I own a european honda prelude (1999) VTi 4WS.

it has a h22a5 engine in it which is rated at 185hp. the h22a4 (US) is rated at 195 or 200 (5speed)... and in 2000 europe changed to the h22a8, which is 200 hp also.

Does anyone know what the differences are between the h22a5 and the a4 or a8?

thanks :-)
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At first: Welcome to the europe forum!! Feel free to ask whatever you want.:-)
I´ve just bought a `00 VTEC Prelude but I don´t have got any idea about your question.

Over here in germany we have got three different 5th gen Prelude engines:
2.0i SOHC non-VTEC with 133hp and manual tranny
2.2i DOHC VTEC with 185hp and auto tranny
2.2i DOHC VTEC with 185hp (200hp in the y2k) and manual tranny

By the way, where are you from?
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Oh, wait! One of them could be the Accord Type-R engine!!! It´s basically a modified Prelude engine.
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thanks for the welcome, veetec. :-)

what i'm interested in is what are the internal changes between the h22a5 and a4, or the h22a5 and a8. Cams? ECU? Compression? It seems odd to me that during the same year the US model which is practically the same had 10 more horsepower. The internals are really important since i will probably go turbo or JRSC with this car. Do you know who i could get in touch with to answer these questions? Is there a honda headquarters in europe maybe?

Oh yeah, and i'm in Lausanne, Switzerland. I've tried talking to the honda people here but they don't know.
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Sorry, but I can´t help you with that and I think Honda germany can´t, too. Post your question in the Prelude forum. I´m sure drift and fierce will help you out.
For a shop who´s selling the JRSC you might want to have a look on our "List of european brands/ shops". It´s on top of the europe forum.

Lausanne?? I´d guess it´s the french part of switzerland, isn´t it!?
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yup, the french part. Where is this list of european shops you are talking about?
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It´s on top of the topics in the europe forum (in here)!
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Hi, welcome to the forum. I don't know the exact difference between the engines, but sometimes car manufacturers detune engines for a local market. In Belgium we usualy get less hp then in Japan (for exemple). This is because of the tax. They drop the hp just enough so they get into a lower tax categorie.
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The engine in my car also has some less bhp in the europe engine vs usa engine... mine has got 131 and usa 136 or something like that, bore, stroke etc. is all the same. Can't help you anymore than this.

Are those 4ws sold in Switserland? the 99 model is the latest prelude model I asume. In the Netherlands there isn't a 4ws of the latest prelude model.
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In switzerland we have three preludes, all produced from 1997-2001 (like US and japan). from 1997-99 we have h22a5 motors, and after its h22a8 which has 200hp. There is the Si (non-vtec) but i don't know about those. The VTEC models were the VTi 4WS or the VTi S. The VTi S is the equivalent of the american type SH which has the ATTS system, but are impossible to find here.
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ATTS system? what's that?
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ATTS means `Active-Torque-Transfer-System´ but to be honest, I don´t know how to exlain it (what it´s doing) in english in the moment. :-) But I´m sure you´ll find and explaination in the Prelude forum.
The Si should be 2.0i SOHC non-VTEC with about 133hp. We didn´t had a Prelude with ATTS in germany and I think the 4WS one is really rare because I only know about one guy who has got one! Do you know if it´s a big difference if you have got 4WS compared to the base VTEC Lude (like mine :-) ). I mean I like my Prelude like it is but I´m just wondering.
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What ATTS does:

in a tight turn it puts 15% more torque and power to the outside front wheel. I've driven a prelude like this, you need to drive it hard for this to activate but you do feel it. Basically you hardly get understeer, you'd react somewhat like in a RWD car, when u predict you may get understeer you give it gas to activate the ATTS.

4WS discussion:
My prelude is a 5th gen with 4ws. I've driven a 5th gen without it and i've driven a 4th gen that has it, but disactivated. For pure speed the base model is better simply because the 4ws system means more weight. Now, because the 4ws is weight in the back of the car and it turns the back wheels you do get slightly better handling. With it disactivated, what i noticed on my friends 4th gen is it was easy to get into skids for some reason (however this could be specific to her car). The odd things about the sids is they were four-wheel skids and very easy to control! After driving these different models i came to a conclusion: 4WS is nice, but not something anyone NEEDS, and same with the ATTS system. Nice, but if you want great handling just get ties+sways and you'll outdo an ATTS prelude.
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yeah, now wouldn't it be great to change the one or two pieces in your car to get the power that other countries might be getting? :-)
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Of course it would be nice! But the only opportunity I have got with my ´00 VTEC Prelude is to get the JDM Type-S cams and I´m not sure if that would be worth it compared to the price I´d have to pay! Do you know where I could get the swaybar for my Lude in europe and what it´s price would be? I´m also looking for indiglo gauges, a rear upper strut-tower bar without any pivoz points (ONE piece), steel braided brake lines and a good catback system! Any ideas?
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