Hello all, I've been lurking these forums for aawhile and decided to finally make an account, I am considering buying a prelude sometime or maybe an integra, I guess my questions are how reliable are these cars what too look out for when buying and any other general info a complete Honda/acura noob should know. If I were to get a car I am a moderately experienced mechanic and could fix things on my own that are wrong with the car etc. I would prefer something with vtec just because I need to have a little fun lol, and I'd also like to know how easy and expensive it is to add a turbo to these cars, the car wont be built for racing or driven super hard, I just need a project to work on little by little because i always need something to do with cars

I became interested in them with how easy and fun my friends civic was too work on, I have a z28 and working on it is an absolute pain and the gas mileage is atrocious, I hope I'm not breaking any unwritten rules of the forum and thank you for listening

 

Welcome! Research big time!!!

 

I've been trying too but its allot harder with these cara, there's so many different models and engines, it awesome but I'm new too it.

 

I've had a few Honda's, a couple civics (4 I think ...), a Prelude and a couple bikes, if you choose to get into Honda, you'll have a hard time owning anything else. Are they the fastest thing on the planet? No. Are they the best handling? No. Best gas mileage? Depends on how you drive ... What they are is one of the best mixes of fun, power, handling, gas mileage, styling and reliability.

For people new to Honda I generally recommend checking out an older Civic with around 100K miles on it, you can generally pick them up pretty cheap (< $10K), they're generally cheap to maintain and aftermarket mods are more than plentiful. If you stay with a generation or two behind the latest Civic (current being 8th generation), you'll find the most aftermarket mods available.

Being a loyal Prelude owner, why wouldn't I recommend one right out of the gate? There's this: think Chevy 305ci vs Chevy 350ci, generally the price of things for the 305 is 30% higher or better than prices for part for the 350. When you think Civic, think small block 350, in the Honda world the majority of the aftermarket vendors cater to the Civic, and the Civic is the "small block" of the Honda I4 family.

The only Civics to stay away from are the EP3 (2002-2005) and some of the SOHC 8th gens.

The EP3 because it's almost i-VTEC aka i-VTECe (i-VTEC tuned for economy not performance). I had one, they're fun, but they don't have the full DOHC i-VTEC, there's only two lobes on the intake cam and one on the exhaust. There are some older VTEC-e motors out there, learn your blocks and you'll be able to stay away from them, or you could buy one cheaper, swap the head and the ECU and get rid of the "economy" tuning.

The SOHC 8th gens I recommend staying away from these because there is some noise that a few blocks were stamped with bad castings and have cracked. I think the serial numbers are available on the NHTSA recall list, so if you cross reference that list you should be OK.

As far as engines are concerned, the Civic comes with 4 major engine blocks (there are others, but these are the ones you'll want to look for and know): D, B, R, K spanning the late 80's right through today, ~25 years, 4 main blocks = lots of parts available.

The block identifier will be stamped on the block by the transmission followed by a number indicating the displacement in Liters, ex. D16Z6, D block, 1.6L. Any additional letters and numbers help identify the motor further.

What makes Honda so awesome to modify is the number of interchangeable parts between the different blocks and heads. You can build some pretty awesome N/A machines with a little time, research and money, using only Honda factory parts.

OK enough about the Civic, this is the Prelude forum, so why a Prelude?

Well, if you have the money and aren't afraid of working a little harder to find aftermarket parts, the Prelude is basically the "big block" of the Honda I4 family, which basically means that it produces more torque than the smaller engines. I know that since the Prelude was discontinued there have been bigger I4 blocks, but this is "the" big block car, with engine displacements of 2.2L and 2.3L. Remember though, with the bigger block, comes a bigger chassis.

There are two main blocks for the Prelude, the H and the F. Depending on what you want to do and what you're going to use your 'lude for, will determine which one you should look for. H/F blocks come in various VTEC and non-VTEC varieties with lots of parts being interchangeable between them.

So ... why a 'lude? Well, why a Civic or Integra? Seriously, when it comes to Honda, buy the car you like the look of best, everything else can be swapped from other Honda's or modded with aftermarket parts with relative ease. Like the Civic, want the 'lude power, buy the Civ, swap the 'lude motor in. Like the Integra? Wanna boost? There are plenty of turbo kits available. Also, as far as turbo, if you buy a reputable kit (stay off eBay) that comes with true engine management, you should be able to run reasonable boost levels (< 10psi) as a DD, without opening the block ------ GOOD, SOLID DYNO TUNING REQUIRED!! ------ [So don't go boosting on a stock block with no tuning and bitch about how Honda sucks, when you blow your motor, cause you were dumb!]

Another point to note, if you have the money, you could buy a 2006+ Civic Si and get the best of both worlds. I have an 07 Si and a 92 'lude, when I got my Si, it felt to me like they had brought the 'lude back. The steering, suspension and power of an 06+ Si bears a striking resemblance to what I would expect a reincarnation of the 'lude to feel like. So you could have the "feel" of a 'lude and the aftermarket support of a Civic.

If you get an 06+ Si, you may want to consider the 4-door, since it's the only one available in Japan, it's also the only one you can get a majority of Japanese only (JDM) parts for.

Hope this helps!

 

^People like him are awesome. I wish everyone helped out that much.

 

typemismatch is right. Once you own a Honda you do not want anything else. I have owned six Honda vehicles: 00 Civic SI, 98 Accord EX, 95 Accord LX, 05 Odyssey, with my 97 Prelude and a 2011 Insight as my current ones. My 95 Accord had 360,000 miles before I sold it and I gave the 98 Accord to my sister in law which is fixing to roll over 280,000; basically you can't beat the reliability. I love my prelude but I absolutely love getting 50 MPGs in the Insight which my wife drives. I also would say get whatever you think looks best and go from there. Hondas are more about looks than speed anyway in my opinion, this coming from a guy who has owned ZX6s and GSXRs I don't think any car is fast anymore. I still think the 5th gen preludes are some of the best looking body styles Honda has ever done. You won't regret getting one if you do. Some things to look out for on the 5th gen are the annoying little oil leaks. You have to keep an eye on your oil level weekly. As long as you stay on top of the regular maintenece it will not let you down.

 

@kuhwahh ... I was bored and I've learned soooo much over the years lurking around H-T, so I figured I'd try to help a new guy as much as I could.

@Phalen123 ... ask lots of questions, first by using the search, then by posting, if you post in this thread, I'll reply if I have an answer. Also, wikipedia has a lot of good basic information on the bodies and motors available in Honda's and Acura's, it seems the Honda community loves to keep track of their cars ... that should tell you something ...