Just curious if that was possible instead of a cable conversion.

 

yes

 

if thats the case, could i buy a b16a1 shortblock, put on a b16a2 head, intake mainifold, exhaust manifold, distributer, and hydro tranny, then use an obd 2 ecu from a usdm si and swap all that into my 96 civic??

I plan on getting a shortblock or longblock first so I can start building it, so I figure I could just start with a b16a1 shortblock because they are cheaper than b16a2 shortblocks.

What does everyone think about this?

 

An SiR-I(there's no such thing as a B16A1, by the way, JDM B16As don't have a number suffix) B16A may seem cheaper at first, but you'll have to get a bunch of other stuff, and that adds up. Why don't you just get a complete B16A2 swap, they're only like 2000-2200 and you won't have to hunt down a tranny and all the other stuff. A tranny alone is going to run at least $500-700 for a non-LSD hydro, and 1200-1500 for an LSD R, depending on the FD you want. There's also the issue of OBD generations. Things get unnecessarilly complicated when you start trying to mix n match OBD generations since wiring and sensors will differ between them.

 

I'm going to chime in here for a second.Ispyral,there actually is a B16A1 in Europe the 90-91 B16A1's had a numerical designation at the end of the block code.And I believe it was the CR-X the very first JDM rex w/the B16A also had a A1 at the end,but it is very rare to find,or maybe the teg Xsi,I forget which one.But I know there is one.
And to Bambbrose,there is no O in hydraulic.And for your car I would definitely not bother with a siR short or long block you'd be screwing yourself out of 10hp and getting a older block.Look for a B16A3 from a delsol vtec (going to be really hard to find) or a B16A2 from a 99-00 si as suggested above.