my 88 wago

89wago89wago Band Wagon
in Rides & Builds- Civic wagons
hey everyone figured ive been chatting to all the wagon fans on this forum for long enough and i finally got my camera to work so heres a quick pic of my wagon. i bought it from a random guy who stopped into NAPA autoparts where i work for 800 he couldnt figure out the notorious main relay problem. haha so far the only modifications ive done are miata wheels and a cold air intake that is mounted where the resonator used to be. in a week or so im probly going to slamm this bad boy and do the top hat mod. I am very interested in fabrication and want to see how this works. sorry i only have one pic but its a start.
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Comments

  • NJCIVICWAGON1NJCIVICWAGON1 Council Member
    Welcome. Good score for $800.
  • wagodizzlewagodizzle Council Member and EDM expert
    welcome to the forum!
  • 89wago89wago Band Wagon
    do you know of any one else that has miata wheels of some sort on this forum?
  • wagodizzlewagodizzle Council Member and EDM expert
    duckie used too... but he hasnt been on this forum in over a year :(
  • EDwEFprtsEDwEFprts Senior Wagonist
    89wago wrote:
    ...in a week or so im probly going to slamm this bad boy and do the top hat mod. I am very interested in fabrication and want to see how this works.
    do it!
    and welcome.
  • 89wago89wago Band Wagon
    well now theres been a change of plans seeing as i think either my headgasket went out or the head cracked. Either way its goin to benefit greatly a buddy of mine is giving me a 1.6 head to slap on there for a little more umph and i figured since its torn apart i might as well lower it as well haha ill try to post pix up as soon as i can.
  • DRMORTYDRMORTY Council Member
    Top Hat Mod???
  • 89wago89wago Band Wagon
    there is a thread explaining all of it in the suspension area. quite interesting if your on a budget and want to lower your car
  • AK_CRXAK_CRX New Wagonist
    what kind of 1.6 head?
  • 89wago89wago Band Wagon
    the y8 vtec head is what im using
  • AK_CRXAK_CRX New Wagonist
    you going to use an rpm switch or obd1 conversion w/vtec ecu?
  • akiraboyakiraboy HondaCivicWagon.com Founder
    welcome to the board
  • 89wago89wago Band Wagon
    just a simple shift light wired up to be a rpm switch for now. when i do the mpfi swap then i might swap to obo1 but really theres not many gains from that over just a simple rpm switch.
  • AK_CRXAK_CRX New Wagonist
    You're abolutely right. Contrary to what everyone on H-T thinks, there really is no gain to the obd-1 switch on a mini-me. Beware that your dpfi setup will more than likely run that setup dangerously lean though. You should be ok temporarily by retarding the distrubutor and running premium, but you might still predetonate under certain driving conditions (low rpm, heavy load). Stock dpfi d15's are known to knock on reg gas @ only 9.1:1 compression, and your bumping up to about 10.5:1. But switch over to the 88-91 mpfi ecu, dist, and intake manifold and it will run great on 92 octane. Also, if you haven't done it yet, you oughta buy the head gasket to match the head. The one for the d15b2 will work fine, but the newer style is a direct swap, they're three layer metal, they bump the compression a tad higher, and I've never seen the metal style head gasket blow like I have the old ones.
  • 89wago89wago Band Wagon
    well i dont plan on hooking up the vtec untill i get the mpfi intake on i just recieved the mani fold complete with fuel rail and injectors. Will this help the lean problem. also ive been having a problem with my car getting realy hot while im driving but when i sit there idleing the temp stays at the middle. after reading im thinking its a clogged radiator after i let it warm up i felt the top of the radiator and the top of it to the left of the rad. cap was blistering hot but to the right of the cap it was freezing cold.

    also upon lookin at the head a little closer i did the install with a z6 head not the y8 sorrry ha
  • AK_CRXAK_CRX New Wagonist
    Z6 head is good news, it is a better flowing head vs. the y8, and the cc's are a little larger to give a slightly lower more manageable compression ratio. keeping it in low vtec is a good idea untill you get the mpfi sorted out... You'll have to enlarge one or two of the holes in the distributor (d16a6 distributor) and only use two of the three bolts, but it isn't a big deal at all. Which intake manifold did you get?
  • 89wago89wago Band Wagon
    well actually we ended up using the stock d15b2 dizzy. and as far as the intake goes it came off of another z6 head i have laying around. also can anyone give me a breif explanation on the wiring setup for mpfi over dpfi. from what i see under the hood i can just spice two more wires off of the injectors that are already there and it looks to me like the plug ins for the tps is already there just located in a diff spot. but we did get it running runs great so far w/o vtec untill we get the mpfi and the cooling issue figured out which im sure is a clogged radiator. monday when im waiting for the radiator im going to see how well the fork mod lowers the front of the car. for those unfamiliar witht said mod. it is simply cutting the brake line bracekets off and moveing the fork up on the strut.
    wish me luck hah
  • lucskywalkerlucskywalker Wagonist
    89wago wrote:
    well actually we ended up using the stock d15b2 dizzy. and as far as the intake goes it came off of another z6 head i have laying around. also can anyone give me a breif explanation on the wiring setup for mpfi over dpfi. from what i see under the hood i can just spice two more wires off of the injectors that are already there and it looks to me like the plug ins for the tps is already there just located in a diff spot. but we did get it running runs great so far w/o vtec untill we get the mpfi and the cooling issue figured out which im sure is a clogged radiator. monday when im waiting for the radiator im going to see how well the fork mod lowers the front of the car. for those unfamiliar witht said mod. it is simply cutting the brake line bracekets off and moveing the fork up on the strut.
    wish me luck hah

