Originally Posted by fastball
Some of you need to go back to your 1st grade Honda class......
The Acura CL is a gussied up Accord, nowhere near an equivalent of a Prelude. It's more luxurious and all but the 1996-98s came with V6 engines standard.
A Prelude, while built on a modified Accord chassis, is not comparable to a CL in any way.
If you could put an H22A into a CL (which would be near impossible for any 1999-2003 CL), why would you want to? They came with the 3.2 VTEC V6 and had anywhere from 230-260 hp, blowing away the Prelude. Combine the fact that all 99-03 automatics were 5 speed and the 2002-03 CL Type-S was a 6 speed manual, they were certainly personal luxury coupes designed to be BMW 3 series fighters more than just sporty coupes.
I almost bought a 2003 CL Type-S. I raced one once. He left me in the dust off the line. On the freeway, that car can pass almost anything on the road without even down shifting out of 6th. And if you do, you can hang with anything short of a Corvette.
Some corrections. 1st gen CL was 1997-1999, there was no 2000 CL. They came with either the F23 2.3 SOHC VTEC I-4 (F22 for 1997's) or the J30A1 for 1998 and 1999 (same engine/tranny as in 6th gen V6 Accords). The 2001 and 2002 CL's were 5-speed automatic only, the revised 2003 CL had a 6-speed manual as an option.
And yes, you could put an H22 into the first gen CL's, as it was built on the 5th gen Accord platform. The Prelude, however, was not build on a modified Accord platform, which is common misconception.
If you want a real screamer you could put a J32A from the CL Type S with the 6-speed transmission into the much lighter 1st gen CL (since it already can accept the nearly identical J30). THAT would scream.
