Hello all!
 

Ok so I am new and something of a newb when it comes to gearhead tech. However that being said I am a bit of a "Gas Notzi" so my wife says. I recently sold my 2002 Dodge Ram 1500 and bought a 1992 Honda Civic CX Hatch Back. The main reason was cause I was spending more a month on gas than I was on my truck payment, i.e. $500-$600 a month in gas. I also picked the Honda Civic for the sheer number of parts out there that I could use. Thanks import tunning!! I am not a street racer but I do enjoy a "fun-to-drive" car.. Right now it has the stock D15 1.5L 50-65HP motor. I plan on either rebuilding this motor (or one like it) or upgrading to a B16A2 DOHC VTECH 120-150HP JDM model. Better preformance! A bigger displacement aprox 10.1:1 means less milage but I would still like to optimize the fuel efficiancy so as to get the best I can with that application. Like I said I may just rebuild the D15 motor.

I have a whole list of do's and don'ts FAQ style that I will post in the general discussion. Hopefully seperate the Old Wives Tales from the lagitamate tips.

P.S. Plz excuse my spelling:o

The motor actually has 70hp, so take that, unless you're talking WHP. I think the b16a2 (if it's the obd1 model) has 170 (but that's chp also).

My suggestion to you if you still want to keep fuel economy in mind is to get a d16z6 and run it on boost, that way you can get bad FE but 225 whp when you want and run it close to stock when you're highway and just trying to save gas, but that's just me, :p

The b16 seems to suck gas even though it's only a 1.6, I had one guy I did an ecu for thanking me because he got 36 mpg on a 100% highway trip...

*clap, clap, clap, clap, clap* Good for you! Trucks certainly have their place in the world, but suck as daily drivers. Welcome!

The stated HP ranges for my current D15 for aporx. taking into consideration the age of the motor 172,000miles and the actual HP to the wheels. Honda tends to post HP readings from motors on a dyno before they are mounted in a car. Which is ok I guess for base line stuff for them. But (mind you I am a bit of a newb) from what my civic machanic who races amature says that D15 is listed at 70HP probly gets 55-60 to the wheel off the lot. But thanks for the info and let me know if you feel these numbers are off. Will make my desisions change some. I like the sound of this B16Z6. Is it a VTECH?

Another 92 Civic owner here - and they are great vehicles.

Also, another D series proponet. They can be made to perform very respecably for little money, and are a far better bet for MPG than the DOHC B series. You might want to look into the JDM D15B SOHC VTEC - it has a similar output to the D16Z6 (great motor too, I <3 mine), but should net better fuel mileage due to smaller displacment.

I am sort of in a similar place as you - I want my cake and I want to eat it too. So far, I've had a registered a 15.4 second 1/4 mile and hit 51 mpg. Not too bad in my book. It's not a screamer, and it's not the ultimate mileage getter either, but its fun and frugal.

First off Welcome to Gassavers and the world of Honda!

Second Vtec: https://asia.vtec.net/spfeature/vtecimpl/vtec1.html

Yeah, I'm just used to stating honda motors by the chp standard and not whp (unless it's been dynoed).

D16Z6 is VTEC (there's no H, as it stands for variable valve timing electronic lift control, though that doesn't mean much, just that there's no h, :p)

Anyway, it's the SOHC VTEC engine from the 92-95 EX/Si, Jared on here has one, so does civicminded, and prolly a few others I'm forgetting. Civicminded has his in a CX also, so his perspective might be good on it, it makes the same torque as the B16 but only like 128hp or something like that.

You could also get a JDM d15b vtec for like 300 bucks that puts out the same specs as the d16z6, they're generally cheaper and will have 30-60k miles on them so that's always good.

EDIT: I type to slowly.

Good info guys thanks I am adding them to my parts list and pricing them this afternoon. VTEC not VTECH sorry yeah think I might have known that just tend to pay little attention when typing and let spell check do its work but do not have spell check installed at work and besides it would not have my definitions loaded anyway... What is the displacement of the JDM D15B SOHC VTEC??? CHP125 thats not to bad.. does it take well to bolt-ons ???

