Re: what am I missing? Honda has many more powerful "J"engines they can utilize

Well I think the j35 that goes in the ridgeline is set up for the job. The j35 in the accord probably has a different power band, or it makes power and torque at different times to suit a car. The j37 would probably kill gas mileage more than the j35... however I've always wondered what a j37 ridgeline would be like...

 

Re: what am I missing? Honda has many more powerful "J"engines they can utilize

There was (at least) one J37 Ridgeline built. I didn't drive it, but I did talk to two people that did. I'll give what I remember as an exact quote, "it was a dog" (meaning not good). To the best of my knowledge Honda has no future plans for the J37 line of engines.

There are other limiting factors. First the VTM-4 unit is running near its torque design limit. If torque were significantly increased Honda would have to swap out VTM-4 for SH-AWD, but SH-AWD is much more expensive.

Another factor is that Honda doesn't have a transmission that will take much more torque. It's my understanding that they have a little wiggle room with the 6AT, but due to the small clutch pack surface area they're already running the fluid hot and at high pressure. Honda keeps teasing that they have a 7-speed dual-clutch transmission in the works, but as I've said several times it seems to be vaporware to date. Either way, I seriously doubt that it would handle more torque than the 5AT or 6AT transmissions.

 

Re: what am I missing? Honda has many more powerful "J"engines they can utilize

There are other limiting factors. First the VTM-4 unit is running near its torque design limit. If torque were significantly increased Honda would have to swap out VTM-4 for SH-AWD, but SH-AWD is much more expensive.

Isn't the SH-AWD still based on an electro-magnetic clutch? I would think the hydraulic based Magna dynamax to be better suited.

 

Re: what am I missing? Honda has many more powerful "J"engines they can utilize

Good to know Joe. I've driven an MDX with the j37 and from what I can remember it was quite powerful. I guess that's what 300 ponies will get you.

So I assume Honda is coming out with the new "earth dreams" 3.5 for the Pilot and Odyssey or would they use the MDX engine? I imagine they will still keep that line between the Acura engines and Honda engines..

 

Re: what am I missing? Honda has many more powerful "J"engines they can utilize

Good to know Joe. I've driven an MDX with the j37 and from what I can remember it was quite powerful. I guess that's what 300 ponies will get you.

So I assume Honda is coming out with the new "earth dreams" 3.5 for the Pilot and Odyssey or would they use the MDX engine? I imagine they will still keep that line between the Acura engines and Honda engines..

Both the Pilot and Odyssey will get the 3.5L Earth Dreams engines, but it will be the Honda version... not the Acura version. Both will run on regular unleaded fuel whereas the Acura version requires premium (11.5:1 compression ratio).

 

Re: what am I missing? Honda has many more powerful "J"engines they can utilize

The J35Y4 (EarthDreams) engine, looks interesting.

But a lot of what has been said here in this thread is probably correct. We just see some horsepower numbers for a given specification and nothing much else.

I cannot believe that if there was an easy swap that Honda would have made it by now since the Ridgeline has dropped sales so much since its initial offering.

I'll share with the forum something that the sales manager told me when I purchased my 2013. He told me that he had a contact within Honda who expressed to him the idea that Honda was most assuredly going to continue manufacturing a pickup truck. And that the Ridgeline idea was going to continue. One of the main reasons that they had not upgraded the engine had to do with the EPA requirements that they were going to have to meet to manage this upgrade. So evidently the bookkeepers and the engineers and the management types decided that the best thing to do was to do a major overhaul and to do this they needed to stop production for a time.

We can all engage in any number of flights of fancy, all to no avail. As Honda will do what is best for the bottom line.

We can all just hope and pray that when the dust settles the Ridgeline's we all love will be improved upon without leaving the basic concept of what I like to refer to as, "The pickup truck for the rest of us!"

Don

 

Re: what am I missing? Honda has many more powerful "J"engines they can utilize

Jeb, you might want to do a search for posts by user "Kodiak" for terms MDX or "riser". Here is one:

http://www.ridgelineownersclub.com/forums/showpost.php?p=439393&postcount=4

He is a Honda insider who made many posts about Ridgeline performance and design.

 

Re: what am I missing? Honda has many more powerful "J"engines they can utilize

Jeb, you might want to do a search for posts by user "Kodiak" for terms MDX or "riser". Here is one:

http://www.ridgelineownersclub.com/forums/showpost.php?p=439393&postcount=4

He is a Honda insider who made many posts about Ridgeline performance and design.

Thanks Ian. I have run into posts by Kodiak before. Good stuff.

Edit: this is relevant to OPs question...
http://www.ridgelineownersclub.com/forums/showpost.php?p=245532&postcount=8

 

Re: what am I missing? Honda has many more powerful "J"engines they can utilize

On the expense of shawd v vtm4 always felt that a normal simple open diff at the rear would be much cheaper than a VTM unit. Traction control is good enough to control wheelspin in 99.9% of all driving conditions.