I have several questions about my car. As listed above it is a 99 HX. According to what I was able to find on the internet the engine is a D16Y5
Engine Specs say it is a 1.6 L 16V SOHC VTEC-E. Ok, I know what SOHC is but what is a VTEC-E? Since I am wanting to add some additional power to the car I was wondering what is the best upgrade for this engine? I was looking at the AEM V2 intake and doing the EX exhaust conversion. Will this give me some additional HP?

 

Your engine does not respond well to mods at all. If you are looking for power then your first step is to get another engine or do a D16Y8 head swap (which would give you regular VTEC instead of VTEC-E... read below for info).
You will barely notice gains from the intake and exhaust. It will help, just not much.




VTEC-E is VTEC, but designed for fuel economy rather than performance.

This video explains how regular VTEC works (ignore the RPM it tells you it engages at, it is irrelevant to other engines, since the video is about marine engines. The concept is the same though)
http://www.honda-marine.com/video/VTEC.wmv

Now, take that same concept, but imagine a cam with lobes that are designed for fuel efficiency, and an engagement point that is designed for fuel economy (~3000 RPMs or so I think it is... or maybe it was 3500. idk for sure)




This, VTEC-E is the main reason your engine does not respond well to mods. Pretty much all D-series engines don't respond well to mods, but the VTEC-E engines respond even less.

 

Thanks for your quick reply. So the head swap that you mentioned is that the mini me swap that I have read some information about?

 

yea but its not really a minimie swap for you because you already have vtec.
but doing this swap you will also need a ecu and i also suggest getting the y8 intake manifold. and the exhaust swap.

the way your car is and was designed is for fuel econonmy.
but your car has more power than the d16y7 which comes from the dx models.

 

So, would you suggest doing an engine swap to a B18 or B20? I found some information that said this was an easy swap to perform.

 

its really up to you and how much """upgrade you want""" and how much you wanna spend

 

I guess you are correct (how much i want to spend). If it was you making the decision which way would you go. Just do the usual intake and exhaust upgrade or swap engines? I would like to get a little more HP out of the car. What is the best way to spend the $s?

Figuring with about $300 for intake and $1000 for exhaust. Not sure what an engine swap would cost.

 

I have a 97 HX and a 97 CX, I like to leave my cars stock. I was almost tempted to replace my Y5 motor with a beefier engine. I decided to rebuild the engine and drive the wheels off it. It has 325000 miles on it and it keeps on ticking. If I were you, I would get another Civic and build that one up. There are a whole bunch shells out there even though some people are asking way too much money.

If you decide to build up your HX, you will need to upgrade the trans. The HX trans is a dog for acceleration.

 

Thanks for the information. Tomorrow I am going to talk with a guy that has an engine that was built for an Acura Integra (I believe a GS-R) that is super charged and is suppose to be a real good deal. I'm not sure if I want to go quite that wild with the HP but I am going to talk to him and see what he wants and then I'll have a better idea of my options.

Like I said I am looking for a project that I can work on but I am not sure if this would be something I could do in a reasonable amount of time. This is my DD so it can't be down for a long period of time. I can ride my bike but with the rain that is never any fun.

So many options so little time

 

my suggestion to have a gain for the cheapeast is putting a z6 head on it. y8dizzy, y8 intake manifold. and a p2p ecu or you can get a jumper harness(obd2a-obd1) and get a p28 which is the easiest and most user freindly(no knock sensor required,only 1 o2 sensor needed) use a y8 head gasket(higher compression).