I have a '96 Honda Accord Dx. I am already planning on doing a head swap to increase my Hp and Torque. Any other suggestions? Honda/Foreign cars are completely new to me. The only mechanical experience I have is with muscle cars and older american made cars.

 

you can add air-intake, headers, and exhaust

 

Go with an H22 or H23A VTEC swap for more power and torque.

With an F22B2 SOHC Non VTEC, you can't really get much out of it besides going turbo. Even then, you'll need to replace those high mileage piston rings to help it stay alive longer after boost.

 

You will loose power from an intake, and honestly the header and exhaust will only make his car louder.

 

First things first. You need to have a goal and a realistic budget for any swaps/builds.

Figure out what your goals are for the car. Turbo or naturally aspirated? Top end power for all out drag or mild hp for daily driving and some racing. Are you are looking for a quick boost in HP on a low budget or do you have some extra cash?

If you want to make some power out of the F22B2, it can be done.

- Rebuild the bottom end and get some quality pistons and rods.
- Valve job, aftermarket camshaft & cam gear. With the B2 head you may want to upgrade to 34mm intake valves. The stock valves are only 32mm. Smallest of all F22A/F22B heads.
- F23 IM & 60mm throttle body
- Assemble a quality turbo and associated parts
- Save up money for tuning.... Better to talk to a tuner before you even start the build... Give3s you a better idea what you will need to have in place well before tuning.


Bolting on a head, intake, header and exhaust onto a stock block F22 won't give you any gains worth speaking of.

 

^ +1. He and I have been chatting about F22 stuff for a week or two now. Is your car a 5-speed or auto? I personally autocross, so I'm limited by rules of the class, and I have a '97 LX. If I wasn't limited, and wanted to build a fun DD, I'd go junkyard diving to find:

-F22A6 head(or whole motor if possible, wouldn't hurt to have a spare block. Whole dropouts with transmission are only $250 at my local pick-n-pull)
-H22/H23 upper intake manifold and throttle body
-2G DSM manifold and 14B/16G turbo(fairly common, 14B would be almost ideal for DD, 16G's have GREAT potential), you'll have to oval out some of the bolt holes to get it to fit
-P06 Civic ecu(you'll need an OBD2A>OBD1 conversion harness, nothing else needed), pick whichever tuning chip/program you want, I personally perfer Hondata as it's so easy to find a dealer/tuner
-Larger injectors, there's TONS of info out there, if you turbo the thing, you're probably gonna want something in the neighborhood of 450CC's

Then just fab up what you need to in terms of exhaust and intake routing. 2.5"+ downpipe/exhaust, decent size intercooler. VTEC heads are not as efficient or flow as well as the earlier F22A* heads. A 14B setup should make a super-quick spooling 200+whp/tq. 16G's are only slightly slower spooling and can make up to almost 400whp if you go for a fancy FP 68HTA version. The run of the mill small 16G's are good to about 250whp/tq, large/EVO 16g's can support 300whp+. I've bought 14B's as low as $20, and 16G's seem to go anywhere from $100-$1500 depending on which one you get.

Personally, this is what I'm thinking for mine, I need about 150-160whp to be competitive in my class(F-street prepared). I can only swap in a whole engine/trans combo, so no cam/head swapping allowed. A camshaft is HUGE on these engines and frees up a TON of power if selected properly, as is compression; they're the two best things you can do with F-series engines.

-F22A6(best head, best intake manifold with dual runners, can run a timing gear) or F23A1(cam seems to have more potential, displacement a bonus, lame VTEC and VTEC=no timing gear allowed)
-Custom, self-built header
-2.5" exhaust
-3.5" to 3" tapered intake with a velocity stack
-light porting of the head(rules state I can go 1" into head)
-smoothing of the intake manifold to remove casting flaws, etc
-68/70mm throttle body(going to do testing to see what size works best)
-P06 with Hondata S300, OBD2A to OBD1 jumper harness, tune, tune, tune

Like I said, I have the expensive, very limited route since I have to comply with class rules. If I didn't care about autocrossing, I'd definitely just F22A6 head swap and add boost to the F22B2 to be done with it.

 

I don't really have a budget. I plan on doing what ever I want with it, even if that means buying everything a little at a time. I am looking for natural or turbo. Hondas are completely new to me so I don't know what it better. I want to have the max output of hp that I can get. I have extra cash and the stock 130hp just doesn't cut it for me. For right now I want to add on to the F22B2 block, with a full engine and tranny swap sometime in the potential future. I am trying my best not to have to mod the block but if that is the only way then I will just have to suck it up and do it sometime when I have another way to work.

 

Save your time and money on bolting stuff to the F22B2. As I mentioned you are not going to gain what you are looking for from addng basic bolt-ons to an F22B2.

Your money would best be put into all the pieces and parts for your "future" swap. There is no better way to bring future plans closer to reality.

 

Is the F22A6 the American version of the EUDM F22A7? I know the F22A7 has 150HP but the U.S. has different emission standards than Europe so does it have less HP? Also why swap the ECU? I'm not sure what that does. I have a 5 speed.

 

Ok then it looks like I will be going to the junkyard to grab an engine and tranny. Any suggestions?

 

How much are you looking to pay?

You need to decide if you are goign turbo or N/A.... they are two different beasts.

Going through an online engine importer, such as Hmotorsonline.com is probably your safest bet for a starting block. If you are undecided on the N/A turbo setup. I would suggest one of the following engines for a starter. H22A, F20B or H23A.

 

Ok well I still don't know if I want a turbo yet or not. So what engines can a turbo be put on that you'd suggest? Also are any of the engines you are mentioning compatible with my stock tranny?

 

Any of the F & H series engines can be boosted.... Best option is to at least break into the bottom end and upgrade the pistons and rings.

All F & H series engines will bolt up to your transmission. With the exception of the F20C & F22C1 (S2K engines). What you are using the car for primarily will determine whether or not your current trans will work in conjunction with an engine swap. Probably not going to be the best trans for an H22.

If you are talking about an automatic trans...don't even bother with an engine swap without the corresponding trans and transmission control unit (TCU).