Hi! my name is jim and i live in the south of england. I currently own a 1.5iLS eudm ek, comes with a d15z6 engine....vtec-e. as you can imagine, im pretty bored of this engine now and its time to move onto something a bit more gutsy. i thought about a bseries swap and it's a bit to common for my liking, so i thought id go with something a bit more adventurous but still with in my price range....H-series.!!!

I looked about online and manage to pick myself up a 1997 H22a5 with about 60k miles on it for £400 and with that, i got most of the wiring harness, starter motor, alternator, clutch, flywheel, all internals, hoses, fuel rail and injectors, IM, Ex mani and down pipe with flex joint. i felt quite chuffed when it all turned up, bit of a bargain but anyways i got to work, taking the engine apart. i completely stripped everything down and stored it in zip bags, nicely labbled and this is where i am at so far:

block completely stripped and jet washed, pan mating surface cleaned etc



head stripped cleaned and jet washed


i have primed the block, which i am awaiting some paint to finish off. no idea how this primer/paint will hold up with the heat of the engine but hey ho.



awaiting delivery of some wrinkle finish black paint for this bad boy, with takata green letters



just a mock up


I have a few ideas as to what im going to kit this out with but some feedback would be great because im only going on what ive researched.

• type-s pistons (stock sleeves-honed)
• stock rods (currently uncertain)
• OEM bearings
• OEM water pump/thermostat
• overhauled stock oil pump
• polished crank journals
• valves seats re-cut and angled
• crower stage 2 cam's
• crower spring kit with s/steel retainers
• euro-r mani (undesided due to work required)
• rc injectors
• stock fuel rail (depending on IM ofc)
• probably a p28 chipped with conversion harness and ostrich.
• hondata IM gasket

My main uncertainties at the moment are as follows (advice would be greatly appreciated):

whether to keep stock valves and just get them re-seated and polished etc or to get some supertech flat bottoms. what would be the pro's cons of keeping stock valves with the valve train i have in mind?

keeping my stock rods, i know that the rods are safe to past what im aiming for but i have some pics of them and under the bearings doesn't look brilliant. please be patient with me though as this is my first ever re-build...you must think im mental, diving straight in but who cares, im going for it.

here are the pics of my rod/cap bore surfaces

 

Looks like a sweet project. Keep up the good work and G/L to you my friend. Keep us updated

 

Bump.....

Are you gonna use a B series tranny?
A GSR tranny would be a nice way to put that power to the ground....

 

to be honest h2b is a bit out of my price range, dont get me wrong i would love to milk this engine of everything but its a bit too much. im not too sure as too which tranny il go with yet, i would like the ATR with LSD but yet again thats a big cost

 

bump for any thoughts about the rods please

 

no one has any thoughts about the rods? i really dont know whether i should be needing new rods.....let me know coz the type-s pistons are in the post

 

ok so the pistons are here...still no one has anything to say about the rods. there is no scoring on the big end surface, just the black marks. are these marks signs of spec. issues?

 

are you changing the cam shaft valves or springs or anything?

 

yea, im looking at crower stage 2 cams with super tech flat top valves and springs etc was thinking about the stage 3 cam but im guessing my emmissions might become a bit of an issue, it will be a daily driver....i hope lol

 

ive just been and measured my mains bearings and they are 50mm apposed to the 55mm on the h22a4 and 98+ version of the a5. so i am going to have to go for OEM bearings as ACL only do the 55mm. my rod journal is 48mm though which ACL do do, would there be any problem with having ACL rod bearings and honda mains?

 

i would say stage 3 for a daily driver might be a little over kill plus m.o.t..i cant see you having an issue using acl rod bearings, the only thing i can think of is if the bearings are a different weight than honda

 

yea exactly but stage 3 would be quite arousing lol oh ok i see, does the crush value not come into account then? because ive been told that you shouldnt mix oem and ACL mains because of the different crush and eccentricity values. i dont suppose it matters as long as all the rod bearings are same and all the mains are same.

 

For MOST CASES, a properly sized, round bearing bore along with a bearing that has the desired eccentricity will do the trick. If you had a highly modified engine then it might be a concern as you have tremendous amounts of pressure

 

*bump* with regards to stock valves the proswould be saving £££ maybe for something more important, compare stainless steel ones to titanium the titanium ones are much more durable and stong and will give you better air flow over oem you will also see a minor power increase. I would say if your doing spring retainers cams cam gears? you should look into titanium valves. I think your right about the rods unless you boost or do something crazy with a n.a engine

 

Koop

 

thinking about it i just moved back to england and got myself a 94 eg hatch...and was thinking of a motor swap, where did you find yours? Sounds like you got a fantastic deal

 

is it going to be worth the extra dough for the titaniums? i mean if the power increase is minimal id rather get steels and get it on the road quicker lol im going to take my rods to the machinist and see what he thinks, it looks like burnt oil but why would oil be getting behind the bearing, surely thats a bad thing? my engine, i went to 247spares.co.uk and searched for the h22, they then find the part your after and quote you a price with shipping etc i then phoned around the different quotes for the best deal. the guy i got my mine from was brilliant, was litteraly throwing bits in at no extra cost lol

 

im currently in the process of finding someone who can bore/hone my block but in england, no-one knows what FRM is lol could anyone on here tell me about their experience with getting this work done, is it reasonbly easy? could most machinist carry this out ok? ive spoken to my machinist and he is trying to get hold of the right stones for me.

 

are you talking about bore/honing the cylinders or sleeves/frm? if its the first just watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQfh6AZxL08 not too complicated...with the valves i would say steel ones would be fine

 

cheers for that vid matt, but ive finally had some success, after much searching i finally found someone who is capable/experienced with FRM :D so relieved and its not too far away either

 

awsome..good luck with the build cant wait to see the end result

 

ive been fiddling around with a power steering pump and bracket today that i mamanged to salvage from a 1995 f20 soch. two of the mount holes fit onto my head, but require a 14.5mm spacer for the bottom hole. ive checked lings and the belts for both these engines are identical so im guessing this should work fine providing the p.s pulley and crank pulley align properly. il update with some pics later on.

 

some pics of the pump mount




as you can see part of it on the left isn't needed so this could be cut back. ive probably missed something important, im still unsure whether it will still align as i dont have a crank pulley atm but its just an idea in progress

 

sooo bored of waiting for money....i just want to get this thing going MAN. anyone know of quick ways to earn cash hehehe got my works bonus coming next month though :D

 

Hey dude, just pm'd you on preludeuk. Building an H22A myself but goin H2B. Did you end up going with stock rods and type S pistons? Does this not have an affect on the compression ratio etc. I'm guessing you need to clay the engine... How did the hone work out?