Well, I found something I was dreading, the sludge in the radiator that says there is oil in the coolant. At first I was thinking this might be an intake leak (read about it, possible I suppose), then I thought it was a head gasket leak (also possible I suppose), but after reading longer in the threads, it appears the 99 Honda 2.3L is known for having a porous block defect and there is no fix other than an engine replacement. Does anyone have a DIY for a straight swap with a replacement (low mileage) engine. No mods, I just want to put another engine and keep going with the car. I believe I can get a replacement engine for about $600. I seen a few videos but it's nice to have a walkthrough so i can go back and check everything as I take it apart and put it back together. I figure it's foolish to throw a bunch of money trying and hoping it's anything else, and I do like the car enough to invest the energy to swap in a replacement engine.

Thanks for any tips. Also if anyone has a place they just love to get their engines from

 

Just confirm what the problem is. Do a leakdown test.

 

I hear you. But I also kinda think....177,000 miles....if anything is wrong with the engine, head gasket, cracked block, it kinda doesn't matter at this point. With that many miles, sinking in $600 for an entire engine to replace it seems smarter than any other repair option, since it will also be in roughly the same price range. If the heads cracked/warped, etc, honing, planing, etc comes out about the same. I can't think of anything else that would produce chocolate milk in the radiator that's inexpensive. I'd hate to go through the trouble of head replacement just to find out there were more problems. And....again I am only going by the multiple forums...but I don't see many successes with this year car with head gasket replacements. Calling Honda, they quickly admitted there is a known problem / flaw in these engines from these years so that's what has be thinking I can swap this pretty quickly and just be done with the old one that was fine one minute and now is a mess getting worse.

 

Even if the engine is 600 itself, you still have to do the basic timing belt kit, seals etc + fluids, otherwise who knows how long your "newer" engine will last. A leak down test is 20 minutes of ones time, Ontop of this, whats to say the newer block will not eventually reach this conclusion when it too, hits this milage?

 

Sadly, very true. I suspect this is a flaw in the engine model (F23A) and it will eventually have the same issue. But if I can get 100,000 miles from it -- cost per year is very low then (5 years). Timing belt I'm going to remove from the old engine as it only has 10,000 miles on it. I agree, I could do more, but I don't think I am going to crack open the engine. I will probably do the compression test, but as I said, I don't really see the point. You don't get oil in engine for something small, so it's not much different in overall cost and time to me. An oil leak I can repair myself, an engine I can put in myself. But a crack head/warped block, honing and other things....I don't have tools for that and so it becomes a cost that I can compare to my own time and swap for the same amount. Plus I can swap an engine in 2-3 days (long weekend) and be up and running again quickly. I do see your point, however, it would be "nice to know" but all signs point to something "very bad".

 

Oh, and I found the shop manual in case any else is interested in one for their vehicle.

Manuals - Downloads - Hondahookup.com

They have both Civic and Accord manuals for free. In PDF format and searchable.

It contains the engine removal steps.

 

Stay away from any diy on your car the savings may be tempting but I’m getting a strong newbie vibe from you. Just make as many phone calls to all the repair shops in and around your area and find the lowest price for a new motor. They will get a low miles motor from a jdm dealer and put it in. Any thing goes wrong after you have someone else besides just yourself who is invested in your swap.

 

A standard Gates replacement belt from Rock Auto is $20.79, less if you use the 5% discount. Why bother with the old one off a used motor? I would never reuse a timing belt.

 

I'll admit to being a newbie with a Honda Accord, but swapping engines and rebuilding cars is nothing new. Probably done 25 swaps in my life at this point, usually American (chevy, pontiac and ford) or German (BMW, Porsche, and Volkswagen) and one Civic . I haven't taken my car to a dealer or shop in decades, I do all the work myself. If I can't, I get rid of the car. Don't trust other people to work on my vehicles. Most of mine make it well over 200,000 miles so I think I am doing ok. So...yes and no to the comment about newbie. Just not familiar with Accords. But I appreciate the advice, if I was new I probably would attempt it anyway for the learning experience. Parents had me work on the car since I was probably around 12 or so. I also drag race and land speed race, so I've broken many things and had to repair them, this is much simpler than that.

Ordered a JDM engine and transmission, now to clear some space in the garage.

Comment about about the timing belt, you are probably right, I'll probably get a new one.

 

Ok that’s good. I’m just not willing to drop links to videos or write up while assuming you’ll be able to figure it out. Your fine then just drop ship a motor and swap it in. Everything is the same. Only difference is your using metric sizes tools

 

Since it doesn't appear anyone has posted much on this swap yet, I will try to update as I do work on it here.

First thing is a JDM engine is a direct swap as long as you move over certain parts from the US version. The transmission also looks like there are a few pieces that need to be switched over.

What's nice when you receive the engine is you really get everything, such as injection, wires, alternator, power steering. However, they don't all work, but it's good practice for taking apart some of these on the stand before having to figure out how to disconnect these from the actual real car.

So, parts that I see are different so far are:
upper Intake manifold (I cannot tell at this point if the lower part is different, but the upper is definitely something not to use, sensors are in different spots)
Exhaust manifold (the JDM engine has no O2 sensor on it so you can't use it)
Thermostat housing (appears to bend a slightly different way)
Coolant crossover tube (faces wrong way)
Front upper coolant housing for upper radiator hose (jdm faces wrong direction)

I'd read from others that some people received cars with a different crank pulley that was missing accessories (either power steering or air conditioning, I can't remember), but mine came with the correct one, so I was able to leave it alone).

For the transmission, you have to swap over the solenoids, which just unbolt from each with no problem.

Another thing I found interesting: I am going to pull the engine from the top, but I've heard of people dropping it through the bottom. That actually looks more difficult but I was curious if anyone has ever done it that way?