MENUGuide to tuning Honda's H22 engine
"Thanks for reading our H22 tuning tips"
We consider H22 tuning and outline the optimum modifications for your car.
We've seen these fitted to Civics and many other cars, we've also seen turbo conversions and superchargers fitted to the H22 engine.
Honda H22s have loads of potential and with a few sensible performance parts you can dramatically improve your driving enjoyment.
Few NASP engines achieve 100bhp per 1000cc but the H22 comes pretty close, and had Honda's legendary reliability so is quite a popular engine for Tuning projects.
We rely on our visitors to pass on tips and tell us about their projects and what worked on their car, and this article is the culmination of the feedback we have received. First let us look at the history and specs of this engine and then consider which tuning modifications work best on it.
History of the H22 Engine
The H22 was a 2.2 liter engine from Honda, released in 1990 and fitted to the Prelude.
The engine met with 8 revisions for various markets.
- H22A 197 hp
- H22A1 187 hp
- H22A2 182 hp
- H22A3 (94-06) 182 hp
- H22A4 (97 -98) 197 hp
- H22A5 (Europe 97-98) 182hp
- H22A7 (Europe 98-02) 209hp
- H22A8 (Europe 97-01) 197hp
Cars the H22 was originally fitted to with version numbers
- 92–96 H22A Prelude Si VTEC (Japan)
- 94–97 H22A Accord SiR (Japan)
- 97–01 H22A Prelude SiR, SiR S-spec, Type S (Japan)
- 00–02 H22A Accord Euro R (Europe)
- 93–96 H22A1 Prelude VTEC (America)
- 97–98 H22A1 Prelude VTiR (Australia)
- 93–96 H22A2 Prelude 2.2i VTEC (Europe)
- 96 H22A3 Prelude VTEC (KU)
- 97–01 H22A4 Prelude SH & Base(America)
- 97–98 H22A5 Modified Prelude (Europe)
- 99–02 H22A7 Accord Type R (Europe)
- 99–01 H22A8 Modified Prelude (Europe)
- 99–01 H22Z1 Prelude VTiR (Australia)
What are the most effective parts
When talking about the best optimum for your engine, we are going to tuning parts that give the best power gain for you spend.
Altering your cam will make a dramatic difference to the engine bhp. Choosing a higher performance cam profile raises the bhp accordingly.
Fast road cams tend to push up the torque through the rpm range, you may lose a little bottom end power but higher rpm power will be higher.
Motorsport cams, push up the higher rpm power band but as a result the car will not idle smoothly and low end power nearly always suffers.
For a road car must carefully try to optimize your engines power to your preferences.
You will never find a Motorsport and race cam is a pleasure to live with when driving in heavy traffic.
Each engine responds better to more or less aggressive camshaft durations so set your engine up on a rolling road.
The map and injectors and fuel pump also have an effect on the torque gains you'll achieve.
Altering valve durations can alter the torque band and on most engines the exhaust and intake durations do not need to match, although most cams and tuners use matched pairs there are some advantages to extending the intake or exhaust durations.
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How to tune your car
- Improve the handling
Focus on Suspension improvements, such as coilovers and make sure the bushings are in good order and that the alignment is correct. Then focus on improving the brakes, with a big disk brake conversion kit and fast road brake pads.
- Remove restrictions
Focus on the intake and exhaust with filters being the common point of restriction in a tuned car. Intercoolers may also become restrictive on turbo engines so this may also need to be uprated.
- Burn more fuel & air
Increase the fuelling so it matches the air coming into the engine. The ratio is important so you need to improve the fuel pump and injectors, so the head mods, big valve conversions, fast road camshafts and forced induction upgrades extra supply of air is adequately met.
- Test and replace any weak parts
Weak areas are commonly the clutch, the turbocharger and pistons and crankshaft in a highly tuned engine. Makes sure these components will cope with your power aspirations.
- The Tune or Remap
A cars ECU controls the fuel, timing, spark and even the turbo in some cases, so to fully extract your gains you should remap the car last and this will fully release the power. Some cars are easy to map, and others require piggyback ECU's or aftermarket ECU's but this is the most vital step of your tuning project.
