Hey everyone. My buddy and I have been into rock crawling for several years now and have ended up with team purple's buggy called the Nemesis. It is a super trick rock buggy. It has more trick parts on it than I have ever seen. The motor, wiring harness and computor is a one off from AEM. Our plan is to compete with this buggy in the we-rock series. Here is our problem. This thing is powered by a 2005 honda 3.5 vtec from an 05 pilot. Now here is our delima, the motor has a bad crank....evidently is was ran upside down and starved for oil. Well I am being told that the 2005 3.5 is different from the earlier models and will not interchange. Now my question is how different are they? Heads? block? The earlier motor is less money and I am a master tech(not honda), I was hoping someone could tell me the differance. I have access to a low mile 2003 3.5. can anyone help me out??....Thankyou.....Rod...Bandito's Rock Racing

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_J_engine

Looks like it's the same engine as the lower end 05-09 Odysseys if wiki is to be believed. As to all the differences between the J35s, I have no idea. Obviously some of the newer ones have variable cylinder management, but that shouldn't affect the ones you're looking at.

 

Thanks, That was some great help. I now know that we have a J35A6 and I think I can find out now what parts will swap with the A4. The A4 is less money. So if, or when ,lol, this happens again It will be a little less expensive.....unlesss...we hook up with a good sponser!...Well but anyway thanks for your help. Rod

 

bump because I want to see pics of this beast!

 

Here is a link to my photobucket page with a few pictures of the buggy.

http://s729.photobucket.com/albums/w...mesis%20Buggy/

Thanks for the help with the motor information and for the interest in a VTEC powered Rock Buggy.

 

nice!!!!!! i dont see why you cant just swap the motor with the low miles motor. unless the one thats in there is fully built

 

The motor that is currently in the buggy is nothing special. It is just an "off the shelf" 2005 Honda Pilot motor. What makes the 05 motor so desirable is the one off AEM wiring harness, one off AEM computer, and the custom one off adapter that allows the Honda motor to mate to a Power Glide transmission (Chevy). The computer takes the 240hp stock motor to well north of 300hp. The 05 motor is about double the cost of a 2003-2004 Honda Pilot motor so we wanted to save a little coinage by using the 03-04 versions if they were compatible.
Since we were unable to determine the differences we decided to "suck it up", and just pay for the 05 version. The new motor will be installed this weekend.
Thanks for all the feedback...