off with Tracey's help. After that Tracey pulled off the water pump and the front engine mounting bracket and I pulled off the oil pump and the rear seal bracket. I then started to loosen the main cap bolts using the cross pattern. I only loosened them up a little at a time and once I got to the last one, I went back to the first bolt and loosened ... Read More

These are my first images of my D16Z6 engine, and as you can see it looks very stock right now. There are a couple sensors that are broken and plugs that are bent, but all in all the engine looks to be in good shape. It did not come with a distributor or a crank pulley but for now I don't need those. I still do have my old D15B7 engine so if needed I can use my crank pulley from that engine, as I believe it's the same on the 1.5 and 1.6 liter. But I am not 100% sure so I will have to double check this first.   Here are some images of the black valve cover and the VTEC valve train. Here are 2 more images of the front and back of the engine with the distributor and the crank pulley missing. ... Read More

Well It's officially September and crappy rainy weather will be upon us very soon so I'm gonna park my 93 Civic and use the 95 Civic as my winter beater. This should give me lots of time to do some winter work on the 93 and keep it away from those crazy winter drivers. All thought the 93 Civic project was never meant to be a full race car but instead a daily driver, I don't see any reason why not to take it off the road for winter especially since I have a spare Civic that's pretty much ready for a winter beater. And when I do get my turbo this winter I can install it piece by piece and not worry that I have to drive it to work next day and do a rush job. Depending what happens this fall and winter I also plan on picking up a spare D16Z6 block and start working on my full turbo build from scratch. The best way to learn is to do it yourself so this will be a great winter project and finally build my 13 second Civic. I will have to completely take apart the block, clean it ... Read More

I found a great post on D-seriers.org about a D16 to D18 Stroker build right from the ground up.  Click Here for the link. ... Read More

The D16Z6 engine is a great engine to build for turbo applications because of the following reasons: - Z6 Oil Pumps are solid - Ease of Tuning as it's made for the OBD1 ECU - Top end power is great for turbo builds - Crank is good up to 600HP - P08 Cylinder Head with VTEC Although It can handle up to 200-220HP in stock form if you go beyond this limit, it is advisable to upgrade the valve train, pistons and connecting rods. So if your gonna build a (SOHC) Single Over Head Cam engine, start with the best go with the D16Z6. They are found in 1992-1995 Honda Civic EX and Si models, and also the 1993-1995 Honda Delsol Si // --> ... Read More

After friday night's Mission Raceway drag racing event, I put a 360 spin on my idea of doing the bodywork first and instead will invest the time into a turbo setup. Before I actually go through with it, I will do some research and post what I come up with. My Goal is around 200HP with my stock D16 engine. So far this is what i believe will I need, but this may change. - Hondata S300 Engine Management - AEM UEGO WideBand A/F Controller with Gauge - RC 330 Fuel Injectors (if going over 190HP) - Walbro 255 Fuel Pump - eBay Turbo Kit Now your thinking why buy my turbo kit from eBay? Well I figure if there are any mistakes that I might encounter it's cheaper to do them on a cheaper turbo, I can always upgrade the turbo later.   ... Read More

This is my first drag race video at Mission Raceway with my 1993 Honda Civic. The video of the 16.40 quarter mile time was too shaky so this one will do. The time was 16.54 @ 85MPH for quarter mile. ... Read More

I did my first Mission Raceway event today and it was a success. I did 4 runs down the drag strip and my best time was 16.401 @ 85.68MPH and reaction time of .726. I was told that the reaction time is only used if your racing against someone else and does not matter to your quarter mile time but I will have to investigate this farther so this may be wrong. I will post a video soon as I can get it on youtube. Here is my timeslip results for this race. R/T  ... .726 60' ... 2.610 330 ... 7.010 1/8 ... 10.627 MPH ... 67.34 1000 ...13.778 1/4 ... 16.401 MPH ... 85.68   ... Read More

My friend’s car broke down this morning and her engine light came on but being a newer car she needs an ODB2 reader to find out what’s wrong with it. This got me thinking about the possible ODB1 engine error codes that the engine light in a Civic would show if you had a problem. So I made a table below of the possible engine error codes that a 1992-1995 Civic owner could encounter. These codes are easily readable by the number of flashes made by the engine light in diagnostic mode. To get into diagnostic mode you have to short out the diagnostic plug that is under the right side of the glow box. This is a green 2 wire plug that should be in a rubber sleeve. Make sure your ignition is in the OFF position, then pull the plug out of the sleeve and short the two pins with a small wire. Then turn your ignition to the "II" position and count the number of flashes. You might encounter long flashes or short flashes, each long flash means 10 and each short flash means 1. So if you get 2 long flashes and 2 short flashes, your error code is 22 - VTEC Pressure Valve Switch. If you get 3 short flashes ... Read More

