andrew070489

hey everyone, this weekend im replacing my downpipe and welding/ wrapping my manifold. i took and look and it seems tight. does the manifold fit through the top or bottom? it looks like it would fit if i removed my valve cover, if you have removed the manifold please share what was is easier. thanks

Colt45

unbolt the engine mounts, disconnect the harness, and radiator hoses/fuel lines, then take the 2.5 and sell it to a scrap yard first.

haha

andrew070489

whats the point of that? i asked a serious question and the one comment i get is that.. can anyone just give an answer please i wanted to do this on saturday i also need to weld my manifold it has a small crack

ducpor

I'm about to do this myself, this is all I could find in the manual for the 2.5.

We'll see how it goes!

andrew070489

i already did this, i wrapped my manifold in fiberglass cloth and replaced my downpipe (removed all heat shields)

the 3 little brackets are a bitch to get at though

bigwerm187

yeah it is dude it is a bitch ive dont it before .. lol... how long did it take you to do that ..?

andrew070489

the nuts were the biggest pita, all them were so rusted i had to pull my whole exhaust off and use a torch and vise grips. after that it wasnt that bad. after i pulled my manifold i wrapped it in the fiberglass, the paint/ sealant dried overnight. doing this by yourself its a good 2-3 hours to get it off if you have an idea what your doing. it could go faster or slower depending on if the nuts are bad or not.

bigwerm187

yup that is how it went with me to dude. alll the bolts were rusted on and it was a pain..lol... i knew what i was doing it just thoes rusted bolts that were c blocking..lol.. but after that i was all gud tho... i wanted to wrap my mainafold to but i didnt have that cash flow to get..

andrew070489

exactly!! i was so mad trying to get them off! the wrap is a nice touch though i also wrapped my downpipe (except flex piece) i was able to only use 50 feet of it. it was around $40-50

after i drive my car i can touch my headers and not burn my skin off

bigwerm187

yeah dude when i get a chance am buy that stuff and wrap them.... also am saveing up to buy a welder so them i can try to make some headers..lol..... i asked the shop how much they would charge and they were goin to charge me 1500.... lol... i just asked cuz i wanted to know ..lol... i do all the work on my car myself..lol

andrew070489

same, i love the 2.5 - would equal length headers give us any gains? along with a reactive cat?

bigwerm187

i think so. cuz on headers the pipes are equal length. and with out that cat yeah it will be alot better i think.. cuz the cats that are on there are c blocking..lol.. yeah i love my 2.5 cuz not every one has a 5 banger..lol.... i once thought if the motor is straight why didnt they just make it rear wheel drive....?

andrew070489

well acura doesn't have many rwd vehicles, i think the nsx is it? they would of have the 3.2 fwd and the 2.5 rwd? that would of been awesome with a 5spd hooked up to it also but thats not the case. i think i'm gonna replace my trans and hopefully boost my car some day

bigwerm187

that would of ben awsome if they would of done that... lol yeah the nsx is rwd... if i had the cash id turbo my 2.5 and make it rwd. lol.

andrew070489

when i get some $$ i'm gonna replace the trans then have some stainless turbo headers made i got a price $700 from a local shop. as for RWD on the TL good luck you would pretty much need to rebuild the car

Colt45

i can guarantee if you put a turbo on one of those cars, you will grenade it for sure.

If you manage to set it up correctly by spending 2000 on just a fuel system/tuning/weak link replacements, you still are going to blow the transmission into 5000 pieces as soon as you get it to put some power through the axles. That shit will NOT hook up, its fwd and even if you made 900whp, its going to be just like the old ed bergenholtz type civic drag cars.. In the 10s for 2 years, then re-design the entire front suspension for 25,000 to run 9s. Its just not a good investment. For what it would cost you time/money to fabricate that extensively on a 4000lb car, you could have a fox body mustang in the 8s.

Colt45

you would need to make a custom bell housing to adapt whatever trans/clutch/flywheel you were using to the block.

As far as rebuilding the car, you would take the rear cross member out of the tl, take a cobra/explorer/300zx/corvette..... IRS setup out, fab them together and bolt the rear diff/axles in there. Measure up your drive shaft, cut the shit out of the floor and create a drive shaft tunnel...Probably lose the stock gas tank for a cell to free up space.. Hell you could even cut the FUCK out of the rear of the car and make it tube frame and make something work.. quite honestly its not that horribly extensive. Any chassis shop that tubs out hot rods or tube frames race cars could do that shit in a week.. Shit would cost you 10 grand though..And, in the end you would end up with a 200whp rwd 4000lb car.

