I have found a totaled 2001 Acura CL-S and am probably going to do the interior swap but the guy told me I could have the whole car for about $500.00 more. My question is has anyone ever put in a 3.2 engine and transmission into a first generation out of a second generation CL-S? I could have sworn I have seen pictures on here of a 3.2 sitting in the engine bay of someones car on here (I thought it was asianspec) but I do not know the engine code for the 3.2 and can't find any threads in the 1st gen section about this swap. This is not anything I am planning to do anytime soon but figured if I started having problems with whats in the car now I may do it down the road just to do it if it isn't all that difficult like having to fab floors for the trans and stuff like that. the modding engine bay however necessary is something I am pretty sure I can do but the cutting and fabing custom floors is something I am not wanting to get into.Also is the second gen transmissions as bad as the first, i have read that they even had problems here and there but found nothing that everyone saying they have had as many problems as the first generation CL's had with their automatic transmissions. Any advice would be great even if you feel its not worth the trouble. I am a gear head but most of the cars I have ever restored/modified was muscle cars and didn't have to worry with computers except the 89 camaro but even that all I did was remove the whole computer and went with a carburetor instead of TBI and it wasn't needed any longer. So this I know will be allot different just don't know how much is involved. TIA

 

Search. J32

 

easier, search COCOA.

a 3.2 auto swap no. but then again who would do that.

btw i wouldnt do a J series swap only from the craziness that Cocoa went thru it. Its Teh CL's car. you are talking about.

 

It's been done, a lot of accord guys do it as well. Do you have a 3.0 currently? If so it bolts right up to your stock engine mounts, you only need the short block, you can reuse the heads and IM from your j30. If you use the j32 heads and IM you will have hood clearance issues

 

Thank you, I knew I had seen one somewhere on here but as I said I couldn't find it through the search for anything
Yes it is currently a 3.0 in there now, if it werent I would switch to manual transmission if this one started giving problems but thats just not an option with the 3.0

 

honestly probably more trouble than its worth (and that goes double for the car's value too) Unless you're a die hard CL guy or already have put epic time into it, I'd scrap the efforts. 97black is correct...the j32 swap is actually probably the newest 'trendy' swap in the honda community...you see them all over the car show circuits lately in everything from eg hatches to db integras...with the huge j32 head sticking through the opening of a butchered up hood. If you can score the entire car and everything is good, I'd look to tear it down and resell every piece of it all the way down to the interior pieces...the engine alone should net you way more than 500 bucks. But it's a time consuming process...

 

yea. i remember when cocoa had to bend his hood to actually close it

 

1. If you can get the car for cheap, the swap would be worth ur time cuz you got what you needed for cheap

2. I hate the j32 swap in civics/tegs w/the hood cut out, i think its hideous sticking out and makes the car very front heavy so basically if you wanted that power for road racing you're screwed.

3. I'd resell everything you don't need for the swap.

Oh and 2nd gen auto trannies are just as bad as the 1st gen

 

I completely disagree, if you swap just the block, you will have no hood clearance issues, because the j30, j32 and j35 are all from the same casting. Swap the block on, and voila you have a 3.2 instead of a 3.0. You may need new pistons though, but all you need to do is keep the j30 map sensor

That's because he used the J32 type-s heads and IM, this is what you don't want to do. Just use the block

 

does this mean if I happen to find a 6 speed out of a CL-S it would bolt to the 3.0? Since the second gens transmissions are as bad as the first gen's I will probably sell off the 3.2 (if I don't use it) and get a 6 speed trans if it will bolt up because the trans will probably give out before the engine does (from what I have heard) even though they were both just rebuilt about 20k miles ago. I know about the pedals and all that that is needed but I am asking about the trans itself. I have been looking at cocoa's swap and also teh cl's but still have these questions

 

The 6 speed will bolt right up yes, however you will need custom tranny mounts because the mounts are different, and you will need the CL-S ECU and have to get it wired up right for it all to work, but it's doable.

 

cool, I didn't know that. The wiring I can do so not really worried about that. This is good to know because I thought if you had a 6 cylinder 1st gen you were stuck with the crappy automatic trans and nothing you could do about it

 

I hear ya, it's doable, just not straight forward, but nothing with 1G CL's ever is straight forward

 

The CL-S 6 speed is supposedly rare and expensive. The cheaper alternative is the 3rd gen TL 6 speed, but there's something about it that makes it less desirable. It might be that it lacks the LSD, but I'm not sure. It's worth researching.

I'd like to see some 3.0 guys do a manual swap. This part Azine needs something like this. Maybe it will get some people motivated to actually mod their internals, go f/I or something other than basic bolt-ons.

 

I understand where you guys are coming from...I was just coming from the perspective of the 3.0's auto trannies of doom....it'd be nice to have a 'frankenstein' 3.2 head and everything but really what good is it if your tranny is slipping and will eventually fail soon. Again, this is all under the assumption that his tranny is currently in a deteriorating state.

I was unaware the 6 speed tranny actually bolts up. Just curious why this swap hasn't been done more often then?

 

i would say adding the clutch peddle is what discourages people. its a bitch to add one.

 

I would think you should be able to get the peddles from any 2.x 1st gen with a manual transmission and them bolt right up. Only thing that may be hard is finding all the parts at one place

 

6spd TL's have LSD, the autos do not. The only annoying feature I have found with my drivetrain is the check valve in the slave cylinder... but it's a non-issue unless you're slamming through gears.