Modifying to Stage 1:
Panel air filters, Remaps, Fast road camshaft, Intake headers, Sports exhaust manifold, .
Modifying to Stage 2:
fuel pump upgrades, high flow fuel injectors, Ported and polished head, Sports catalyst & performance exhaust, Fast road cam, .
Modifying to Stage 3:
Adding or Upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Twin charging conversions, Internal engine upgrades (pistons/head/valves), Engine balancing & blueprinting, Competition cam, .
200bhp should be an easy target for a NASP H22 tuning project with exhaust, headers intake and crower cams, with the Hondata s300 or Chrome and Neptune ECU upgrade.
Remaps should help to release the full potential of all the modifications you've done to your H22.
It will usually give around 15% on NASP engines, but your mileage will vary depending on the modifications you've done and the condition of your engine.
Forcing more fuel and air into your H22 is the main goal to any engine modification task.
Intake flow the air during the suck phase from the air cleaner and allow it to be drawn into the engine and mixed with fuel.
Design and flow rate of the Intake can make a big change to fuel atomisation on the H22.
Commonly we find the plenum chambers are in desperate need of an upgrade, although some OEM provide decently flowing plenum chambers.
Adding a H22 larger valve kit, getting port work and head flowing will also lift torque, and importantly will make space for a better torque increase on other parts.
H22 turbo upgrades - which are best?
The more air to get into an engine, the more fuel it can burn and uprating the induction with a turbocharger upgrade makes massive power gains.
NASP engines need quite a lot of work when you add a turbo, so we have a separate guide to help you take into account the pros and cons of going this route on your H22 although it has been done and makes pretty decent power.
There are reliable limits for every engine, with some being over specified and some only able to handle stock power
See where you'll find these restrictions and fit higher quality crank and pistons to handle the power.
We've seen guys spending a loads of money on turbocharger upgrades on the H22 only to suffer the indignity of watching the whole thing go up in smoke just after it's been finished.
We are pleased that the selection of turbo chargers is always evolving and we are seeing variable vane turbo chargers, permitting the vane angle is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end bhp and torque.
It is not unusual that there's a limit in the air flow sensor MAP on the when considerably more air is being drawn into the engine.
You'll see that 4 bar air sensors coping with quite large power gains, whereas the OEM air sensor limited power at a much lower level due to it's 3 bar limit (or less if it's old or worn).
Adding a supercharger or additional turbo will make large torque gains, although more complex to install. We have a twincharger torque adding guide if you want to read more.
Fuelling
You will need to ensure that the engine is not starved of fuel so will need to ramp up the fuelling when you start exceeding 20% of a power increase.We strongly recommend you to over specify your injectors flow rate.
- 93-96 H22 injectors are rated to 345cc
- 97 onwards and the R & Accord H22's use a 290cc
- Some older H22 injectors are rated to 310cc
To further complicate matters, the fuel pressure affects the flow rate of the injectors with a 330cc injector flowing 287cc at 33psi and 316cc at 40psi. So fuel pump upgrades may well be required to utilize the flow rate.
The rule of thumb is to add another 20% when fitting an injector, which takes into account injector deterioration and affords some spare capacity should the engine require more fuel.
H22 Exhaust
You should look to improve your exhaust if the existing exhaust is actually creating a restriction in flow.
On most factory exhausts you should find that the flow rate quite well even on modest power gains, but when you start pushing up the power levels you will need to get a better flowing exhaust.
Do not go with the biggest exhaust you can buy this will slow up the exhaust flow rate - the best exhausts for power gains are usually between 1.5 to 2.5 inches. It is the shape and material more than the bore size.Usual exhaust restrictions can be traced to the catalyst and filters installed, so adding a faster flowing performance alternative will help avoid this restriction.
Weakspots and problem areas on the H22
The H22 engines are generally reliable and solid as long as they are regularly serviced and maintained.
Regular oil changes are vital on the H22, especially when tuned and will help extend the life and reliability of the engine.
For more information on Tuning your Honda engine please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss H22 tuning options in more detail with our H22 owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased Honda tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.
Please help us improve these tips by sending us your feedback in the comments box below.
We love to hear what our visitors have got up to and which parts work best for them on each model of car. Comments are used to improve the accuracy of these articles which are continually updated.
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