Hi friends. I am the owner of a 97 Prelude. It has an automatic transmission. I love the car, but it burns oil and the odometer is gonna hit 200K soon. I have thought about doing the 5spd swap since first owning it, but now I am finding myself at a point where I can pay for it soon.

I will be soon getting a substantial tax refund. I am presented with 2 options.

#1. Sell this Prelude. Get myself another car.

or

#2. Take some of my tax money and do this swap.

I have found a JDM engine with approximately 30,000 miles with a 5spd LSD tranny. Comes with everything, clutch, flywheel, harness, ECU, shifter cables... basically it is like this engine was plucked out with everything still attached.

I can get this for $2000

I would need to hunt down a shifter assembly and clutch pedal set with brace.

I have seen the shifter around, but the only pedal sets I see around are for 4th gen Preludes. Is the Accord set compatible?

Also... my Prelude would need a tiny bit of body work at a later point too. Saggy bumper syndrome (rear) and a chip/hole in the body (bad previous bondo job???).

What other parts am I missing?

What I would be gaining is a 5spd Prelude with a low mileage engine.

Do you think it is worth it? What would you do if you were me?

I'll leave you with a few pics of my baby:

 

it would be easier buying a manual but if you really love the one you have then do the swap you will either need to mod the ecu or replace it with a manual ecu and ignition,clutch master cylinder and slave cylinder and i think the drivers side driveshaft and halfshaft.
I may have missed something but i am sure someone else will pick it up

 

Other than the small chips and scratches which are expected on older cars, that's a real nice car!

If you can get the engine, tansmission and everything else listed for $2000, and if it really does have only 30k miles, I'd say do the swap. You'll most likely spend more doing the swap than you would buying another prelude, but low mile preludes seem to be getting hard to find. Plus, you might get a car with hidden problems.

As for the pedal set, I would ASSUME the 4th gen's will work. Have no idea about the Accords though. Keep in mind I said assume, so don't blame me if you get it and it doesn't work. Hopefully somebody with better knowledge on the pedals post on here.