I bought a 97 cl 2.2 in the beginning of the summer for a screamin deal. last month i noticed on the engine block that it is stamped H23. i looked in the honda swap guide, and it looks like that only came in the 92-96 preludes. but in the swap guide in does not show the CL's, but i beleive the 98 2.3 came with the f23a1 (i think). This car is absolutely bone stock, and if there was a swap, it is one of the cleanest swaps i have seen. i have had the engine out and nothing looks cut or jimmy rigged. MY QUESTION: is it possible that this motor is stock for the car or is it more likely that it is swap from the prelude? thanks for any help.

 

This engine is definitely a swap, the H23 ONLY came in 92-96 preludes as you stated. Does your car have the complete engine or just the block? If the engine is complete it will be a DOHC, and the Stock F23 is a single cam. If you have a picture you should post it. If you need it to be hosted I can probably do that. Email it to danw@frii.com

 

wow thats cool...

 

lucky

 

Put you glasses on and take another look...if you bought a CL with an H23 you should be one happy person!

 

than it must just be the block, because it is a sohc, and it says 2.2 v-tec on the valve cover. i dont have a digital camera or scanner otherwise i would. so i guess i still buy the intake for the f22 since it has the same plenum and head as the original motor? the only thing that i can think of is that someone threw a rod and could only find the block, but that still seems a little odd. thanks for the help

 

Well so really you have a 2.3 CL. I would save my $$ from the intake and go for an H22 head, decent gains to be had there, and it will bolt on to your H23 block as a bonus!

If you still want an intake, just buy the stock on for the 2.2 your car originally had as the intake manifold is still original

 

yea isnt the h22/23 hybrid where the real power is?

 

190-200 to the wheel is reasonable with an h23 block/h22 head set up and slightly higher compression. Or you could turbo the H23/H22 and make REAL power...

 

so a F23A head would fit on a H23 block?

 

seems like it if the f22 head bolts onto the h23 block... but why would you want to bolt your f23 head to the h23 block basically the same thing.

 

but u get that VTEC. H23 are non-VTEC DOHC.

 

then how much power does an h23 put down, every 1 is talkin bout how great they are and my friend i work with has 1 in his lude with a cold air intake 5 speed and i kicked his ass every time we raced, from a stop and even worse from a roll.

 

The H23 is rated at 160 flywheel stock. The lude is probably heavier than your car, they are not light by any means. You have the 3.0, so it's not really a fair race anyhow.

 

he was the one beatin his gumms bout how fast it was. but i appreciate the info.

 

take a better look at the block.....that might be an F23 block and not an H23...the sohc head wont bolt to the dohc block...

 

Exactly.

 

I know for a fact you can put an H23 head on an F22/F23 block as I have a friend who did just that. I don't see why it wouldn't work the other way around.

 

Putting a sohc head on a bottom half of a motor made for a dohc head is retarded. I'm not sure how relyable your friend's setup is going to be, being that the bottom half wasn't designed to run with a dohc head. I never herd of anyone putting a dohc head on a sohc block.

EDIT: I just read the article on the motor on honda tech, seems like a pretty interesting idea, but still i'm sure there are bugs to be worked out. I wouldn't want to run a boosted frankenstien motor unless I knew for sure that the oil flow was efficient enough to make sure the turbo don't starve. Also, alot of customization has to be done, brackets, mounting ect. Great for a honda nut that loves to tweak on honda motors, but not for the common folk who want to have a RTR motor that's relyable.

 

This was done in an Accord, an older one('91), basically the same as swapping in an H23, but much easier and less expensive. It was plenty reliable for the 3 years he ran it. It ended up getting stolen though. He ran it boosted for 2 of those years and ran 13's in it, not bad at altitude for a 4 door.

I agree, putting a single cam head on dohc block is kinda lame, but really the F23 and H23 are the same, so if that's all that was available, I could see why it was used.

 

It's a swap take some pics, and show us so we can make sure.

 

i've heard of people putting a F23 head on their H23 block just to get that VTEC, and its cheaper to do that too. I've also heard some people does it the other way around usually on there accord cuz all u need is a H22 head. haven't seen one myself so i'm not sure if its true or not just wat i heard.

 

i would take some pictures, but i dont have a digital camera. thanks for all the help, greatly appreciated

 

would upgrading a F23 block to a H23 do anything? i thought their the samething? they both share the same tranny. and sure i'll look like stock cuz all that was change out was the block, everything else on top are normal.