Edumacate me Why OBD1?

[conozo]

So I know if you go turbo you pretty much need OBD1 and I think with OBD1 you can get rid of our mechanical distributor and get an MSD electronic one.

On a stock accord, what benefits would be had of converting to ODB1 if I was never planning on turbo. Could I get better gas mileage, would the car run smoother, would I have do upgrade other parts to make it worthwhile?

Sorry for the newb question especially considering how long I have been part of this forum.

[takemorepills]

So I know if you go turbo you pretty much need OBD1 and I think with OBD1 you can get rid of our mechanical distributor and get an MSD electronic one.

On a stock accord, what benefits would be had of converting to ODB1 if I was never planning on turbo. Could I get better gas mileage, would the car run smoother, would I have do upgrade other parts to make it worthwhile?

Sorry for the newb question especially considering how long I have been part of this forum.

So I'll just make the disclaimer that I have never done an OBD conversion on a Honda. I have worked on and owned many Honda's from the time of OBD-0 to OBD-1 and I have owned a few OBD-2. I have done OBD-1 to OBD-2 conversions on Nissans.

To answer your questions:

Better MPG: debatable. I doubt anyone has been able to do an apples to apples comparison because most OBD conversions are done to support a higher performing engine. I will say however, in all my years of different kinds of Honda's, no one type of OBD generation has stood out as any more fuel efficient.

Smoother running: doubt this too. There are some differences in the PGM-FI systems, but honestly a misbehaving OBD-0 Honda is alot like a misbehaving OBD-1 Honda. For example, OBD-0 that fails to cold idle properly due to a bad FITV will seem to idle the same improper way as an OBD-1 Honda with a bad IACV. Again, between all the Honda's I have been around, probably only the OBD-2 cars were somewhat better than earlier OBD (because PGM-FI was quite different on Honda's developed post OBD-2, unlike later years Integra that saw the B series see all 3 types of OBD), and OBD-0 and OBD-1 pretty much have the same issues.

Are you considering an OBD-1 swap on your EFI swapped car? I would at least do some kind of B swap at the same time to make it worthwhile. From what little I know regarding the OBD-1 B series conversion on my A20 powered OBD-0 2.0Si, there are commonly available OBD-0/OBD-1 ECU adapters, you need to check what type of injectors you have and swap those out and remove the injection resistor and then you'll need an OBD-1 distributor connector adapter. If you want to OBD-1 an A20, you'll have to get real creative in retrofitting an OBD-1 distributor onto your A20. It has been done, and the results I have seen looked like a real hack job. Again, better to go B series in this case.

Sorry I am not the subject matter expert on this, hope I didn't give out any mis-info. Tough to find good, clear info on these cars!

[conozo]

Thanks for the reply.

I guess if i were to go OBD1 it would be for the reason of better MPG and a longer lasting engine. My thoughts on the longer lasting engine are if the fuel management is better it wont be to rich or lean at times which can hurt the engine or cause spark knock. This car came with a carb and i believe that i could have gotten many more miles if it always had the right mixture. Often it ran too rich.

I would stick with the A series since mine is rebuilt, i figured most people who did it were still on the A series.

[Dr_Snooz]

I can't imagine it making enough difference to justify the trouble. Those carb engines get 40 MPG from the factory. You'll have to get up pretty early to beat that. I'd think you'd be better served by optimizing carb function.

[Tdurr]

Doing an obd1 conversion is mainly done to give you more tune-ability out of the car/engine. How you want the car tuned is up to you. You can have a gas saver mode and a "race mode" if you have the right set ups. I say if you think you would keep the car and do alot of performance modifications, trying to squeeze the most power out of the car then obd1 is the way to go.

[MessyHonda]

The reason to upgrade to OBD1 is because the Honda OBD1 computer can be chipped. The gas mileage wont be affected unless the OBD0 is not running right. I will tell you that I have owned 3 different OBD1 set ups for our car. Our original distributor is mechanical and uses a diaphragm to advance or retard the timing depending on the load of the engine. once you start putting on some performance parts like B16 intake manifold, header, cam, intake and exhaust the stock computer would lean out the car making the engine underperform.

After I did my first Obd1 Swap I noticed a smooth powerband from the engine. It felt like it got a really good tune up. The idle was smooth and the pull was awesome. I did not track my fuel mileage but it did not go up or down till after I installed my stage 2 cam(289) I was getting around 24mpg. I also got my car Dyno tunned and chipped making around 130whp and 124 TQ to the wheels on a stock engine with 150K.

I have gone B18c1 now and having the OBD1 wiring made the swap plug and play just had to add wires for Vtec. It did take lots of research but I had my tuner do a write up.https://www.3geez.com/forum/restorati...onversion.html

good luck with your project.