z6/y8 Mini Me Advice

bemberg2 · Post by **bemberg2** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 6:58 am

I have a y7 stock engine right now and i need a new intake manifold and want to either swap out the whole head for a y8 or z6, but could settle for a y8 intake manifold. Is it worth it to do the whole swap right now? Im new to working on cars and dont have many tools, but need to learn. Sound like a good move?

Post by **stolle** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 2:52 pm

if you dont have a lot of tools, just swap out the intake manifold its easy enough and will give you a little practice before you tackle something like a head swap. in the mean time while your enjoying your new intake manifold you can buy parts that would complement the vtec head, like a header and cold air intake and an exhaust.

as far as your choice of heads i would find a y8 head as your distributor will bolt right on. the y7 distributor will not bolt to the z6 head without modding the distributor you may have wiring to change also as the y7/y8 has only 1 plug on the distributor and the z6 has 2. dont forget to get some y8 fuel injectors, the y7 injectors are only 190cc the y8's are 240cc you would have to get something to control the vtec either a vafc or a p2p ecu.

there are other issues also i just dont know off the top of my head something with the iacv going from 3 wires to 2 wires just search around and read up on it. its just not as simple as popping the y7 head off and slapping on a vtec head if you want to do it right anyway...good luck and have fun...

99BlackHatch · Post by **99BlackHatch** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 4:27 pm

Another problem with doing this type of setup in the (Y7) based car, is that once you do the swap, you will throw a Check Engine Light (CEL) for the Fuel Tank Pressure Sensor, depending if your car was built in the years to have it... Rumor has it that the '96 civic didn't come with this, yet I've seen people with '96 Civics throw this code.

SlowOne.5 and MidoriMiller had this problem on their cars and after many trials on loop holes to try and fix it, it never worked. Example: Changing and swapping ECU's, changing wiring, adding risistors to wiring, changing the Fuel Pressure Sensor... none of these worked.

Josh ended up just buying a "B" series since he wanted one and would make the CEL go away, but the car didn't make it in time for the swap... Stupid old people cutting him off.

And Kelly's car still has the problem and she has to get the car licensed out of town, Warren / Lincoln county.

The power is fun and makes it a little peppier, but might not be worth the headache farther down the line...

SlowOne.5 · Post by **SlowOne.5** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 4:46 pm

Don't do iiittttt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

JustRob · Post by **JustRob** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 5:05 pm

99BlackHatch;214125 wrote:Another problem with doing this type of setup in the (Y7) based car, is that once you do the swap, you will throw a Check Engine Light (CEL) for the Fuel Tank Pressure Sensor, depending if your car was built in the years to have it... Rumor has it that the '96 civic didn't come with this, yet I've seen people with '96 Civics throw this code.

SlowOne.5 and MidoriMiller had this problem on their cars and after many trials on loop holes to try and fix it, it never worked. Example: Changing and swapping ECU's, changing wiring, adding risistors to wiring, changing the Fuel Pressure Sensor... none of these worked.

You might as well add my name to this list too.

As other's have said, don't waste your time. The minimal gain is not worth the hassle if you care about staying OBD2A and passing emissions.

Post by **stolle** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 5:44 pm

so it seems its possible to add the ftp sensor to the existing fuel tank, could probably find the whole assembly at the junkyard if you got lucky or use an ecu from a 96 integra ls to pass smog (it does not look for the ftp sensor), has anyone else heard of that? i just cant wrap my head around this, there has to be some way. shit just use the stock ecu and an rpm switch, but then again i agree the performance gain is minimal and its most likely not worth it...

bemberg2 · Post by **bemberg2** » Tue Dec 22, 2009 2:40 am

good advice about the hassle and code pop up. I think I'll just do the intake and be happy for now. thanks all.

koolkid420 · Post by **koolkid420** » Tue Dec 22, 2009 3:45 am

you could atleast give it a try instead of never knowing for yourself. How r u to learn if u dont dive in. I have a mini me. Its easy. One step at a time.

HondaChild · Post by **HondaChild** » Thu Dec 24, 2009 1:21 am

I had a very successful and pretty quick mini-me swap on my hatch. I never had any problems that were mysterious or re-occurring. I got my intake manifold first, and then got all of my head swap shit together. I noticed a decent difference between the Y8 manifold and the Y7 one. I have always been a big fan of mini-me swaps and SOHC builds, I would like to do another some day. I say go for it, if you aren't very experienced with working on your Honda's engine yet start on your D and learn that first and everything else will be cake. Let me know if you have any other questions.

99BlackHatch · Post by **99BlackHatch** » Thu Dec 24, 2009 2:18 am

Hey, 1 out of 3 mini-swaps actually turn out well, and the nuetral party says go for it since it isn't his money, and the process of doing a head swap.

Swapping on a head with new head gasket, wiring, ECU, timing it correctly and then hope you don't get a CEL is the logical thing to do.