Late March, 2002
Here is the jewel! It's a
B16A with automatic tranny! Almost nobody runs these, but I figured
since the DX is an auto, it would be easier to drop in an auto...I'm not
so sure now. But, I'm not done yet so only time will tell.
The engine came complete with valve cover, all sensors, alternator and
PS pump, butI've got the "B" pretty well stripped down in the photo.
I wanted to have a good look inside before the initial start up.
Here we are half way through the
homemade wiring harness build-up. What a mess, huh?!? Being
too cheap to go out and buy a harness, I decided that since the ECU had
about 10 inches of wire and the motor had two main bundles of wire still
attached, I could just link up wires between the two. The major problem
is that I only had two colors of wire black and yellow/green so I made
sure to double check every wire before soldering it in place! I must
have done pretty good because once I got everything hooked up, I squirted
just a bit of starting fluid in the manifold, hit the starter and the engine
immediately roared to life and settled into a smooth idle (with a big cloud
of smoke from the tablespoon of oil I put in each cylinder to loosen 'er
up before starting). Now that I know I have a running engine/ECU
I plan to do a little more tune-up work before the install...plugs, wires,
distributor, belts, hoses, timing belt, oil pan/valve cover gaskets, etc.
I don't plan to hot-rod the hell out of this engine or tweak it 'till it
runs like shit, so hopefully it will have a long and happy life!
About the only thing I would like to add is a header to get rid of that
chunky cast iron manifold front and my pipes that go under the engine are
a bit beat, too.