OfficialNikeJG

I am working on getting this Acura to needing nothing mechanically. I bought a 2003 Acura TL w/ Navi at 101,000 miles with warranty up to 30,000 miles went through three transmissions had the ECU system and every wire in the car replaced because alarm kept going off even after the hood latch was disabled and the alarm was disconnected. After $1,500 we found out the ground wire was cut behind the Pioneer Apple Car Play aftermarket radio. The exhaust pipe and muffler were rusted off so got a resonator from Rock Auto and put Tsudo 03 Acura TL Mufflers. The transmission currently is running fine and rarely let the RPMs go over 3,000, so in other words, I'm babying the crap out of the tranny. I'm planning on rebuilding the transmission when it gives out and when the engine dies I wanted to swap it with the MDX J35A3 engine and was curious if I could put headers that would fit OEM/bolt directed to the exhaust and J35A3. I want to also see if I could take the intake manifold from J37A8 and throttle body form ZDX J37 and have the cylinder head and block surface cleaned. I'm a daily driver but take care of my car, I put 25,000 miles a year on my car and I'm getting my girlfriend a Honda Civic and take her car when I can so I can drive the Acura less and do more work. I want to upgrade the Acura to the max but want to swap the engine when it dies to something with a little more power and bigger block with doing bare to none mods with also increasing power and functionality. I have done a ton of research of all things Honda and Acura but I do know I do not know everything and that's why I'm here. This blog has all the answers and I'm constantly here looking for answers. I've seen blogs say if you don't want to rebuild the tranny replace it with a 06-07 Honda Accord tranny but the tranny is from a J30 I want to put a J37 if I could but I don't want to avoid modding it cause mods can get expensive really quick. So my real question is what will fit directly transmission and engine and is it better to just rebuild the tranny put the J35A3 say screw the headers or go through with headers if it fits and replaces the intake manifold and throttle body with the J37 and also forgot to mention, cold air intake (research also says cold air intake is pointless unless in higher gears so questionable)? That is just the car itself, I also want to put 2016 Honda Accord Sports rims Black Gloss and put a lip kit and have the car plastidipped a Matte Vibrant Blue with every part that is chrome or not blue to be painted Black Chrome. I also want to remove all the 'A's and emblems and change them to just 'H's no 'Inspire', 'Saber' or '3.2TL' I do know that my car was originally Manufactured in Ohio and not in Japan I just want to change it to Black 'H's to make my car different from the rest. A little twist but overall I have a vision for this car and want to see what I can do to make this car better. Last time I had this car have a 26-point inspection, they told me I could easily have the car exceed 300,000 miles I plan on having the car for over 500,000 with the enigne being swapped but my final question is, I thought that the 2016 Honda Accord sports rims were only oem to 19"x8" I found "Honda Sport Rims" with 20"x8.5" https://www.ebay.com/itm/20X8-5-BRAN...-/192088368921 and I don't think these are really made by Honda but if I'm wrong I'm going to put these bad boys on with them being painted Black Gloss and having the car look https://www.pinterest.com/pin/575405289861661324. Let me know of any engine and tranny swaps that will directly fit or if I should just rebuild tranny and swap with J35A3 and if its possible to put headers and do the intake manifold and throttle body and maybe spacer and lastly if the 20"x8.5" Honda rims are real.
Thanks,
Jon

gnuts

iTrader: (1)

this was pretty hard to read. Not a lot of punctuation or spacing. So I honestly didn't read it all. However, J35A3 will use the same headers as the J32A2 you have. Cheap option is J35A3 and AV6 trans. The newer Acura throttle bodies are drive by wire so won't work. Some have used Bseries aftermarket (Blox?) throttle bodies with a few minor mods.

zeta

iTrader: (1)

Don't forget the cams from the TL if it is a Type S, to be put into said J35A3.

Karanx7

iTrader: (2)

Yea dude I gave up about half way through. Use proper grammar.

If you're planning on swapping a J35 when your current engine dies, you'll be waiting 10+ years. Don't rebuild the transmission, because it will just fail again. Read about the AV6 transmission swap.

Iggy

I agree with Gnuts, Zeta and Karanx.

frankjnjr

YEP, that is, kind of a tough read.

Arkady

I managed to power through all of that.

You're gonna want to re-format that so that the more experienced folks on here can give their opinions - from what I understood of your questions, most of the engine work / tranny swapping you mentioned has been done successfully, with documentation of the process being written up somewhere on this forum.
Take a look through the forum as well, using the search function - you'll find a handful of threads detailing a J35A5 swap, along with a transmission swap.

OfficialNikeJG

Arkady

Don't bother with a rebuild - it'll just fail again down the line. You'll want to do the AV6 swap.
The AV6 transmission is sourced from a 06-07 v6 3.0 Accord. Here's the FAQ that details this process.
Here is the thread where Iggy put a J35 into his TL. I believe he also did the AV6 swap in that car, so he'll have details in that thread on how he configured that.
Some of the other folks may have ideas on what other options you have for the swap, but I can't help you there.

The "Tires, Wheels & Suspensions" sub-forum will have info on the wheel question.

Hope this helps man - everyone here has been really helpful to me whenever I've asked anything, so I'm sure you'll find the answers you need here. If not, at least pointers in the right direction.

RTH

Nobody answered your question, so, if you haven't Googled/figured it out by now, an "AV6 Transmission" is a transmission from a 2006, 2007 "Accord V6 automatic". With a few rather simple extraneous part swaps, it bolts up perfectly (in my case to a J32A1). Much newer, with the "modified 3rd gear pack" which supposedly cures the problem of the original 2000-2003 TL "glass transmissions".

After three transmission rebuilds, I finally bit the bullet and did the swap at 180,000 miles. I've got 40,000 miles on my AV6 swap and so far it's working well (the engine is what's giving me grief, but that's a different thread).

Here is a reference to the guide that I followed. It worked like a charm! The author of the original swap
did a phenomenal job of describing the required changes!

The only drawback (for me) was to lose the low-speed power-steering assist, but I was good with that. After about 2,000 miles, you don't even notice.

https://acurazine.com/forums/second-...n-swap-905115/