Brandon

First things first. Buy a Helms manual for both the 5th gen Accord and the 4th gen Prelude. This article assumes you have a Helms manual. Read through this article and get all the parts you will need beforehand, this will be a pain in the *** if you don't know what you will need because of the lack of consistent info on this swap-or blantant misinformation from kids who had a shop do it, but like to speculate and give advice as to the hows and whys without knowing what they are talking about. Hopefully this little piece will help.

I) PARTS LIST:

plug wires and plugs
valve cover gasket
plug grommets
valve cover bolt grommets
cam seals
oil pan and gasket
H22 drivers side motor mount
H22 throttle cable and bracket
H22 PS line
IAT sensor
H22 Clutch (the Accord clutch will work temporarily if need be)
PS, AC, and Alternator belts
H22 MAP sensor, brackets, vaccum hose and evap canister

II) PARTS COMPATIBILITY DETAILS:

Mounts: This motor basically bolts in using the all the Accord mounts except for the drivers side mount. A Prelude mount must be used, and the metal bushing that holds the bolt mounting it to the frame must be shaved down slightly to fit between the brackets on the frame, you will see when you do it.

Axles: Use the Accord axles and intermediate shaft.

PS Line: You will need the PS line from both the Accord and the Prelude, and have the Accord lower half (that connects to the rack) spliced with the Prelude upper half (that connects to the PS pump.) Fitting shops can do this, it costs around $60. Make sure you get it long enough.

PS pump and bracket: Prelude pump and bracket

A/C compressor and bracket: Accord compressor, with either bracket

Alternator and bracket: Accord alternator, and Prelude bracket

Belts: Depending on which accessory pumps you use (Prelude or Accord) the belts may be different length. For example the pully on the Prelude's A/C compressor is a lot smaller than the one on the Accord. Basically, just get your stuff mounted up and measure the length of the needed belt, and take yourself to NAPA. We ended up using the stock length Prelude PS belt, and a 43" belt for the Accord A/C compressor and Alternator on the Prelude.

Hoses: Use the upper and lower radiator hoses off the Prelude, as well as the drivers side heater hose, that goes to the back of the block. You may also need to pick up some vaccum hose, as some of the solenoids, valves etc. are going to be in different places. Consult the vaccum hose diagram in the Prelude manual for more details here, it's pretty self explanitory.

MAP Sensor: You will need the MAP sensor off a Prelude, as the Accord MAP is mounted on the throttle body, but the Prelude has it mounted on the firewall. May as well pick up the bracket with the 3 hard lines for the vaccum hoses that also attaches to the firewall (See vacuum hose diagram.) We also got the Prelude EVAP canister, as it has 3 vaccum lines and the Accord has 2, just to avoid confusion. If you don't care about money, get it from Honda. (Remember small items fit easily in pockets!)

Exhaust: The combination of the Prelude header and the Accord cat/exhaust did not work. The Accord cat is too long. If the engine did not have a cat attatched, use an H22A cat

Shift linkage and clutch linkage: Accord

Throttle cable: Use the Prelude throttle cable and bracket. Someone with a small bit of creativity could get cruise to work, by fashioning a bracket to hold both cables properly and shortening the cruise cable and attaching it to the throttle pulley. We don’t recommend this.
*NOTE: The Accord throttle cable attaches to the pedal differently than the Prelude. There is a gap that the cable can come off using the Prelude cable, just use your head and secure it in place. There is more than one way to do this, you will see.

Harness and ECU: Use the Accord harness, and ECU for the H22 (obviously.) Unless your car was an EX the harness must be modified or a harness from an F22B1 used.

*****WIRING (if your car is originally non-VTEC and you dont want to use the F22B1 harness):

Now to clear things up, many people emailed me saying to use the Accord harness and just add the VTEC pressure, VTEC solenoid, Knock Sensor, and Intake Air Bypass wires and you are set. Similar to a B series EG swap, easy right? Well, the truth is actually much, much darker...

First of all, about half of the wires for the sensors have to be relocated/lengthened. This is difficult going into the whole thing blind, and you will spend a significant amount of time cross referencing wiring diagrams in you Helms. I will spare you that pain. Also avoid "mickey-mousing" it, buy some flex tube and tape so you can give the illusion that the wiring was not done by a drunken blind man.

Also, and I can't stress this enough, CHECK YOUR GROUNDS. They are the cause and solution to all of lifes problems!

*Wires to add:

VTEC Solenoid: Grn/Yel on Prelude harness > Pin A4 on ECU // SENSOR LOCATION: Near distributor
VTEC Pressure Switch: Lt Blu on Prelude harness > Pin D6 on ECU // SENSOR LOCATION: Near distributor
Blk/Red > Ground
IAB: Pink on Prelude harness > Pin A17 on ECU // SENSOR LOCATION: Drivers side of intake manifold
Blk/Yel > 12V
Knock Sensor: Red/Blu on Prelude harness > Pin D3 on ECU // SENSOR LOCATION: Middle back of block

*Sensors to lengthen:

(NOTE: Consult the helms for the location of sensors, and color code of the wires on your harness.) Colors below are for the Accord LX harness.

IAT (GRN/BLU-RED/YEL): Too short, needs to reach drivers side of intake manifold.

MAP (YEL/WHT-GRN/WHT-WHT/YEL): Too short, needs to reach wherever on the firewall you mount the MAP sensor.

EGR Lift solenoid (GRN/BLU-WHT/BLK-YEL/BLU): Too short, needs to reach passengers side of intake manifold.

