you should have it honed by the machine shop.
its not that much, i got mine done for $65 + boiling.
came out great tho, car doesnt consume oil at 56k and 2 years ago.

however i did only find 1 place with the correct stone (which they had never used), and i called 5 other machine shops before that.

~boom

 

I wouldn't think it would be expensive... but how much more work is it to get the block out? I know I'd have to take the tranny off (it's manual). Keep in mind I'm working in my driveway with hand tools ... and I don't have an engine lift. Can two people lift the block out of the engine compartment after all that other stuff is off (head, internals, tranny)?

BTW, 400 grit is the correct stone, yes? IIRC, that is what the Helms manual calls for.

 

Mis-information...

 

Got any comparative photos of F22 and H22 rods?

 

well, thats gonna be a close call lifting it out of the engine bay. A short block weighs about I would say, 150-175 lbs maybe, so if your really strong you might be able to lift it out, though cuz of the angle and how high you have to lift it might be tough. I was barely able to lift a short block out of my trunk with my dad, but 3 ppl it was fairly decent carrying it around.

What you might wanna do is drop the short block onto a cardboard or soemthing, and lift the car up high enough to slide the block out.

Now as far as those f22 rods being weak, i believe they are the same part as the h23 rods, and i remember the h23 and h22 rods are pretty much the same besides length, but sorry no side by side photo shots.

 

as far as the stone goes...do what the helms says lol
i didnt have the balls to hone my own block. but i did leave my helms at the machine shop for the guy to reference. when i picked up my block the guy was very fascinated with the overall design and asked what the safe red line was, i told him i wouldn't take it past 8500 on a stock head. keep in mind he also had my crank and he was equally impressed with that work of art. it was also the first time he had ever honed (or seen) an FRM lined block.
he also hadnt seen or worked on many honda 4 cylinders and never a DOHC VTEC motor
i was able to carry my bare h22a1 block around in my arms

it took me and my friend busting our asses to carry the blown h23a1 fully loaded short block from my garage to the back of my brothers wagon. 170 pounds doesnt sound heavy but then UPS wouldnt take it because it was over 150lbs lol.
so we had to lug it back and i pulled the pistons and oil pan.
that put it at about 145-150 ish and i was able to ship it to the guy who wanted the shortblock with the pistons and pan separate.
i also had to tell UPS it was a piece of furniture because they wouldnt ship the motor

i borrowed a lift from my neighbor the "first" time
if i were you i wouldn't worry about honing the block unless there is noticeable marring of the cylinder walls.
just make sure you break the rings in correctly.

when i put my h22a1 together i was suprised by how thin the h22a rods were. ive never worked with f22b1 rods. but comparing to my blown h23a1 and its rods. the pistons and rods were very similiar between the 2 engines.

~boom

 

actually with the honing and what not, i highly suggest the minimum you do is hone the block to break the glaze on the cylinder walls or your new rings won't seat properly.

But honestly, i would rather bring the block to the shop and have them at the very least check the clearance of the pistons in the bores, because factory blocks are made with 2 different sized bores, on the block you will see they are labeled as A or B size bores, and you can purchase pistons in A size or B size as well when buying replacement honda pistons. And aftermarket ones come straight up in one size. So if need be they can hone it out a bit to fit the new pistons better.

I would hate to see you **** up ur brand new pistons and cylinder walls cuz of improper clearances. I rather see you blow the shit out of it cuz you were pushing the engine to the extreme limits,

 

#2 and #3 pistons are out! (I ran out of time last night, so 1 and 4 will have to wait). My piston walls are in pretty good shape. Some slight carbon build up, but no scratches or marring. Eddie: I hear what you're saying, but I'm just going to have to hope for the best on this one, knock the glaze off, and pray. BTW, I have size A (AAAA stamped on the block) pistons. I believe those are the smaller of the two, but I'll have to check on that one. The rods are stamped, it appears, in numberical order. From the crank pulley side of the motor moving towards the tranny side, the 2 rods I've pulled have been stamped 139 and 140. I'm assuming that rods 1 and 4 will be stamped 138 and 141.

 

actuallly those numbers on the rods aren't place numbers, but I believe they are the size numbers you are talkign about which are used to get correct bearing sizes, so keep an eye on which rod you pull off of which cylinder and don't get the bearings confused.

Sounds like your on ur way though. Let me know how that goes, because I have a spare f22 sitting around, that I am really tempted to throw back into the car when I get my other motor sleeved. I wanna do a ghetto fabulous NA built on it for shits and giggles, planning to spend about 500 bucks max on the mods,

 

That's good to know, just in case I screw this up :chuckles: