[steffen707]

Well 2 years ago I bought a 92 civic vx with 200,000 miles without title for $900. Several months ago I swapped the motor into my 96 dx hatch. The car has manual windows and locks. No power steering, but the AC blows ice cold. Before doing the swap i replaced the clutch and flywheel, spark plugs, timing belt and water pump.

After first doing the swap i had horrible hesitation coming off lean burn, after consulting with some fellow moders I discovered that the factory sugested spark plugs perform much better than the crappy aftermarket junk sombody else had in there. After putting a set of the right plugs in, I gained 10 mpg on the highway, from 30-40mpg. This was only on a 5 mile test using a mpguino, but the hesitation went away. ONLY USE THE PROPER PLUGS.

I was going to swap in an HF final drive, but decided to just try it with the VX gearing first. Boy am I glad i did that. With such a heavy vehicle, I don't think i would get better gas mileage with the HF final drive. I may try it out someday, but for now i'm enjoying the stock VX gearing.

Good news is that the exhaust bolts right up to the center section of the exhaust without any modification.

To compliment my motor, i bought Honda Insight Bridgestone RE92 tires and mounted them on my 10.8 pound miata 14" wheels. What a light weight combo.

After the first 2500 miles I was severely disapointed in the setup. I assumed that my car was much too heavy for the lean burn power output. I was rarely able to maintain 70mph with A/C, usually couldn't maintain 65mph with A/C. Quite frustrated with the car, i decided to try things without A/C, and what a difference this made. I was getting 35 mpg combined city/highway, and after turning off the AC i was up to 49-51mpg average.

This car loves 55-60mph. My girlfriend and I loaded the car up with camping stuff and 2 coolers. With both of us in the car and a full tank of gas the car weighed 2940 lbs. We took a 1400 mile trip through the U.P. which is almost only 2 lane 55mph roads. We averaged 52mpg verified at the pump and was within 1mpg of my mpguino. I put 50psi into the tires before the trip.

I drafted a modern airstream RV for 16 miles at about 55mph maintaining about 2 car lengths distance and was able to achieve 72mpg for those 16 miles. The best i got was going 14 miles down the porcupine mountains which was mostly coasting in 5th gear with 0 throttle, i was able to get 89mpg.

In normal 4 lane highway driving I try to maintain 65mph unless there is a SUV or semi in front of me. Giving as much as 3-4 length of space I can still draft and get 66mpg while drafting at 70mph.

I have noticed that even though I can get into lean burn mode relatively quickly, it likes being fully warmed up before giving the best mileage. For instance, if i drive to my friends place on a cold engine I can get 50mpg for the 2 mile drive. With it fully warmed up from driving around then doing the 2 mile drive, I can get 70mpg. My jaw almost dropped yesterday when I got 75mpg driving 3 miles through town.

Of course limiting the number of full stops is crucial and also coasting to stops yields free miles of travel with 9999999mpg.

Anyways, very long post by me, but hopefully this helps some fellow ecomodders out there with their projects. If you are skeptical that your car is too heavy for a d15z1 swap, use my experience of 2940 lbs civic achieving 52mpg for 1400 mile trip and GO FOR IT!