The site dedicated to Honda D-series engines

Last updated March 27th 2013

 

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Welcome at this special place on the web, you find yourself at a site that is dedicated to Honda engines, especially the D-series engines. I’m trying to build a valuable source of information for people who do not believe swapping to B-series is the only way to go fast, but even B-series drivers might find valuable information here. Many of you will know me already as Dodo Bizar on the Dutch forums (yes I live in the Netherlands) or as Diablo NL on some foreign forums.

 

When I got my car which came equipped with a 75 bhp D14A3 engine many people thought it would never run fast. Seven years later I think I can prove them all wrong. 1400 cc of displacement is just 200 cc less than the displacement of a B16A2 engine putting out 160 bhp stock. It is my goal to get close to the same 100 bhp/litre… I came close and a D15Z6 from a friend of mine (known as Spawn) did it (150.3 bhp with 1493cc displacement!) in 2007. My own car reached 103 bhp/litre shortly after in January 2008, yes! In my search for improvements - or better, the search for the blind spots on this engine - I came across many other D-series info which I try to put on this site and have it updated as I come across more interesting information.

 

Now for some information about my own D14A3 engine. At this point, dynoing is done five times with some nice results. It runs fast as hell you could say.

 

The first dyno was done after; the +15bhp upgrade involving the throttle body gasket, open air intake, cutting all the coolant lines from the intake manifold, removed many windshields blocking fresh air in the engine bay, installing a 4-2-1 header, 55 mm midpipe and muffler, swapped the stock intake manifold for a D16Z6 IM, converted the engine management system from OBD2a to OBD1, installed a P06 ECU tuned with Crome. This setup pulled over 116bhp (and had one big flaw: the cam timing was advanced one tooth).

 

The second dyno (which was a one hour session) was done with; replacing the stock 190 cc injectors with 240 cc injectors, a rebuild P06 ECU with P28 functionality, yes that means it has a VTEC head (from D16Y8) with a VTEC cam (from D16Z6), an adjustable cam gear and a heat shield (goes between IM and head) to complete it. This setup pulled 122 bhp the first run, after properly cam and ignition timing it went over 133 bhp. Quite nice for a stock 75 bhp engine I think without using turbo and still the cat converter had not been removed. (I like to refer to it as a City-me setup, because the Civic is called ‘City’ and the usual name for this kind of head swapping is ‘Mini-me’).

 

A third time it went on the dyno, this time with cat replacement and some small changes to the fuel maps (Zeitronix wideband lambda installed), overall ignition (had to replace the dizzy because the old one died) and inlet length (adding 5 cm length to the inlet tube seems somehow to improve performance, came across this by accident). It pulled 136.6 bhp @ 7500 rpm and 140 Nm @ 6500 rpm… could have been more I figure.

 

The fourth time on the dyno I had put on a Skunk2 manifold with 70 mm throttle body. I hoped to get it over 140 bhp. Unfortunately, I placed the cat converter back because I thought it was faster with than without it… I was wrong; the Skunk2 did its job and added 5 more hp to my engine, but the power band till 7000 rpm was exactly the same as in the second dyno run. The result was 138 bhp @ 7700 rpm and back to a maximum torque of 135 Nm or so at 6200 rpm. So 99 bhp/litre is reached, theoretically with the cat converter I would have passed the 100 bhp/litre mark I am convinced.

 

Fifth time I had a cat converter again, a Skunk2 camshaft, springs and retainers. It reached 145+ bhp. Up to high CR pistons and maybe some stronger rods to rev it even further…

 

Furthermore I did some fiddling around with a new intake from Simota, looks good and performance seems normal. The intake was bought to re-install the IAT sensor which gives more constant temperature signals compared to the TA sensor configuration. Thanks at Frank a.k.a. Gaskleppie for this one.

 

Work on my D14A3 will be paused for 1 or 2 years since I bought a ‘real project car’ (some pessimism in there, the car had a lot of hidden flaws). It is a 95 Civic coupe in terrible shape, but equipped with B16B engine and tranny. This car is being prepared for some sprints and circuit days. It already taught me the next upgrade I should give to my D14A3, a limited slip differential, even with low power, these things can do brilliant things in corners.

 

This site futures many articles about swaps and information I came across. Most links in the menu bar do not tell you exactly what is in it. It is always a good idea to look inside. Maybe the information is applicable to your engine as well, but the links will get much too long if I try to put everything in it. Reading is the solution. And you might understand that this site is always under construction, so errors might occur. Also if you think to have information that can help this site grow you are welcome to email me at: Dodo Bizar or even better, visit the forum. You can also visit: Honda-Fanatics (Dutch). And last but not least I want to thank my girlfriend who gives me the time and encouragement to accomplish this all: Nicole

 

I want to thank all people that visit my site and email me regularly for there support. It keeps giving me the push forward to update this site and get it up to some priority again.

 

 

 

Dodo Bizar

 

 

Disclaimer: the builder of this website can not be held responsible for any damage done as a result of information on this site. Use the information on this site at your own risk!!!