 

I was hoping a TL owner would chime in. I'll see if I can find the thread that compares the two transmissions. It would be nice to have that info so we could post it in the noob guide for those that may be considering the swap.

 

I think the first part of this statement explains perfectly why 3.0 guys don't do big engine upgrades (save twin turbos and fully built tranny's).

I don't know why people wouldn't throw the 6 speed on the back of a J30 either. I wouldn't think it would be that difficult, unless the TL tranny's have weird mounting positions or something crazy like that.

 

I have to agree with this. I definitely don't like the look of the supercharger on to of the J32. There was the 1 teg (IIRC) that looked decent with the J32 sticking up out of the hood, but that's the only one I've seen that I actually liked...

 

You guys are a bunch of weenies. What's manlier than a supercharger sticking out of the hood of your car? You can feel the testosterone dripping from the fenders. *shakes fist in air*

The body kit and stickers are a bit gaudy, though.

 

The 04+ TLS 6speeds & the CLS 6 speeds are both LSD & pricey..

If your on a budget grab a 6 speed off of an 03' v6 accord, cheaper since they don't have LSD..

 

The car has the body/suspension modifications of a track car and the engine setup of a drag car. The owner must be confused.

On topic, I've seen the accord 6 speeds sell 300-500 less than the CL-S 6 speed, so if you're on a budget u might wanna look those up like Allan said.

 

Doesn't the 2nd gen CL and 7th gen Aacord have an immobilizer making the ignition unique to the ECU?

 

I don't have any plans to road race the car so LSD is not something that really means that much to me anyway. I may start getting parts when ever I find them because unless the car burns up or gets totaled before it happens I am planning on doing this swap within the next year

 

do you think the clutch and brake pedal from an accord would fit in the cl? or should i just look for one out of a 2.x manual cl to be sure it will fit without issues

 

Yea it'll work but if your interested I have all 3 pedals from the CLS6 that I had, only thing is that I took the sensors off em for my swap...

 

well i have a 3.0 also n been looking for ways of getting away from the auto trans. and into a 6 or 5 speed. I am going to do the swap i just cant find any trans for sale.I live in maryland so if anyone knows let me know please.

 

Car-parts.com

 

I have found all kinds of 5 speed transmissions from a 03 accord (these had the 3.0 in them also) but have yet to find a 6 speed anywhere. I have found a few from a CL but none from an accord

Edit: never mind I did find one in NC for 850 that is a 6 speed but it says wires and sensors are burnt so must have been in a fire or something

 

The 6 speed transmissions will likely be expensive. If you plan to keep the car for a while, it looks like it's a worth while swap. What's a rebuilt auto tranny cost including labor? The manual might be more money, but once it's finished you never have to worry about it again.

Since you're somewhat local to me, I'll see what I can find. Have you tried Beaver? They're expensive, but carry a lot of hard to find parts. That's where my H23 Prelude transmission came from.

 

from the receipts that I have they paid about 1800 to get it rebuilt before I got the car and that was a few years ago (about 20K miles ago). A 6 speed transmission from an accord seems to range anywhere between 700-1500 and a 6 speed trans from a acura cl seems to be from 1100-2500. I think i would rather buy the 6 speed trans and all the pedals and everything else needed and not ever have to worry about the trans again because now it scares the hell out of me and I treat it like a piece of glass thats liable to shatter at any time. I did check beavers website and they don't have either trans, haven't checked for other parts there though

 

i still wonder if the 6 speed accord tranny will link of correctly with our subframe.

 

I really thought us 3.0 guys didn't have any options except stick with these bad automatics so finding out with a little work the 6 speed transmissions will bolt up is GOD send. I probably will not do the swap anytime soon unless the trans really starts giving trouble but want to try and accumulate all the parts needed so when i do decide to do it all i have to do is get off my rear end and do it. I say all this now but chances are once I get all the parts I won't be able to resist but go out there and rip the thing apart and put it in
I wondered that also since its from a 2003 but I guess if the cl trans will, the accord should as well. I know the 2003 accord had a 3.0 in it. I am just taking teh cl's opinion since he has actually messed with this 6 speed swap

 

well keep me posted i def wana buy 1 next paycheck n ill need the ecu 2.the rest ill get out of remonds or crazyrays one of these week ends.works been crazy n foot ball is playing so im a big ravens fan!!!

 

ive been looking into this and doing research for a long time. i got somebody locally to wire up the trans. i just have to get it.

these 3.0 auto trans suck. the other day, it stayed in 2nd gear and would shift at all.

so its either sell the car or do the swap.

i just wish someone could come up with a list of things we need for it. i kno im missing somethings. but this would def be a cool thing to see happen in the 1g cl's

 

sorry if I'm slow or something, but....am I getting this right?...you can actually link up a 6 speed accord/cl/tl manual tranny to our J30's? Or the only way is to swap out for the j32 and do a complete overhaul swap?

 

6spd j30 is doable..

 

as long as it will bolt up then there shouldn't be to big of a problem. May have to change transmission mounts (not sure about this part) and wiring but the bolting to the block is the only part I was really worried about. I know the 2003 accords had a 3.0 in them also and some of them had manuals just not sure if they had a 3.2 option for the accord. I do know they had a 6 speed option in the accord and all I can find engine wise is 3.0 so it should work