I have had a mustang for about a year now, and I decided that it is time to take it off the road (I have to much money invested to get it messed up) as a daily driver. I have always liked preludes, so I really want to get one as my daily driver, but I dont really know what to look for. What years had the H22? Were there other motors available? Performance wise, which generation was better overall, the 4th or the 5th? Which generation has more potential? Thanks

 

well searching would yield you more info but basically the 4th gen is better in performance because it is lighter and 1996 did have 4th gen vtecs. do a search, it'll yield more answers

 

the H22a came in the 4th gen VTEC model from 93-96 and the h22a was standard for all 5th gen models.

If I were you, I would grab a 94 or 95 VTEC, 96 is also good it just has more emissions controls, the 4g has the nice 94+ interior leather, electro-luminescent dash and all around a really nice car. Look for a fresh timing belt/water pump and you;re good to go. Throw some nuce suspension on it and you'll be really happy with it. 4th gen H22a's tend to put out more power, and it's felt it the torque. It's lighter too, and has nicer seats etc.

 

4th gens are cool

 

u could also find a 93 94 with a higher mileage engine and swap a nice jdm h22 in it.

 

i have a 5th gen always been a fan of 4th gen if i were u get a 4th gen more potential and plus 5th gen are costly

 

How is the reliabilty of the car overall? How many miles should I be looking for to keep the miles on the safe side?

 

reliability of the car depends mostly on the previous owner. Just take the normal precautions when buying it. Especially dont buy one form a kid because most of us like to rev the **** out of these poor engines and ruin them. I am 21 so it may seam that I think I am old but I am not its just that I learned my lesson about beating the hell out of the motor.

Other than that if you could find one with 100,000 miles or under for a decent price that was taken care of you should be in great shape!

 

i bought mine with 165k on it, it runs Great

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by mesagsxbkr &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">How is the reliabilty of the car overall? How many miles should I be looking for to keep the miles on the safe side?</TD></TR></TABLE>

reliability for what? engine? body?

Well maintained preludes can go a long long time. Timing belt is the only critical maintenance item.

other than that all preludes burn some amount of oil, just watch out for a terrible oil burner. Damn h22a piston rings.

 

other than that all preludes burn some amount of oil, just watch out for a terrible oil burner. Damn h22a piston rings.[/QUOTE]

Yeah definatly

 

just found this thread and wanted to thank you guys
so it's ok to look at ludes with 80,000+ miles on them?

 

80,000 miles is nothing for a well maintained Lude! My friend had one with just over 256,000 miles! it was maintained properly with regular services and the only problem he had was a couple of ball joints wearing out!
It never had any real problems until the he got convinced to buy a 'super-chip', overrevved it and killed it
Apart from that well maintained Hondas last a long time! They have very tight clearences on components that makes them very reliable 4Gs

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Lou_Cypher &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">just found this thread and wanted to thank you guys
so it's ok to look at ludes with 80,000+ miles on them?
</TD></TR></TABLE>

For the right price and if it looks clean then yes. My 98 Type SH has 78,000 miles it runs great. Only problem I had with it was the tranny didn't go into gear but i had that fix and its been running great.