Problem With Engine Swap

I have a 2000 DX Sedan, 4 cyl 5spd

So i recently had my F23A5 crap out on me. So my mechanic said he could put in an A1 in cause he could get it for the same price as the A5 (Its was an Engine shipped from Japan). So i figured why not. He got it in, so I went to pick it up and the install looked clean and she started up just fine. I drove it home without noticing any problems, obviously i took it slow and didnt rev it over 3,000. After a week or so I couldnt take it anymore so i pushed it up to about 4,000 and noticed it seemed to start lagging and losing power. So I pushed the pedal farther and the revs climbed slower and slower, mean while the power was decreasing. When I got home I left it in neutral and tried reving it up, it reved up fine till it hit 5,000 and would drop back down.

I took back to him and he said he would make sure he got it right this time, but he's having some trouble figuring out whats wrong. He first thought it was the distrubitor module so he bought a new one and installed it, but it didnt fix the problem. Then he thought it might be the cat so he checked it and nothing seemed wrong.

Sorry for the long post, but any help would be much appreicated.

u guys open the valve cover to check for sludge?

what ecu did he use?

YounGLeMoN said:

u guys open the valve cover to check for sludge?

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No, it only has 30,000 miles on it so I didnt think it would be a problem. Could sluge cause that problem?

And he just dropped the new engine in. So the stock ECU

ryan s said:

what ecu did he use?

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x2

since youre a dx without vtec, putting in a vtec motor, you need to swap out the ecu as well.

Sketch o5 said:

x2

since youre a dx without vtec, putting in a vtec motor, you need to swap out the ecu as well.

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I thought so, where can I buy one? and how much?

ebay/junkyards/here

probably $100 or so...maybe less. put up a WTB thread here in the classifieds...someone might have an extra if they didn't go through with a manual swap.

go on ebay but thats what i did replace the ecu with the v-tec engine

thanks a bunch guys. do i need to replace all the wiring or just the ecu? and do you guys know the part number?

younglemon said:

u guys open the valve cover to check for sludge?

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wtf


Anyways, your mechanic probably forgot that your car did not have vtec before the swap. Put the new ECU and u will have more power than your old engine. Good swap BTW if u got the motor for same price as a non-vtec. Is it the black top?

You also might need to change the wiring harness as well for the vtec, but im not sure.