Note: This procedure is the same for a 1992-1995 Honda Civic CX, DX, or Si Tools Needed: 8mm Socket Wrench or a Phillips Head Screw Driver   Step One: Open up your hood and make sure you secure the hood post in it's proper place.   Step Two: Use an 8mm Socket Wrench or a Phillips head screw driver to undo all 4 screws holding down the top of the airbox. I would use the 8mm Socket Wrench because it will not strip the head of the screw as easily as a Phillips head screw driver. But if you don't have a 8mm socket wrench then a Phillips head screw driver will do just fine with some do care.     Step Three: Make sure all the screws are totally unscrewed from the bottom part of the airbox. Then grab the top of the airbox and lift it up, if you are having trouble check the screws again but this should lift up with very little effort.    Step Four: Lift out the air filter and replace if needed. Honda recommends to replace every 48,000Km or sooner under severe driving conditions, like driving on dusty roads or near construction sites.   Step Five: Once you put the new air filter in it's place align the top part of the airbox with the bottom half and tighten all the screws. DO NOT ... Read More

If you need complete D Series engine specs, I found a great link that covers head, block, piston and cam. Click Here for more info. ... Read More

After all that work yesterday I knew I would find a solution soon because I was running out of things to check. Today I went to the parts store and picked up some new NGK spark plugs, NGK ignition wires, distributor cap and rotor, fuel filter and a radiator cap since my old one disintegrated yesterday. I started by changing the plugs and then started the engine and guess what to my surprise BAAM! engine runs fine, so it was a fauled up plug that was causing all these issues. I still changed the fuel filter, iginition wires and distributor cap and rotor as it had to be done in the near future anyways. The spark plugs I got are the NGK ZFR5J-11 which seem to work really well with this engine. It runs smoth now and has lots of power and I'm not even activating the VTEC yet! The only thing I have left is to wire up the VTEC and bolt up the front bottom engine cover but thats not even an issue. Old D15B7 Engine and the new D16A VTEC Engine All my replacement parts and a picture of the new NGK wires on my valve cover. ... Read More

The car still stumbled today at WOT so I swapped the throttle body which included the MAP Sensor and the Throttle Position Sensor but unfortunetly it still stumbled after that. Just to be sure there was no difference in the IACV I also swapped the IACV(Idle Air Control Valve) from my D15B7 to be sure that had nothing to do with the issue. I checked my timing and it was ok so I swapped the fuel injectors and the fuel pressure regulator but no success. Tommorrow I am gonna do a tuneup on it and change the spark plugs and wires, distributor cap and rotor and finally the fuel filter. I got a compression tester today so I can check the compression of all the pistons tommorrow too.    ... Read More

Saturday - Final assembly, fluids and startup Today I started with hooking up the gear shift linkage and mounted the exhaust. Then I mounted the drive shafts and put the suspension back together. I hooked up the remainder of the heater hoses and mounted the radiator and then filled it with antifreeze and water mix. I drained the old oil from the engine and transmission and then added 10W30 to both. I pulled the old P06 ECU out and then mounted the P28(VTEC) ECU in it's place. Then the moment of truth came and it was time to start the engine, I turned the key to the start position 2 times shortly to prime the engine with gas and pump some oil into the top end of the engine. Then I turned the key to the full start position and BAAM! it started right away. Only problem was the ECU was throwing out some error codes. I read in the Haynes Manual that you have to put a jumper into the 2 wire plug that is just below the glove box on the passenger side of the car so I did that and got 2 error codes. Code 22 and Code ... Read More

Friday - Ready engine and mount up in engine bay Today I got the engine ready for mounting and decided to use my original D15B7 engine mount and bracket. The power steering bracket on the other hand is one that I got from the wrecker from a D16Z6 engine. Installing the engine back into the car took a lot of patience I had a friend of mine work the hoist while I moved the engine around and started bolting up the mounts. Before lowering the engine into the engine bay I attached the rear engine bracket to the engine, then got my friend to lower the engine into place while I worked the bolt to catch some thread. After that I worked the tranny mount and got a bolt thru that and finally had to use a floor jack to help align the drivers side mount and stuck a bolt thru that. Once the main mounts were done I installed the left and right torque mounts, power steering pump and some hoses. Tommorrow the plan is to finish her up and get her running. D16A chained up and ready installation D16A in the process of being installed D16A almost installed D16A ... Read More