    sorry to brake the new to you that distributor wont work any more, and you cant just splice extra wires off the dpfi one's
    as that would be and easy approach it just wont work. funny though i met a good friend this way some guy did his swap to LS and did it this way. to my surprise he did get it to run but it only drove when he floored it it popped and whined took almost a whole tank of gas to get 10 miles to my shop, and burned the mpfi injectors out to boot wich further complicated what i had to do :roll: look in engine and drivetrain go to engine faq then to dpfi to mpfi. got something in there for you :D its real easy to do the right way :D
  • AK_CRXAK_CRX New Wagonist
    Keep in mind that the z6 manifold you have has newer style injectors (saturated) that don't use an injector resistor box... All of the dpfi to mpfi write ups your going to see are meant for people using the peak hold injectors like found in an 88-91 mpfi car. To simplify the conversion try to find some peak hold injectors, they will fit right in. The one's you have will work, but then your doing two conversions at once (dpfi-mpfi and peak hold-saturated) and may become a headache. http://hondaswap.com/general-tech-artic ... ors-30347/
  • 89wago89wago Band Wagon
    I put the dizzy in and it runs great with the d15b2 dizzy.
  • evol911evol911 familEE
    OBD0 dizzys work in Z6 setups as long as you run a chipped to Vtec OBD0 ECU. You would have to switch to OBD1 ecu if you ran the Z6/OBD1 dizzy and injectors. You can buy chipped PS9 ECU's (automatic '91 EX Civic) to run a Mini-Me with OBD0 dizzy/injectors for like $150 and I think it comes with 2 different chip options. Check xenocron.com :wink:
  • 89wago89wago Band Wagon
    are you saying that it shouldnt run right now the way it is?
  • evol911evol911 familEE
    Nope.... saying if you want tuning capabilities, what I wrote is the options you have. If you use a RPM switch, whats the point???? Vtec will kick in but there will be no increase in fuel for the VTEC or no spark adjustments, sounds like detonation to me at WOT!!
  • AK_CRXAK_CRX New Wagonist
    The thing with the dizzy... Your d15b2 dizzy will work fine the way you have your car setup, when you switch to mpfi you'll need a d16a6 dizzy. I wouldn't bother going the xenocron chipped for vtec route, it will yeild such little gains on a na mini-me. If you ever decide to boost it I'd go obd1 for tuning capability, but chipped obd0 is prehistoric. I have to agree to disagree here, because yes, you may get more power from a chipped ps9 (2-3 more hp) but I don't see it being worth the hassle on such an entry level low hp setup. Save up for an obd1 conversion when you decide to take if further (ie. boost) IMO. I've ran simple high compression mini-me's with bolt ons just using an RPM switch and they ran great
  • evol911evol911 familEE
    OBD0 may be prehistoric but you can run the PS9 ECU and burn chips for it all day long with no mods to your wiring harness (except converting to MPFI which has to be done anyways). It uses one pin-out in the ECU that would normally be for the Auto trans lock-up for vtec instead. I can't figure why you say 2-3hp gains when really its limitless(to a certain extent mind you) in tuning, almost as much so as OBD1. OBD1 would be better but if you were on a budget you could easily get away with close to the same tuning capability on OBD0 stuff with maybe a little less hassle.
  • lucskywalkerlucskywalker Wagonist
    http://www.hondacivicwagon.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=4766
  • 89wago89wago Band Wagon
    so ak-crx you said that youve ran a couple mini-mes on just and rpm switch and mpfi? they dint run dangerously lean as ive been told?
  • AK_CRXAK_CRX New Wagonist
    They always ran great on 92 octane, If I had couple people in the car and going up hill @ low rpm I'd occasionaly hear some ping, but definately none @ WOT/High rpm. The factory tune is so conservative that adding a 'lil compression isn't going to put it over the edge of being tooo lean. Leaner is meaner, as long as it's not pinging I'm happy. Don't get me wrong, you'd eak out some more power with a real tune but how far are you going to go on a n/a 1.5 mini me right? wideband, data logging, chip burning etc for a setup that's never gonna see over 115 whp, naaaa... Later on you could put in a d16 bottom end w/lower comp and boost it, then tuning would be a worthy investment of your time/money
  • evol911evol911 familEE
    AK_CRX wrote:
    They always ran great on 92 octane, If I had couple people in the car and going up hill @ low rpm I'd occasionaly hear some ping, but definately none @ WOT/High rpm. The factory tune is so conservative that adding a 'lil compression isn't going to put it over the edge of being tooo lean. Leaner is meaner, as long as it's not pinging I'm happy. Don't get me wrong, you'd eak out some more power with a real tune but how far are you going to go on a n/a 1.5 mini me right? wideband, data logging, chip burning etc for a setup that's never gonna see over 115 whp, naaaa... Later on you could put in a d16 bottom end w/lower comp and boost it, then tuning would be a worthy investment of your time/money


    I concur :wink:
  • AK_CRXAK_CRX New Wagonist
    Did you remove the oil jet from the deck of your d15 before putting the vtec head on?

    It goes in this hole...

    78.jpg

    The vtec head has this restrictor built in, so if you don't remove the one from your deck you'd be running dual restrictors which will eventually lead to cam seize, snapped cam, bent valves etc.
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