Civic VX Lean Burn Questions

[fungalex]

Is this the part number for the fed 49 o2 seneor ?

[fungalex]

are these info correct? They are saying the L1H1 is the same as L2H2, any input?http://wbo2.com/lsu/sensors.htm

[SCoupe]

What is the L1H1 5-wire Federal o2 sensor life expectancy? Is it reasonable that at 215,000 a 1992 VX would be needing its third replacement?

I do not have a CEL, but am suspicious of a "lazy" sensor that has been refered to elsewhere because of 45mpg mostly highway.

[veeracer]

Hello everyone, I am a new VX owner and new to this site. I have found the information in this thread very usefull in understanding how to do the Ca to 49 state conversion. Thanks to those that have taken the time to explain the process.
While looking for conversion connectors I discovered the source previously listed (ebay user name nigaphan) has been changed to phanectric. Hope this helps those in search of lean burn.
Ps. if anyone has a 49 state ecu I am in need. thanks

[imzjustplayin]

Originally Posted by SCoupe

What is the L1H1 5-wire Federal o2 sensor life expectancy? Is it reasonable that at 215,000 a 1992 VX would be needing its third replacement?

I do not have a CEL, but am suspicious of a "lazy" sensor that has been refered to elsewhere because of 45mpg mostly highway.

If you need to replace your O2 sensors often, it means you have a problem which is causing the sensors to get poisoned. If you're burning/leaking oil, or running too rich for what ever reason, this will kill your O2 sensors in short order.

[Wandering Albatross]

The '95 Civic VX with the 49-state (Fed) conversion now has 227k miles on it. This is over 100k miles since the conversion and the swap is still running great.

The original 5-wire O2 that was installed during the conversion was used (I did not know if the swap world work originally) and eventually was replaced many thousands of miles later after it failed.

I recently had an issue getting the car through CA smog because the cat had totally died around 200k miles which is fairly typical from what I gather. The CA cat mounts to the CA exhaust manifold (car uses a manifold cat and both the manifold and cat are different for CA) can be extremely difficult to find. One option is to change out the manifold to the Fed version and use a Fed cat. A universal cat is not acceptable in California any longer.

The irony was that the California smog referee was going to give me a waiver for the car because the part (cat) was no longer available (aftermarket or Honda OEM), but I did not think it was acceptable to drive around with emission being nearly 10x even though it was legal with the state of California. I went on a long search for the right cat and found one in the end.

With a new *used* cat (100k miles on the new used cat) the car passed with flying colors despite the Fed conversion.

Here are the smog numbers with the cat replaced:
15mph
RPM 2,674
%CO2 14.5
%O2 0.1

HC Max 68
HC Ave 32
HC Meas 26 (242 old cat)

CO Max 0.41
CO Ave 0.07
CO Meas 0.14 (0.18 old cat)

NO Max 731
NO Ave 240
NO Meas 68 (took final test in different county were NO test was required, don't have initial NO results)

25mph
RPM 2,277
%CO2 14.3
%O2 0.2

HC Max 44
HC Ave 21
HC Meas 21

CO Max 0.41
CO Ave 0.06
CO Meas 0.25

NO Max 798
NO Ave 220
NO Meas 179