Ok,

I've been doing a lot of comparing of the H22A and the H22A4 engines over the last few weeks.

This weekend I'm planning on swapping in an H22A motor for my H22A4. Clyinder 1 & 4 on my motor have have nice blow-by (4 especially) and I was looking for replacement options... primarily due to cost of resleeving the block.

Anyway, along the way, I've noticed that I'm reading a lot of stories of 5th gen Prelude owners having oil burning problems. It seems that in most cases the problems are the rings.

This has gotten me to wondering if an open deck design is less stable than the close deck design of the H22A engine? Furthermore, if that difference may some how effect the rings on the H22A4 series?

I'm curious to know opinions, as I've been seeing a lot of the resleeving options for the H22A4 have bands the affix the to of the cylinder to the block... effectively creating a closed deck.

 

Yes the H22A4 is not stout block.. Most honda rings are known to be weak. How you would fix the H22A4 block is to put in a block guard. Essentially making it almost a closed deck. If plan on doing a mild build go with Type pistons with new rings and get a block guard. I would say that would be a cheaper option.

 

It good to know what they are actually called!

I think I'll disassemble my motor and see what the differences are!

(The H22A4 after the swap.)

Any more comments?

Gerhard

 

well i have several h22a's and an h22a4, and the a4 at 115k miles consumes less oil than the 2 lower milage h22a engines i have as well. It also had minimal visible wear in teh bores of the h22a4 when i had to replace a bent rod a few weeks ago. So I am not sold that there is any kind of problem with rings or cylinder stability.

 

Humm...

I'm basically searching for answers.

I'm the original owner of my 5th Gen with the H22A4. The engine has ALWAYS burned oil...and gotten steadily worse over it's life.

So either I've got a defect from the factory, or there is something odd with certain H22A4's.

It is a fairly common issue to have a 5th gen owner tell you that they've always burned at least 1 QT of oil every 3000 miles.

I did replace the valve seals, and it's not solved any problems. So that's not the problem.

Gerhard

 

Well, ever since my head swap my car has burned virtually NO oil. I used to experience a little bit of oil consumption, but mine has gotten progressively better, to now it hardly uses any.

It also depends how much time you spend in vtec. i shift at about 3K rpms for daily driving hit vtec maybe once a day.

 

sleeve it and build it, remember that you can't run forged pistons on stock walls, they have that frm on it

 

I have had and gone thru 5 different H22's various years USDM/JDM Si, Type S vtec, Type SH, EURO-R OBD1 OBD2a/b P13, P5M, P5P, PCD open and closed decks and every single one of them consumed oil, smoked, gradually lost power. The most common thing i found in comparing is all four pistons cracked out ringlands between 1 and 2 and only on the intake side and all rings were stuck in piston the heads lost compression due to carbon build up at exhaust valves that somehow scared or warped the seats cuz light shine or even leak test showed multiple areas dripped. Ive noticed each pistons shapes were different some had taller domes some were almost dished. The older H22's connecting rods didnt have circlips and were shotpeen pressed in, the newer H22's were circlip floating wrist pins. Mid 97 production H22A4's were upgraded with beefier cranks having 55mm mains compared to 50mm mains of prior. The piston bottoms under the skirts had drilled holes on some while others didn't, i think it has to do with oiling for wrist pins. Another major problem i found is the rear balancer shaft cog seal gets worn or blown out and its almost impossible to replace just the seal it may require pressing out the cog from the inner shaft and gear to actually get to it. But no one sells that seal, this is probably why alot of guys went with the delete kits. 2 of 5 of my H blocks had vertical hairline cracking in cylinders from top down one was a closed deck and in #3 cylinder the other was open deck and in #2 cylinder. All my motors were N/A however i recently found out one of my older H22A was briefly turboed by previous owner that never mentioned it. But the fact the motor failed 2yrs later and one of the conrod bearings looked extremely squished made more sense after finding that out. Anyways I got some pics of everything I mentioned. Just not sure if it will allow me to post it here.

Differences of H22A1 and H22A4 pistons and rods: Wrist pin sizing, circlip, stampings, dome heights

Found in common Cracked ringlands in same area between 1 and 2 and on intake side only noticed skirts a little longer on the left one(H22A4) right one with conrod is H22A.

Drilled holes at wristpin area underside of pistons

Piston tops stamped P5M and P13 different shaped domes as well as height

P13Z stamped rod showing big end bearing scuffs

Extremely Squished out rod bearing H22A

Hairline crack in cylinder wall H22A4