When it comes to car related jargon I can be short a few brain cells so please bear with me. I recently relinquished my 09 Mazda 6 and wanted to take on a project. Again, I'm not very car savy so I asked a friend to help me through the process. I settled on a 96 Accord EX with 80k on the engine and 144k on everything else for about $3300. It has power windows, locks, and sunroof for extras.

It has some body damage mostly on the front and rear bumpers or hood(she was obviosly a poor driver). There is an exhaust leak somewhere in the engine compartment as I was noticing myself getting fairly dizzy on the test drive. That was fine because it needed a new muffler anyway because someone took off the old one. An after market speedometer cluster(or whatever it is called) was put in but doesnt actually work. Those are the few major issues I found. Another oddity I noticed was that when driving at Interstate speed, 70-80mph, it runs between 3500-4000 rpm which seems very high to me.

I have a somewhate moderate bankroll to fund the upgrading of the vehicle but am really unsure where to start after the neccesaties, i.e. exhaust, speedometer, are fixed.

Thanks for being patiant with this newbie.

 

Hey josh

Looks like you've identified your major issues to start on. There are two things I can think of off the top of my head that if you haven't done, you should:

-Get it checked out by an actual mechanic. It sounds like at least the engine was swapped (transmission too?), you should get it checked because sometimes you never know who did the job... and sometimes they don't know what they are doing. When buying a used car that looks like the previous owner might have neglected or roughed it up a bit, its ALWAYS a good idea to get essentials checked out so you have a good idea whether the powertrain is worth modifying.

-Look around the forums. It can be time consuming, but VERY worth it. Just take a look at what other people are doing to their accords, especially ones like yours. Sometimes you can find really good ideas, or at least find out how to do simple modifications (check out the accord FAQ if you haven't already done so. Great page to find out how to do a ton of stuff). And obviously if you have specific questions, post em.

As for what you should do to it once its in good shape, its all about what you really want out of it. You want something you can stand driving daily? Well, then you don't want a car that has over 500hp and is lowered so much that the bottom scrapes on every incline. Want a drag car? Then you are gonna want that big turbo (or even an engine swap). You need to figure out your goal before you ask what to do next.

Do some research, look at some other 5th gen accords, and I think you'll be able to figure out the look you want and the power you want to make.

Sounds like you have some decent money too, so I think you'll be able to make yourself a sweet looking accord.

Good luck. Do us other accord owners proud!

 

You may want to do a bit more research into what has been done to the car.

I see some stray wires that you may want to look into. Maybe somethign has been removed or added. There seems to be an aftermarket Venom control box zip tied to your fire wall. Might want to look into that And that blue covered DOHC is not your typical 96 EX F22B1 VTEC. That would be a JDM F20B so there is really no need to go looking to do any swapping just yet. It may be the reason for the wires and the Venom control box though.

Those are just a few of the things I can see.... there are probably more.

Seeings how you have a good engine platform to start with. I would concentrate on getting the rest of the car in working order..... ie brakes, shocks and running maintenance. Then look into freshening up the F20B.

Oh as for your high RPM cruising, I think that may be a characteristic of the F20B it is a higher revving motor than the SOHC Fs. It requires higher RPMs to get into it's power band....or so I have read!


Modified by GhostAccord at 12:38 AM 9/27/2008

 

Sure that's a F20B?

Could just be a H22 with a new valve cover (judging from the condition of the bay this is my guess.

And x2 on majority of what the previous two said, I see lots of random wires in there, so I'd have someone experienced with swaps check it out and see what's going on. I went through and redid a lot of my wiring in my car when I bought it due to neglect.

As to the RPM's that's actually pretty close to what a H22/F20 transmission should be at.

 

Yeah, what may be above normal for some engines, is just right for others. Some transmissions have lower gearing to take advantage of the powerband. You just need to find out what you actually have.

 

First thing's first, get your broken **** fixed (Honda's with no muffler's sound like ****) then get rid of those god awful wheels...17x7.5 with 225/45/17's will fit nicely when lowered or even stock ride height :D

 

Made some progress thanks to everyone who replied. First the engine is an h22 after finding the imprint on the block. The exhaust issue was from a bolt that had broke in half (still missing a muffler though), put some new ones in and I am thankful to keep the few remaining brain cells. We tore apart the dash but were unable to successfully locate the speedometer problem.

The wiring issue was more of shooting from the hip as no one mentioned what wires looked suspicious. Four of the wires lead to the Venom box and the ones running along the hood are for illumination on the wiper spray nozzles. There is an on/off switch directly on the Venom 400 box and didnt notice any difference regardless of which way it was set.

And lastly, apparently I hit 5500 rpms today for the first time and the was a sizeable power influx that scared the crap out of me. Is this a result of more air being forced through?

Thanks again for everyones patience and responses

 

1) I'd rip out that Venom box (I'm guessing it's one of the ebay voltage regulators) they don't work

2) Either clean up or remove those wiper lights.

3) Simple Green that engine bay, I bet it looks 2000 times better just from that

4) I'd remove all that blue plastic covering lines

That'll probably give you a good start and really improve how the bay looks.

 

You also might want to move the (+) battery cable, that runs to the fuse box, under your intake tube.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by josh l &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
And lastly, apparently I hit 5500 rpms today for the first time and the was a sizeable power influx that scared the crap out of me. Is this a result of more air being forced through?
</TD></TR></TABLE>
I beleive that would be Vtec

 

VTEC Just kicked in YO!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by josh l &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">And lastly, apparently I hit 5500 rpms today for the first time and the was a sizeable power influx that scared the crap out of me. Is this a result of more air being forced through?</TD></TR></TABLE>

I must be nice to have VTAK!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by josh l &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">And lastly, apparently I hit 5500 rpms today for the first time and the was a sizeable power influx that scared the crap out of me. Is this a result of more air being forced through?</TD></TR></TABLE>

LOL

I wanted a new sig quote anyway.

 

think its time for a wire tuck. very messy under the hood.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by josh l &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

And lastly, apparently I hit 5500 rpms today for the first time and the was a sizeable power influx that scared the crap out of me.

</TD></TR></TABLE>

Haha, awesome. Check out this basic guide to accords in the accord section. good luck
https://honda-tech.com/zerothread/797528

 

Damnn that was a nice pick up for that amount of $$$$

Swap alone goes for close to 2K