Just came up on my first honda that I would like to build. Got it for an insane price from a diesel shop owner who builds them for track and just sells them when he gets bored.
It's a stock f22a1, 5 speed. 220k miles
It does have a full suspension over haul. Tein coil overs with dampeners, all the frame braces, poly urethane bushings in some awesome motor mounts. Sitting on vintage yokohama super advans. and a bunch of other goodies that would take too long to list including a p72 ecu, or a p78 idk what he said thats extra.
the engine in it Has 130 psi across the board but I don't plan on using the engine. Im going to be sourcing another one and just build that one. My question is how to go about building the engine and about the transmission. the fuel, turbo, and all that other stuff is straight forward but I can't seem to find any direct information on sleeving the block, or what to do about the transmission. I'm going to keep it at around 300whp, but I want to be able to go to 350whp without an issue. I get that ill need rods, pistons, preferably would like to keep stock crank. But i keep hearing about I need to sleeve the block and also that I don't. There is so many honda engine codes and letters and numbers it confuses me. Do i need to iron sleeve the block to run forged 85mm forged pistons? Also, for the transmission I don't feel safe using the 220k trans even though it shifts amazing that doesn't mean anything when the gear teeth get shredded in 5 seconds. What trans should I get for it? I don't want to spend more than I have to. People say the h22 trans is perfect for 300-400whp so just some insight on that would be nice.

I dont really post on forums so sorry if this stuff seems unorganized.

 

All F series(FWD) engines have iron sleeves. This includes the DOHC JDM variants. They can all safely be run with aftermarket forged pistons without issue. No need for full sleeves in the 300-400whp range. That can actually be done on a stock bottom end but a rod/piston engine is relatively cheap insurance. Can safely overbore up to 1mm but generally the less oversized you go, the better. The more sleeve material you retain the more tolerant the engine will be of power and abuse. H series is a different story and requires sleeving to run a typical forged piston.

Stock crank is more than fine as long as it's in good shape to begin with and the engine is built correctly. Will handle 700hp+ easily.

Stock transmission is also fine. I have a 350k+ mile H23 transmission in my Accord that's just shy of 400whp. Aside from a noisy input shaft bearing and a dying 5th gear synchro, it's withstood all kinds of abuse for many, many, many miles. If you stick with a SOHC platform, your rpm range is going to be limited compared to a DOHC platform so I wouldn't recommend an H22 trans. Just gonna create a lot of wheelspin with the shorter gears. The stock F22 trans is loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooon g but it's not that bad on a SOHC with boost. An H23 transmission like I have is about the best middle ground.

Biggest thing that will hold you back with the F22 platform is the head/cam and aftermarket part availability. You can make 300-400 on a stock head/cam but it's gonna take quite a bit of boost to get there and it will fall flat pretty quickly beyond 6k rpm. At minimum I would recommend a cam regrind and valve springs/retainers. Simple rod/piston motor with those head mods will go far and be nice for the street. DOHC platforms are another option but they all have their pros and cons. Unfortunately unlike the B/D/K series engines where the aftermarket part availability is virtually infinite, the H/F platforms have a lot of redheaded step children and just about every one has a list of pros and cons depending on what you're trying to do.

 

Sweet, gonna skip out on the sleeves and start looking at cam kits. I've seen alot of people do an EGR Delete by just basically running block off plates with of course using a proper ecu (i will be using hondata as well as the stock intake manifold). Is there anything funky I will have to do besides this? I would like to make this car as clean as possible down to having no CEL's. Also I would like to attempt to keep the AC, but finding a turbo manifold like you said is difficult for the F series as is, but living in florida makes me consider shelling out the extra cash if its not a daunting task to keep ac. That is, if i can find a manifold.

Which size pistons do you reccommend? The engine I am using will for sure have somewhere in the 100k mile range, I would say 150k at the most, hopefully. I see alot of good forge sets that are 9:1 at 85mm and 85.5mm. Obviously the less bore the better, but after so many miles I don't want the 85mm piston to well, not work. Should I go for the extra .5 mm? Other than that I think I should be on the safe side with making sure I have a proper shop. living 5 minutes from the daytona 500 I have plenty of options.

Also on engine rebuilds, i've always replaced the rod bearing, but this was for oem rods as well as oem bearings. I've never changed the oem rod bearings when installing upgraded rods, is this something I should do? And will oem be fine or should I look into better ones. They are only like 30$ so If it's even 50% worth the effort to change Ill probably end up doing it.

Now I know you said a stock head at 6k rpms would make it difficult without alot of boost, and I know this is a hard question to answer because I haven't exactly picked a turbo trim size besides me knowing for sure it'll be a t3/t4. I'll probably stick with 300whp until I decided to change the head, how much boost do you think would be necessary out of a turbo that size to reach that?
Thanks.

 

EGR delete is basically required as a typical chipped ECU has no way to control it anyway. Just use a block off plate. You can find them all over the place. Seal it with some high temp silicone and forget about it. Keeping A/C with a simple log manifold is possible if you know a good fabricator. It's a relatively tight bend around the A/C compressor and lines but it's doable. Wrap the lines with the some heat reflective tape if you actually want the A/C to blow cold air.

Take the block to the machine shop first and have them measure it. They'll be able to recommend a piston size based on the condition of the bores. For a higher mileage engine you will probably end up going 85.5, maybe 85.25, to get rid of any bore taper. I wouldn't go stock 85mm on a higher mileage engine.

You need to install and check the clearance on new bearings, yes. OEM Honda bearings are really the best you will get fitment wise...but it can be a tedious task getting the clearances perfect. I run ACL race bearings in my high horsepower builds but that's just preference. I have used pretty much all brands and they're more or less the same. As long as it's a good quality bearing and you can get the clearances the engine needs with them that's all that really matters, whether it be quality aftermarket or OEM. Don't use no name china bearings off eBay because with boost they will be seeing a lot of stress so you want something decent.

Hard to say without knowing a turbo size. On a "57" trim chinacharger, expect 300whp to take anywhere from 14-16psi on pump gas with the stock head/cam.