I got a 98 Honda Accord 2 door coupe with a recently installed 2.3l vtec engine and 5 speed tranny that came out of a 1998 Acura Cl. It came with a nice header when my mechanic installed it he had to remove the catalytic converter.I drove the car yesterday locally and it was nice to finally get it back on the road after a little over 2 months. The engine felt as though the RPMs were raising up a bit quicker than my orignal engine that was a 2.2. I did not get a chance to really press it. Anyone familiar with the 2.3 l vtec engine that came with the 1998 Acura Cl.

 

First thing I noticed is that 1998 US Accord came with a 2.3 liter engine, not 2.2. Do the engraved numbers on the Acura block start with F23A1 ?

 

I don't know if the Honda 2.3L is the same as the Acura 2.3L or not, so I can't say one way or the other. But the Acura 2.3L might have slightly more compression, and being that it has a header and no cat converter, it probably breathes a little better which you'll feel in the drivers seat.

 

I don't always believe Wikipedia, but they say the Acura CL has the F23A1 which is the same as the Accord VTEC engine.

 

On the engine block it has F23A1 below it has a 7 digit number. The valve cover is a silver color the original engine on my accord had a Black valve cover and I don't think it said vtec. To be honest I am not sure what size engine it had I assumed it was a 2.2 am going to research the VIN and see what it says.

 

Somewhere up on top of the forum is a VIN decoder that you can use.

If the car originally had a non-VTEC engine, then you would have needed to use the PCM (engine control computer) that belongs to the Acura CL engine.

 

Also, if it had a non-VTEC engine, it would have 16 valve cast into the top of the valve cover, versus VTEC being cast like your Acura cover has.