BowtieHonda

Forgive me, I'm not a Honda fellow. I've owned nothing but Chevrolet trucks.

My best friend bought a 1997 Prelude a couple months ago. He was gung-ho about cleaning it up and driving it. It has 199K on the clock and the motor is very tired. Very low compression on all cylinders, etc. Its an H22A motor.

He got online and bought a 'JDM' motor out of Texas. Not paying attention he bought a F22B that was marked for this year Prelude. Approximately 35,000 miles on the unit. It's on a pallet at his house. All the accessories included. He lost interest in the project and now I think I may take over since he's offering me the motor and car for $1500. I've had too many trucks and want a car to drive around.

Anyways. I have some friends with basic Honda tech knowledge but the question is...can I put this F22B into this H22A/5 speed manual Prelude with little to no headache? I have no desire to rebuild the H22A, nor do I care if the car gets a bit slower, or if it lose some value. I'm looking to clean it back up, shoot some paint on it and make it a driver. The body is straight as an arrrow (albeit ugly) and the interior is extremely nice. Every single bell and whistle works.

Overall, I like the little car so far. I've always liked Honda built quality and I'm a big interior guy and glad to see that the inside of the car survived the abuse that the outside saw.

Once I get the motor in, it's all gravy from there.

Thanks guys. I appreciate any insight!

usdmftw

iTrader: (2)

yes its possible and not really a big deal, your trans axles and half shaft all will bolt up. depending on the model f22 you may have to switch some mounts/bracks off your h22, but main thing is you have the whole h22 to take parts off of in needed. as long as its a odb2 model from a similar year(I.E. if its 97, 98, model F22).

BowtieHonda

Yep, it's a similar year. It's an F22B which I understand was the Euro motor for the car.

Will I need to find another ECM to run the motor? With my Chevrolets (the LS V8s) I have to retune the PCM to run on another motor no matter what. Older Chevrolets though you could swap the computers around as long as the base motor was the same.

BowtieHonda

BTW, if it helps, this is the EXACT motor he bought for the car. The actual sold auction ad.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/260884273181...ht_2997wt_1396

the_penetrator

hmmm since its dohc you shouldnt have to change anything everything should be close to identical give or take a few sensors look at the f22b and check the sensor conectors and look to see if one engine has more sensors than the other. make sure the connectors connect to the old harness and if it doesnt then take the sensors off the h22 and ut it on the f22. tranny should bolt right up everything as far as engine mounts should be the same.... ecu,, u can buy ecu from rich tune for about 250$ and have them delete knock sensors and O2 sensors and stuff that way if u dont have the sensors u dont have to buy them u know what i mean...... theres my 2 cents

BowtieHonda

Old motor to new motor:

The F22B DOHC...which according to the auction my buddy won...came out of a '97-01 Prelude in Japan. It has provisions for the knock sensor in the back and the EGR looks like it would swap right over. Of course, these things only matter if there was a PCM I could plug right in and go with. I'm going to take the harness off of the H22A and put it on the F22B. All the connectors and component placement match. Even the down pipe looks like it's going to bolt right on.

1996 lude si

Here's what i know about the F22b. It is basically an f22 bottom end (accord bottom end/jdm prelude version of the h23) with iron sleeves with an h23 head stuck on it. It has a lower compression rating and would be a good motor for boost. other than that thats all i can tell you. you will not have vtec any longer just make sure you swap the fuel rail and use your original harness. the other thing to look at is make sure it has the crank sensor down by the oil pump. use your old distributor and so forth. Also make sure it has the extra timing gear that the crank shaft position sensor reads... hope that helps some. I've done a jdm engine swap in my 96 (obd2) prelude so i have some knowledge of it.

1996 lude si

also you will probably want to swap your intake manifold and throttle body...

BowtieHonda

Are you still running it on OBD2?

I'm still undecided on what to do with the PCM at the moment. I'm used to my Chevrolet, lol. They seem to be far easier to take care of tuning wise.

These little motors are cute. We mostly mess with Chevrolet V8s and those things take some real equipment to move around, etc. These little guys could almost come with carry handles so you can tote them around like a briefcase. Can't wait to get the car running though.

1996 lude si

Ya I'm still running it obd2 too. Ya I mess with chevys too. My 1996 is getting an h22a4 stuck into it soon...So i'm basically doing the reverse of what you are doing lol. I have an f22b sitting in my parts car so i'm somewhat familiar with those motors. Both motors are basically set up the same you just need to add a few sensors here and there. You will want to use to distributor off your old motor as well.

BowtieHonda

What PCM are you using? Is it running well?

Also, what did it take to get the crank sensor installed properly? Anything special? Was your crank sensor gear already in place or did you have to add one?

Thanks.

1996 lude si

Well I'm using a p14 ecu which is for 92 to 95 Honda preludes h23 nonvtec u should be able to use your h22 ecu. It will just throw a code for the vtec solenoid and oil pressure switch. You will have to keep Ur old ecu otherwise the car won't start bc of the ecu not reading the immobolizer. I didn't do the f22 swap in my 93 but my 96 I got an obd1 jdm/Edna h23 which like I said is a lot like the f22b. I bought a new oil pump with sensor hole like $80 on eBay. Honda discontinued the oil pump for the h23a1. I broke the old gear trying to take it off the old motor so i ordered a new one from Honda. Like 50~65 bucks.

BowtieHonda

From what I gather, I could actually re-use the F22B distributor with the internal coil and crank sensor. All I need to do is figure out how to wire it. I'm an electrician by day so doing it is a cake walk. Gathering the appropriate info is all I would really need. Would sure beat the heck out of dropping the oil pan, buying an oil pump, moving crank gears, etc.

1996 lude si

For warranty purposes though of the motor you are required by the company to replace all timing components (timing belt, balance shaft belt, tension) along with Oil pump and water pump. This is the adapter you need to convert your obd2 harness to obd1. http://www.rywire.com/catalog/obd2-u...33c253e2336ce1 $50 and your set!