1997 LX, 5 speed transmission, engine smoking.Bad.
1998 EX, automatic, engine not smoking. 113k. Still runs strong.

Heres the story. I was planning to sell the 1997 Civic as a parts car. It smokes like a freight train. Still gets 36 mpg, but takes a LOT of OIL to get there.

The 1998 Civic is my son's car. He slid off the road and backed it into a telephone pole today. Messed it up really bad. I only had liability on the car so now IT is the parts car.

Heres what I'm thinking. Take the engine from the 98 and put it in the 97. Obviously I have all the parts needed, but what I am unsure of is what I will have to do to complete the swap.

Will the engine from the 98, which is currently attached to an automatic transmission, be a direct swap to the 97 with the manual transmission? What I mean is, can I pull the engine and tranny from the 98, drop the tranny, do the same with the engine and tranny from the 97, and re-attach the engine from the 98 to the manual transmission from the 97, and put it all back in the 97 ?

I "assume" there may be some electronics that need to be changed as the engines are not the same.I think the engine in the 97 is a d16y7. The 98 engine is a d16y8 I believe)

Any help is appreciated. I have done a bit of wrenching in my life, but never anything like this.

Thanks,

greg

 

yes, you can do it no problem
just don't forget to switch out the flywheel too so that the engine from the 98 will now have a manual flywheel on it

you will need to put the 98 engine's ECU (computer) into the 97 car to use with the 98 engine, and you will also need the engine wiring harness from the 98 engine

 

o ya very simple swap! unplug the main computer harness wires on both sides, remove fuel hose off filter or fuel rail, remove axles, exhaust, radiator hoses put the motor on a lift and unbolt the motor/tranny mounts and drop the unit as one out the bottom of the car if you can get the car high enough, if not pull it up front the top.
be sure to remove the side motor mounts on both sides off the tranny and motor to pull it from the top.
hardest part i had with pulling my motor/tranny from my old 94civic was the axles... those where a PITA to pull. but other than that the pull and transplant was easy!!!!

dont worry about wiring being a problem. i believe the main harness off the motor will wire up to the stock harness just fine. just leave the harness on that motor.

only trouble you MIGHT HAVE is the intake i believe...

http://www.ff-squad.com/tech/wiring/wiring.96-98.jpg
http://www.ff-squad.com/tech/wiring/...-98_a-plug.jpg

well actualy after reading you might be fine without doing that. im not positive i was looking at the swap for my 99.
i wouldnt mess with it if it doesnt give you a check engine light then

just be sure you get the right sockets for the clutch and flywheel. they need the more sided socket. i dont remember if it was 12 or 16point socket... i know autozone doesnt carry them they just have standard sockets. i had to go to napa autoparts to get the right sockets.
and while the motor/tranny is apart go ahead and have the flywheel resurfaced and replace the clutch assembly and bearings as well. not difficult to change the clutch anyways. just grease the parts good around the throw out bearing and slip yoke to prevent any clunking sounds when worken the clutch.
its just cheap insurnace to replace the clutch parts while the motors open like that on the floor. might as well change the tranny fluid as well.

 

The 98 Civic has an ECU for a D16Y8 with an AT, and the 97 Civic has an ECU for a D16Y7 and a MT. Won't he need a new ECU for a D16Y8 with a MT?

 

This is almost a direct replacement since they're both 1.6 liter engines. You can simply keep using the ECU that's now in the 1997. The only difference is that the VTEC feature of the D16Y8 will not be hooked up. It will run like the old non-VTEC did.

 

o ya forgot about the auto computer.
just keep your computer until you can buy a y8 manual computer. just sell the parts from the auto/wreck for the new computer needed and clutch.

 

oops, forgot about the tranny difference
well he could convert it a to manual ECU if he has soldering skills

 

Trust, I wasn't aware this was feasible. Can you supply a link or instructions for how this would be done?

 

just realized it might be a little different for OBD2, or not even possible.
http://hondaswap.com/~pills/autotomanual.html

 

Would it be possible to just take the engine and transmisson from the 98 EX, and drop it into the 97 LX? So basically change the 97 from a non-vtec manual, to a v-tec automatic setup. Seems like if I could do that, then move the computers and wires over, this is doable.

I appreciate the info so far.

greg