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I just purchased a 2004 Acura TSX 6-speed with about 175,000 miles on the clock. The car is in good shape, but the timing chain stretched and skipped teeth causing valves to hit pistons. Im researching online to find out my best course of action. My goal with this car is to make it a daily driver (stock) because I have my second child on the way. This car should be a little safer to drive than my 1999 civic which is old news at this point.

My options are simply

1: Repair the existing engine by putting in back in time, turn it over, and check compression. This will confirm any internal damage, unless its slight. If there is damage I will need to pull the head, examine the pistos, block, and send the head to get machined and valves replaced. This is pretty tedious and could result in wasted time and energy to find out bad news. This will probably be more costly than option #2. In my experience with the k24 engines they like to burn oil at high mileage. If owners wait to long on oil changes and/or allow oil levels to drop the result is that the chain stretches and you either get timing codes or the chain skips teeth causing damage. My concern is that this engine is burning oil and has piston ring issues (which causes me to lean to option 2).

2. Replace the engine with a used, lower mileage engine. I have found some good options under $1,000 with around 100,000 miles locally.


My questions to those that have gone through this:

1. Although in my short research I've found that 06-08 engines are a little better, it seems as though going with a newer engine will require to much extra work and money for my goals. My original thought was to get an 08 engine I found with 75,000 miles and swap needed parts for current 04 ecu/wiring harness, but it seems like there have been to many changes in the setup to make it a smooth swap. Ive done some tricky swaps, but Im looking for a straight forward engine replacement that doesnt require any modifying. Any thoughts on going with an 06-08 engine?

2. For those who have pulled their engine: I am doing this from home in a standard 2 car garage with no lift. Here is what I plan on doing to pull the engine, correct me in my steps if this is "NOT" the best approach:
A. remove all obvious parts (Intake snorkel, battery, splash shields, etc)
B. Drain Oil, Coolant, and MTF
C.disconnect the transmission from the engine
D. disconnect the wiring from the cabin and secure to engine (So I dont have to fight with connectors in the car)
E. Remove parts that are in the way (Exhaust manifold, etc)
F. Remove engine mounts and pull engine

These steps may not be in correct order, but essential I want to avoid having to drop the lower cradle and trying to slide the assembly under the car. Im doing this by leaving the trans and cradle in the car. I realize that makes it harder to reconnect, but this seems to be my best option.

B serious

iTrader: (1)

Don't disconnect the trans from the engine before you pull it. You cannot remove the trans without first dropping the subframe. So you'll have a mess. Pull the whole thing as one. The other stuff is fine.

The hood has a "service" position, if you were thinking previously of removing it.

For an 06 spec engine to work, you should really only have to swap sensors and re-use your old wiring harness. That doesn't seem hard at all. Or am I missing some other stuff? The 06-08 spec engine is a bit better.

It does seem that oil consumption is a factor in almost any K series engine. Its kind of a mixed bag, though. I found that using a S2000 filter and Castrol 0W30 helped quite a bit. I went from 1qt/1500 miles with Pennzoil Platinum and random filter to 1qt/4000 miles with the castrol and PCX combo.

Compression in perfect. It's likely blow through or sticky oil control rings.