hi guys im new to honda tech and was wondering if yall could give me some advice on my car such as what aftermarket parts you think would be great for my car and just overall ideas in general. the car is a automatic 94 accord with a automatic 97 h22 motor and transmission. right now it has a 2 inch custom exhaust with glass pack and currently am trying to get a p28 and to get the hondata s300 (just recently made the mistake of getting one with crome and was a waste of money). this car was my first car and ive had it since i was 16 and plan on keeping it for a long time and want it to last while also looking good and perfoming even better. i was thinking about some stage 2 crower cams, possibly even cp pistons and sleeving further down the road, a good aftermarket air intake, maybe even increasing compression ratio. so i would like advice on how to make it better while staying NA and not blowing up my engine and keeping it a daily driver. thank you in advance.

 

Research
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H22's in Accords have been done ad nauseum. Before you crack open the engine for internal work, take a good long think about what you want the car to do, and if using an automatic transmission will get you there best.

 

ive done plenty of research but like i said in the post i want to know what ideas others have and to see what else i can do. i am staying with automatic though but basically would like more power. im basically rebuilding the whole car. it is also my daily driver.

 

Well, "sleeving" and "daily driver NA" really don't belong in the same sentence, to have meaningful cylinder shift the rpms have to get so stratospheric that you won't have much of any bottom end to use. Increased compression and cams to build power down low, an intake manifold with long runners (modifying the stock intake manifold to keep the long runners , or ITB's with long runners to increase the velocity of the intake air) will be what you want. Same with exhaust, keep it capped at 2.5" to maximize your exhaust pulse velocity and use a *good*header built with low-end torque in mind. Forget "power" and chase torque. Power is a function of torque and RPM, but with an automatic transmission you're not going to be using the upper rpm-range of the engine as often.

The biggest handicap I can think of though for the automatic transmission is the absence of a limited slip differential, unless I am ignorant of the lego-ability of the differentials between auto and manual transmission cases.

In all honesty, if you want to stick with the automatic transmission, I think you'd be better served with a 6th-gen Accord and grabbing the whole powertrain from the Honda Odyssey and transplanting it over. You get a great, responsive engine, gobs of torque, and its a newer body too.

 

i thought it has to be sleeved to do aftermarket pistons though? lol im not a expert at cars so i apologize if i dont know what im talking about on certain things.

 

Some aftermarket pistons, in retrospect yes. I'd forgotten about that in the myopia of my own build plans. There are one or two manufacturers that make pistons that are compatible with the FRM cylinder bores, I forget who. So yes, I'll concede on that point.

 

oh ok, and yah i know which pistons you are talking about. any other options or advice that you would have for this specific build?

 

If you're going to pull the block for machining, just buy a H23A VTEC (blue top). It's got 100cc more stroke and relatively speaking is a little torque monster when tuned right. Stick some Prelude Type-S pistons in there to bump the compression and pick some mild cams (using a/m cams will require having a shop clearance the pistons anyway, but its cheaper than sleeving a block), you'll be good for a grip of low end grunt.

 

i am only doing this exact car and this exact engine. i really like the h22 hence why i chose it. plus for the most part it easily fit into my car. also i dont want to have to go through another engine and engine swap.

 

The H23 blue top is literally a H22 with the F-series crank and different rods, just built that way from the factory. The block has to come out of the car for sleeving anyway, and a H23 plus a set of Type-S pistons is going to cost (I imagine) the same or less than heavy machine work and a set of sleeves. You get more torque and an engine that Honda actually built to be mated to an automatic transmission (getting the optional awd drivetrain from the Accord wagon it came in would be awesome). You asked for options, I'm presenting you with what is imho the best option for your situation.