www.dodo-upgrades.nl

Today in my 6th organised Dutch dyno meetshop which I organise from Honda-Fanatics, we had a very interesting car. It was a switcheridoo D14A8 to D14A4.

Backstory:
This guy (Robin) owned an EJ9 with D14A3 or A4 and performed an IM swap. Within two weeks the engine died. It was locked up due to bad lubrication somehow, very unfortunate for him. After that he changed the engine for a D14A8 he found, got it in the dyno with me twice. Between 1st and 2nd time only some inlet stuff changed (from a crappy sharp inlet tube to a descent rounded one). Unfortunately both times he struggled to get 105 bhp. Yes it was D14A8 engine + D16Z6 IM + I/H/E. In the same days Baz would be there procuding over 120 bhp with his EJ9...

Now Robin came back with the same setup. Only did he change the chassis and engine block . In other words, he had an accident with the previous one, now bought a new EJ9 with D14A4 and put all the bits and pieces he had for the old one on this. So D16Z6 IM, and all the I/H/E. Instantly when he rolled inside the dyno shop he got 118 bhp. We could not get another hp out of it. And yes AFR is very rich as usually for this setup, but he clearly is in 'ball park'.

We plotted both graphs on top of each other and its like another engine. To my opinion this indicates the A8 is very different from the A3/A4... or the D14A8 was in very bad shape, but nothing has indicated that so far until the accident. Unfortunatly the A8 has been shredded now. But still, I will get his scan from the graphs and put it up here.

Once I drove at the same road, day and conditions MB civic 1996 1.4 with 90 bhp and my ej9 before IM swap.
(My ej9 is heavier or had equal weight from that MB civic because of air bags and air-conditioner)
The result was that MB civic was slower from ej9. Because at the same revs the MB had less speed.
Account that the MB civics have shorter gear ratios too.
I guess that either the MB civics have milder camshaft or either the ecu maps have milder configuration.
The engine code of MB civics it must been d14a2 or d14a5 for 1996 year MBs (the d14a8 was started to be produce from year 1997).

From these facts (d14a, d14a5 and d14a8) I can make the conclusion that MB civics have milder ecu and camshaft set-up and they use shorter gear-ratios to counterbalance the milder set-ups.

Camshafts codes:
EJ9 --> 14111-P2A-000 '96-'00
MB civics --> 14111-P1J-E00 '95-'96, 14111-P1J-E10 '97-'99



EDIT: Compression comparison d14a3 vs d14a7/8 --> viewtopic.php?f=34&t=746&p=14544#p14544

Aha, so proven different cams!

would it therefore be safe to assume that if I install my D16Y7 camshaft into a D14A8 head/engine and use my existing EJ6 ecu I may get something interesting?

Why not?
It will be really interesting project
But consider that you have to swap the distributor from ej6, the engine loom and you will probably run rich the d14a8 with ej6 ecu fuel maps because the ej6 is 1600cc.

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=155

have a look here! Maybe we could compare?

d14a8


d14a4

Although you're right about possible overfuelling issues bear in mind I run on LPG through a mixer. A very crude system similar to a basic carburettor dependant solely on air mass/speed/temp through a venturi. Because I have access to unlimitted free gas economy is not an issue . I will be upgrading to multipoint gas injection but that is indepently mappable.

Changing cams to me sounds like a safe bet... can't really do much wrong I think.

About the EJ6 ECU... is it normal OBD2a/2b or the weird SFi type ECU from D14A3/A4? Even if it's a straight fit I am afraid fuel levels are a lor different, beetter stick to D14 ECU... guessing a bit, it's just my feeling.

I would consider not changing ECU if they are really different, but just the cams. Pretty sure it will run directly, and perhaps for some finetuning use your LPG equipment...

It has been busy in the gas biz lately so I haven't got very far with creating a proper thread on LPG. When I do it will become more obvious why ecu's become less important when running on gas.

That IS interesting, glad I've got a EJ9; lighter and faster