Honda Car Forum

I purchased a 5th gen hb honda civic with a swapped b16a2 from a 99 si. the stock rev limiter hits t 6500 sometimes at 7200 others. but far from the 8200 its supposed to. but the revlimit hits pretty consistantly at 30 mph 60 mph and 90 mph. its my tach off or do i need engine work.

it sounds like it might be in the tuning. if the guiy who swapped the engine put in a "break in tune" and never replaced it with a regular tune, that could be your problem. i dont know much about hondas, but thats my best guess.

It probably has the wrong ECU for that motor.

guy at work had to go get a chipped (hate that saying) ecu---Honda data is name of company- by the way this guy later turbo-ed it and now its faster than his rear wheel drive s2000, so he seems to know what hes doing. there is also alot of piggy back air/fuel controllers that you splice into ecu wires that can control that--usually says in advertisement if it has that option....apexi-greddy-haltech....

Lot of questions or potential issues with this car based on the setup you describe. What engine harness was used for the swap, distributor, ecu, etc. With the engine harness you need to make sure all of the wires were hooked up correctly on the engine end and the ecu end. Your car is a hatchback, if it is SI or VX (model) with factory sohc vtec then most of the wires are there on the ecu end but you still need to add knock sensor wires. If it is a CX or DX then all vtec wires, and knock sensor need to be added to the ecu end. Also the O2 sensors need to be rewired on the CX and VX models due to minor differences. The enging harness itself can be from any obd1 civic or integra. depending on what model you have you may need to make some changes.The distributor needs to be an OBD1 DOHC vtec or a OBD2 that has been properly rewired for OBD1 use.Your ecu would be best if it was a stock OBD1 1.6 DOHC vtec out of a JDM car ($200 used) USDM del sol vtec model, not si del sol (those are ex motors) a OBD1 GSR integra ecu can be used too. A p28 EX ecu can be used with a chip in it, but I would highly suggest not runing it unless a professional tunes your car on the dyno (cost: p28 ecu $100, tunable chip set up $50, dyno time with wideband O2 $100/hour est. 3 hours on a stock type car. ) Total $450 to do it right. I have run many cars with cheap chips and found some gains occasionally, but always with a reduction in fuel economy and reliablity / drivability. Best way to swap with your setup would be 99 si engine, JDM OBD1 DOHC 1.6 vtec ecu, OBD 1 distributor (1.8 and 1.6 work exactly the same despite different part numbers), Then an engine harness off of a 1994, or 1995 integra GSR. Then you add only the wires the chassis harness is missing. Depends on your specific model as I stated earlier. This combo is the easiest and the closest to being straight bolt in with no mods. Other combinations work if they are done right.Think about some of the things I wrote and ask another question. I will be on to answer it if I can help.KC