H22a4 In A Prelude Si?

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sly_323

Junior Member
I have had a 93 Honda Prelude SI for bout 6 years now since I got my learners permit and love the car. However do to high mileage and other such intangibles the I shed my timing belt. After being towed to the shop and looked at my father and the mechanic were discussing the problem, the guy gave him a price on fixing the timing belt ($250-ish) and warned him that their was a possibilty of valve or other engine damage. The car of course has an H23A in it and my father recently told me my uncle who is into repairing salvaged cars has a H22A4 from a 97+ lude that was beyond repair but the engine was in excellent shape (I was very excited about the possibility of this engine in my car) and he would give it to us very cheap sub-$1000. However I have no clue what it would intel to do this swap. Could some help me and let me know how difficult it would be and what it would take do this. Thanks everyone!@
 
It'll bolt right in, but the main problems you're looking at will be related to the wiring, since your car is OBD1 and the engine is OBD2. Look around the site, I think someone mentioned something about a company producing a wiring conversion harness for an OBD2 engine in an OBD1 car.
 
Thanks!! I'm glad to know it's not going to be that much of a pain in the ass to do.
I searched the site and saw where someone was talking bout a wiring harness that would do the OBD conversion but he doesn't mention any brand name or anything. Do you know where i could find out who makes it and where I could get it? I know i'm going to need the ECU from the H22, but what bout the tranny? Can i use the 5 spd transmission from my H23 or will i also need to upgrade that?
 
Either tranny will work fine. If you're really into performance and plan on staying n/a, the H22 tranny would be a better choice, since it's the tighter-geared tranny of the two. But the H23 is pretty damn close and would work well for you as well. In fact, BlackJDMdeath is running an H23 tranny on his JDM H22A and is very happy with it, even though I could run circles around him. :ph34r: :p :D

Don't know where you can get the harness, sorry. Never needed to do any looking for myself. Hopefully someone else here can help you out.
 
skunk2 has a wiring harness that they say will connect an OBD2 car to and OBD1 Engine...would it work both ways? Is this what i'm looking for???

also where can I find a decent price H22 ECU?
 
sweet ass, thankx for the help.

$265 isn't bad. So with the new ECU and the wiring harness should everything else line up? The H22 has an auto tranny on it and if it's not a problem other than a bit of strength i'd like to keep my 5 spd from the H23 (more fun) How about headers? I can't remember weather the headers are on the H22 engine or not. I am assuming they are but worst case senario.
 
I don't have much experience with conversion harnesses, but if it's a competent company, it should line up pretty well. Call them and talk to them!

So you've got an auto tranny engine huh? Bummer. I'm not sure if it's as easy as taking off the flexplate and installing a clutch and flywheel, hopefully someone here can help me out with that. On another bad note, Honda puts less aggressive cams in their auto's than they do in their 5-speeds. So you're stuck with a set of crappy cams until you can get some OEM 5-speed H22A cams, or better yet, some Type-S cams.

The header (not headers, we drive inline-4 engines) from your H23 unfortunately won't work. So you either have to hope your swap came with a header, find a used stock header, or get an aftermarket one.
 
Found out good news and bad news a couple secs ago(talked to uncle with engine)....

H22 is actually standard and has headers in tact (will they line up with exhaust)

Bad News = NO ECU (as expected) honda priced the ECU for a 97+ lude at around $800. What is a fair price for a used one and what should i know when looking.
 
Well, the good news is that you can use either a P13 (H22A) or a P72 (B18C) ECU. You can also use other ECU's from some SOHC VTEC cars, but you'll run into fewer headaches using those two I mentioned.

You should probably be able to find a used ECU for anywhere from $200 to $300, depending on how lucky you get. Usually, the P72's are more espensive, but the P13's are harder to find.
 
Thanks alot man you've been a ton of help.

So with the engine, an ECU(P72 or P13), and the wiring harness I should be up and running.

Is there anything else i need to know before i put the ol lude in the shop? I'm very anxiouse to get the thing fixed. I'm going insane driving my parents extra car (Damn 4 door Camry). Its a huge change.
 
I would think so. I mean, I'm not sure how easy or difficult the wiring conversion thing is, since I've never tackled that. As I said, you'll also need to wire up VTEC.

Take some pics if you're around for the swap, and hit us up with any questions that may come up.

I know what ya mean about the Camry, when I wrecked my Accord last year, I had to drive either my brother's Ford Escort (ick) or my mom's new Legacy Outback (nice ride anyway).
 
Originally posted by dohcvtec_accord@Apr 10 2003, 10:10 AM
In fact, BlackJDMdeath is running an H23 tranny on his JDM H22A and is very happy with it, even though I could run circles around him. :ph34r: :p :D


:lol: we'll see bro :ph34r:
 
Yeah i'm sure something will go wrong in the swap...something always goes wrong haha. So running the wire for the vtec is pretty simple isn't it?? YOu just run a wire from the ECU to the sylinoid?? Am i way off or is their more to it than that???
 
Two wires actually. One for the solenoid, one for the oil pressure (I think, never had to do it).

Yeah I had plenty go wrong with my swap. Example:
"So we unhooked all the wires right?"
"Yup."
"Alright let's pull the engine out."
"Why isn't it coming all the way out?"
*POP*
"What was that noise?"
"Shit, we forgot to disconnect the O2 sensor!"
 
oh ok thanks man

haha tough break
(NOTE TO SELF: DISCONNECT O2 Sensor)
 
:lol: silly rabbit! wheres the o2 sensor at on the accords? if it's in the same place as preludes... ya big dummy! lol i just disconnect the b-pipe from the manifold, never had to worry about it :)
 
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