The H23 engine is a very strong engine, just not made for performance. Its long stroke doesn't work well with high rpm racing. They are awesome engine to have for daily driving though since their torque comes on 1000rpm sooner than the H22A.

The H22A is a lot faster though. With similar mods I drove my H22 Prelude to 14.3 and my H23 Prelude to 15.09.