VX engine build/swap (in-progress) w/ pics

[first350]

Originally Posted by Erik

I second the honing suggestion- right now the cylinders are super slick and a tiny bit out of round. The new rings will never seal correctly until you hone and rough it up a little- its sometimes called "breaking the glaze". The cross hatch pattern will cause the rings to wear a little to the proper shape of your cylinders which is what you want for a good seal. Be sure to rinse these particles out of the cylinders. It will take a lot of paper towels and WD40 to get all of this metal "residue" out.

The old fashioned way to seal the new rings after the break in is to let it warm up and then drive it moderately hard raising and lowering rpms in top gear in a pulse and glide type manner- but let the engine do the braking on the glide part. Some people say that babying it will not let the rings seat properly. There is plenty of debate on this issue though.

After a re ring job, I always change my oil and filter after about one hour of break in and then again after 100-200 miles.

The engine will heat up pretty quick when you first start it, this is normal- there is a lot of friction between the honed cylinders and new rings when you first start it.

So what all did the machine shop do to your head for $350? The local shop charged me $30 to shave my d15 head and just another $85 to hot tank and bead blast the head, grind all 16 of my valves/seats and install new valve stem seals (I supplied the seals). My guides were in good shape so they didn't need to be knurled. I am in a rural area so things around here are pretty reasonable.

I notice a tiny bit more spark knock than I did before I had the head shaved, I still burn 87 octane. I definitely noticed that the cam timing was retarded when I went to set the timing- I am now pretty close to the most advanced setting possible with my distributor. I need to find one of those adjustable cam sprockets...

To be safe, you might want to grind a tiny bit off of each of the hollow locating dowels on your head- if one of these bottoms out, then you won't be able to get the proper pressure on the head gasket.

Originally Posted by mrmad

Here's a good engine break in article on Team-Integra.net

http://www.team-integra.net/sections...?ArticleID=389

Originally Posted by Danronian

Wow. That little bit shaved off really affected the C/R. On my integra b18b1 I had to have .06 shaved off just to get it flat.... I'm surprised that didnt cause an issue with pinging on low-grade fuel since that must have bumped up the compression a bit.

I had no problems at all when I aligned the timing belt on that DOHC motor, and I had OEM cam gears, non adjustable. I think you should be fine with getting the timing right.

thanks for all the good info guys! (not sure why it's so much more expensive over here...but I checked a few other shops and they charged around the same). Wish I had known/heard about the honing before, but it's just too late to go back and do it at this point...live and learn!

[Gary Palmer]

Well, worst case, if you don't hone the cylinders, it's not going to make it not run or anything really heinious. It may make it so that the rings are unable to seat properly, which means it may use a little oil. I don't know how much it will use or if it might be close enough that you don't really notice it. It most likely may oil foul the plugs a little.

I apologize for not mentioning it sooner. I thought from the way you described what you were doing, that you were set on getting the block bored, in which case the honing would have been a part of it.

If it really uses just way to much oil, you can pull the head and rehone the cylinder walls, but it's just a lot more hassle. If you do, the really critical thing would be to get all of the sanding residue out, using soap and water. For some reason solvent cleaners don't work quite as well.

Look forward to seeing how it works out.

[first350]

update: dropped the engine and car off for the swap...should be done in a few days!

(it was a pain to get that engine into the hatch of the civic...I could pick up the engine vertically, but getting it over the hatch/trunk lip was a lot harder!

[kwtorbe]

Do you happen to have the contact information that was given to you by the JDM Source people?

[first350]

Originally Posted by kwtorbe

Do you happen to have the contact information that was given to you by the JDM Source people?

contact info for what? (Someone on this forum gave me the JDM source's contact info...which is: www.jdmsource.ca 1 866 717 4252)

[first350]

just picked up the civic!

few things:
1) since I have a DX, the exhaust has the OE cat further down the exhaust piping, so the mechanic just used the DX exhaust manifold and put the 5 wire O2 sensor in....I'll have to figure out what I want to do w/ this.

2) They had to find an EGR control unit (2 solenoids)...luckily they had a VX sitting around that was getting a GSR swap done on it, so they stole it from that one. I hadn't heard of this before...do ppl just get rid of the EGR when doing a swap??

3) The engine idles a little rough...I'll change the plugs and just drive it more...hopefully it's nothing serious.

