Getting the most out of an 86 Civic Si

[GasSavers_Ryland]

Originally Posted by Erik

It was my understanding that beginning in 1988, the transmission mounts were changed so a VX transmission will likely not attach to your 86 civic frame.

I also believe that the VX transmission has a hydraulic clutch so you would need to find a slave cylinder/clutch pedal assembly.

I could be wrong on all of this- hopefully someone else can confirm/deny what I am saying.

you are correct, in 1988 the civic engine and tranny changed a great deal, part of it is that more engine and tranny mounts were added, and the engines started useing the D15* number sets insted of the EW* number sets. I think it was still a cable clutch untill 1992 when they switched to hydrolic.
that is why if you want stuff to simply bolt in, sticking with simaler year/body styles is a good idea those being 1969-1972 <--pre-civic air cooled, 1973-1977, 1978-1983, 1984-1987, 1988-1991, 1992-1995, and from 1996 onword I get a bit fuzzy as I've never owned a honda that new, there were a few minor changes in those years, like I think that at some point in the late 80's they changed the splined shaft on the engine, but off hand I don't know what modles/years.

[GasSavers_Ryland]

I don't know much about this car, I found an ad on craigslist and liked it so much that I saved the imagies, but couldn't get to it in time to buy it, I think their asking price was like $1,200 and that it was the S modle (pre-SI, carburated)It's so shinny...

sorry, but for some reason I can't get it to insert the image in here, so you just have to Fallow The Link.

[McPatrick]

Man, that seems like a grand deal on that car whoever got it and I'm sure they got it for even less if it was an asking price.



And that body style looks good indeed with the VX wheels. May have to go hunt for some because I don't wanna take the ones I have off of the CRX HF because they look great on that car as well

[rpm]

I believe you should consider the engine's torque curve when choosing a transmission. StorminMatt's experience attests to this.

The VX's engine was designed to operate well at very low rpm to match the tall gearing, yours perhaps wasn't.

[StorminMatt]

Originally Posted by RPM

I believe you should consider the engine's torque curve when choosing a transmission. StorminMatt's experience attests to this.

The VX's engine was designed to operate well at very low rpm to match the tall gearing, yours perhaps wasn't.

Here's another guy here who had a bad experience with an HF transmission on a 1988-1991 DX:

Originally Posted by civic lover

Yeah I actually already tried that about a year ago. It had no power to pull it self and I lost MPG. I think I will just have to try the setup and see what it does. I have the mpfi intake and the wiring(kinda messy) But I can't have my car down for too long of time. SO I will do the mpfi swap later.

I think that the problem here is that the DX motor IS designed around higher revs. Given that the 1988-1991 DX motor is the same in both displacement AND HP to the 1984-1987 SI motor, I would expect an HF transmission to have similarly bad results.

[GasSavers_RoadWarrior]

IIRC the older motors have peak torque at 2800ish the newer ones 4500ish