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JW11 Build - Honda V6, AW11 Chassis

24K views 172 replies 34 participants last post by  Idon'tKnow 
#1 · (Edited)
I've been working on this project for quite a while now and thought I would try to up the exposure for some undisclosed selfish reasons. I'm trying to condense this from my other threads in other forums so please excuse any lack of sense that you encounter.


Here is the J32A2. It's a 3.2 liter 60* V6 which comes out of the Acura TL Tpye-S. It's rated for 260*hp (194*kW) @ 6200 rpm and 232*lb?ft (315*N?m) @ 3500-5500 rpm.


And here is the J35A4. It's a 3.5 and the main difference between it and the J32 is the stroke; 93mm instead of 86mm. The bore is the same. The crank and rods from this one are going to make there way into the motor above.


I'm very excited about the transmission having come in today. That's the main reason for my post; it's an LSD equipped 6 speed:
 
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#79 ·
No exciting updates. I just relocated to VA and left the car back in Huntsville for the time being. The body work it needs will be taken care of while I'm away from it..... I brought the engine project with me and just haven't had time to organize the garage and get settled yet.

I did buy five more porting burrs and some medium with which to make port molds.

To try and right the rift in the universe I have created with this Honda engine in a Toyota fancy of mine, I have decided that I will one day convert my 05 Acura RL to 2WD and drop a big supercharged 1UR in her. ;-) (Yes I have a penchant for pipe dreaming, but look where my last pipe dream has brought me)
 
#83 ·
Bill Strong said:
awesome project. even though my long time hate of the hondah stuff makes me want to look away... I have to give you props for a serious build!
Honda has made some good engines....


They just didn't put them in passenger cars!

Anyway this whole swap makes me feel funny inside, like there's something wrong about it. Maybe that's why I like it :smile:
 
#84 ·
Awesome metalwork in this thread. Would you mind maybe giving a rundown of your tools? I'm a guy similar to you in that I'm a natural contrarian and like to build stuff. Be nice to get an understanding of what all you're using to do various jobs.

My tool set is getting pretty big, but I don't yet have a plasma cutter or tig welder. I just had the plugs/circuits put in for those this week.
 
#86 ·
19Mark90 said:
What would be more cost effective to get more power out of the three J32, J35, or J37?
Couldn't tell you. Any of the three can be had for very little $$$, the latter least so. The J37 block casting is slightly different; bell housing bolt up, and the snout on the crank. You can use the J37 cranks (96mm instead of the 93mm of the J35 crank I am using) if you have a custom spacer machined. I'm planning to turn it to 8K and that will yield a ~4880fpm piston speed; adding 3mm of stroke would put it ~5040fpm and add some undesired side load.

Bill Strong said:
awesome project. even though my long time hate of the hondah stuff makes me want to look away... I have to give you props for a serious build!
Where in VA are you>?
Thanks Bill. I can't help but wonder if the general hate of Honda in the Toyota community is based more on rivalry and dogma than solid evidence. None the less, thanks for the compliment, it means much coming from a legend such as yourself.
My family and I are in Woodbridge and I rent a room in DC as well.

koji said:
Awesome metalwork in this thread. Would you mind maybe giving a rundown of your tools? I'm a guy similar to you in that I'm a natural contrarian and like to build stuff. Be nice to get an understanding of what all you're using to do various jobs.
Koji!! When are you going to update your build thread???? You spoiled us all for the first few weeks and have since dropped off of the map!!! (talking about "the other forum" here)
Any metal work you see in this thread that looks remotely impressive was not done by myself, but rather a very competent machine shop.
My tool collection isn't anything impressive. The pride of it at the moment is a Foredom TXH Series flex shaft grinder that I procured to assist in my venture into porting and polishing.
 
#87 ·
Can you talk more about the transmission you are using for this? I know it's a 6 speed but the searches I've done based on 4RDE and MC6 (from the pics on the first page) don't turn up what I think I'm looking for. I don't know Honda parts that well anymore.

One of the things you see talked about with guys who have swapped these into Civic's and other Honda chassis is that the 6speed tranny is hydraulically actuated vs. cable actuated. Is that really a problem here and if so how did you solve it?

Sorry if these are newb questions but this whole prospect is really interesting to me.
 
#88 ·
The 6 speeds came in the TL Sport & Type S, and the Accord Coupe. All of the Acura transmissions have helical LSD's. The Accord tranny's are identical apart from that.

As for the hydro/cable issue, this is how I understand it. This is just referring to clutch actuation. The MR2's are all hydraulic so it shouldn't be much of an issue getting it set up; just MR2 lines to the Honda slave cyl. The shift actuation is cable as well.

