Honda guys I need your opinions...

[Turbo Dan-O]

I have a chance to pickup 2 Hondas cheap from my friend. A super clean 89 Civic DX with no motor and a slightly wrecked 91 DX with the 1.5 and 5spd. I know NOTHING about Hondas! Would this be a good starting point for a high FE car? I know there are all kinds of motors and tranys that will go in this car. I have heard that the "FE" trans is the best for low cruising RPMs. What about this 1.5, good motor? I am about to give up on finding a nice Metro and just want to know if this car could pull off or at least get close to Metro MPGs.

Dan-O

[S2k-Takara]

Get the one without engine. put in an hf engine or d15z1 from a vx..

[some_other_dave]

There is very little difference between the 89 DX and the 91 DX. Both feature a 1.5 liter DPFI (Dual-Point FI, a throttle-body type injection system) engine and a medium-geared transmission. If you swap the 91 drivetrain into the 89 you'll pretty much have a stock DX. Which is OK for fuel economy, as it is a nice light car with modest power and reasonable gearing.

Swapping the CRX HF transmission (88-91) in will result in a much "taller" geared trans. The individual gears are taller in that one, and the final drive ratio is taller as well, so there is a very noticeable difference as far as RPM vs. speed. You could do the MPFI (Multi-Point Fuel Injection, a port-style fuel injection which was used on the Si, EX, and in the 88-91 CRX HF) swap and then put a CRX HF motor in. That plus the transmission would effectively give you a heavy CRX HF with slightly worse aero, which would be a very nice basis to go from.

You can also swap in just about any Honda D-series motor with a little difficulty (mostly the wiring for the more advanced ones), and some of those can also produce very good MPG numbers in a lightweight car.

...Sounds like a reasonable start to me!

-soD

[Christ]

I'd do it. I almost miss having a Civic, but I left the scene because people wanted too much for parts, and I'm a big fan of used parts. It was just getting too expensive to go the route I was going, which wasn't really FE. (Although that was pretty decent, too.)

HF motors and transmissions can be had pretty cheaply, because there are very few people interested in keeping those on hand. The stock DX gears are fairly reasonable, if you can't find a decent HF trans. Other than that, the OE DX 1.5L engine has somewhere between 70 and 92 HP, depending on which motor it actually is. If you end up with a D15B1, swap the cam for that from a D15B2, and get better torque, and either similar or better economy.

If you want to do an MPFI swap, you need to decide what your end result will be. The MPFI swap for an HF engine will be slightly different, as there is some wiring that was changed in the HF versus the EX/Si of that generation, and all models of later generations.

There is a LOT of information out there about these cars, and looking in performance oriented forums will net you the same information for the most part, regarding swaps and wiring/parts interchange.

[SVOboy]

Get the CRX and put an hybrid system in it!!!

I would do it

[Ryland]

If it's the hatch back then go for it!
even the four door sedan is ok, but not nearly as nice as the hatch back.
keeping it stock is going to be the easy route and the way I would go because I like to keep things simple, any civic tranny from 1988-1991 will bolt in.
The CRX HF got mid 50's for mileage and the drive train bolted in to any of the civics if the same years but wiring varied so unless you enjoy learning the wiring of the car I would again keep it simple.

[Turbo Dan-O]

Yea, they are both hatch cars. I will need(and have to take) both to make one good car. The 89 does not have a motor or tranny but the 91 does. Will swaping to MPFI help MPGs? I am thinking about getting it going stock with a HF trans. What kind of MPGs do you guys think that could pull off? Thakns for the help on this!

Dan-O

[Clev]

Originally Posted by Turbo Dan-O

Yea, they are both hatch cars. I will need(and have to take) both to make one good car. The 89 does not have a motor or tranny but the 91 does. Will swaping to MPFI help MPGs? I am thinking about getting it going stock with a HF trans. What kind of MPGs do you guys think that could pull off? Thakns for the help on this!

Civics are a theft magnet here in SoCal. I would much rather have a 3 cylinder Metro.

[Ryland]

If you can do the Multi-point fuel injection on a regular 1.5L engine then go for it, it should give a small boost in mileage, if you can get a CRX HF engine with the MPFI then you will for sure see a boost in mileage as that engine also has a cam that is tuned for better mileage and lower RPMs along with some other small tweaks from the factory to that engine.
also see if you can get some HF, civic VX, civic HX or Honda insight rims, once you get the car up and running of course.

[Christ]

Also, if you can find them, the rear drums from early CRX's are aluminum with steel lining. They're lighter, which means less rotational inertia.