Currently I have a 97 Accord (4 door) with 267,xxx miles on it and I was wondering what your guys opinions of doing a build with this car were? I will be the first to admit that I am a newb when it comes to working on cars but my brother has great knowledge about working on them and my dad has done a good bit of body work on them before. So I'm just purely looking for your opinions on if I should try and work on this car or just let it live the rest of its life pretty much stock? I will post of pics if you guys want later today, thanks for any thoughts.

If this is the wrong section I'm sorry could you please move it.

 

i think that the 90-93, and 94-97 accords are some of the best cars honda has made. Also, there are numerous options when it comes to powertrain, suspension, and brakes.

Powertrain:

The first option I would suggest for you would be a low mileage H22 engine and transmission (along with ECU). The H22 will bolt in using the factory accord mounts, shift linkage, axles etc, and will completely transform the attitude of your accord.

Another option is to turbo the F22 that you have. However being that you have a high mileage motor you will probably end up needing a rebuild or a lower mileage F22 to replace it.

Suspension:

Assuming you want your car to handle as well as it accelerates you'll need to replace the springs and struts with high performance pieces. Take your pick of companies, but do yourself a favor and steer clear of cheap ebay coilovers or springs. Many people will suggest coilovers over a spring/strut combo. I disagree, simply because I wouldn't ever mess with the ride height after i have it where i want it... so why not just buy springs that sit how i want them to and not waste money on parts-list-bling.

Brakes:

Unfortunately your car has hub-over-rotor brakes. Changing out the brakes to a more normal rotor over hub design will kill two birds with one stone. Ease of maintance and improved braking. I'm not an accord guy but i'm pretty sure legend and or prelude parts are used to accomplish this.

I have intentionally left out a lot of specifics because the information is already there for you in the FAQ, the second thread down in the 90-02 accord forum. Read it, Know it, Be it.

Also check out accordinglydone.com for more info

 

thehatchninja- OK thanks for the thoughts. I'm not good with what motor is which yet but isn't the h22 the prelude vtec motor? With the transmission right now I have an automatic right now and if I did a swap idk if I would want to do the whole auto-manual conversion or not, any thoughts? As for suspension I was thinking of going with the Eibach prokit, only problem is I think it might lower my car too much since my driveway is a little steep, my dad has an 09 Civic and it scrapes going in and out of the drive way every time and that's with the stock setup.

Thanks for the help.

 

If you like the car keep it and build it. if you don't like the car sell it and buy something you like. There are a ton of mods that you can do to your Accord. Some mods require lots of $$$$ and some don't. The more things you are able to do yourself the more you will be able to save. Getting your father and brother in to help will save you boatloads.

If you want a 5sp and you are looking to do an H22 swap I would suggest doing them both at the same time. There are numbers of threads on the internet on how to do the auto/manual swap and H22 swap into the 5th gen Accord. The Accord FAQ here on H-T and the search engine are good places to get information.

As for the suspention mod. On flat level ground measure how far off the ground your fathers car is where it is hitting. Then measure yours and what ever you get for a difference should give you a rough estimate on how far you could drop your car. Depending on how hard your dads car hits, if it hits hard and high up on the lip/bumper then you would want to subtract that (1/4"-1/2") as well.

 

GhostAccord- Thanks for all the information, the only reason I said anything about it being automatic was because I see a lot of people telling others to do the switch from auto to manual, but I think it would be easier for me to just keep a auto in. And thanks a lot for the information about how much to drop the car, that will really help me later on.

 

OK. the thing about the auto to manual is that it is easier to do the 5sp swap at the same time as your doing an engine swap. That is if you are even thinking about doing an engine swap.

The H22 will work with an auto trans. It's just way more fun with a 5sp. That and I'm not so sure but the F22 auto trans probably doesn't have the best gearing for an H22 VTEC. Someone else will have to chime in if they have any personal experiences with an H22 with Auto F22 trans.

As for boosting your F22 that is a very popular option. But again with the auto trans. Not as much RPM control and the gears are longer. You will probably need to keep that in mind when choosing a turbo. I'm sure there are boosted auto Accords out their. I will let those people give there testimonials.

