A piston is about to go in my dads 86 civic Si (non CRX) and he would like a new engine in it. I have searched and found very little on the 86 Si (I guess bc it was the first) I would like to upgrade the engine for him but dont know which one to choose or if any newer engines will even fit in it. So my question is, what would you reccomend thats cheap, legal, reliable, and will fit into the car with no modification? I know i probably sound like an idiot asking this but Im a nissan guy. Thanks in advance for the help. -John

 

You don't sound stupid at all. If you don't know the only way to find out is to ask.

You can put a ZC DOHC motor in it and it will runn a lot better! Be mocu faster and you won't have to modify anything! It bolts right up, you can even use your stock exhaust manifold and stuff.

 

Are you sure that will fit in an 86? I dont think anything will bolt into the 3g civics without some custom fabrication. But I may be wrong.

 

+1
i beleive thats the round lights u will have to do alot of mods cause if im not mistaking

 

anyway I can get a definite confirmation on this?

 

Im 99% sure that nothing bolts in with out a good bit of fab work. If you go to honda-tech it should be pretty easy to find the answer 100%

 

It will fit! All d series motors will work with each other! All you have to do is take the manifold off the old motor, the motor mounts, and the tranny!

 

This is true. My d16y7 fit in my 89 civic dx and its still running the original tranny, exhaust mani, ANDDD the original DPFI intake mani. Plus the stock dizzy and PM5. I was shocked myself when I bought the car and found all of this. Ive put about 40k miles on this car and its never took a shit on me. Lately theres been a CEL and a slight miss when it comes on, but Im thinking either O2 sensor, or something to do with the DPFI setup. I will really look into this after I do my MPFI conversion.

 

There is a huge diff between the 89 and 86 civics. I did look it up and found out that its not as bad as I thought it was Link But it does require cutting and welding some mounts.

 

what he said