Exhaust Notes

Motor Swap Special
Over the last few months, our mailbox has been backing up with questions about motor swaps, hard questions, stuff we don't necessarily know the answers to. Fortunately, we know people that do. For this month, we fired our swap tech questions off to Brian Gillespie of Hasport Motor Mounts. When not playing hardball as the CRX negotiator on Pinks, Brian spends his time developing new ways to make hard swaps easier. When you've got an engine hanging halfway out of your hood, the rental on the cherry picker is overdue and your mom wants her garage space back, he's the guy to call. -AH

What the F, what the H, what the...K?
I was curious I have a '97 Honda Accord LX with Neuspeed race springs, Koni Adjustable Sport dampers and Suspension Techniques sway bars. What I am curious about is a motor swap that can give me enough power to enjoy my suspension just a little more on the street. I've driven H22-powered Accords and they are a little more fun to drive than the F22B that I have right now. How much power does it put out? And if I get that swapped in, where do I look at to get parts to build up the head? Would exhaust for an LX Accord fit that motor and what about headers, because from what I see it's a little cheaper than an H22 swap and I don't want to jump on the band wagon like every other Accord owner. One more thing I read an article in one of your past issues about Hasport doing a K24 swap into 1994-1997 Accord. Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks a lot and keep up the great work.-Andrew L.

The engine you are probably talking about is the '97-up Accord SiR and SiR-T F20B engines. The SiR-T had a manual tranny and put out about 200 PS while the SiR came in an automatic flavor and pumped out 180 PS. They both sported a blue valve cover so I'm not sure how I would tell them apart by looking at them. Both motors are a direct bolt-in into your car and would be a significant upgrade to what you have now. The Accord Type R is an H22A motor similar to the Prelude SiR S Spec engine. It had a red valve cover and puts out around 220 PS. As far as parts for modifying them, use the equivalent H22 parts, including the headers. The Accord exhaust should bolt up with little or no modification.

A big key to improved performance is to make sure you get a decent transmission with your engine. Nothing kills horsepower on a VTEC motor like a lame Accord transmission. Try to get something with close ratios. Any of the manual transmissions that came in DOHC VTEC Accords or Preludes will do nicely.

As for the K24 Swap, Hasport should have (finally) released its bolt-in kit for the '94-97 Accord by the time this magazine comes to print. The Hasport mount kit is designed to work with the TSX K24A2 and six-speed transmission. It will also work with the much less expensive Accord K24A4 and transmission.-BG

It Almost Lines Up
I have a '97 Civic hatch with a '98 H22A installed and wish to transplant the H22A to a '93-97 del Sol. My question is: Will that be a direct bolt-in since I'll just be taking all the hatch's mounts, spindles, axles, brakes and everything and putting them into the del Sol? It looks like the two chassis are very alike. Can you please tell me what else I have to do to make this work?-Ken V.

Unfortunately, the chassis' are not that similar. The short answer is you will need some mounts. Some of the mount kit companies use the same transmission mount but that is the only one.-BG