Civic VI '96 D14A4 - "tune-up"?

[Vadrun]

Hello,
I'm all new to this, please don't kill me if I say something stupid ^^"

This is my first car, I love it, but I do not know everything about cars, tuning, etc. - I'm here to learn.
There is a lot of info on the net, from mechanics, Civic fans, but I would love to get all of this info straight so my car would work properly

I drive Honda Civic VI '96 EJ EK 3-door 90HP D14A4 automatic HB (EU).
The "Automatic" part will probably be (if not surely) a bit of a "blasphemy" to a lot of people

So, on this note, my questions:

- I want to change from OBD2a to OBD1, so I can program it to work well with new parts. Where I can get: an OBD1 computer for automatic D14A4,
obd2a to obd1 adaptor for automatic gearbox? I guess there is a special one, since I've seen a shop online with this part but the description said "not meant for automatic"?

- I know that I could swap D14A4 inject manifold with 1.6 ver (along with exhaust manifold and exhaust system itself), but I've also heard that the whole engine header is a "plug&play" - is there any truth to this or I could just swap only inject+exhaust manifolds?

- "swapping those parts and computer won't give you any more power at all, because of automatic gearbox" - that is the last one and most important one

 

[I_GOT_BOOST]

- I want to change from OBD2a to OBD1, so I can program it to work well with new parts. Where I can get: an OBD1 computer for automatic D14A4,
obd2a to obd1 adaptor for automatic gearbox? I guess there is a special one, since I've seen a shop online with this part but the description said "not meant for automatic"?

You can not tune the auto ecu. This is why it says not for automatics. There are several ways to "hack" setups for autos but honestly if your not changing it to a standard transmission or adding a power adder do not bother as it will be more of a headache then anything.


- I know that I could swap D14A4 inject manifold with 1.6 ver (along with exhaust manifold and exhaust system itself), but I've also heard that the whole engine header is a "plug&play" - is there any truth to this or I could just swap only inject+exhaust manifolds?


The intake manifold from a 1.6 will bolt right up no issues. There are a couple modifications to wiring that you will have to do to change the idle air control valve from a 3 wire to a 2 wire ( search on here or any forum there are tons of write ups on how to do it). Exhaust manifold is the same thing you can bolt up any aftermarket of oem exhaust system to the 1.4 but you will need to extend your 02 sensor wires as the 1.6 has the 02 sensors in a different location.


"swapping those parts and computer won't give you any more power at all, because of automatic gearbox" - that is the last one and most important one

This is not true. Increasing air flow whether in our out will make the engine a little more efficient and gain some power at specific rpms ( in moderation to size of parts installed) since you are replacing with factory components yes it will give you a slight bump in power.


In the end everything is about money. If you want to do these modifications to be different then go right ahead, but the power gain you are probably looking for is not going to be what you expect. Your best bet is to save your money if you dont already have it saved and buy yourself a 1.6 vtec engine from 1996 to1998 and swap it into your car along with a ex or whatever the equivelant vtec model of your year is computer. This will give you the bump in power and reliability that your looking for with out having to source a bunch of different parts.


Hopes this answers your questions

 

[Vadrun]

Thank you very much! It helps a lot!