ChrisHimself

'01 H22A4 loses/burns (I don't know anymore) 2 quarts every 400 miles which I do in a week. 208k on the clock
Rear main seal, VTEC solenoid, valve cover leaking, $1400 to repair
Window seals are going out
Hazy clearcoat, no rust
ATTS light is on, never had it looked at, has never worked since I bought it back in October of 2016
Maint light is on, code 17 says ABS sensor (ATTS related)
I have new axles, rotor/cap, on the vehicle


I've been talking to shops who want $1500 in labor and don't know too much about the specifics of this swap but are both high rated tuners in the area (Synergy Auto Works + Tech 3 Performance), and a dude (customs-25 from here) who wants to do my swap for $500 and says he's done Euro R swaps 10+ times in the past.

So this is a huge headache to my understanding

Both swaps will make me use the USDM harness, oil pump/gears, fuel rail, injectors CKP/TDC sensors, dizzy, and IACV. This can be mitigated with Rywire but I've read of problems with them sometimes

Euro R requires matching transmission and axles to be in an SH
Type S allows me to recycle my transmission, money goes towards clutch/flywheel replacement
Type S transmission is drop-in, $500 extra in most cases over just the motor

Please correct me and/or fill in information I'm trying to form a shopping and to-do list for whoever eventually works on this.

What do I do? I'm saving money, have about $3000 saved up, every paycheck is about $1500. Do I just brick the car?

I live in San Jose, CA.. I just want a working Prelude, it's probably one of the coolest vehicles I've ever owned.

TimiK

remember that you kinda have to rebuild that swap engine also if you want it to last... so new ingition parts, all seals/gaskets (maybe even valve seals), timing parts and clutch kit

could be easier just buy another lude with lower miles

snobordboy

I would say replace the abs sensor and get ATTS reset, to see if there are any other issues, and get a good polish on the car to see how it looks cleaned up. If the car makes you happy and drives well with the glaring issue fixed, then move on to the engine.

First off, you need to know IF you are burning oil, and if so, is it from ring wear or valve seals? If you can replace all of the leaky gaskets, do a set of valve seals, and timing belt and associated bits, and clutch since that area will be opened up, you very possibly would still have a good stout car.

If you come to the point where the car is down on power, or is burning oil from ring wear, then a jdm swap might be a better option. Since you have a transmission and ATTS unit already, I would only replace those if needed, and as TimiK said, the jdm engine should get new seals, and timing stuff anyways, as that is generally part of any start-up warranty, and just good practice when putting an engine in. For that point, the only big difference is downtime of doing the work to the current engine instead of dropping and swapping. Might be worth buying some tools, and learning how to do some stuff yourself. The seals are generally all easy, aside from dropping the tranny on an SH, I HATE that job, would rather pull the whole drivetrain and do it out of the car.

ChrisHimself

Say these motors all do really have 60k as advertised what needs to be replaced? I guess we're talking about $20 worth of rubber seals..

My mechanic's hourly rate is $90/hr I don't mind paying for us, if someone locally wants to meet up I'd be grateful if they wanted to hang out and supervise me doing the work. I have a few SK/Wright tools laying around but I've quite honestly never done half of the things that are wrong with the motor.
It could just be the oil pan leaking the most, the thing I'm afraid of is the RMS though since thats like $800 of the total $1400 bill!

Euro R and tranny offered to me for $1800, I don't know about trusting someone with my car though, but $500 is a SWEET deal esp since time could be running out

TimiK

Everything. Think what happens to all the seals when they dry out when the engine sits in some warehouse for years...

+ timing components while youre there + clutch kit, dont you want your "new" engine to last and be as much maintenance free as possible?

More like 200 or more, OEM or dont even bother. Budget building is never a good idea

ChrisHimself

So when I see these Type S or Euro R redtops, the labor and the price of the motor is not the total price?

So I'll need

Main Seal
Rear Main
Valve Cover
Head Gasket (?)
T belt Kit

Most of the labor for this I've been assured will be affordable since the motor will already be out and it'll be easier to work on plus they can use a second tech if he's not doing anything.

So is $4000 enough to do it? $5000 and over I start looking at RSX-S instead although I geniunely love the Prelude. I've had most of the Honda coupes now, I think they got it right with this one despite all the wonky things that go wrong with them (not talking about the motor)

TimiK

its up to buyer that do he wants to gamble with the engine and/or make is last

+
driveshaft seals
2 cam seals
valve cover seal kit
clutch kit and t belt stuff
then theres few oil pump seals and oil strainer seal, vtec solenoid gasket
new spark plugs & wires, new distributor cap and rotor
headgasket and valve seals maybe? depends how well youre doing this thing

ChrisHimself

So if I go with the Euro R, do I only need one of the halfshafts (axle?) or the pair to bolt up to the LSD transmission?

so the checklist with EITHER motor is:

Swap oil pan (new gasket since mine is leaking), oil pump (do I need to replace this if mine is working fine?), oil gears, timing balancer gear, TDC and CPS sensors, USDM distributor (I have a new one), ECU and harness, fuel rail, from the USDM MOTOR.


Am I missing anything?

My theory is that some of those items won't pass a leakdown test if they were in bad shape which is what my proposed tuner does to ensure I have a good engine, and a lot of them are cheap to replace down the road with the motor in the car. Having all that replaced and worked on looks like it'll cost me another $1000. I won't need the car for more than 40k miles, 2 years so I'm trying to compromise. I like the car but to be honest I'm just trying to make it another couple years at most til I have the money to buy my next car in cash.

TimiK

^ budget builds are bad idea, just buy another car if youre not gonna keep this one anyway - you end up loosing money and takes longer to buy your next "better" car.

ChrisHimself

But I also like the car, the car I'd be upgrading to is in the $15,000 range because I do not feel that other vehicles in the $5,000 to $8,000 range will give me as much enjoyment as this Prelude, plus I will get no money for a car that doesn't function properly and it'd be bad karma to release a car in bad shape into the wild to someone who needs reliable transportation.

I'm 2500 into the actual vehicle itself so you can understand my situation

TimiK

when you spend now around 5000 for the engine and rebuilding it - your car is still worth of around no more than 3000-4000 after that

with 3000-5000 youll get better lude with less headache and you can keep this lude for spare part car

ChrisHimself

Right but $5000 with $4000 back is a lot better than $2500 and I get NOTHING back, plus someone in the future gets a really cool Euro R Prelude which feels pretty good.