help with some decisions!

[Charlie]

so ive been saving alot of money latley deciding what i wanna do with it and ive decided that im gonna do a turbo build. ive been doing alot of research on which motor im gonna pick to do my turbo build and i think im gonna do a h23a1 non vtec i wanna make around 275-350hp what do you guys think about this? what turbo do you guys recommend? any opions or comments are welcome. i need your guys help! oh and does the m2a4 h22 tranny bold on the h23? thanks guys.

[93Accordian]

so ive been saving alot of money latley deciding what i wanna do with it and ive decided that im gonna do a turbo build. ive been doing alot of research on which motor im gonna pick to do my turbo build and i think im gonna do a h23a1 non vtec i wanna make around 275-350hp what do you guys think about this? what turbo do you guys recommend? any opions or comments are welcome. i need your guys help! oh and does the m2a4 h22 tranny bold on the h23? thanks guys.

From what I've read, you can make that power on an f22a pretty easily. I don't know much about the H23's. I'd take the money for the swap and add that to supporting mods for the turbo f22a build. You might just end up with more than 300whp.

[Charlie]

well i know that but ive drove a couple sohc, never drove a dohc so i kinda wanna stick with a dohc non vtec

[Charlie]

by the way this will be a DD so realiability is key aswell

[93Accordian]

well i know that but ive drove a couple sohc, never drove a dohc so i kinda wanna stick with a dohc non vtec

Fair enough. lol. I'm not much help on this one.

[Charlie]

haha well thanks for the opinion!

[Joey GT-R]

From what I've HEARD, not that I've experienced personally, H23As have trouble handling boost. The weak point is the crankshaft. If you were to boost it you may experience difficulties down the line. Of course you could always swap cranks from another engine, there are a multiple choices to choose from. The only issue is that you would have to machine the new crank to fit the block and also determine the new compression since shortening/lengthening the stroke of an engine changes specs quite a bit.

oneoffaccord is the only member I know with a boosted H23A and it is boosted lightly with a T3. He falls somewhat short of your goals at around 240whp. There may be a reason as to why he's not pushing the envelope and why he is the only member known for the setup.


When you mentioned the issue of SOHC vs DOHC yes the advantage is an extra cam to control intake and exhaust individually but don't get it twisted you can be beat by an SOHC setup if its built right. You said you had driven an SOHC and a DOHC, most likely N/A. Of course the H23A is going to feel faster. Adding boost is going to change things up quite a bit. The F22A will outflow your H23A stock and with my theory on the H23A not being able to hold up boost correctly the F22A could turn up the boost and beat you, or at least outlast your setup.

My recommendation would be to keep your H23A head and add it to an F22A block and build it for boost. The swap can be very routine. You could have the best of both worlds for the Non-VTEC lineup.

[rexload]

I thought H23 has the same crank as F22Ax?
All Honda cranks are pretty much bullet proof... where did you hear that the crank is the weak point?


To OP:
If you are going turbo, I don't think it makes much of a difference what motor you choose. F22 and H23 can both achieve your power goal easily.

You didn't mention anything about building the block though. 350hp is REALLY pushing it on stock block.

[Charlie]

well what would be a more realistic hp on a stock block?

[rexload]

are we talking hp or whp? if we are talking whp, then 300whp is probably the max you want to run on a stock block (if reliability is a concern)

and even at that power level, there are way too many variables. the condition of your block is a huge factor. how well your car is tuned is another huge factor. and how you drive it when boosted also has an impact on reliability.
just a few things to think about.

[Joey GT-R]

As I stated in my earlier post, I would consult oneoffaccord. There is a reason I'm sure that he is only making 240whp on his stock setup. That's a 90whp increase for the most part on a stock block. To keep it reliable that's probably as much as it can take and be beaten on on a somewhat regular basis.

[drummersteve7]

ok, as we all know I went through several h23's boosted.
Stay away unless built.

Crankshaft:
The H23 crankshaft is not slotted and balanced like the H22.
It does not handle as good as the F22 or H22.
The best way to go about this is to get your H23 crank machined.
Trusted by experience and 6 H23 motors to get this all figured out.

Again it is your call, but I was in the same boat 2 years ago, and just gave up roughly 6 months ago with the H23. Especially if you want it as a DD.

Recommend:
Just get a F22 built bottom and and stock head, that will yield you very close to
what you want your results to be, maybe adding the H23 upper plenum to f22a6 runners.

Hope that sheds some light, and as Joey says, check oneoffaccord.
Good luck!

[judonoh]

stay with the SOHC F22!!
It will save you so much time, money and headache.
There is absolutely no extra gains by going DOHC untill you get substantially down the money pit.

Reasons to stay with the F
1. No sleeving required to run forged pistons
2. Head design is one of the best straight out the gate
3. Cheaper- more readily availablity, most part cross over
4. Bisimoto!! LOL

I too have a boosted H, once you start down that hole it gets too deep to get back out.

BTW H-F transmissions are interchangable(bolt up) but stay away from the ATTS prelude version

[drummersteve7]

Bisimoto is full race. that is all, not DD.
but yah, just build a bottom end, and rock n roll!

[whitejdmcb7]

you could always get an f22b dohc supposedly the same bottom end as a f22a then boost in theory it should be pretty strong but it all really comes down to your tune and supporting mods if it were me id boost the single cam its proven