I am in the mood to buy a prelude to go with my 68 Dodge Charger. I want to know what to look for in the vin to identify the car as having a vtec engine. I also want to know what is the best year to buy in the era of 1996 to 2000 that the factory engine is well tuned and would run well next to my charger.

thanks :thumbup:

 

Any 97-01 will be a vtec 2.2 litre engine. The differences in horsepower from year to year are slight and depend as much on the year, exhaust header and tranny setup. The Base 5 speed is probably the most popular. If you are looking for a car with the ATTS (torque transfer) then the SH version is what you want; but be forewarned that this model is limited as to certain modifications and is not meant for drag racing. The final choice and one that will do fine for over the road use is the SS (automatic tranny). This last one suffers from failure issues when pushed really hard.

 

get a base 5spd... no SS auto, i use it for daily driver and no mods... and they tranny arleady f*cked up and i had to pay too much money to replace it.

 

really
my gf has an SS and it's working fine
she's even got the JRSC in it with 6 lbs of boost
not all AT trannys fail when pushed hard
although honda AT are notoriuos for this

 

The 1996 and 97-01 are very different styles, but the performance is very similar. 1996 Prelude VTEC models have 190 hp, the 97-98s have 195, and 99-01 have 200 with the manual, 195 with the sport shift. You'd be best off with a 99-01 if you like that style, or the 1996. Get the most of what you can if you are going with this car. You'll be glad you did.

 

I like my H23A1 BB2 R-81 lude... 2.3 Liter, 4th Gen, Milano Red. :naughty:

 

just to warn you E&MCustoms... once again, i do not recommend the SS auto, i was goin through some old papers for my car today, i guess i was bored, but it comes to find out that the tranny had already been replaced by the previous owner. So the tranny i have in now, is actually the 3rd for my lude.. hopefully this one runs strong. best of luck to you in your search for a good 5spd lude, and if you do happen to get the SS auto, ill keep you in my prayers

 

the 99-01 is the best year to buy.

unless you go back to 93 si -

 

all H22's make 190hp @ the flywheel.

well more importantly all 5spd vtec ludes dyno ~165, regardless of the year. the extra 5, then 10 hp #'s were made up...or the drivetrain was made less efficient.

 

98 year is good too. I have 98 SH and no problems yet.