Moksha

Hello fine folk of AcuraZine. I'm doing some research on this topic and would love to get your insight and assistance.

I have a 2005 2.4L 4-cylinder TSX and I would like to replace my stock engine with a 2010 6-cylinder TSX engine. The new engine would come with the engine harness and ECU. Both engines are for automatic transmission.

My questions is: is this possible? If so, what is the extent of modifications I will have to make? I'm honestly not very knowledgeable about cars, so I request you to keep that in mind. I have a good car mechanic who is capable of doing the job, but first I need to know if this is even possible and exactly what sort of modifications I will be looking at.

As a bonus, it would be great if you could throw in a price estimate on any extra parts that would be needed (outside of the engine & the ECU) and some links to buy them!

As of right now, the only thing I can think of is a possible compatibility issue with the cluster panel. I know that the new TSX models have a more detailed cluster panel which includes tire pressure information, detailed trip information, gasoline consumption, etc. Would my stock 2005 cluster still work or is it possible to fit a 2010 cluster into my vehicle?


If this works out, I will be documenting the entire procedure, and I will post it on AcuraZine for future reference.


Thank you for reading!

NocturnalEvo

that's a pretty big undertaking. I would imagine that the engine mounts wouldn't line up at all.

You're probably better off just doing a supercharger on your car. Probably would work out considerably cheaper as well, as there probably aren't many wrecked V6 tsx's to pull a motor from.

zidenx

iTrader: (1)

There's a member on here or the other TSX forum doing this swap awhile ago. Not sure how it turned out though.

LuvMyTSX

I don't know if that's possible. The engine might be too big to fit.

I also probably wouldn't do this because I don't know about the transmission's ability to handle the engine. Honda had a lot of tranny failures a few years back and most were with V6 engines.

Moksha

I'm not interested in getting a supercharger or any such turbo solution because the cost would not justify the end result. A decent supercharger would cost around $4000. At that rate, I'd rather just buy a different car with better stock performance. Unless, of course, you know of a well-performing complete supercharger kit I could get for around $1000. I've seen such kits on Ebay, but I question the quality of those. Can anyone here vouch for an affordable supercharger kit?

Also, another reason I'd rather do a full engine swap is because I could sell my old engine and make some, if not all, of my money back.

Moksha

I tried to verify this with the search function, but I got no matching results. Would you able to provide a link to this info, please?

xaznperswaesonx

supercharger is more viable than doing a V6 swap even if it's doable.

with a v6 swap, you'd have to get motor, ecu that would work with the motor AND your car's various sensors, mostlikely axle that would fit, headers and header modification to match with the exhuast, god knows what type of harness you'd need. possible new tranny, clutch, flywheel, and most important LABOR.

with the mostikely added weight from a v6 is'ts going to throw off the balance of the suspension and driving dynamics.

while a supercharger + a few mods here or there wouldnt add much weight to where it'll mess with the driving dynamics of the vehicle.

If you arent willing to spend 4k for a supercharger to get v6 level power .. get a new car.

Mostlikely the cost of swapping a V6 into our car would cost you much more even if you sold off your old parts to recoup the money spent compared to just buying a super charger.

JTso

iTrader: (2)

^^

lightjak_tsx

^^^

Nighthawk04

iTrader: (2)

I'm thinking about this in terms of weight distribution and handling limitations and I don't like it. I have a 2010 V6 and compared to 2nd gen 4-cyl TSX's, the V6 makes the car considerably less stable through the turns thanks to the extra 200+ pounds. Considering the fact that the 2nd gen TSX gained quite a bit of weight over the 1st gen (130 or so pounds), I really don't want to imagine how a 1st gen would take to the transplant without making the car the understeering nightmare since the swap would almost add 10% to the car's body weight.

The only real way to get around this would be with a coil-over suspension setup that allows for independent adjustment of both spring pre-load and shock travel. That alone will run you over $1k and then fine tuning it with corner balancing, proper travel and pre-load settings, and a decent alignment will make this project considerably more expensive than $1k.

Moksha

To xaznperswaesonx and Nighthawk04,

Thanks for the input. I heard back from the guy selling this engine and your thoughts pretty much align with what he said.

Below is his reply exactly:

Quote:

A) Yes it is possible to make it compatible.
B) You will need customs axles, sub/jumper harness, motor mounts, and some modifications will have to be done to the front cross member. This is NOT a simple swap. There will need to be alot of fabricating because no one has completed this swap into a 1st gen TSX before.
C) Jumper harness will fix your cluster.

So, it looks as if it's possible, but the amount of work & money involved is monumental, and it definitely would not be worth the end result.


So, who knows of some nice turbo kits that don't cost a kidney? I'd be willing to be pay a maximum of $2000 and not a penny more (excluding labor).

Also, can anyone point out exactly why some of the Ebay turbo kits that are selling for around $700 would not be a good idea? I'm wondering what makes them different than the CT Engineering kits. By the way, I went to CT Engineering website and they don't even have a turbo kit for an automatic transmission '05 TSX. If they do, then it certainly isn't listed on their site.


