Also known as: j35a, j35y, j35z, 3.5 v6, j series, 3.5 i-vtec, vcm, j35y6, j35y5, j35z6, j35z2, j35a8, j35y4, j35y1, j35z1, j35z4, j35y8, j35z8
Honda's 3.5-litre 60° V6, designed in Japan and engineered and built in the United States — the engine of the Odyssey, Pilot, larger Accords and most Acura SUVs for over two decades.
Variable Cylinder Management is the single most consequential thing to know about it. VCM shuts down cylinders under light load to save fuel, and the consequences are well documented: the deactivated cylinders run cool and their spark plugs foul, the rings can glaze and the engine begins consuming oil, and the varying torque loads accelerate wear on the engine mounts — particularly the active hydraulic ones — which is why a J35 that vibrates at idle is often a mount problem rather than an engine one.
That cluster produces a characteristic presentation: misfire codes on one bank, oil consumption, and a vibration, all at once, on a well-maintained car. Read them as one system rather than three faults. Not every application uses VCM, so confirming whether it is fitted is the first question, not a detail.
Cars fitted with this engine
20 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.
Acura
Honda
- Odyssey RA and RL 1994–2010
- Accord Seventh and eighth generation 2002–2012
- Pilot YF1 2003–2008
- Ridgeline First generation 2005–2014
- Pilot Second generation 2008–2015
- Crosstour TF 2009–2015
- Odyssey Fourth generation 2010–2017
- Accord CR 2013–2017
- Pilot Third generation 2015–2022
- Ridgeline Second generation 2016–present
- Odyssey Fifth generation 2017–present
- Passport Third generation 2019–present
- Pilot Fourth generation 2022–present
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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