I have owned my 91 Civic EF hatch since he came off the Honda lot in Oak Forest, IL in October 90.
my 1.5L 4 speed engine gave me no problems, just the usual maintenance.
we built a 1.6L engine for the car, as shown in my avitar, and no problems
sure being a 91 it starting to show some age, you can see pix in my gallery, but overall
good maintenance and that honda engine will run and run and run
my car went thru a lot of winters. man that 1.5 engine rocked getting me thru snow.
hope this helps.
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if you can only race me in a straight line then whats the point 
...91 SMF SCCA
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8341770@N07/5601083432/http://www.flickr.com/photos/8341770@N07/5601083432/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/8341770@N07/, on Flickr
I see people out there spending money on the car to improve it … If you spend half that effort just working on your driving skills, making you and the car work together as a team, then you’ll go faster – period. To make the car go a second faster on the track takes a lot more energy and money than making yourself drive it one second faster.
– the late Tom Thrash SCCA Solo E Production