Outside of the aforementioned things, I have learned that the "best bang for the buck" improvements I can make to my TSX would be Hondata Reflash, New Headers, CAI (which brand would be good?), and rear sway bar. Is that correct? Are there any other ones? If so, which ones and why?

Sorry if I'm asking too many questions, but I'm new to car modification and I'm looking to squeeze out some more performance out of my car without paying thousands of dollars for it, unless a modification added a massive performance gain.

xaznperswaesonx

if you're looking for night and day difference of performance .. supercharger is the way to go.

currently there's no turbo kit for our cars yet. You can buy those turbo kits online for 700 but mostlikely those would require custom tubing to make it fit .. on top of that .. you'll need some kind of engine management for it to be of great use. Only thing that we (Azine) knows of is Hondata K-Pro, which is 1800 i believe.

You can do minor mods here and there which will give you more performance.

Headers: comptech/CT-Engineering (great, $550) or DC Sport (good, 300) or Jaspeed (ok, 100).

CAI: i myself would get the Comptech/CT-Engineering icebox for easy cleaning and ease of install when i upgrade to the supercharger if i ever do. but injen is the fav around here.

zidenx

iTrader: (1)

Looks like the project ended because he lost his job, but here's the link

http://www..com/forums/1st-gen-gener...-v6-hmmmm.html

Doesn't look like they'll allow me to post the name of the other forum.. copy link and type in "tsx club" without the space between www. " " .com

sreesewv

I think, in my honest opinion, the engine from the Honda S2000 would be a good choice. I don't know if or how the tranny could bolt up to it since the S2000 was rear wheel driven. Performance wise, I think that engine should be the base engine for the TSX. There's too much of a gap between the 4's and V6's.

Moksha

Word. Thanks for the info. The Injen "tuned" intake (SP series) looks promising, although, it looks like passive "tuning" in comparison to what AEM has produced. It seems that AEM have an active "tuned" intake system that electronically interfaces with the engine's MAF sensor, but I couldn't find one for the 1st gen TSX. If my understanding is correct, that would provide solid gains for the price.

onebadtsx

GTFO just GTFO

Moksha

*yawns*

Let me know when you care to elaborate on that. Or, I guess you could just stay on that high horse and assume an air of being "in the know".

Take your pick.

Jimmy The Saint

Well if all you are willing to only pay 2000 not a penny more including labor, a turbo and a S/C are bought out of your price range. And you are SOL.

You bought the wrong car man. Unfortunately for real power you need engine management plus a S/C - K Pro plus a CT Supercharger will be like 5K for parts - install I have no clue.

If you buy an ebay turbo kit you are wasting your money - you get what you pay for. A decent Garret turbo is like 3K alone - so paying 700 bucks for a kit is ridiculous.

But for 2K you could get suspension, ice box, TB spacer, and CT headers and see a noticeable difference.

Unfortunately you seem to know very little about the K series honda engine.
If you bought for performance, that was a mistake.

Moksha

For what it's worth, I think you misread my post. I had said $2000 excluding labor, and I did find the Kraftwerks Supercharger Kit for a little over $2000, but I would lose the A/C system so that's no bueno.


I'm afraid you're right. Honda went WAY too conservative with the K series engine and all the new technologies like "Drive-By-Wire" and adaptive ECU are getting in the way of any meaningful performance tweaks.

To be honest, though, I didn't get the TSX with performance as my main objective. Yes, I wanted a car with a bit of zip, but I've never really been into the performance automobiles thing. I wanted a reliable sport-luxury car so that was my primary need. As for performance, I just figured I'll tweak this car as much as I can within affordable means and have some fun with it; nothing too serious.

Jimmy The Saint

well that's even more confusing - "tweaking" does not mean swapping engines.... Anyway look. Just get some Enigine Management from Hondata and an intake and you should be fine.

xaznperswaesonx

lol, v6 swap is no where close to tweak.

But like jimmy says, get some engine management and some bolt on and you'll get a lil nice zipping going. But again .. don't expect v6 push you back in your seat type.

Your objective is my objective as well. Sport luxury with some speed. Would love for supercharger but .. too much money to spend .. rather pick up a bike for the speed.

But imo this is what you should go:

Hondata $295
Comptech/CT-Eng. Ice box $165 or Injen Cold air intake $220?
Comptech / CT-Engineering header $595
UR pulleys $300 for whole set
Hondata Heat Shield Gasket $50
Coolant by pass mod, specially if you're doing the hondata heat shield gasket ( do a search, Jtso did it)
Throttle body spacer $40?

Lighter wheels will help with getting your car faster.
Lighten flywheel $500?

Above is what I would do over time. Already have Hondata, intake resonator removed (similar to the CT ice box but lower gains). Hondata heat shield, coolant by pass, and throttle body spacer will be my next one since I'm planing to adjust the valve soon. 85k mi already. Labor : free .. i'm doing it myself =)

Exhaust .. not worth it .. $600 bucks and get measly gains. Unless you wanna fork out $1200 for Hytech full exhaust system (header, cat/test tube, exhuast)