Honda F18 / F20 / F22 / F23
inline-4 · naturally aspirated · petrol · 1988–present
Also known as: f18a, f18b, f20a, f20b, f20c, f22a, f22b, f23a, f18, f20, f22, f23, f-series honda, f22b1, f23a1, f18b2, f22b6, f23a7, f20b5, f23z5
Honda's larger four — the 1.8 F18, 2.0 F20, 2.2 F22 and 2.3 F23 — in the Accord, Prelude and Odyssey, and as the F20C, in the S2000.
The F20C is a different proposition from everything else here and is the reason most people arrive: 9,000 rpm, a very high compression ratio, and the highest specific output of any naturally aspirated production engine of its day. Almost nothing written about it applies to an F22B in an Accord, and the reverse is equally true.
On the ordinary engines the recurring items are age. The distributor fails with heat and gives an intermittent stall; the timing belt is an interference design and drives the water pump, so they are one job; and oil leaks from the valve cover and distributor seal are expected rather than exceptional.
On the F20C the oiling system is the thing to respect. It is unforgiving of low level and of track use without further attention, and bearing failures there are a real pattern rather than a rumour.
The H22 beside it is a separate family with its own page here — same cars, similar displacement, different engine.
Cars fitted with this engine
6 generations, across 2 makes. From the authored catalogue — an absent car means the catalogue has not reached it, not that the engine was never fitted.
Information, not instruction
CarGeek is a reference, not a service manual. Its pages are written from public sources and from what other people have found, never from a manufacturer's own service information, so they can be wrong or incomplete for your particular vehicle. Some of what they describe carries real risk: high voltage, fuel under pressure, stored energy, hot and moving parts.
Have anything you intend to act on checked by a trained person against the manufacturer's own procedure for your vehicle. Nothing here replaces that procedure.
Posted about this engine
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Nothing posted about this yet. Whatever you found is worth writing down — even a dead end saves someone the same afternoon.
What makes one worth reading:
- The car — make, model, year and engine. The same fault behaves differently on each.
- What you measured, not only what you replaced.
- What actually fixed it — or that nothing did, which is worth knowing too.
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