southerncross

i have a question, and i searched and found nill on the subject here.

i know the spoon E-AT had a ZC twin cam engine. i have the opportunity to take over a buddy of mine's project: an 86 si that is pretty much finished in the brakes/suspension/wheels department. it has coilovers, teg brakes, all the suspension parts worth having etc. all that really needs to be addressed is more horsepower. i rebuilt the stock engine for him, and it runs great, but 90 or so hp is kind of lame.

seeing the spoon car in super street turned me on to the idea of taking this car and building a decent ZC or B18B and having this as a fun car. ive talked to a few people about the b series swap, and i know its going to be failry expensive, although i think i can handle it both mechanically and money wise. i dont know that much about ZCs other than there were multiple versions in both single and twin cam. really my question is this: given the choice and the HP/$$$ factor, which would be a more appropriate swap for a mostly street driven, lightly tracked (think HPDE) 86 hatch?

my plans for either would probably consist of a rebuild with some decent aftermarket cams, light port/polish job, some kind of stand alone computer or chipped ecu and basic bolt ons. i basically want something that makes about 150hp without having to rev to 9000rpms, and i would prefer to stay away from vtec engines. any suggestions or info would be greatly appreciated.

E-AT_me

ZC. the b series is not worth the hassle if you are only after 150hp. with all the extra money you'd be spending on the mounts, axles, wiring, actual swap, you'd be able to put all that money back into the ZC for more power. not to mention, the ZC will be a little lighter on the nose so it will also handle better.

southerncross

yeah, the more i look the more i am seeing that. i had heard from people (i guess ignorant ones) that a B series swap wasnt hard in these, but i see that its quite costly compared to the zc. after reading the PM you sent me and really digging into my research, i think i'm going to go zc. that being said, does anyone still do anything with these engines? ive seen some companies that make cams (crespo comes to mind) and ive read about headers, but what is a realistic hp goal with one of these engines? and is it worth the extra time/money to seek out one of the jdm blacktop engines over a 86-89 teg engine?

if i go with the browntop, i figure i'll just buy a whole integra and swap everything from the front end off of it.

cbstd

Let's get something straight: The USDM D16A1 that came in the Integra IS NOT a ZC engine. It is darn close, but the largest differences in the real ZC has higher compression and more agressive cams.

The good news is that it is easy to aproximate or surpass the ZC with standard engine building tricks. Spend your money on getting better flow through the head (P&P, 3 angle valve job, cams, bigger throttlebody, port matched and honed intake manifold, quality exhaust, etc.) and you will be rewarded with your target HP number and more.

Scott

southerncross

thanks for the info guys. i'm steadily building up a parts list and searching for integras. ive noticed quite a few ZC engines for sale on ebay/craiglist/etc, but they're going for $800 or more for just the engine, and i think i can find an entire integra for about that around here. since im going to do a top end rebuild anyway with new cams and most of the items listed in the above post, i think i'll be happy with the car afterards. i cant decide what i want to do for a paintjob now. . .