1.5 liters for the d15, it's a pattern, :p

I don't think the d series does too well with bolt ons besides things like y8 intake manifold and what not, but boost is extremely easy to do on them and they love it.

Jack that link while having some spelling errors (something I know quite well!) had awsome info... I think I now will use the SOHC VTEC-E 3 Stage D15B.. It has 2 VTEC actuator pins for three stages.

Stage 1 great gas less power 2500RPM or less
Stage 2 moderate gas and moderate power 2500-6000RPM
Stage 3 Power only 6000RPM and above

I am sure the listed rpm ranges are subject to debate and would depend on gearing and how the VTEC was tuned.. HONDATA!! :)

What kind of ECU would you use with these economy VTEC's? Any ideas?

Also if I get to into the Geartech and out of the gastech somebody say something... I will take the geartech power questions to
www.honda-tech.com those guys are great with geartech..

Ah, the 3 stage...hondata sucks!

Anyway, 3 stage will be hard, you'll have to convert to obd2 or run a chipped obd1 ecu and attempt to use iab stuff on the ecu to activate the second stage of vtec. Though it's a great engine, it's tricky.

Geartech is very welcome here, you'll notice a lot of h-t holdovers (but without being meanies), like myself.

Yes I too got here from Honda-Tech. Just a FYI I dont know crap about most tech stuff. My brother is a Honda Tech at the local dealer so I really dont ever have to or get to do anything. He doesnt answer questions on how to fix it he just tells me it is faster to do it himself so I let him. slowly I am learning though.

Oh ya and the link that I gave you came from here:
https://www.honda-tech.com/zeropost?cmd=tshow&id=1508680

Not exactly up the CX alley but some good info anyway.

Woot for FAQ version 2.0 I love that stuff.

Ben Ogle's page > *

Cool info guys!
 

Ok after pricing and talking with my honda guy here I think I will begoing with the JDM D16B 1.6 VTEC vs the JDM D15B 1.5 VTEC both are single overhead cam setups but the 1.6 gives me the higher base line HP and displacement and if I don't hotdog I should get great milage considering. Also this leave room for future work to the car... Cause when the smart car get released officialy over here (not ZAP) I am buying the roadster and using it as a daily driver and will then be able to play with the civic more. i.e. turbo, replacment cam, and retuning the car.

I used to want the 3 stage vtec. It's an awesome technology, but I really don't care for the 3rd stage. I just wanted the economy.

Perhaps something you can do (if you do decide to do this) is run the first two stages of vtec off of the ECU. It will essentially be a civic VX at that point. The other vtec actuator can maybe be manually activated? A button or a toggle switch?

Anyway, very few people have done that swap, and I imagine it's a lot of work trying to figure things out.

One problem with toggle Matt - no additional fuel/timing curve changes.

I love the idea of the 3 stage, but for a 5th gen Civic, it's just not worth it. Too much to change over IMHO.

Something to note about the D15B - It has the same head as the D16Z6 (P08 casting), and, drumroll ---- it has the same rods. Now if you don't know much about USDM D15 rods, then that don't mean much to you. But if you do, you know that they aren't the same as the 1.6 rods (smaller big end bearing, shorter, and thinner). This should be an awesome platform for both economy and power, as you have a little less displacment but have the rod strength (and aftermarket D16 rod option) to deal with boost, if you decide to go that route.

One down side is that the pistons/crank are JDM only - that means if you bust a piston you won't find it at your local Honda/Autozone parts dealer. But, at $300 for an entire engine it's not a major worry.

Not rly, as civicminded pointed out the head casting is the same as the z6, so it's built for a lot more airflow and doesn't have the same piston bowl swirling characteristic as the z1, which is why I stopped liking it.

Be wary of some of the advice given out on honda-tech, there are some knowledgeable people there, but there are MORE people that THINK they know what they are talking about and give out bad advice.

If you are having trouble with something geartech related, drop me a PM and I'll do what I can to help.