cliffs notes at bottom

A friend of mine with a 94 prelude blew his engine. they want like 3k for a new engine plus labor. Im pretty much a self taught mechanic, change my own alternator, starter, radiator, timing belt (such a bitch), brakes, I do my own minor body work, etc.

I have the shop manual for my gsr, and its crazy how helpful it is. what im asking is, how bad can it be rebuilding an engine? I dont know whats wrong with it, but i feel confident that i could handle pulling the engine, tearing off the head. I expect it needs new valves or new pistons. i would need a valve lash tool, and a tool to assemble the rings, a torque wrench, etc. i have a ton of tools already though. anything im not thinking of i may run into? I shouldnt have to mess with the clutch or anything. What ya think?

CLIFFS:
im a pretty good self taught mechanic, friend blew h22a and cant afford to buy another, think i can rebuild it for him?


Modified by xrocket21 at 6:17 PM 6/22/2004

 

ive seen full h22 swaps for as little as 1200 bucks. you could just swap the motor and be done with it. Do you have any idea how he blew it ? over rev? hydrolock ? Any sings that the block is cracked/head cracked/ piston has gone airborne?

 

full h22 swap for 1200? come on now... About the engine, 200k plus miles, might have run out of oil, dont know, over heated, caught fire, and died. Havent seen it yet, i believe it turns over, and possibly starts, but runs rough.

 

im serious, 1200 bucks. Thats not including shipping costs. I guess youll never know until you pull the head and start looking for broken parts. im assuming you have done this before, if not good luck

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 98TypeSH &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">im serious, 1200 bucks. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Wurd, but that's w/o the tranny and probably w/o the ecu.
does it have an h22 or an h23 in it originally?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by xrocket21 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

CLIFFS:
im a pretty good self taught mechanic, friend blew h22a and cant afford to buy another, think i can rebuild it for him?
</TD></TR></TABLE>

and i was saying 1200 bucks because u dont need to replace the tranny and ecu and everything else, he blew the motor not the ecu,tranny, wiring harness, motor mounts, axles so on a n so forth.

 

h22a engine, yeah, nothing else is needed, just the engine. 1200 isnt too bad, but I bet I could do it myself for cheaper I have never rebuilt an engine before, but theres always time to learn. anyone in here ever done it?

 

Many people on here have. Time to start pulling the head and dissasemble the beast for inspection. May i advise buying a helms manual before you decide to do this

 

While I don't advise anyone else doing it unless they are very comfortable with this kind of work, have all the tools, and have done major work before.............but that's exactly what I did.

I had never done anything big before, did not have all the tools, but was comfortable in working on it because I knew exactly how everything was put together and how it worked.

If you do rebuild it, realize it may end up costing more than you expect. Also, there may be some expensive things wrong w/ it that might as well be fixed by tossing in a used H22.

FYI, I got my H22 longblock w/ high miles at a steal for $1000

 

It is really pretty simple to rebuild a motor, but small things can come up that might take time or require a tool that you dont have, like people said a helm's would be good for torque specs and everything, i dont know ive built my h22s without them, as long as you know torquing sequences and things like that, take your time and be careful with things it shouldn't be a big deal. You might want to try and narrow down what exactly is wrong with it first though, gl

 

it will always cost more than you would and prepare for the unexpected to happen. **** always goes wrong. but it can be done for 1200-1500

 

Thanks, i feel pretty comfortable doing it, i will DEFFINITELY get a manual, those are invaluable. How much work can possibly be done with the engine in the car? I know I can do anything related to the head, but im assuming piston work will require it coming out?

 

You can pull the pistons and rods with the block still in the car, but things are easier w/ the motor out.

Just yank the motor, do everything that needs to be done, and drop it in.