D15B7 to D16A Swap Archive

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.

Left D16A, right D15B7 throttle body in both front and back pictures.

Another shot of the D16A throttle body and the D15B7 throttle body.

It’s been a few days since my last post but I have been researching information about my ECU, VTEC and why my engine surges while giving it gas. My first ECU was giving me code 19 which was an auto tranny sensor, so today I went to the wrecker and picked up a proper 5 Speed ECU and a VTEC Pressure switch. My first ECU was P28-C50(auto) the new one is a P28-C02(5 Speed), to identify your ECU go to Rywire.com, as they have a write up page on how to identify your ECU. They sell wiring harnesses for VTEC D16Z6 Swap, B, H and other Wiring harnesses that you might need for a custom swap and they also have a great writeup on how to wire up your VTEC to your ECU. My VTEC should be operational soon as I got the pressure switch today so it’s just a matter of feeding the cables from the plugs to my ECU. My car has been idling kinda funny and stumbling when given light throttle; I did some research about this and found out that it could be a case air pockets in my coolant or a bad or dirty IACV (Idle Air Control Valve) which is located at the back of the intake manifold. I will try to look at both tommorrow or next day and see if i can fix this problem. I also got my Megan Racing 4-2-1 header today so I managed to put that on and now the engine looks really sweet. Here is link to Megan Racing

VTEC Spool valve and picture of port for missing VTEC pressure switch

VTEC pressure switch and VTEC spool valve complete.

My new 4-2-1 stainless steal Megan Racing header

Picture of my old exhaust manifold and new Megan header

More picture of Megan header and complete engine compartment

For The Next Next Step Click Here > Engine Runs Smooth Once Again!

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 19. Code 22 is VTEC Pressure switch and Code 19 is Lockup Control Solenoid for auto tranny, now I don’t know why I got Code 19 since I don’t have an auto tranny so I will have to figure that out. The VTEC error code is ok since I didn’t hookup the VTEC Solenoid because the one that I have does not have a pressure switch with it. I took the car for a ride to see how it goes and the first feel of the Dual Friction clutch is nice, it’s really smooth but when it grabs it holds hard. I gave it gas and it started shaking, so I eased off and it was ok, tried it again and it did it again. It feels like i’m starving for fuel or my timing is of. I can’t drive the car home or even drive it for too long so I will look into it next week. Tuesday I am supposed to get my Megan Racing header so I’m not too woried about not driving it yet, but I will try to pickup a proper VTEC Solenoid with pressure switch from a D16Z6 on monday. Once I have the VTEC solenoid I can wire that up and get rid of those error codes. In the mean time I’m gonna try and find out why I get that Code 19. Overall the swap is done, I just need to do some final work on my VTEC, find out why the car stumbles at full throttle and find out why I get that Code 19 with a 5 Speed Tranny.

Shift linkage and upper suspension picture

Drive shaft nut is installed and adding oil to engine.

Adding oil to tranny and coolant to radiator

Left, top is P28 ECU bottom is P06 ECU which is mounted on the passenger side of the car

Picture of almost complete engine and me starting the engine

Picture of me mounted my Short Ram intake and filter

Complete engine swap picture and my VTEC valve cover

For The Next Step Click Here > The Swap Continues…

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 finally installed in the engine bay

For The Previous Step Click Here > D16A Engine Swap – Day 4

For The Next Step Click Here > D16A Engine Swap – Day 6

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 engine mount bolts to there appropriate places, but I while doing this I noticed that my left hand(drivers side) engine mount was different and would not bolt up to the bracket mounted on this new D16A Engine. So I tried to swap my old bracket from my D15B7 but no chance they did not align to the wholes on the block. So tomorrow I will have to go the the auto wrecker and see if I can pickup the proper engine mount.

Machined and mounted flywheel

Clutch and pressure plate aligned and bolted on

Ready for bolting on tranny to engine

New gasket on intake manifold and picture of throttle body

Back side of throttle body and a picture of the Purge Solenoid that wasn’t on the D16A engine

In both pictures on the left is the old D15D7 bracket and on the right is the D16A bracket.

For The Next Step Click Here > D16A Engine Swap – Day 5

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 Next Step Click Here > D16A Engine Swap – Day 4

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 to take of the gear shift linkage and unbolt the exhaust from the catalytic converter. As you can see from the pictures below the old engine was leaking major oil from everywhere so it was really greasy all over. Tommorrow the plan is to pull the engine out, clean the engine compartment, and mount the new clutch and tranny on the D16 engine.

Axle nut pulled off Drive shaft pulled out

Driver’s CV Shaft Boot was cracked Lower ball joint

Exhaust Bolts unbolted Underneath the Car

Bottom view of the transmission Radiator and Slave cylinder removed

For The Previous Step Click Here > D16A Engine Swap – Day 1

For The Next Step Click Here > D16A Engine Swap – Day 3

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.