What do I do with a H22 head?

[Sparta_7]

Hey everbody, I really appriciate you taking the time to look at my thread. I'm new on this site and this is my first post.
About three weeks ago, I bought my first car, a 1994 honda Prelude Si with 176,000 miles on the body, and about 76,000 miles on the replaced engine, (previous owner just didn't feel like getting his knock sensor replaced). Now I'm also new at car mechanics. I have my own car now and i'm really getting into it and i'm learning as much as I can, but I'm not even close to knowing enough to do what I'm trying to do.
I have the USDM h23a1 engine, and I hate it that I dont have VTEC, I want to replace my head with the h22 head. The car burned out my wallet, so I'm trying to do it with the help of two of my neighbors, (one of which is an airplane mechanic, the other a seasond backyard mechanic) and two of my friends who are taking community college classes in automotive technology.
They're good, but I want to know EVERYTHING, down to oil viscosity changes to recomendations about the tranny, I need to pull this off and have this engine last me for years to come... Please help!!! Thanks


-Sparta7

 

[reikoshea]

its a hard swap to get the h22 head to work properly on the h23 block (it can be done...but its not a fun thing).

Id recommend just getting a H22A long block from a place like hmotorsonline.com and then see if they have a P13 ECU they are willing to sell.

If not, ebay has them, or you can chip a p28 or p72 ECU to run an H22's map (phearable.net is the best place to get something like that).

you can use your h23 transmission, the only real downside is a little bit longer gears.

your other option is you could buy a complete change over from hmotorsonline.com (id recommend goin with an LSD tranny while youre at it) and get engine, transmission and ECU all in one package.

As i said, the H22 head swap is just too big of a bitch to do when you can straight swap a full h22.

 

[Sparta_7]

and also, I just thought of this, the h23 is 2.3L, the h22 2.2L, will the matter at all?

 

[reikoshea]

not in the scheme of the head swap. what matters if you have to tap the block for oil (vtec has to activate somehow) and i remember reading there was an issue with head studs.

 

[Sparta_7]

Dang

Damn, really? I just looked at prices for the complete change over and it'd run me bout 2000 bucks, 2300 with the lsd. No vtec....

 

[reikoshea]

Damn, really? I just looked at prices for the complete change over and it'd run me bout 2000 bucks, 2300 with the lsd. No vtec....

H22A = Vtec.

 

[stlpsycho138]

i would like to add that you don't need to tap the block for the oil passage.... there is a small plug in the block that needs to be pulled out while you have the head off, then you will have the oil passage for vtec.