H22 Swap

[TheNextEpisode]

Well, after nearly two months of delays, problems, and time limitations, the h22 swap was coming to an end. It was the moment of truth.

Key in, clutch in, brake on (habit), key turned to II. My two buddies and my dad are staring at the newly installed h22.

Key turned to III. The familiar sound of the starter motor is triggered as the tension climbs. The first second of cranking feels like an eternity as the engine doesn't start. All those nights of working seem to be for naught.

BOOM. On the 2nd second of cranking, the engine explodes into action (I've got no downpipe on it, so its just the 4-2 header dumping into the atmosphere.) It idled roughly at first so I kept the rpm up around 1.5k with the throttle pedal. 5 seconds later it was idling respectably at about 600-800 rpm.


YEAAAAAH!



I gotta thank all of the members on the board that have helped me directly or indirectly. cp[mike]'s f22 removal guide and BustedLX's swap FAQ were major sources in motivating me to do the swap myself. timmy0tool's write up on his experiences with the swap was also crucial. And SMseagren83 chimed in with just the motivation I needed.

I'm hoping to make a member's ride here pretty soon now that the engine's in. I'll post a link here when it's up. Thanks again.

[SMseagren83]

man, its a great feeling when it starts up isnt it?? man i remember when i fired mine up the very first time. i was so nervous that my hand was shaking.

glad to see she is alive! now just button it all up and get her on the road! but break her in gently.

nice to see i had some sort of contribution...as minimal as it may have been.

good stuff man!! CONGRATS!
Sean

**PS- get some pics!!**

[almostJDM]

OH YEA congrats bro youre gonna love it

[LinX]

big ups man

[mozzandherb]

Good feeling isent it? Good job!

[TheNextEpisode]

haha Yeah feels quite nice. If AP tests weren't coming up, I'd be wrapping it up right now.

Anyway, back nearly 2 months ago, I was negotiating with two local engine shops. I eventually purchased the engine from CNS Motors for 970 w/ the ecu + tax. I got them to lower the price 100 bucks. They also were going to charge me another 100 for the ecu but they broke down and included it.



I followed cp[mike]'s f22 removal guide when it came time to pull the f22. I highly recommend using that to anyone who's about to do the swap. It covers EVERYTHING that you need to know. But, I still managed to forget to disconnect a fuel line. When the engine was about 1/4 of the way out of the bay, the fuel line snapped and broke. Annoying, but a trip to the junkyard and 6 bucks later, I had it replaced.

The f22 was reliable, but its time for it to go.





The h22 was in good shape, with no dents in the oil pan and no other obvious damage. We did basic maintenance to it; we changed all belts and seals, the valve and oil pan gaskets, clutch, etc. I opted to keep the h22a auto-tensioner for the time being. I also began work on the h22a sub-harness. With BustedLX's h22 faq, that task went quite smoothly.



The IAB box was mutilated. But, with Caution's DIY IAB fix, it was good to go. I also took this opportunity to fill the engine mounts with 80 Shore urethane, with guidance from phatdoughnut's thread. I'm looking forward to finding out how bad the vibrations are. The front motor mount was effectively destroyed, so I'm hoping that compared to the weird vibrations from the bad engine mount, the filled engine mounts won't be too bad. Either way, it'll be good. I got the urethane via Grainger.

As I couldn't afford the h22 tranny at the time , I bolted up the f22 tranny back up to the h22a. Aero, however, told me that he got good results with the f22 tranny in autocrossing. Plus I'm going to need a little better mpg with the increase in gas prices and the 91 octane the H needs.

With the F22 tranny bolted back on, the motor was ready to go back into the bay. I recommend using a load leveler; I can't imagine installing/removing the engine without it. It also helped to have friends around to make sure that no part of the engine bumped into the firewall.





With the engine back in, it was only a matter of retracing the steps outlined in cp[mike]'s f22 removal guide. We also replaced various coolant plumbing with the engine installation.

I've noticed oddities with the engine. The throttle body has a MAP sensor located on it, rather than a vacuum fitting to run to the MAP sensor located on the accord firewall. Also, as mentioned in a different thread, my h22 came with a 5th gen jdm accord power steering pump. But, judging by the P13 marks all over the engine block and head, I'm assuming my h22, minus the p/s pump, came from an prelude. Go figure. I might have been better off getting an engine from hmotorsonline.

With that said, I'm currently running the f22 p/s pump and line. I had a small problem with reattaching the crank pulley. I had removed it when I lowered the engine into the bay. Once the engine was in the bay, I went to put the crank pulley back on. But, due to a tight fit w/ the h22, I couldn't get the pulley back on again. I removed the driver's side engine mount and tilted the engine toward the driver's side with a jack under the engine. I was then able to slip the crank pulley back on.

All said and done, I'd say the swap was relatively easy with the help of cb7tuner.com. Without this forum, the swap would've been nearly impossible for me. The swap taught me much about both the engine and the chassis. It was definitely time well invested.

[SMseagren83]

for using this site's resources to the fullest!

again..good work and congrats!

[almostJDM]

again woot woot congrats lol that grage is hella small lol....did you solo this swap?

lol i didnt forget to disconnect anything but my throttle cable got hooked on the edge of the inake mani and streached it out so i had to go to a JY also

[blackcb7]

we need more members like you that do research

and yes the feeling of accomplishing something like is the great, and congrats on the h22

i myself am running the f22 tranny on the h22 and its not that bad, saving up for the h22 tranny for later

[djcb]

props for the self-swap. I think you will find that it is totally worth the time and money. VTEC is so sweet. Congrats and good work. More pics would be sweet when you get it all done

[deevergote]

Awesome man! That's probably the best swap story I've ever read It's cool to see the forum was so much help!

[areem57]

Sounds like you had a fun time swapping the motor in.

[seigneur_rayden]

props for the self-swap. I think you will find that it is totally worth the time and money. VTEC is so sweet. Congrats and good work. More pics would be sweet when you get it all done

VTEC is only sweet on certain engines. It's NOT sweet for sure on the F22b1

[jdmhondaman]

nice man and that f22 was hella clean

[TheNextEpisode]

@ almostJDM, hah yeah the garage is pretty small. It's cool tho, my friends and my dad and I use it constantly so there's almost always projects going on and people using it. I had help from my dad and friends on the swap. But with this forum, even if I worked on the swap by myself, I wouldn't be able to say i solo'd it. There's SO much helpful info on here.

@ djcb, I agree, I think it well worth the investment. Plus, I think if you swap the engine yourself, you end up being more happy with the end product.

@ areem57, yeah it was lots of fun. It cost far more than I had initially allotted, but it was worth it when it came together.

@ deev, this forum is fantastic. I've been contemplating and researching the h22 swap on this site since back in 2002. Its pretty pleasing that it finally all worked out.

@ jdmhondaman, the F22 was awesome. I want to do SOMETHING to/for it 'cause of all the fun it has provided. Maybe an N/A build up, maybe a turbo in the future. For now, I'll focus on building up love for the h22 that I had for the f22.


Now I need some rims and a cat/resonator/muffler. I'm looking towards 2.5" magnaflow products at the moment, but we'll see how that goes. I'll definitely get more pictures up once the car is back at 100%. I'll make a member's ride thread relatively soon.