Thursday - D16A Maintenance and external assembly So far out of the 4 days, today was the funnest till the end but I'll get into that later. Putting something together is always more fun because you start seeing a little glimps of your final product and you get more existed. Today I started by taking the JDM exhaust manifold off as it is different from mine so I can't use it. Then I mounted the flywheel and new clutch, and finally bolted up the transmission. I did some maintenance on the engine too and replaced the thermostat, PCV Valve and new oil filter. After that I mounted my old wire harness including fuel injectors with the fuel rail, alternator and starter. Most of the plugs were easy but one thing I noticed was that I did not have a Purge Valve on this engine so I will have to reuse my old one from my D15B7 and just add it to my vacuum lines. I cleaned off the old throttle body gasket from the intake and then bolted on the throttle body and and connected all the appropriate hoses. Toward the end of the day I started screwing back all the ... Read More

Wednesday - Old engine extraction and engine bay cleanup Today started early at 9am, I picked up my flywheel from the Lordco machine shop and pressure plate bolts and throttle body gaskets from Honda. The bonus for today was I had a friend help me out to extract the engine out with was a great benefit while using the host cuz 2 people are always better then one. Unbolting the mounts was pretty easy but finding a place to hook up the chain was a bit tricky but by lunch time the motor was out. Soon after I sprayed the Engine compartment down with Simple Green a biodegradeable degresser and then hosed it down a couple of times. I made sure my fuel lines with wrapped up and after I used compressed air to blow out any of the electrical plugs and around any place water shouldn't be. Engine being lifted out by hoist Almost high enough to be pulled out On the left is engine bay before cleaning and right is after cleaning Full shot of clean engine bay, and on the right is another shot of old greasy D15B7  For The Previous Step Click Here > D16A Engine Swap - Day 2 For ... Read More

Tuesday - Ready old engine for extraction First thing in the morning I dropped off the Flywheel for machining and headed to Princess Auto for some oil drain pans and some other items. To start the engine removal process I jacked up the car and put it on stands ready for drive shaft removal. Taking both the axle nuts off was actually pretty easy but when I got to the lower ball joints is when the trouble started. I worked on those for a couple of hours but had no success so I decided to do something different. I took the top of the suspension off including the struts and managed to get both the axles off. The drivers side CV boot was already cracked so grease was everywhere but I am glad it broke on my stock wheels and not my new mags. After that I drained the coolant from the engine and took the radiator out and started to work on the electrical plugs and hoses. I found out that to separate the main plugs on both the left and right side I had to take them off the mounting brackets. Toward the end of the night I managed ... Read More

Monday - Get parts and prep the new engine I started the day by calling around for parts, organizing my tools and figuring what I had to do first. Then I went to MOPAC and picked up a Centerforce Dual Friction Clutch and Coquitlam AutoParts for the water pump, timing belt and pilot bearing. By the time I got started it was already 3pm so there was no time to waste. While changing the water pump and timing belt I ran into a problem taking off the main crankshaft bolt even with my heavy duty impact wrench. So I sprayed the bolt with lube and went onto unbolting the transmission. Pulling the tranny was pretty easy with the engine out, so in no time at all I had the whole clutch assembly apart. I went back to the front of the engine and this time I heated up the crankshaft pulley bolt and managed to get it off. The rest of the water pump and timing belt was a snap just bolt everything back on. After that I noticed that the throttle plate was really dirty so I pulled the whole throttle body of the intake and cleaned it up with ... Read More

It's a great start to 2008 as I have acquired a JDM D16A VTEC Engine with only 80,000KM's. It came with an Si tranny, Distributor and the P28 ECU. The plan is to change the timming belt, water pump and to replace the stock clutch with a Center Force 2 Clutch, Bearing and Pressure plate to get a better grip on the newly added horsepower. With this new engine, Short Ram Intake and my 2.5" exhaust I should be putting out 135-140HP now so laying rubber should be easy to do, and maybe get 2nd gear chirps. I took a picture of the engine with my cell phone but the lighting wasn't the best so the picture is a bit grainy but here it is the D16A VTEC. As you'll notice the valve cover is silver but down the road I will pull it off and get it powder coated cherry apple red to match the car. ... Read More