New Member w/ CRX HF
 

Hi there,

Been driving my CRX HF for about 10,000miles and love the 50+ MPG's

Thinking about swapping a d15z1 motor to get some much needed HP, A/C and maybe some more MPG's.

I used to live in Williamsburg VA and drove my current 98 Civic (without A/C) while I lived there. I sympathize with the A/C desire. But though you might get more HP and A/C from the swap, I doubt that it will mean more MPG. It will probably mean noticeably less MPG. Some of the low-power feeling is from gearing probably. The final drive on the HF was even taller than the later VX and HX models. It's a sweet car you have. Despite the heat there in South Eastern VA, I would keep it as is and simply aeromod it.

Picture of my last two cars

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/...ht_and_crx.jpg

Left side: my current 2000 Honda Insight. Right side: not mine, but looks like my previous car - a 1988 CRX HF

The Insight was an extreme makeover of the CRX HF that replaced aluminum with steel, and 1.5 ICE with a 995cc hybrid engine.

It's going to be hard to get more power AND increase the mpgs, unless you are going to add a turbo or maybe do an engine transplant and replace the OEM with a TDI.

You think so? I've read of multiple people who have cone this swap. Everyone who has actually done it seems to have picked up at least a few MPG's.

The car that the motor came out of is rated at 50 mpg on the highway. And fuel economy.gov seems to be on the conservative side. and the car weighs at least 400lbs more than my HF.

I know it seems plausible. 400lbs is a lot less weight. But I would bet these folks reporting MPG gains from larger engines did not rigorously test in the ABA format that would produce reliable measures of MPG changes. They probably just think the engine is the reason for their changes in MPG when in reality their driving habits changed, or their existing habits fit the BSFC mapping of the new engine better. Nonetheless, a good hypermiler will get better economy in your existing engine than in the one you propose to replace it with. Here's a link that deals with these themes some more. My suggestion would be smaller engine, better hypermiling, and really good aeromods. The last option will increase your effective HP at highway speeds by reducing drag, which wastes HP. And really good aeromods will save you gas. As long as you don't stomp on the gas pedal all day! ;)

Another problem is finding a stock CRX HF engine with low miles or a rebuild kit for the motor. Not easily done!

If you'll be doing the entire civic vx swap get ready for some work. It was my first swap ive ever done but then again I did it from a crx dx to a crx vx ;)

It seems like a swap like that takes most people the better part of a year to finish because the d15z1 engine has a lot more wiring to go along with it to make it work right and not everyone finishes the swap, taking a perfectly good CRX HF off the road.
But I do agree with you, you should/could see an increase in mileage, of course one of the guys on here who did that swap and added A/C saw a drastic drop in mileage with the A/C use.

Hell If I know why anyone thinks they need to use an hf to do this.

Sacrifice a all hated dpfi dx :thumbup: like i did :D

I wouldn't exactly describe my HF as "perfectly good". More like ugly, faded dented, oil burning/leaking hunk of junk on the verge of popping. But it does average 50MPG, it can't be that bad.

I planned on doing a ODB-0 to ODB-1 patch cable to save myself alot of trouble. I've done swaps before also. The most extensive one is a WRX motor in a '74 Porsche 914 which is still in progress. It has been off the road for 2 years, but not due to the swap (well, not entirely).