Honda or Subaru - 091 Light Car

wesinls

wesinls

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If you were to put either a subi or Honda behind an 091, which would you choose and why? Light 2 seat car.
 
I had a honda j35a4 in my previous car. Ran great, cheap, made 300hp. I have friends with subi cars as well, they seem happy with them, but they definitely spend a little more then I did. I think either one is a good engine, but for me, I'd do the Honda.
 
I have a Subi in my car (with a 2D). I wish I had a Honda. I have a SU 2 seat mid engine ultralight. It's ridiculously quick and nimble. The key to a light car is keeping it light and the mid engine really balances the car and makes the handling a lot better. A rear engine in a light car can make the front end too light and potentially make the car very unbalanced. depending on what your objective is, who's it for, where you taking it, skill level...you may want to see what combo would best fit as a mid engine car/driveline.

My Subi works great. Lightweight, decent power. As a mechanic, I feel that a Honda is easier to work on and from what I read, cheaper.

Both of these depend on how much power you want. Subi's seem to be reliable up to 450-500hp. Above that the rebuild cycle and issues become more frequent. Honda's have a pretty good record of making good power and maintaining reliability.
 
Good point weight - i wonder what the weight difference is between the 2 engine combos
 
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According to the cheap amazon crane scale
Ready to run Honda 3.5 with adapter plate, clutch, exhaust 397lbs
 
Both engines are right around 400lbs outfitted. Depends on what you’re looking for and what time of driving you do. A built 091 can handle both engines but it’s the torque that can grenade them. Both engines will be tough on the trans of you drive her hard. But family cruising and dining would be fine with either engine. Personally, I prefer the Honda for cost, ease of maintenance and repairs, and availability of parts/take out motors. There are millions of them out there.
 
I had a Honda J35A4 and an all Weddle 094 in my original 4 seat car. In hindsight I would love to go back in time and have that combo back. I swapped out the Honda for an LS2 and HV24, however the car was lighter and nimbler with the Honda, and needless to say much funner to drive, and I could run all day on 10 gallons of 87.

Another guy in our group had the Acura 3.2 and an E-Box which ran very strong.
 
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I am not impressed w/Subies. But, I had an Odyssey, at 292K I almost hit a deer, at 95mph. I was late to meet a guy. It ran 95 fairly easily. My daughter hit a tree about 2 weeks later. At 292K it didn't burn any oil in a 5K oil change. Let me say that again, a 3.5 V-6 didn't use any oil, so that, in 5,000 miles, it would come down on the dip-stick enough that you could tell and it ran strong.

An Odyssey V-6 has about the same amount of HP, or more than my '86 Suburban....about 225-250. It would go across Utah effortlessly (SL of 80mph).

To me, it is a no brainier.
 
What ECU's are people using in the Hondas and Subi's?
 
The stock Honda ecu is great and will only need to switch if boost is introduced.

Nice thing about the Honda is you can get parts at any junkyard and OEM sensors are super cheap from there as well
 
If you are building and don't already have the trans go 2d. The 091 will hold up but they need to be treated with some caution. The Honda torque will take a toll over time. Heck, my first Honda was the 3.0 v6 and I used an Autocraft built type 1 and made it live. Then went to a 3.5a4 and it still lived. I did go to a 2d though and felt much more at ease.
 
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ive had thoughts of building a light 2 seater with a honda k series.
 
I used a brand new harness from an 04 Pilot, I untaped the whole thing and with the help of a schematic from All-Data I removed anything that wasn't needed to run the engine which was about 1/2 of it. For a computer, I used stock because my engine was not boosted.

I got the computer from a shop in SD but I can't recall what the name was at the moment, at $600 it wasn't cheap. With the help of some vague clues various people had told me, I reverse engineered it and determined it was from a 99 Acura TL. Really the only things done to it to make it work in a sand car was first, the immobilizer was broken off of the board by bending it back and forth, and second, the crankshaft sensor signal wire was piggybacked into the vehicle speed signal input so that when the engine is running, the pulses from the crank sensor would back feed into the vss and make the ecm think the car was actually driving and allow the engine to rev. I was pretty disappointed that that's all it took to make it work but at the time there was zero information out there about how to do it. The ones that knew wouldn't discuss it.
 
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