Quote:
Originally Posted by darcane
Precisely.
There is a good chance I will need the head milled, but that's not really a big deal.
I'm a little concerned about the exhaust manifold though. There is a hairline crack, and I really don't want to make it any worse. It's $1000 for a new one if you can even find them. I believe these are an HX specific part.
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Still looking for a manifold? The SRT-4 manifold used to have hairline cracks. Mine did and I never worried about it. Once it heats up, the crack seals. Sure, once it cracks it is only going to get bigger, but I'd wait until it really needed to be replaced. I also would not weld it. Cast iron is very tricky. You can weld it easily, but keeping it from cracking again is really tough.
On Hondapartsnow.com, they don't sell just the HX manifold for the 2001. But, on the 2005's, the HX and LX use the same part number for the exhaust manifold. The O2 sensors are different. So, you might want to check and see if the LX manifold will work. If so, they should be pretty easy to find in a junkyard.
I found those part numbers when I was doing some research into an HX swap to my LX sedan. Well, a modified HX swap. The heads are different, but the HX and EX heads are the same and the EX heads aren't too expensive. The cams are different though. Then there is the O2 sensors, ECM, transmission and wiring harness are most of what I'd need to swap. But, I don't know how much more of a difference the swap would make. A used HX transmission is about $600-800. Not cheap. The head, wiring harness, ECM and O2 sensors should be under $1,000. The gains would probably be minimal. I am already getting 41 mpg. Even if I were to get a 20% increase in mileage and it only cost $1,600 to do the entire swap, it would take 121,000 miles or so to pay back.