Tommy Fitzgibbon’s minivan weighs almost two tons, has seven seats of which five have been defiled from your likes of his brood, was originally intended for soccer-player-bearing middle-aged mothers, and is every bit as awesome as your Civic.
That’s mostly due to Super Touring-inspired H22A that sits underneath its hood, an engine descended from the series that’s influenced Fitzgibbon since he first took an interest in the Honda species nearly two decades ago. Super Touring Accords, which were powered by 2.0L, twin-cam F-series VTEC engines, traveled to great lengths to ensure superior intake and exhaust capabilities. As such, reversing the engine’s cylinder head orientation became standard procedure, resulting in forward-facing intakes and shorter exhaust paths, similar to Honda’s current four-cylinder lineup. The process is an elaborate one, and is precisely why only a handful of H-series fans have attempted the conversion beyond the professional racing circuit. After all, swapping a K-series in to the Odyssey, which isn’t greatly unlike the Accord, results in similar power and makes a whole lot of sense.
, although fitzgibbon has no delusions of earning any sense He’ll be the first to tell you that his reverse-head conversion was an exploratory one-a journey that led him to appreciate the Honda brand more than any drop-in engine swap ever could. An online classifieds offer that he couldn’t refuse soon altered his course, even though the longtime Honda owner wasn’t necessarily in the market for an Odyssey 3 years ago, either. A spare H series was included with the already H-swapped van as was a turbo system and most of the components needed for a soon-to-be-completed manual transmission conversion. Fitzgibbon elaborates on the van’s condition upon his initial inspection, detailing its barrage of battle scars, oil-stained carpet, and rat’s nest of an under-dash wiring harness: “It was perfect.”
1995 honda odyssey LX mugen rear spoiler
1995 honda odyssey LX wifes van
1995 honda odyssey LX mugen aero kit
Perfect for the fast flip which he had planned, one in which he’d make the most of his resources as part owner of Torrance, California-based Fast Eddie’s Racing to solve its faults, clean it up, and make a quick grand. Three months into the project and plans changed. The desire for any naturally aspirated H-series rebuild got the very best of Fitzgibbon, and very quickly what appeared to be an innocent engine build began. Until he got the idea to generate his own version of a Super Touring H series-a conversion that required extensive engineering, elaborate machine work, and is the last thing anybody would anticipate to find underneath the hood of car that was once lauded for its capability to stow away strollers without so much as folding them up. “I’ve always been a fan of the old Super Touring cars-British and Japanese-and my fascination with all the reverse-head F20B engines that powered them finally trapped with me,” he says. “It was time for you to stop dreaming about them and build one.”
As earnest as he was approximately assembling his very own van-destined touring car mill, its development was every bit as challenging as being the minivan-race-engine fusion is silly sounding. Consider the architecture of almost any internal-combustion engine, and the quantity of obstacles encountered once the head’s orientation is reversed is apparent. For one, the Odyssey’s H series remains counterclockwise-driven, meaning the head’s rotation occurred independent from the camshafts. This, along with reoriented oil and coolant passages and flip-flopped pistons to account for proper valve-to-valve relief clearances are simply a sampling of complications Fitzgibbon addressed. And he’ll guarantee you that it was all worth the cost, although ask him: “This one decision changed everything about how I tune cars,” he says. “It forged alliances with new friends, earned the attention of prominent folks within the industry, and attracted praise from all over the country.”
Spend some time on your favorite online automotive abyss, and you’ll quickly realize that instructions concerning how to complete a reverse-head conversion of your own are sparse. Fitzgibbon stumbled on terms with this early on and sourced the required information from English race car firm Neil Brown Engineering, the business behind those fabled F20Bs of lore. U.K.-based engine supplier Touring Car Spares also came to his aid, providing Fitzgibbon with a series of photos that allowed him to reverse-engineer his interpretation of the once race car engine. And what an engine it was, only if for a short period of time. Bungled calculations on his behalf ended in a nasty piston-to-valve mix-up once VTEC was engaged. “It been found that I had done the math wrong when adjusting the cam gears to compensate for the way the cams’ lobes would actuate the rockers,” Fitzgibbon explains. “I desired to clone myself just so I could possibly kick my own ass.” A series of mishaps and a steep learning curve led to four more engine failures, where time he decided to shelve the project for good. “I was a greater portion of a mess than the engine was,” Fitzgibbon says. “I decided that enough time and money had been used on a project which had previously only been accomplished by a team of well-financed engineers in an English race engine laboratory.”
The story of Fitzgibbon, his minivan, and his Super Touring car-inspired Prelude engine doesn’t end here. Although preparations for a more mundane H-series mill were subsequently laid out, the reverse-head idea continued to haunt him, as well as a newfound friendship with nearby RC Engineering’s John Park, who begun to take an interest in the project, helped begin to see the engine to completion. And Fitzgibbon will admit as much, despite the fact that five blown engines weren’t all for naught. “We now have the knowledge to build it right at the first try, and now we know that we’re not likely to be destroying expensive parts, we are able to experiment with higher compression, hotter cams, and port work,” he says.