H02s (GRN/BLU-WHT/RED-ORN/BLK-YEL/BLK): Too short, needs to be run to O2 sensor, near oil filter.

IAC valve (BLK/BLU-YEL/BLK): Too short, needs to reach top of intake runners, in the middle.

ECT switch A: This will need to be extended to the thermostat housing on the passengers side of the back of the head. The ECT sensor and ECT sending unit fit fine (under the distributor.)

*NOTE: There is no ECT switch B on the JDM H22, just spare back the connector.

Alternator: The power wire on the alternator needs to be lengthened about 2". We just cut the one off the Prelude harness, and attached it to the Accord harness with a large enough splice.

*NOTE: SWITCH WIRES A6 (EGR solenoid) and A11 (H02S heater) at the ECU

When you think you have everything wired up correctly, plug in the brick and turn the key. Have a multimeter ready to troublshoot if you throw codes. Remember, some of the sensors may be bad so don't run yourself into a wall thinking you wired wrong. (Although you may have.)

*****HOW TO:

Remove the stock motor, follow the steps in the Helms if you haven't done this before. I will assume you have a hoist. Take care removing the axles, pull them straight out of the tranny to avoid damaging the seal. It makes life easier if you remove the radiator also, as the motor/tranny must be cocked to get the tranny past the passengers side mount. Having the radiator out just gives you more mobility, and it takes about 10 seconds to remove. While you are at it you may as well remove the subframe that the trailing radius rods and front mount connect to (about 5 seconds) for even more space. Double check that everything is disconnected and hoist the motor out, this is easier with two people one pivoting the motor and watching for clearance in the back, and the other running the hoist.

Have the H22 ready to go (wiring especially) before you put it in. Drop the sucker in the opposite of how you took the F22 out, lining up the mounts etc. The H22 seems to lean back in the engine compartment, don't panic-it's normal. I am not going into too much detail here, you know what you are doing if you bought the Helms. Grind down the Prelude drivers mount, like I mentioned earlier. (Just enough to get the metal bushing to fit between the frame brackets.)

Mount your map sensor, vaccum hard lines, and EVAP canister on the firewall and consult the vaccum hose diagram on how everything interconnects. You will have two hoses to cap off on the tranny, where the power steering speed sensor connects (passengers side). Usually these would go to the Prelude rack, but since there is no matching connection on the Accord rack, they are useless.

DOUBLE CHECK ALL YOUR WIRING AND HOSES! Hook up the Prelude throttle cable, as well as your intake and header of choice, noticing that your car is going to be extremely loud driving it to the muffler shop. Finish putting everything back together, AGAIN I am assuming you have a helms so you know the steps!

Make sure you have all the fluids replaced, and everything torqued. Finish putting everything back in, and clean that dirty little motor, you should have done it before, but you were too lazy too and wnated to get it in too baldy anyhow. Stand back and adjust yourself, so on lookers think you had it all locked down from the beginning.

That's all folks. Now get off of H-T and drive your car, she deserves it. . .

Thanks to H-T, H22A.org, and all the little people I stepped on to get here. If there are nay problems, email me at vtec2k2@yahoo.com


[Modified by accordvtec, 1:50 PM 7/5/2002]

Nick H

make this **** into a sticky y0...thanks for the info....

Kazmans94cord

furreal...thats pretty damn good...

Big James

First off, excellent write up.

Now on to this. The Prelude cat is shorter. I originally had an Accord cat, and cut the exhaust like you mention. Then I bought a high flow Prelude cat, and had to lengthen the exhuast about the same amount I shortened it originally!

ichibanjap

iTrader: (1)

That's good info, too bad I already paid someone to do mine.

ArchAngel Sabastian

i think both of the TECH posts should be stickyfied.

Kazmans94cord

what about mine mang??

ArchAngel Sabastian

yes yes yours too.. ill prolly write up another wif pics when i do the kybs - h&r install

Kazmans94cord

excellent

EVO_S4

That some great info but on the jdm h22 do you need to extend the wire since its a right handed driver

Mikey3000

i found a mistake. i haven't done this swap, i have an h22 in a civic, but i know that you can use any MAP sensor (5V) for any other honda. it doesn't matter where it's mounted. since the accord map is mounted on the tb, you can just unscrew it, and hook the vacuum line to the nipple.

Accord94DX

Gah!! Kick ***!! Thanks!!

sloaccord

no, you use the stock harness.

Accord94DX

stock h22/h23 harness or stock accord?

Vtecboy2002

Do I need a Prelude motor mount on the drivers side for my 90 Accord H22A swap?

Brandon

This is for the 5th genereation cars, so just contact 4doorH22 or 2point6 and they can help you.

accordhybrid

Just an FYI he didn't write that up that is from h22a.org and they also have one for the 4th gen accords also

Accordhybrid

Brandon

I know. I did have to change their mistakes in many parts, so its about 50/50, so it's not like I copped out. I did a lot of research, and tried to find the best write up available.. I felt that it was up to spec and would provide a service to this site. I mentioned them in my thanks as well. And that, as they say, is that.


[Modified by accordvtec, 2:05 AM 7/12/2002]

sloaccord

what mistakes?

also, as far as the harnesses are concerned, you use the stock harness your car came with and simply add five wires to that.



[Modified by sloaccord, 7:21 AM 7/12/2002]

Accord94DX

or 2 wires for you h23a1 brethren.

Brandon

ttt

Nick M

i have a 5g, didnt have to extend the O2 wires.

Brandon

ttt

prjctCIVIC

how bout an auto h22 swap?? any info on what to do for that??

Brandon

The same.