 

GhostAccord- I was going to do the engine swap and if I'm right the H22 is a Prelude Vtec engine and that was what i was hoping to go along with since I heard it was easiest to do and it would help give me some more power. I'm not trying to make this a drag car or anything since I really need it as my daily driver but still I would like to add a good bit more to what I have. I think keeping that auto in it would be easiest, maybe if I put a different one in though it would help with the gearing to the Vtec? For the boost, I wasn't really planning on going that route with the F22 mainly since it has so many miles on it that I don't want it to blow right away from just a couple lbs. of boost. Thanks again for all the help.

 

I hope obd2 inspections won't be a problem for you where you live.

 

accord raffi- Like I said in the first post I'm a complete newb here, could you give more details about the inspections problem I could have?

 

lol Dropping a 5spd in your car wouldn't exactly make it a drag car.

Yes the USDM H22A1 (92-96) & H22a4 (97-01) is the DOHC VTEC that came in the Prelude.

There are also overseas Accord models that carried H's with a bit more Hp. Check out the Japanese engine importers and you will see that there are a few different H22's. All of witch come with varying Hp and price tags. If you want to stick to the H22A1 & 4 from the US that's up too you.

to the H22 with an H auto trans. If that's what you deem to be the easiest for you.

 

GhostAccord- haha I didn't mean for it to sound like putting the 5 speed in it would mean I had to drag race it or anything I was just saying that like I don't need 700 hp or anything crazy like that, lol. With the H22a1 and the H22a4 is there really much difference between them? And for the H22 auto trans, would that just basically be a bolt in type thing or would it take a good bit of fabrication too? Thanks for all of the help.

 

Any other opinions?

 

I just think that, with the mileage you have, you can either take it apart and rebuild the motor and take care of the vehicle overall and make it nice for another 15 years. Or... you can do other things as ghostaccord mentioned and keep the car for another 15 years..... and rembember, it's a HONDA, so it's always worth it! If you like the car, and you want to do it for yourself... then it's worth doing it.

 

I say, if you think it's worth it....

But like it's been said before, you'll have to get all your maintenance issues in line before trying to do anything to further performance. Replace worn suspension components, redress your engine, etc., etc.

 

do it hook it up
h22 that girl

 

Cars made from the year 1996 until now are OBD2 cars. Cars before that used other versions of OBD. If you do the swap on your OBD2 accord, you're going to have to use the OBD2 motor. If you use the obd1 H22, you will have issues passing inspection because you're car would be running off of an obd1 ecu instead of the obd2. The scanner won't "communicate" with the ecu in your car anymore.

 

Here is a pic of mine, that is a photo from earlier this year in March, since i've put my red top optima back in, done all the stainless steel hardware and gotten a race radiator, however, its a great decision to have made for my car, H22 is the way to go.

 

build it....i was in the same boat as you but i decided to build it because u dont see alot of accords around here lookin nice....im currently bought all the conversion parts for my 97 accord and ima keep building the sohc from there...

 

Thanks for all of the support guys!

accord raffi- OK thank you for clearing that up for me.

So can someone answer my question about would doing the H22 motor and tranny swap be a straight bolt on thing or would it require a lot more fabrication? For the tranny I think I would be keeping the auto just to keep it simpler for me this time around. Thanks for any more input.

 

Prelude and accord parts are interchangeable.The swap should be cake.If you want to obtain PS your gonna need the prelude PS pump,High pressure line and bracket.If you go auto I would use the h22 auto not the f22 because of the gearing on the f22.

 

DrZFiNeSt- I think I'm going to leave the PS, and ya that's why I was thinking of switch to the H22 auto when I do this so that it would work better together. Thanks for the help everyone!

 

Well I go for inspection sometime next month so after I get my car passed that (Which will be no problem besides my new corner lights, got sold some that weren't DOT approved) do you guys think putting some Eibach springs would be a good place to start? The only reason I didn't say start with the motor is because I want to get the rest of the life out of the one I have now, plus it will give me some more time to shop around for an H22 and get a good price, thanks for any opinions.

 

I actually debated my suspension going in before or after the swap because i wasnt happy with what I had before that. I ended up waiting for the swap because it has a slight amount of added weight to it over the stock motor, so I'd rather the swap be in the car, then have the suspension installed so when it settles it only has to once, not twice.

 

Conflicted- That does make sense, lol, so pretty much I got to do the motor and tranny swap before I do anything else oh well, thanks for the info.

Edit: What all should I do to the suspension once I get there? Thanks for the opinions.

 

If you can afford all the parts and have people that are willing to help you, go for it.