Hey guys,

First off I'm new to the forum and to Hondas. I'm just beginning my research into Hondas so forgive any new-guy mistakes. I'm very well schooled in Toyota performance and boosted applications, specifically Supras. I own an '87 Turbo Supra at +550RWHP and a MKIV at +700RWHP. I've turboed (and sold) my '04 G35 sedan with a 350Z Turbonetics kit to +440RWHP. I have alot of love for imports, just no experience with Hondas at all.

I have alot of love for classics as well.... I own a nice '60 Classic Mini in yellow. Recently I came across a deal on another pair of Classic Mini's. The new ones are an old 1960 SCCA race car in dark blue, and a genuine 1965 Cooper S with title. I ALSO have a lightly front wrecked 1995 Honda Prelude with F22A1 (I assume, the hood is dented closed) manual trans. The car runs and drives, no check engine lights.


That's what brings me here: Basically I want to do an engine swap from the 1995 Prelude to the 1960 SCCA Mini. The VTEC swap has been done, and the AWD CRV swap has been done. I'm just looking to make an interesting project with what I have, on a low(ish) budget. In order to keep the cost to a minimum I'd like to start with swapping the factory Prelude motor over and get everything running.

I can't find much info on the F22A1 and, like I said, I'm not well versed in Hondas. My initial questions are:

--What kind of potential does the F22A1 have? I'm talking about a fairly low budget, in a shop with high fabrication ability (CNC, welding, etc). I hate Nitrous. I'd prefer to stay NA due to space restrictions, but a small turbo could be possible.

--If I part out the rest of the Prelude, are there any hard to find items that I can pull and sell to generate cash for this project?

 

As far as 4th gens go, the f22a1 was the weakest of the three engines offered out of the box. It has some decent torque, and moderate horsepower for its time, but it is nothing compared to the highly sought after h22a vtec. It does have a few advantages over the h motor, however. The first being the increased flow of the head. Suprisingly, the single cam head actually has a greater potential for getting fuel and air into the combustion chambers than it's vtec cousin. It just has to be built. the downside of course is that replacing and rebuilding all of the internals required to surpass the h22 is more expensive and time consuming than just buying an h.
The other advantage of the F is that the block is solid aluminum, and does not have separate sleeves like the H. Because of this it is stronger and can stand up to more abuse in it's stock form.

 

I've seen a D ...or was it a B series in an old Mini before but never an F series.

As previously stated- F series has a good solid bottom end, so boosting up to 9lbs (max) on good compression would do fine even on a stock motor.

If you were to go n/a, the h23 has a longer stroke than the h22 but there is a lack of oil squirters in the h23. Also as previously stated the h series doesn't have very friendly sleeves (frm) so you would need to sleeve it in order to have more piston options. Otherwise you're stuck with honing the block and upgrading to mahle pistons or type S.

 

i know alot of us in here know about F22's slightly but it's not a motor used by main Prelude guys they usually swap them out for H23's or H22's. You'd probably find more valuable info in the Accord forums cause they came in those from like 1990 to like 1997 i think? I've been currently building a F22A4 and that's where i get alot of my information from. those are guys are super helpful too. (not saying the Prelude community isn't but the F-series isn't usually the topic in these forums)

 

I had a mechanic Friend put a B16 in a 1960's mini;It was great because it had Vtec and was decently light motor(not so hard on the Chassis etc).

 

i would try and trade the running prelude for a b16a drivetrain, smaller engine more hp, less torque and less strain on the 40+ year old chassis...

 

Alright, cool. I appreciate the input. I think I'll try to sell off the Prelude and source a different motor. ...do some more research before pursuing the project. The B series is the common Mini swap but there are kits for the D and K series.

http://www.minimania.com/web/display...1/ArticleV.cfm

This article and your comments have convinced me to stick with a B-series and wait for a good donor car.

 

So I posted my '95 Prelude up for sale locally and was contacted quickly by a guy with an '94 Integra with B18B1 that wants to swap cars maybe with some cash involved.

The B18B1 motor seems to a motor that people are swapping into Civics and small cars. I hate wiki, and I'm researching as best as I can... Any info on the B18B1 motor, and is that a "good" motor? I can hear it run tomorrow.

Thanks in advance!

 

If you want the most info on the F22A, go to CB7Tuner.com. A lot of guys there love the engine to bits despite the popularity and incredible ease of swapping an H22A into our Accords. They have a crap ton of potential both all-motor and turbocharged. The few brands that support the motor really do amazing things with it - Bisimoto being the biggest and best by far. There's a guy here in Colorado that claims to have ran 14psi on stock internals reliably for three years before wanting more (currently just over 600whp); the key is using the correct parts and having a good tuner.

Maybe the sounds of a well-built NA "big block" four-banger will keep your interest up:

http://youtu.be/nbGwto44yO4

http://youtu.be/v7FguU-2HKk

http://youtu.be/Xe7JmUyMptU

Just imagine that coming from a Mini!

 

f22 in mini that sounds like a tight fit because mi friend r.i.p donald in jamaica had a 4efe in a mini and it was a tight fit

 

The F22 swap into the Mini should be the same as the H22 swap, they use the same motor mounts, shift linkage and axles.

If you wanted to be crazy you could find an H22 head and give the G23 frankenstein build a try. You get the benefit of the iron sleeves in the F22 and the VTEC head of the H22. There are build threads on here with people that have done this.

A B18B1 is a non-VTEC long block with a hydraulic tranny. Its by far one of the most common Honda motors lying around. The whole setup long block, tranny and ECU is worth less than $1k, just wanted to give you a heads up so you don't get ripped off.

The B1 block is solid, a lot of people do VTEC conversions on them, I think the B16 head bumps up the compression and is the easiest to find. The ECU is non-VTEC and I'm not sure if it is commonly chipped, so you might end up needing a different ECU if it can't be chipped. The real draw back to the B1 swap is the gear ratios, the motor has a bit of torque, but the gear ratios eat that up cause they're so long.

 

h22/f22/23 wont fit.. its too big. (no homo) well to big to fit into the standard engine bay, even using the extended front. the b series is more than enough power for one of these cars. check my sig, and avatar, that is a b series, and it barley fits in the clubman fronted mini.

 

I saw a thread a few years back on a guy that was putting an H22 into a classic Mini chassis.

Now that I think of it, it might have been a custom chassis or kit car build, which would explain why I thought it was possible.

Would an H2B setup work?