Let me Start off by Saying I'm a 37 year old man who bought my 2000 Prelude type SH back in 2000 brand new and love the car for nearly 14 years now and about 2 months ago my car quit on me. When I originally bought the car I was 24 yrs old single and immediately started with bolt on mods, joining a car club and going to tuner shows (superstreet, HIN) needless to say I have had alot of fun with it and I always said its the only car I ever thought of rebuying if I needed to. That being said I am now happily married for 12 years and a father of 2, a 10 year old and an 8 year old (family guy). In February My car (the prelude) seemed to have broke down on way to work. My Harmonic balancer (ie. Crankchaft pulley) came off while driving making and awfully violent clattering under the hood. I had it towed to a mechanic and the told me that my crankshaft is warped and would need to be rebuilt, the woodruff key on it opped off and the pulley wheel (balancer) was eaten up from the wobbling. The mechanic tells me it is not worth it because looking at a rebuild I was better off getting a new engine. This is the 2nd time a mechainc had told me this (2 years ago this happened and I got them to slap it together with a new balancer, timing job and seals. I love my lude and wish I could have it back up and going but my wife says its time to let it go and get a "family" style vehicle like a nissan rogue or chevy traverse. I do not like to get into new debt especially when my heart is still with my lude. So in closing how involved or costly will it be to get my car back or should I even bother and just get rid of it and get into a 20k car debt?

 

That is a tough one, especially for the sentiment. My wife understands that my Lude isn't going anywhere, and I was the third owner.

Just had an engine crater on the dyno, and it will be rebuilt yet again.

In your situation, I would look into a jdm type-s with ATTS to drop in, the engine should be around 2k, then replace seals, belts, pumps and get it in there for whatever that costs, or learn and do it yourself!

 

So it needs an engine? .

If you love it so much, just throw a good condition ATTS compatible block in it.

Better yet...if you love it so much, why don't you marry it?

 

On a more serious note, I've replaced a lot of H22's. They tend to blow up. If I'm working on a SH, I usually toss the ATTS to the curb. A real LSD trans would be better. Buying a JDM LSD swap is not much more than buying another ATTS block by itself.

However....you know that there are WAY better cars out there now. FRS/BRZ, used S2000, WRX....lot of prelude guys gravitate toward 350Z's, etc....

 

Do you really need a whole new engine or just a new crank? Granted, by the time you put the crank in properly it might be worth it to just have put a used engine in, but it's probably worth looking at.

I understand your love, I have a Type SH as well. I also make it work with 2 kids (mine are younger, though). Definitely not worth going into a boat load of debt over, especially since whatever car you get you won't love as much. And getting the crank/engine replaced isn't that expensive/big a deal.

Lastly, if you just have bolt-ons, definitely keep the ATTS. It's sooooo much fun in a street car!

 

i kinda had a similiar situation where i'm using mine as a project car. But in your case...replace the engine with a used 1 and DIY. its actually really easy IF you take your time. I rebuilt my entire engine and did other misc things and spent well over 7k. But in your case replace the engine for 1k and save the other 19k for booze

 

Just swap the dead one out with a new one. If you are paying someone to do it, $3500-4000. Get the shop to order from a company like Hmotorsonline.com to their shop. They have a fire up guarantee. Then enjoy your prelude for another decade.