Odd Noises Need Confirmation

I recently purchased a 88 prelude with a B20 and an auto tranny. I wanted some cofirmation on a few questions before i started throwing parts into it. Here is what the car is doing the motor is difficult to start at first, when it does start it sounds like it is missing on one cylinder and knocks very loudly. Also the tranny pulls very poorly. No warning lights-etc come on. i have a spare tranny for the vehicle so that is not a concern. im thinking a rod baring is out, would that explain the rough running? I have also heard the torque converter may be a cause for this. I was just wondering if anyone had knowledge of this before i tear the bottom end of my engine apart.

Also im thinking of doing an auto-manual swap on this vehicle how hard is this (does anyone have experience doing this) What special parts need to be involved.

I dont know if its of any consequence but the car has 188K miles on it.

Thanks for all your help

Might be misfire. Do the standard maintenance on your car: change your oil and filter, flush your coolant system, get new distributor caps, rotors, spark plugs and spark plug wires. Typically on old cars such as yours, maintenance was neglected by the previous owner and causes a host of problems.

You're wise to get the engine in tip top shape before modifying it.

I've never done a tranny swap before, so I don't really know. I'd think you would need a new ecu though.