'95 Civic DX engine options?
 

I've got a '95 Civic DX 5spd with around 200k on it. Stone dead reliable and It gets 38-40 day in day out for me. A little above 40 on the hwy if I keep it under 65. This is my work beater. It has had a bad piston slap since I got it 5 years ago. Now it's really burning oil and won't pass emissions. PO did 0 maint. I'm an old fart and It's getting hard to get in and out of in cold weather but it's just so hard to walk away from 40 mpg and cash flow is low right now. Kid in college.

So I'm looking for options. I'm used to working on Honda's but don't know all the engine options and such for sure. Right now it has a D15b7 4 valve engine. What are my other options for a plug and play drop in without replacing wiring harnesses and such. Just the engine and plug in ecm type of deal. I'm looking for MPG not performance. I've read the engine I have now is far from the strongest bottom ends Honda has made. Would a vtec 1600 from same vintage car get better or worse mileage? Would I be better off just finding a good running JY d15 to replace what I have. The car IS a beater so I don't want to drop a ton of cash in it. It's got some rust and dents.

Find a good used engine of the same model and plug it in. As long as the ring seal is better than what you have right now, you'll be happy. And don't worry about bottom end strength unless you are going to be racing the thing.

There wasn't a 1.6L in that time frame that got good mileage, the 1.5 vtec from the civic vx did, but that gets in to the complex wiring altho some say it is not that bad.
I don't know how hard it would be, but the civic cx (base model) should give you a few extra mpg if you swap transmissions as well, otherwise, like has been said, just a straight engine replacement should be good for another 200,000+ miles, engines from Japan tend to be lower mile engines but cost a little more, car-part.com tends to be pretty good for finding any part I've ever needed, Craigslist is good too as it's a common car for people to pull perfectly good engines out for swaps, but be warry of people who might have abused the engine that they pulled because it was not what they wanted.

I was going to write something, but Ryland said exactly what I would have said. But I'll add, replace the timing belt on the replacement motor while it's out. You may want to replace the clutch too. Both kits can be had for a total of $150-170. Here's a motor close to you.

92-95 Honda Civic 1.5 DX Motor

I'd offer $400-450

You also don't need to get the engine shipped to you, it fit nicely in the hatchback of the car. One of my friend did it in his 94 civic.

BTW I wouldn't pay more than 2-300$ for a good engine on those civic, soooo many people swap them theres an aboundance of them...

Yup, swap it out for another of the same model. The only 1.6L available in the 5th generation Civics was the D16Z6, and it can get good gas mileage if driven lightly, but you have to wire up VTEC to make it work.