Last weekend I completed a B16A2 swap into my 1997 Civic DX Coupe all by myself. Not bad considering I had absolutely no experience and had gotten the required info from online forums. From what I had read, the only wires to be added for this swap were for the knock sensor (red) and the vtec activation solenoid (green/yellow). I added both these wires and connected them to the proper pin on the ecu connector. While adding the vtec (green/yellow wire) I realized that there were two other wires that needed to be added to my harness. I believe these are also for the vtec since it's a two wire connector just underneath the vtec activation solenoid. I'm sure with all the experience on here... someone can help.
Thanks

Sev Fontaine
sevfontaine@hotmail.com

 

It's me again... I finally got the VTEC wired up. Here is the info if someone else needs it. The first wire to be added is the one for the vtec solenoid (green/yellow wire to pinout A8 on ecu). The two other wires are on a connector just below the vtec solenoid. There is a black and a blue wire. The black is simply a ground and the blue wire is for the vtec oil pressure switch (blue wire to pinout C15). When swapping the B16A2 in a 6G non-VTEC civic the is also a need to add a red wire for the knock sensor (red wire to pinout D6).
Hope this helps for others who follow!

 

Good info, sorry I missed this thread. The other wire's were a ground (black) and VTEC pressure sensor.

Just some worthless info, some later model JDM B18C's don't have an oil pressure sensor on the VTEC solenoid. It's simply capped and the ECU doens't look for it.

How's the car running? Feel strong, congrats on the swap. Seeya.

 

Thanks... The car is running really good. I could never go back to a D series engine now cause it would feel like a pedal bike compared to a Yamaha R1 Motorcycle.
I've even managed to get rid of all cel codes except for one. The Electrical Load Detector code comes up. I've had a quick look at the wiring diagrams for both the Del Sol VTEC 97 (engine donor) and my 97 Civic DX Coupe and I can't quite figure out what's wrong. I think that sensor is the one that reads the battery voltage and tells the alternator to stop charging when the battery is full but I'm really not sure. Anyway when I wired up the alternator. I had to change my D series connector for the B series one. The main difference is that there was an extra wire on one of the two conectors... I forget which one exactly. Anyway... I suspect that this wire should be connected somewhere but I just don't know where. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Oh.. and one more question.. how does the VTEC engage if there is no VTEC oil pressure sensor on the JDM B18??? Does the ecu activate it only based on the RPM and vehicle speed???

Thanks :thumbup:

 

Cool. I know how you feel. I used to drive my hybrid ('92 CX/B18C1) for a week or two straight then go back to my '98 EX (with the stock SOHC VTEC) and I'd be hitting the rev limiter waiting for some power.

I don't have a Del Sol book. I'll try to see if I can spot anything for that third wire in the alternator. Sounds about right.

As for the JDM's, I assume they just disregard oil pressure and just go of engine RPM alone. Most likely if the pressure's high enough to not set off your dummy light on your dash, it's sufficent for VTEC to engage. I guess they though two sensors was redundant. Seeya.

 

OK... My ELD cel code is finally solved. After the swap was completed and almost everything was connected I still had 2 codes left. The one for the secondary oxygen sensor which made sense since it wasn't connected yet and the Electrical Load Detector cel code. When I connected the secondary oxygen sensor it got rid of both codes and then I got to wondering why. In the end, I concluded that since my secondary oxygen has 4 wires... 2 for oxygen sensing and 2 for the internal heating element that the heating element requires power to operate. From this I deducted that the electical load detector must detect the current drawn from the battery for critical engine functions only and from this reading the ecu compensates by having the altenator supply enough power. Since my secondary oxygen sensor heating element was not connected.. the eld circuit was open and as such was throwing a code. As a quick fix... I'm sure I could have just connected a resistor between the two heating element wires and it would have at least gotten rid of the eld code. HMMMM... sounds like an experiment for the weekend.

 

I know it's after the fact, but here are some nice links for B16 swaps. I don't know how well thses translate for B18 swaps (P75 or P72 ecus)

http://www.hondaswap.com/articles/viewer.php?id=17

http://tech2.hybridgarage.com/ecu.php?ecutype=p30_obd1

OH, and here is a P72

http://tech2.hybridgarage.com/ecu.php?ecutype=p72_obd1

-PHiZ