Acura TL type S motor in an Accord?

Question

I own a 2005 Honda Accord EX V6 coupe with 6MT and navigation.

My question is this: I have read online about some people doing an engine swap in their 7th gen Accords for the TL-S motor. This is mainly becuase there are not many aftermarket parts for 7th gen V6 accords because of the headers being halfway internal.

Anyways, I am wondering how easy of a swap this really is? Since it is a different displacement, will it be more difficult than the average engine swap?

I am very interested in this motor, it delivers more performance, and offers more aftermarket than my J30a4.

Anyone Honda/Acura junkie in here have any 1st hand knowledge about this?

Any help or input would be appreciated, unless u just wanna tell me to get an american V8. I know my car is FWD and will never bee a sports car, but as long as i have it, i might as well make it as fun as possible.

Answer 1

There actually are various performance mods for your car, though as you say...no aftermarket headers; The Gen3 TL doesn't have any aftermarket headers available either.

Rather than dropping a TL Type S motor in, another & perhaps more viable option is simply to install a 3.5L head onto your engine...this has a better chance of being a more 'plug & play' upgrade.  The J series entire line of Honda/Acura V6 engines shares the same block, but there could be subtle differences.  

Another crazy, but doable swap is to step back to the Gen6 Accord motor (J30A1), that will accept aftermarket headers, along with the Comptech Supercharger...this model has the most performance mods available of any for the J Series motors...headers, high lift cams, etc.  What your car brings is the 6 spd MT.    Or better still... do the same swap with the Gen3 3.2L TL head.  BTW, these two (options mentioned) are the only Honda J series versions accepting the Comptech (aka CT-Engineering) supercharger.  For example, a 2006 'base' model TL (3.2L), equipped with the supercharger/intake/exhaust mods will outperform a stock Type S by over a 40hp margin.  So...your MT version with the J32A3 base TL motor will afford you such gains.  

Otherwise, simply dropping a 3.5L head in will give you some added gains too, and with the reliability of a NA design.

However, I'm not sure that if you go with the J35 off the TL-S or off the RL that parts will bolt-up squarely.  You'd have to research this --->

Acurazine.com

Temple of VTEC.com

V6 Performance.net

Note:  A stock Gen7 V6 Accord with MT is good for 0-60 in 5.9...it equals the base TL model.  Equalling the power of a Type S MT, would probably provide a 0-60 in ~ 5.4 - 5.5 sec.  Going with a supercharged 3.2L TL motor in the accord might shave  up to a quarter of a second off that.  You'll have wicked torque steer, and would be advised to upgrade brakes & chassis suspension components.  This is one area where the TL excels, it comes stock with more sport tuned components.