4) the engine feels like it surges when I was cruising on the freeway between 60-70 MPH. I was trying to maintain speed and had very little throttle...I was wondering if it had something to do with the lean burn, or maybe the Vtec was kicking in incorrectly??

5) The engine mount on the engine Driver side is different between the JDM and USDM...

Overall, they did a great job with the swap...there's no way I would have finished this anytime soon on my own - work has been was too hectic, so I'm just glad this portion of it's done. Now I get to start more of the FE mods!

[thecrxproject]

Hey 350, I don't use this forum much but I found your project rather interesting... I have searched for proof of improved fuel economy in the VX from bumping the CR with no luck.. and I look forward to hearing your results.. From my own Honda experiences and engineering background, I know that you should always see an increase in power & fuel economy up to a certain CR... but since there are so many other variables at hand, especially in the VX, it is somewhat of a mystery. Based on the results you are getting right now, I strongly suggest that you replace the exhaust manifold with a CX or VX manifold so that your wideband O2 sensor is reading where it is designed to... The VX engine has inherently different exhaust flow characteristics (velocity, temperature, composition, etc) under 2500 rpms and this could certainly contribute to a rough idle.. and may or may not have something to do with your 4th issue ... I'll bet you've done so already, but make sure everything else on the car is up to par as well (cap, rotor, wires, fuel filter, etc..) .. Also, I doubt this happened, but make sure the T-belt is not off a tooth.... That's all I can think of at the moment for that.. Best of luck!

[GasSavers_BIBI]

get the cx - vx manifold, maybe the t-belt is of teeth, maybe your o2 sensor is to change (rough idle) but first look if you have the right spark plugs (NGK V-Power Spark Plugs No. ZFR4F-11).

And about the surge when cruising, its lean burn kickin in, so its FE kickin in...

[StorminMatt]

Originally Posted by first350

just picked up the civic!

few things:
1) since I have a DX, the exhaust has the OE cat further down the exhaust piping, so the mechanic just used the DX exhaust manifold and put the 5 wire O2 sensor in....I'll have to figure out what I want to do w/ this.

2) They had to find an EGR control unit (2 solenoids)...luckily they had a VX sitting around that was getting a GSR swap done on it, so they stole it from that one. I hadn't heard of this before...do ppl just get rid of the EGR when doing a swap??

3) The engine idles a little rough...I'll change the plugs and just drive it more...hopefully it's nothing serious.

4) the engine feels like it surges when I was cruising on the freeway between 60-70 MPH. I was trying to maintain speed and had very little throttle...I was wondering if it had something to do with the lean burn, or maybe the Vtec was kicking in incorrectly??

5) The engine mount on the engine Driver side is different between the JDM and USDM...

Overall, they did a great job with the swap...there's no way I would have finished this anytime soon on my own - work has been was too hectic, so I'm just glad this portion of it's done. Now I get to start more of the FE mods!

1. Let's face it. Close-coupled cats SUCK. Consider what the shop did with regards to the manifold to be a favor. Unless you have emissions testing which includes a visual inspection that requires that the engine be in stock configuration, don't even worry about this one. I don't think this could be causing your other problems.

2. Keep in mind that not all Honda motors use an EGR valve. The GSR motor certainly doesn't use one. And your original motor probably didn't, which is why you didn't have the control box in the first place.

3. Try to give the engine a basic tune-up - plugs, wires cap, rotor, etc. Hopefully this will do the job. Also, there could be other problems such as improper wiring, ECU problems, incorrect timing, etc.

4. Hard to say about the engine surging. This could be the result of MANY things. It could even possily be related to your idle problems.

5. Didn't know that. Not that it's something difficult to deal with, though.

[first350]

thanks for all the responses guys!

I mentioned the engine mount and EGR solenoid stuff just b/c I hadn't heard of those differences...and if I had ended up doing this at my house, it would have taken a lot longer trying to figure out what was missing/different. (I was very glad that I choose this guy to do the swap )

Distributer: used, but worked perfectly before being swapped.
O2 sensor: previous O2 sensor threw a CEL, this one was swapped in and the light went away.
Spark plugs: New
Fuel injectors/pump: these are from my DX engine...which was running very well.
spark plug wires: OLD JDM (the JDM motor seems to have only been useful for the block and head...all of the accessories didn't work!)

exhaust...if I find a VX OE exhaust being sold, I'll probably pick it up and see if it changes anything. In the end, I'm hoping to modify the exhaust for FE...just haven't figured out how to do it yet.