As I mentioned-the only difference between the Base and SH engine blocks is the location of the oil filter (practical answer). The Base filter is mounted under the intake manifold more to the center, while the SH has its filter mounted closer to the timing cover end of the block.
If you provide the VIN we can decode it.

 

First of all, those are not engine types, they are transmission types. But who cares about terminology anyway

A manual prelude is one with a manual transmission. There's a clutch pedal in this car, and you shift gears manually by working the clutch with your left foot, and moving through the gears with your right hand.

An automatic prelude has an automatic transmission, which shifts for you the whole time.

An SS transmission is something special, it's sort of a combination of a manual and an automatic. Some people call it a Manumatic. Weird. It is an automatic transmission, but with a special feature called SS (stands for Sequential Shift, or something like that). You see, it will shift the gears automatically for you the whole time if you like, or you can move the gear select over a notch, and shift the gears your self. There is however, no clutch, and you can only click the lever up or down to change the gears. There is no H pattern like there is on a manual.



You see in this picture that you can select Drive, Park, and all that normall jazz that an automatic has, but in the D4 slot, you can move the gear select to the right a notch, and click the gears up and down (the + and -)

You might think that an SS transmission is the best of both worlds, but without a clutch pedal, I don't think it captures everything a manual tranny can be.

When you ask the car salesman about these things, he'll probably convince you that the auto tranny or the SS tranny is the best, simply because that is what he's selling.

Keep us posted.

 

there isnt very much difference between a SS and a regular auto.
id say its just got different valving inside. A real "manumatic" as you called it...is really just a manual tranny equipped with a hydraulic gear change, like an F1 style gear box. the thing is that if u look at the internals of an auto and a manual there really arent "gears" changing position in either. in the manual tranny, the synchro sleeves just lock the gear to the synchro hub, and the hub is locked to either the mainshaft or countershaft (depending on the gear), and all the gears are constantly in contact with each other, so the synchro rings and sleeves are what really change position.
I dont know if ALL manual trannys are like this but id assume at least all FWD trannys (transaxle's) are. Ive never worked on an actual SS tranny, but i have worked on several prelude manuals, including my current tranny which had a bad reverse when i bought it.

My point here is that the SS is really just an auto tranny at heart.
A real F1 gearbox like ferrari has in the 360, is ALOT different than hondas economy attempt at it.

That was all probably a bit over your heads, except maybe jc, but o well
~kris

 

^^ well done laddy!