So, I've been getting my feet wet with F/H-series tech this past year. Learned a lot on these semi-over engineered engines lol. Now I'm in the middle of swapping a 96 H22A1 into my daily '96 accord LX sedan (manual). Note, I'm keeping this swap California smog legit / OBD2 compliant; I have a 96 prelude P13 ecu to power this swap

I don't want to deal with modifying my LX harness or hiring someone to mod it for me, but I cannot seem to find an answer to this question on the net. I may just have to bite the bullet and trial and error it for myself but...

1) Anyone know if a rare 1996 prelude vtec engine harness is 100% compatible with a 1996-97 accord w/'96 H22A1 swap? Seems like it will be a perfect fit.

2) Do the 96-97 accords require the A6 & A11 pins to be swapped or is that an OBD1 Accord only thing?

TIA.

 

You're pretty much going down the same road I'm on. Nice to see someone else willing to do the work to make an OBD2 swap legal.

I'm no wiring expert, but I'm pretty sure it's way easier to just modify the LX harness to work. That's what everyone does, is mod the stock harness. If memory serves me correct, there really isn't much that needs to be done....wire up VTEC, IAB, as well as convert the knock sensor location (sensor and wiring should be the same, just different location). Not sure if swapping the pins applies or not. This is what I can remember off the top of my head.

in a few months I'll be able to tell you exactly what is needed lol. I have an H22A4 w/ M2B4 trans, and I grabbed a P13-A12 too. My friend Dan of Werdwerx will be helping me with the swap. He's the same guy that did my friend Ralph's White Odyssey with the H23 (who I believe you know, he also has an Accord). He can be busy, but maybe try contacting him, he's almost always willing to help if he has the time. Just let him know Corwin (me) sent you.

Or, not sure what your timeline is....but once I'm done collecting the last few pieces I need and get the swap going, I'll definitely update you.

Either way, I'll do some searching, and see what I can find to answer your questions. Even though it's not a very common configuration of swap, I know it's been done before. Just might take a bit of digging.

EDIT:
found this, lots of good info even though its not the same exact swap, the guy lays out the pinning and such. And explains why the H22 harness won't fit (different plugs).
http://importnut.net/h22a_swap.htm

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1.) The Prelude harness will not be a direct fit. The firewall connectors on both the passenger and driver side are different between the two vehicles. It will be easiest to just modify your harness and that's usually what I recommend to just about everyone doing a swap. You will obviously need to wire up VTEC which is not that difficult but since you're going to make it legal you will also have to contend with wiring for the IABs and knock sensor. As for the dizzy, it's best you just get the H series dizzy that matches your car harness(should be external coil). You may have to get some sort of adapter harness for the crank sensor on the H22(pretty sure Rywire sells them) because IIRC the 96-97 Accords didn't use a crank sensor on the oil pump - there was a sensor in the dizzy like the OBD1 cars.

2.)Yes. I believe they still have to be swapped.

 

1996accordlx
Yea I do know of Ralph! I did an immobilizer job on his ecu about a year and half ago on prelude ecu for him
I should actually be around 90% done with my swap by this weekend Godwilling. Only thing really holding me up is the harness factor, engine bay clean up duties, re-gasketing the power steering pump and several other trivial things.

Reason I'm swapping is because I killed my f22 with daily driver neglect and didn't maintenance it like a good owner should for the past 5 years LOL. The timing belt either snapped and/or the tbelt tensioner went bad back in May and my cars been down ever since. I was on vacation all of last week and gave full attention to the accord repairs. The f22 leaked major oil from the crank seals + other areas because of my neglect. I'm making up for it now since the engine is out (f22 going bye bye). Any boots are either ripped or worn, there's old caked up oil mostly on the driver side area of the cross member and undercarriage ugh...its just a fitlhy mess I'm in the middle of cleaning that up. BTW this car is a PITA to work on vs. a civic/teg. I can't believe how many got damb brackets honda used on this chassis. Its mind blowing.

Aradin
Thanks for the info about the ends of the prelude harness and the A6 & A11 pin swap info.
FYI 96-97 accords DO have a crank sensor on them like 96-01 preludes. So no problem with that.
My 96 H22A1 is pretty complete (aside from not coming with a harness) and came with the 96 dizzy + external coil - no problem there either.

Most of the info you've both provided I've come across, read, and made mental notes. I've made a list of details I've come across with this swap that I will share after I'm done swapping (here and on my tech site). Found an interesting error in a prelude Helms manual too that could've caused some serious oiling issues if I didn't catch it.

Hasport still offers their Accord-H22 harness conversion but I'm trying to save some $$ here. They would need an H22 donor harness along with my accord harness and meld the two. They will be my last resort though, but I still need to get prelude harness regardless since my engine didn't come with one.

I really do want to see if I can get the 96 prelude harness to work. I'd much rather deal with firewall end connectors vs. hacking up my accord harness & extending a plethora of sensor plugs. There's too many perks not to go prelude harness too:
-- made for an h22/harness reaches all engine sensors natively, has vtec, knock, IAB, correct oil pressure sensor & EGR style connectors all embedded with in it.

All I have to really do is figure out the shock tower plug differences (if any) and add wiring for vtec/knock/iab from the accord shock tower into cabin harness to ecu for a clean oem-like execution.

One idea was to go with a 96-97 EX 5spd harness but that will still require hacking which I don't want to do. Also, I can't find any 96-97 EX manual harnesses locally, a majority of them are from auto chassis's. So, after looking over a 96 prelude harness, just seems like a cleaner plan of attack.