The issues associated with trying to modify a seven-person family carriage for high-performance use don’t end here, either. Otherwise simple suspension mods are customized procedures when concerning the Odyssey, and because of the van’s weight, it’s severely over-geared and under-braked, according to Fitzgibbon. Says the guy who blew through five Prelude engines to meet his Super Touring car dreams: “Solutions for all of these problems are inside the works as well.”
1995 honda odyssey LX reverse head H22A1
1995 honda odyssey LX F20 valve cover
1995 honda odyssey LX individual TWM throttle bodies
Bolts & Washers
Propulsion
Reverse-head H22A1 engine
Neil Brown Engineering valve cover
Bisimoto adjustable cam gears
Modified OEM camshafts
Brian Crower stainless steel valves
Brian Crower titanium retainers
Brian Crower keepers
Neil Brown Engineering head gasket
ARP head studs
Modified OEM pistons
Knife-edged crankshaft
Balanced rotating assembly
H22A4 aluminum oil pan
Bisimoto balance shaft removal kit
Kaizenspeed manual timing belt tensioner
ITG air filter
TWM 50mm individual throttle bodies
B-Werks custom exhaust manifold
MagnaFlow primary muffler
Mazdatrix secondary muffler
SLP high-flow catalytic converter
RC Engineering 450 cc/min. fuel injectors
TWM fuel rail
Earl’s AN lines and fittings
AEM engine management system
AEM engine positioning module
K20A2 ignition coils
NGK iridium spark plugs
PRC Racing aluminum radiator
Prelude VTEC manual transmission
Prelude shift mechanism
Fast Eddie’s Racing shifter plate
Fast Eddie’s Racing heavy-duty clutch
Fast Eddie’s Racing lightweight flywheel
1995 honda odyssey LX shift knob
1995 honda odyssey LX valve cover close up
1995 honda odyssey LX recaro sport seats
Suspension
TEIN HA coilovers, front
TEIN Basic coilovers, rear
Energy Suspension bushings
Ingalls adjustable upper ball front, rear and joints
Cusco rear alignment kit
Custom extended rear shock hats
Resistance
Cross-drilled OEM rotors
Earl’s steel-braided lines
Wilwood proportioning valve
Wheels & Tires
17×9 Racing Hart Type C, 18 offset
225/45-17 Falken Ziex
Exterior
Mugen aero kit
Mugen rear spoiler
Interior
AEM wideband air-fuel UEGO gauge
Recaro Sport seats
Sony Premier head unit
MOMO Monte Carlo steering wheel
HKB controls hub adapter
Tekniq AutoSport quick-release adapter
Wilwood clutch pedal
Fast Eddie’s Racing-modified OEM brake pedal
Arachnaforms shift knob
Tuffy center console
Props
My dad, Tom Fitzgibbon Sr., for teaching me the way to think as an engineer. This project is dedicated to him and never could have been possible without everything I learned from him. My wife Renae. Harry and Arturo at Velios Machine Shop; Rick Rosales; Dennis Smith; Jim Pierce from Advanced Muffler; Beto from B-Werks; Steve Rodgers from SR Motorcars; Mitch Peterson from MP Tuning; Neil Brown along with his receptionist, Louise Wooley, from Neil Brown Engineering; Tony from Touring Car Spares; Sean Montoya; James Hsu; Mike “Monkey” Kim; my partner in crime, Kevin Hollis; Hawthorne Ngo; Scott Brasil; Kim Kovananth; Anthony Do from Infinit Wheels; Eli Sesma from Fast Forward Wheels; Millan’s Honda Wrecking; Alan and Ralph from Cali Accord Meet; Ron Cino-Cruz from Team Supastar; Ronald Wu from Aero-Duo; John Park from RC Engineering; Nate Duenes along with the boys from Kamakaze Racing; Anh from Style Over Comfort; Oscar Jackson Sr. from Jackson Racing
1995 honda odyssey LX exhaust tip
1995 honda odyssey LX engine bay
1995 honda odyssey LX TWM individual throttle bodies
Owner Specs
Daily Grind
Helping teenagers change their lives at Sunburst Youth Challenge Academy
Favorite Sites
Macross World, eBay, and Craigslist
Screen Name
656delta
Building Hondas
Since 1994
Dream Car
Whatever I plan to build next
Inspiration With This Build
Neil Brown’s famous BSTCC Accords
Future Builds
1975 Datsun 280Z, 1983 Toyota Land Cruiser, and someday a CRX
North American Touring Car Championship
Super Touring racing wasn’t just reserved for the Japanese and British. From 1996 to 1997, the NATCC (North American Touring Car Championship) was located in the U.S. and Canada, which served as a support series to CART’s road course and street course racing. Although popular among its fans, the series failed to entice a considerable number of competitors and was discontinued after its second year, although tasman Motorsports’ Honda Accord factory team and driver Randy Pobst dominated the series, winning the championship its first year. NATCC rules only allowed vehicles with production runs in excess of 2,500 units and with maximum displacements of 2.0L to compete, in which the Accords regularly produced nearly 300 hp and resulted in times comparable to or faster than today’s Speed World Challenge GT racers, making for the exciting series that arguably ended all too soon.