I blew my first engine today.

After a decade of driven clapped-out beaters, an engine decides to give up on me.

What does this mean for me and the car? Well, since I have a couple spare engines and a good number of performance parts, my plan is to build a motor. I'm hoping to gain about 30 horsepower with all of the work.

The engine is an A series Honda engine.

Do you guys feel it is reasonable to expect that much of a gain? Stock, the engine is rated at 120 HP. From memory, the parts I have laying around are as follows: ported head, reground cam, better flowing intake manifold, a header, a 2.25" exhaust, and a compression increase from a stock 9.3:1to somewhere in the neighborhood of 11:1. Seems reasonable to me. Supporting mods are a given.

What kind of Honda is this? That will make an EASY 200hp on the Accord F-series engines, although you'll have to go with a bigger exhaust. Best part? You'll probably have $3000 invested, at MOST, in the complete, running swap.

Sounds like fun. I remember blowing the engine in my Vic. It just died and wouldn't restart. Not too spectacular. Hope yours was more eventful/fun than mine was. LOL If you're into that sort of stuff.

I've only had the joy of buying cars with blown engines.

30 more ponies sounds do-able.

30hp sounds conservative.

At least you didn't blow a tranny.

Only if it's your first one. After the first one, it doesn't matter anymore.

That's the second time in the last 5 minutes I've heard the "blow a tranny" joke.

Could be worse, Mopar.

I've never blown a tranny, but I have killed 2 transmissions.

Unfortunately, it was rather uneventful, other than it smoking oil from everywhere. No loud bangs, just louder knocking and less power.

I've blown one tranny and grinded the clutch off two trannies.

It's an A series engine, BTW. Iron block, aluminum head, forged crank, 9.3:1 compression ratio.

The common swap into the 3rd gen Accords is a B series. Innovative makes a rather inexpensive set of mounts, the shift linkage is easy to DIY, and the axles are easy to frankenstein.

I have a couple of these A series motors and the parts for them. That's why I'm not considering the B series engines right now. I sponsored a group buy for Mosselman turbo manifolds for these engines because I wanted one that much, so I feel a bit obligated to finish that project as well.

I finally got to poking around at the engine. It has a loose timing belt. The belt isn't broken, but there's evidence it's skipped at least one tooth. I may have saved this one. A compression and leakdown test are going to be performed, and I'm going to replace as many of the gaskets and seals as I can. If I can borrow some time from this engine, I can get a really decent engine built.

First engine I blew was a Honda SL125, overheated and seized the thing. Note: hot summer days, hard riding, a lean mixture from the combination of a free flow exhaust with no corresponding jetting change and the points closing up due to wear will cause hella detonation, lock the motor up and throw the protagonist over the bars to land headfirst on a concrete block half buried in the sand. The incident will make that same protagonist view helmets in a whole different light.

Swank Force One wrote: 30hp sounds conservative. At least you didn't blow a tranny.

I blow so many trannies that I can get them off and serviced one-handed.

Wait, that didn't come out right.

Has the engine called you back?

Swank Force One wrote: At least you didn't blow a tranny.

Sorry been on a archer kick.

Knurled wrote:

Swank Force One wrote: 30hp sounds conservative. At least you didn't blow a tranny.

I blow so many trannies that I can get them off and serviced one-handed. Wait, that didn't come out right.

Most impressive!

Besides go kart engines, my first engine death involved a big hole in the block and a rod hanging out the side. Not much was salvageable. All because someone couldn't bother changing oil and a filter.

wearymicrobe wrote: Sorry been on a archer kick.

Wait, I had something for this.

I've only ever blown two engines. Both were rotaries. Care to guess why I hate them so much?

I drive a minivan to Jersey to pick up not one, but two trannies once. I have a couple dead trannies in my shed.

I would much rather blow an 'injun than a tranny

"Hey! You blew an engine!"

"No, that's just a little ice cream"