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New CRX project starting in June of 2007. 
Need to sell some cars NOW!
Please help!

1971 VW Super Beetle For Sale

1991 Honda CRX For Sale


Cruise Control Installation in a First Generation CRX

At the moment, this site is documenting the B16A1 engine swap into my 1986 CRX DX. Later this winter, the site will place more emphasis on home audio projects. UPDATE: Yeah, well, I haven't updated this site in quite awhile. "Audio Projects" never happened. 

Here’s a picture of the CRX right before starting the B16A1 engine swap. This was taken in August of 2004. I bought the car new at Las Vegas Honda, from salesman Jeff Chaulker in September of 1986. (The last ’86 rex left on the lot.)

This is the original engine just before it was pulled, with about 198,600 miles on it. I was starting to see a traces of oil in the radiator water at this point.  Later, when the original engine was disassembled, the head gasket and everything else in there looked perfect. No idea of where the oil was coming from. Oh well, it was a good excuse to do the engine swap! 

B16A1 engine/transmission as received from the eBay seller. The seller never sent the PR3 ecu that was supposed to go with this swap. Ebay wasn’t any help. The engine had plenty of sludge on the valve train and in the oil pan. Amazingly, the overall condition of the engine was excellent. The machine shop that when through the engine said that it definitely had less than 50,000 miles on it. 

Here's what I found when the valve cover was pulled! Probably was driven 30,000 miles in downtown Tokyo without an oil change.

The B16A1 with the head off before rebuild. Nice and clean!

November 26, 2004. The engine compartment is now ready for a B16. New ’91 CRX SI wiring harness is in place. That's the new steel braided fuel line coiled up on the windshield. I bought a little too much! UPDATE: NEVER use a steel braided fuel line if the line will run through the interior of the vehicle. Gas fumes will leach out of the line and fill the car with a gas smell. Use aluminum tubing instead.

The front end was totally rebuilt for safety. New ball joints, new inner and outer tie rod ends, new lower control arms, new lower control arm bushings, new sway bar bushings, new brake lines, and new KYB struts were installed. Integra steering knuckles with the bigger disc brakes were added, along with new front wheel bearings.

Well, it’s December 6, 2004 and the engine is in! The axles and steering knuckles are in. Gas tank is done. Radiator and heater hoses are in. The battery shelf was modified to fit over the right engine mount. Next spring, the battery will go to the rear of the car and a cold air intake will be fitted. Still need to install the shift linkage, hook up the wiring, install the “AN” fitting on the fuel supply line, bleed the brakes, and a bunch more. Now that the engine is in, I found a couple of connectors that don’t reach their plugs. Still MORE wiring to do. Ugh!

UPDATE: February 6, 2005

The car is “sort of” finished. I don’t think the mods will ever really stop. But, the REX is out on the streets and running fine! Current mileage is about 600. About 10 hours of maintenance was completed this weekend; first oil change, the rear brake drums were painted, air cleaner was oiled, glass pack muffler was installed up front to cut down the noise, tranny oil level checked, DC short shifter installed, gauge cluster “repaired”, new gauge cluster shroud installed, battery water level checked, hose clamps tightened, and the MSD fuel pump was isolated from the chassis to cut down the noise level inside the car.  A new “red” valve cover has been added and the Trust strut bar was installed. No need for a cold air intake yet, since the temperatures are still quite low here in Wisconsin.

Now for some driving impressions after the first 600 miles:

First off, the J1 transmission is geared really, really, really, low – this point can’t be emphasized enough – it’s geared low! In normal around town driving, I shift into 5th gear at about 40 mph to keep the rpm’s (and noise) down. If you look at the dyno horsepower curves for the B16, you see that the real power does not come on until you hit the VTEC engagement point at around 5400 RPM. The J1 tranny allows you to hit VTEC very quickly. In stoplight races, this REX is the hole shot champ! The low first gear gets 5000 rpm easily, shift to second, and this thing pulls like a freight train! On the highway, passing in 5th gear, acceleration from 70 to xxx MPH takes a second (well, maybe two) because you are at the VETC point. So much fun! I should mention that this car has a Quaife LSD. I can’t say enough good things about the Quaife LSD. Wheel spin in first gear is nil. A chirp in second and you are gone. Even on wet or icy pavement, you can get a hole shot that will stun that macho big V8 4x4 pickup driver in the next lane. Now, please understand, I don’t drive FAST all the time – just once in awhile, when the conditions are right. I haven’t had a moving violation since 1992. UPDATE: "Warning" ticket in Dec '06.

And then there’s vibration. Vibration has been the biggest headache since getting the car on the road. The Hasport motor mounts have very rigid bushings inside. All engine vibration is coupled directly to the chassis. There are things under the car, inside the car, and outside the car that vibrate at different rpm levels. Eventually, I hope to track down and eliminate most of the vibrating items. UPDATE: Once the outside air temperature gets above 70 degrees the vibration noises are not a problem.  (The mounts soften and the plastic parts on the car are more flexible at higher temperatures.)

Update: March 2005

I picked up a used DC 4-2-1 header on eBay and had two O2 bungs welded on the DC header for the B16 engine management. At about the 1100 mile point, the catalytic converter destroyed itself and blew its insides out the tailpipe! I had been getting an intermittent 02 error code from the ECU before the blowout. I chose to ignor the check engine light because the weather was too cold to trouble shoot and the car was running fine.  That move cost me a couple hundred bucks. I replaced the cat and both 02 sensors. UPDATE: At 13,000 miles, that replacement catalytic converter is still O.K., allthough I do get an occasional "43" ECU error code after driving very hard. The ECU always resets right away. BTW: I had no problem passing the Wisconsin vehicle emissions test with the B16.

UPDATE: April 2007

Here's a picture of the engine as it looks now. A new Optima battery has been relocated to the rear. Cruise control has been installed. The car is rusting badly and the car will have to be scrapped soon. I'm hoping to get to the drag strip one time before pulling the engine.