Honda F18 / F20 / F22 / F23

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.