On the B-series and D-series transmissions you actuate the gear change with a solid linkage that connects directly to the transmission and shift lever. When the Honda guys started swapping the H series into the Civics they were forced to use a Prelude shifter assembly. I've heard that the feel and speed of shifts with the former is significantly better. This is where the HtoB swaps came into play and went into production; a bellhousing adapter to bolt the B eerie transmissions up to the H series engine (then the largest four in the Honda family) - that shift feel is the only reason I have heard talked about specifically, but it may also be that the transmissions are lighter and have closer gear ratios.

So that's it I think - with the V6 six speed being fairly close ratio and the MR2's already having cable shifters I think they are the obviose and best choice.
 
#90 · (Edited)
Idon'tKnow said:
The 6 speeds came in the TL Sport & Type S, and the Accord Coupe. All of the Acura transmissions have helical LSD's. The Accord tranny's are identical apart from that...
Thanks for the response. Given how hard the 6-speeds are to source are there any 5 speed options (non-auto) that are more plentiful that would work for this? Don't get me wrong, 6 speeds are teh sexxors, but if you're blazing a trail nobody has walked down it might be good if all the parts weren't so pricey (this would be for my interests of course :))

It would be difficult to express without sounding totally and completely ghey just how badly I want you to pull this off.

Edit: Nevermind, answered my own question. The reason the Acura 6MT's are expensive is because they come with an LSD and there aren't that many of them. The 6MT from the Accord, which there are a lot more of, is mechanically identical with the exception of the LSD and can be had for about half of what it costs to procure one of the LSD equipped Acura trannies.
 
#91 ·
I know progress has been slow lately guys. Unfortunately I have been working ~60 hours a week, I do an hour each way commuting, I'm a "fulltime" online student, and I have a wife and two year old to tend to as well. I finally managed to break away for a couple hours and here is what I have to show for it:
A single, half finished runner on my intake manifold:

I hogged it out quite a bit with four different shapes of carbide burr (egg, sphere, cyl, & inverted taper) and then started to clean it up with some sanding scrolls.

These runners are 42.5mm diameter from the factory. I brought the beginning of the runner out to 47.5mm for an increase of 5mm in diameter (or from a cross sectional area of ~14.2cm2 to ~17.7cm2) and the end, where it mates to the injector bases, out to 45mm; ~14.2cm2 to 15.9cm2. Of course the idea is to slowly decrease the diameter of the runner as it gets closer to the valves in order to increase charge velocity.



Once I get this one to a point where I like it, I will mold it and an unmodified runner to see how my attempt has turned out. Right now I still need to go into this one and do a little bit more shaping before I finish sand it.
 
#95 ·
koji said:
Thanks dude, and I feel you on the Snap on prices.

With regards to the port and polish - what gains do you expect from this procedure? Are the gains similar across all J-series motors or is it particular to the J32 heads you're using?

In terms of the bolt-ons what all are you planning to use?
I'm not sure exactly what I will get from porting and polishing the heads. Looking at the ports just below the seats, there is some significant flash that can be cleaned up. I do plan on taking a tiny bit of material out of there as well, but not much.

Not knowing where the bottle neck is in the system my thinking on the whole intake tract is this:
Port-match the injector bases to the heads and the manifold to the injector bases; introduce a slight gradual taper to each runner. On the manifold body I have removed quite a bit of material in conjunction with deleting the EGR system- adding extra volume to the plenum, a couple hundred cc's at least.

The velocity stacks that come in the manifold are going to be scrapped and I will taper the inlets, just as though they were velocity stacks, of each runner- effectively shortening them ~1cm.

I'll run a ridiculously oversized throttle body just for the hell of it; probable 90mm. I'll mate that to a PasswordJDM Powerchamber (link) and then to a side vent which will replace the gas flap on the driver side. The idea is to let the sound waves from the intake expand and contract before letting them reach the intake on the side of the car. I will be very careful not to shape it like a megaphone, but at the same time try and get some ram-air effect.

Hopefully all of these tweaks will make for a system that flows well @ ~1,200rpm higher than what it was designed for. I'm really just trying to move the engine's torque curve rearward (it's a 2k lb car and the motor is a 3.5) and make big numbers up top.

There isn't any hope for high lift cams on these motors since the cams are slide-in type and they are already as large as their bearing diameter will allow. To give the motor some demand for the larger runners and higher flow capability, I will be bumping the compression up a bit.

Nothing is really planned for the bolt-on sphere. The guys out there making ~300whp are all doing it on cheap short headers and factory intake manifolds. My whole basis for a 340whp goal is to do a good job massaging the whole induction system, running some serious long tube stepped headers with high end merge collectors, and good engine management. I'm hoping to start on the headers mid-Nov when I will be back with the car for a few days.
 
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