Learn Me Honda stuff.

My son just asked me about a 1.6 VTEC with a BMXA* four speed.  I don't know jack about Honda performance. Is there any potential here? What about reliability? What's it worth?

Thanks. 

as far as reliability goes.  youll have to change the oil once in a while.  otherwise itll take a beating and keep ticking

79rex said:

as far as reliability goes.  youll have to change the oil once in a while.  otherwise itll take a beating and keep ticking

and a timing belt every decade. Distributors are getting hard to find though but there are new options to go COP

Ive been playing with Honda for 20 years now.  The only 4 speed since 1988 was terrible on a base model and never came with VTEC.  In general they are reliable, efficient, easy to work on, and can be powerful.  Some older parts are getting a little hard to find but swapping nearly anything is well documented and supported.  

Sonic said:

Ive been playing with Honda for 20 years now.  The only 4 speed since 1988 was terrible on a base model and never came with VTEC.  In general they are reliable, efficient, easy to work on, and can be powerful.  Some older parts are getting a little hard to find but swapping nearly anything is well documented and supported.  

He said the guy told him it was a "racing transmission". Didn't know if he was just talking it up to try and make a sale. 

The BMXA is the 4-speed auto in 01-05 Civics, I don't know that anyone has ever used one for racing.

One local regularly demolishes D series engines.  I guess at sustained high RPM they turn the oil in the pan to merengue, which the connecting rod bearings are not too thrilled with.  Some sort of baffling or dry sump or keeping the revs low would seem to be prudent.

Need more details. D16 came in a wide range of power and reliability depending on the model (d16a6, d16z6, d16b7, etc). I'm unaware of any automatic transmissions that were considered superior to the manuals. They are stroker motors so RPM limiters at 7k for race applications and everybody loves to turbocharge them.

I have owned 4 Hondas, and driven several more.

Generally, the previous comments are true.  The 89 Civic that I owned made it to 127K on the original clutch before the car was T-boned at a busy intersection.  It was eventually replaced with a 94 Civic CX hatch that had the low powered, 72 horsepower, SOHC engine.  Not fast, reasonably fuel efficient, and fairly tough.  I had the engine and transmission pulled and replaced with a B18 from an Integra LS, along with the 5 speed manual.  The car was much faster, and more fuel efficient.

The 3rd Honda was a 92 Integra with an automatic transmission.  These automatic transmissions were tough, but they make a real nice car feel like it's dragging an anchor.  At about the time that I owned this car I had a 97 Civic with an automatic transmission as a long term loaner and also drove a first generation CRV.  Honda automatic transmissions, at least in 4 cylinder powered cars, improved greatly in the late 90s.

Probably the only disagreement I have here is concerning Honda distributors: my mechanic told me when mine finally gave up that NOT using an OEM as a replacement was a gamble...a bad one.

Is this the 160hp Del Sol VTEC.....100hp/l.

The way to keep D series alive is to port the oil pump, and never shift over 7k. Oil coolers also help for racing. There are other tricks too, but those are the easy ones.  I kept a stock D16Y8 alive for 25k racing miles, then we put on a turbo and cracked a valve.  And had too much blow by after another 3k.  That motor had 80k street miles on it before we started. 

Ivthad three D series Civics, two of the three made it to well over 200k miles of teenage and young adult abuse, the other met an untimely end in am accident. Change the oil regularly, t belt and water pump every once in a while and drive it. For an economy car engine, they "feel" good and like to be pushed within reason. They do not have a favorable rod to stroke ratio, so extremely high RPM's are out, but they are cheap enough to simply replace if you grenade it.

With respect to distributors failing, I seem to recall it is the internal ignition coil which fails. I have ran aftermarket replacement coils with success. There are enough of these in junk yards that it shouldn't be too hard to stockpile some OE coils.

I'm curious whether interest in these late 80's to early 90's Civics will see a surge in the next 10 years or so as the teenagers who drove them reach that point of sentimentality about them. Rust sent many to the junkyard, a cottage industry of high quality replacement panels or maybe complete unibodies much like the first generation Mustangs and Camaros could possibly be a thing. I know I always turn my head when I pass a decent EF hatch or CRX.

In reply to bigbrainonbrad :

If there's going to be a surge in THE FUTURE it's gonna be absudiculous.  Locally I doubt you could touch a '88-91 Civic for under $4000.  And it would probably be stolen in two weeks if you found one.

The distributors were hugely a problem.  They would fail electronically, and also the bearing would lock up and make the timing belt break.  IIRC I had one show up a couple years ago after a collector/enthusiast bought one from somewhere in the South, and it took us three tries to get an aftermarket disctributor that was any good, because gennie Honda is NLA.  And then we found out the ECM was fragged anyway, and THAT was a fun trip as far as parts sourcing goes.  Way over $3k just to get a thirty year old Honda back on the road, after the guy spent God knows how much buying and shipping it from Texasstan or someplace.

Thank you everyone for your input. He has decided to pass on this deal and look elsewhere.