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Hello, new to the site and a new owner of an 05 Acura TL. Always wanted a 3g and recently found what I thought was a great opportunity. The car has 101k miles and I was told it had a bad head gasket. The car is spotless inside and out, very well cared for. So I trailered it home and ordered gaskets, timing belt, water pump, and head bolts. Opened up the motor and found the "sour cream" like substance that usually goes along with a head gasket problem from the coolant mixing with the oil. I cleaned everything up, checked heads for cracks or distortion, found nothing wrong. The cylinders looked good, very little wear. So I proceeded to put it back together. When I finished, it started right up. No white smoke, seemed to run good. Drove it about 5 miles and came back home. Drained the oil and changed the filter which still had a bit of moisture in it, but I figured it was probably residual from before. Went to start it the next day, it cranked for quite awhile before starting but dove pretty well aside from a little stumble about 3000rpm once or twice. Still no smoke, running decent. Drive about 15 miles and stopped at a gas station to fill up. After, it would crank and seem just on the verge of firing, but wouldn't. Trailered it home, changed plugs, reset ecm and it finally fired up. 10 seconds in, a dense white fog began from the exhaust pipes. I shut it down. I pulled the dipstick and found a considerable amount of coolant in the oil again. Distraught I decided to tear the motor down again to see if I could see anything else. Long story short I could tell the head gasket I purchase failed. Once again oh, I put everything back together with the new set of head gaskets very good set this time and I got a back together started to death in 10 seconds in, here comes the white fog again. I need to add that this time I checked the cylinders and with engine block to see if I could see any cracks or anything when there was not. Is there any other possibilities of what it could be or should I just order a new motor?
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If you decide to purchase a 'new' used engine, try the websites below to familiarize yourself with availability in your locale.
A quick look at Car-part.com, revealed about 30 pages across the U.S. & Canada.
LKQonline.com
Good Luck.
I went out today and started it after taking a couple lines off the throttle body thinking maybe it was sucking coolant in when it shouldn't have been, and it ran for probably a minute without smoking. I shut it off to check the oil and so forth, after about a minute started it up again and within a few seconds and started pouring white smoke again.
As far as checking the heads I pulled them off I laid a straight edge across them all the way across to check for gaps made sure there were none. It says on the factory service manual that there is a tolerance as far as how much Gap there can be when you lay a straight edge on there but there was none at all. They were not checked out by a machine shop. I plan to do a compression test tonight after work. Also I found 3.2 engine from a 2005 CL. Everything appears from the photos I have to be the same however I was thinking about buying that motor and swap them out just using my intake if everything looks the same as far as the heads go. It was said to have run great when the car was wrecked. Does anyone know of any fitment issues using a motor from a different model?
As far as the head gaskets the first time, they were an off-brand kit for the entire motor. So no they were not a reputable manufacturer....lesson learned. New ones are felpro
Do you have everything together or apart? When you took it apart were any of the pistons cleaner than the other? That helps track down what the issue may be. The only way to test cooling system is by putting it under pressure and seeing where it's leaking from. Either you have a damaged head or block that's letting water into the cylinders.
Did you torque the heads in the proper sequence to ensure a good seal and no damage to the heads?
You'll need a motor out of a 04-06TL if you want the 3.2L. You can use certain other year models but I don't think the CL is one of them.
Do you have everything together or apart? When you took it apart were any of the pistons cleaner than the other? That helps track down what the issue may be. The only way to test cooling system is by putting it under pressure and seeing where it's leaking from. Either you have a damaged head or block that's letting water into the cylinders.
Did you torque the heads in the proper sequence to ensure a good seal and no damage to the heads?
You'll need a motor out of a 04-06TL if you want the 3.2L. You can use certain other year models but I don't think the CL is one of them.
it is together right now. I did torque it in the correct sequence. Here's some photos of the motor that I could get out of a cl.
Just curious, is that engine pictured above a JDM 3.2?
The second generation USDM J32A1 (Base model CL / TL) and the J32A2 from the CL / TL Type-S ended in model year 2003.
Just curious, is that engine pictured above a JDM 3.2?
The second generation USDM J32A1 (Base model CL / TL) and the J32A2 from the CL / TL Type-S ended in model year 2003.
The motor in my pics is a 3.2 from an 03 CL (not a type-s) which is a 225hp motor as opposed to the 260hp of the 04. My hope was the blocks were the same so I could simply do a head/intake swap
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Here's a suggestion, if you decide to just replace the whole engine, a low mileage J35A6 out of the '05+ Odyssey (LX/EX only) is literally a direct drop in'.
These J35A6's are a 3G engine, like the J32A3 in your TL now, versus a 2G J32A1 and should be more readily available, perhaps even cheaper than the J32A1 pictured above?
It's a proven swap with the added benefit of more torque down low with the J35 for just a little more work.
^
Here's a suggestion, if you decide to just replace the whole engine, a low mileage J35A6 out of the '05+ Odyssey (LX/EX only) is literally a direct drop in'.
These J35A6's are a 3G engine, like the J32A3 in your TL now, versus a 2G J32A1 and should be more readily available, perhaps even cheaper than the J32A1 pictured above?
It's a proven swap with the added benefit of more torque down low with the J35 for just a little more work.
It just almost seems too good to be true, but I'm willing to give it a shot. Had the motor down to the block 3 times in the car already, pulling one out and putting the other in doesn't sound so bad.
It just almost seems too good to be true, but I'm willing to give it a shot. Had the motor down to the block 3 times in the car already, pulling one out and putting the other in doesn't sound so bad.
1) Very important, make sure to get a J35A6 out of the 2005+ Honda Odyssey (LX/EX only). Honda J engine - Wikipedia
2) Just make sure to review the OP's thread for all periphery parts that need to be swapped from the old J32A3 to make it 'plug-n-play'.
3) Maybe OP @teh CL will drop in for any questions?
The J35A6 swap is the definition of a no brainer for anyone with a 3G TL that needs a motor. Direct drop in, all you need to do is swap over your stock engine harness + your accessories & your golden. You can even reuse your timing belt/water pump kit since it has barely any mileage.
As @zeta mentioned above, the most important thing is finding the right motor. You only want a J35A6 from a 05-06' Odyssey LX or EX. The EX-L & Touring models have a J35A7 with VCM which you don't want to deal with.
ECU wise, your fine. By swapping over your engine harness, you retain the stock ECU & it'll compensate enough to keep the motor happy.
I felt the need to post an update, I was in the process of looking for an odyssey engine when I decided to try one last thing before I give up. My decision based on the results of the compression test being no less than 150psi in any of the cylinders. I decided to re-torque the heads to 90 ft lbs, just a little more than the fsm recommended. I fired it up after doing this and again, white smoke...so I decided to see how long it would take to blow up. (You may have gathered that I was not in a good mood) Funny, the thing ran perfect. No miss, no sputter, except when I hit 3500 rpm(car is in limp mode). After the first 2 stop lights of creating a smoke screen, the smoke stopped. After 200 miles now, is still gone. I'm changing the transmission fluid and filter, coolant, and oil this weekend, I will let you know what happens in the next couple weeks.
03-20-2022 | 02:35 AM
