Ok here's my situation;

A friend of mine has a 94 prelude Si, he messed up the motor (says it sounds like marbles tumbling around when its running) I am considering buying it from him for aprox. 2800$

first question: does this sound like a good deal? is 2800 way too much or is it a steal?


second: what do you reccomend doing? lets just say that the whole motor isnt trashed...should I just replace whats broken and go from there? or swap in a H22?
keep in mind that I'm going for the most economical path, and I dont plan on building this up, no FI or heavy modding. I'm just looking for a quick daily driver thats reliable.

thank you for any and all input!

 

I think the best way would be to just swap the H22 in, can't go wrong!

 

you have a couple of options, you can either swap out the engine for an entire JDM H22A, or do the H22/H23 hybrid if the Si's block is in good shape. Also, you can also rebuild the entire H23A and turbocharge it.

 

considering he said he didnt wanna do any heavy modding, wanted reliable means of transportation and wants good gas mileage FI is out of the question and so is h23vtec, so i'd say go with the h22 , that is if you're not satisfied with the h23, and 2800 for a 94 Si is pretty good depending on what shape the car is in, and how many miles are on it. anyway, an h23 still has some pick up compared to a lot of cars, i think you might just be satisfied driving the h23 around

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ludewannabe &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Ok here's my situation;

A friend of mine has a 94 prelude Si, he messed up the motor (says it sounds like marbles tumbling around when its running) I am considering buying it from him for aprox. 2800$

first question: does this sound like a good deal? is 2800 way too much or is it a steal?


second: what do you reccomend doing? lets just say that the whole motor isnt trashed...should I just replace whats broken and go from there? or swap in a H22?
keep in mind that I'm going for the most economical path, and I dont plan on building this up, no FI or heavy modding. I'm just looking for a quick daily driver thats reliable.

thank you for any and all input! </TD></TR></TABLE>

Sounds like you have a good plan. It makes me laugh when I see people trying to turn the Prelude into a HP monster. It just isn't going to happen, nor should it.

Anyways, I think your best bet is to just buy a JDM H22 swap. They are low mileage swaps so ALL the parts will most likely be newer than what you already have in your car.

Another good thing is that when the swap is being completed pretty much ALL the service you need to do on the car (i.e change fluid, belts, clutch, water pump) can be done before the motor goes in. That way you won't have to worry about maintanence for many miles after.

My timing belt and water pump are due for a change so i am going to try and save for an h22 swap right now so that I can just swap out the whole thing at once and add some more life and reliability to my car.

As for the price, it doesn't sound toooo bad. I would try to get it a little lower if you can. I got my 1992 Si 4WS with 157K miles on it for $1800. It needed some maintance parts (entire exhaust, tires, CV joints, clutch) so that is why he sold it to me for such a low price. I wanted to change these things out anyways (DC header, high flow cat, Thermal exhaust, and SO3 tires) so it was a good deal for me.

Does this car look like it will need other work to get it to pass inspection??

 

Sounds like you're in the same situation I was in a few months back. I think you should be able to get a few bucks off of that price. For reference, I bought a 93 Si with 118k on it for $1500 - it has a blown engine. $1500 is pretty low, but I think you should be able to get it cheaper than $2800 since his motor may be trash.

 

thank you all so much for the help and the quick replies!

the car has 113k on it, and It looks great, there are no known cosmetic problems.

I guess the H22 swap sounds like the best choice....so could anyone please direct me to a thread or a page with a list of places to buy JDM motors? I searched for a while but found nothing.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by AndyD &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Does this car look like it will need other work to get it to pass inspection??</TD></TR></TABLE>

inspection, whats that??? I live in good Ol' michigan. hehe

 

hmotorsonline.com. I heard a lot of people swear by this company.

Good luck

 

I just picked up a bone stock 93 Prelude VTEC w/155k miles from the original owner last week for $3200. Despite the high mileage, the car runs amazingly strong with the exception of an occasional grind going into 5th.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by PhAtBoY Si &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I just picked up a bone stock 93 Prelude VTEC w/155k miles from the original owner last week for $3200. Despite the high mileage, the car runs amazingly strong with the exception of an occasional grind going into 5th. </TD></TR></TABLE>
synchro's probably goin
i'd double cluth into 5th

 

Quick question: if I do the H22 swap I only need a longblock, right? I dont have to buy a whole front clip or full swap kit?


THANKS!!!

 

you'd most likely need an ECU, but other than that, you should be good, axles will be fine, tranny will be fine

 

[QUOTE=AndyD]

It makes me laugh when I see people trying to turn the Prelude into a HP monster. It just isn't going to happen, nor should it.
QUOTE]

Keep telling yourself that

 

yes it should happen and it will

 

already has........