The goal IMO would be throwing the japanese power plant entirely into the garbage, swapping in a ls1 or ls2 from a corvette in there, and winding up with way better power/weight thats not limited in performance like the dinky 5 and 6 cylinders are.. These cars would be perfect with a v8 rwd 6 speed IMO.. Nsx motors and all the honda stuff would cost you 35k to make 500+whp reliably(what you would need to propel a 4000lb car to a low 12 second 1/4). a ls2 with a cam, intake manifold/throttle body, headers, exhaust, and some tuning would make 500+ whp all day long, and 2x as much torque than the honda stuff.

andrew070489

^ i'm kinda unsure if your just trying to give me a hard time or actually add some info. i dont know to much sorry, but i wasn't planning on making it rwd.

as for boosting it, its a fun idea to throw around. i'm getting a used trans with 100k auto to replace mine and i'm gonna throw a good torque converter in there. ive seen a few vigors with turbo's. if i ever did i would be low psi like less then 10. i'm not trying to make my car a racer, but a little more pep wouldn't hurt.

and i was actually thinking about that ls1 after watching some swap videos on youtube. looks like you can throw them in anything. it seems like with that engine the car needs to be rwd, is that true? is it doable on a 2.5? how much do they usually cost

andrew070489

every shop i ever go to tells me this stuff you are talking about is impossible. half the shops couldnt even adjust my valves, they saw the 5 banger and said no thanks

Colt45

im telling you how to fabricate it into rwd.

The last concern id have is giving you a hard time, you are a dude on the internet i will probably never meet. Im just informing you of how to do so since it seemed like you were not certain how to make something like that work.


As far as the turbo idea. Im just giving you input from my perspective. Ive been building hondas since about 1996 and ive built countless turbo cars. Ive also had 125 and 150 shot wet kits on my 3.2 with a built motor at one point and am well aware of the abilities to the stock trans. I have a nearly new one in my car now and it was the 3rd one i replaced

andrew070489

^ for the 4 speed? i thought that was one of the most solid trans they made.. the guy who is gonna help me replace my trans said to get a high stall torque converter.. what effect will this have? ive also heard using a smaller diameter torque converter will increase hp transfered?

Colt45

no way. ive grenaded 2 of them. I swapped my stock motor back in and aquired a 55k mile trans im running now.

I had an aftermarket torque converter at one point, and still it took about 4 months before it was shifting like junk again.

If you are serious, just find a vigor and take the pedal assy, shift cables, mounts, trans, intermediate shaft?, ecu, and all that business from the manual vigor, and put it into the tl. I was about 1 day from putting a 6 speed legend trans into my 3.2 but decided against it. The mounts and everything look like direct bolt ups on the v6 stuff. Like i was not the least bit worried by the work.. FWD auto honda trannies are not impressive IMO.. That same trans comes in 4 cylinder, 6 cylinders.. all of them, and once you have about 100 more hp over stock, you are in sketchy territory with that.

If you plan on boosting the car also, you may want to look into seeing if cometic makes a headgasket for it, or if arp makes head studs for it.. The compression is prolly around 10-10.5 which is kinda high. Before long with that setup, even tuned flawless, you are going to disolve the ring lands on the factory cast pistons. It will start smoking a little, then more over time. If you put the gasket on there, you can get a thicker one to dump the compression lower, and use the studs to hold the head on there tighter. That way you will have less issues with the headgasket blowing.


Good luck.

There is plenty u could do with these cars, just the time to do it is something i do not have much interest in spending anymore. Ive had this car for like 8 years or something. Im ready to move to having more room in my garage so i may sound pessimistic towards them. Sorry if so..

andrew070489

^ i have a 5spd vigor i can buy from my friend for 500.. no one has really been able to help me enough to feel comportable ripping my car apart. even speed shops are stumped about the whole OBD1 to ObD2.. i even called hondata about it.. tough luck

Colt45

i once was not comfortable doin stuff like that either.

now i have -12mm offset wheels with hand made spindles on my tl and a rx7 with a z06 engine in it.


Just gotta pull up your sleeves and jump in..

That inspiredRUS dildo on here has a 2.5 with a 5 speed. I think they even produced one in europe, but i could be wrong.

You must just be looking in the wrong places. Hondata would not be the spot id look. Id look at the acura legend forums and hondatech.

All you really need for the obd2 to 1 swap is pinouts and a knowledge of what each part looks like(example: mounts, shifter, pedals...)
Id say i could provide more support, but i am NITRO swamped at work and have little time to even do my own stuff anymore.

bigwerm187

thats why i never take my car to a shop bro. i do all of the work myself. and every time ive done something to my car ive been successfull. i just did a valve adjustment to my TL this moreing it took a while but i got it done tho. i think the only thing that is holding me back from what i wanna do to my TL is a shop with all the tools and stuff like that.

Pabski

The bolts came off easily, but the manifold won’t budge. Tried using a pry bar but no luck, did you have to unbolt other parts of the exhaust?

Robert McCoy

Were you able to get the exhaust manifold out the car? Does it just come out through the bottom of the car? I got a bank one sensor one code and an exhaust leak looks to be coming fron the manifold somewhere so i need to get it out so i can weld the crack or replace the gaskets got any tips on this?