Valve Guides
 

Soo I will be rebuilding my cylinder head on my b16. I am not sure what valve guides are in there now and the head is perfectly fine just wanna switch up valvetrain. I am just wondering if I should use bronze valve guides or is it a big deal to stay oem. I am going to be going supertech valvetrain and making 515whp. Thank!

Re: Valve Guides
 

If you are swapping to Supertech valves, go with whatever valve guides they recommend for their valves you are going to use.

Re: Valve Guides
 

bronze valve guides dissipate heat better, which is great for racing. but they wear MUCH faster than steel guides.
If you race the car, and hardly ever drive the car, go with bronze.
If you drive the car a lot, go with oem or any decent brand of oem replacement (steel)

Re: Valve Guides
 

I was just curious because I was told that if I bent a valve with oem guides, the guide shatters and can cause further damage to components, as too bronze guides bend and give with the valve.

Re: Valve Guides
 

Lots of misconceptions here. Bronze guides last longer. Some use a bronzewall insert. You will not see those for a honda I don't think. They are too small, and I would not recommend even buying the tooling to try it, if there is such a thing. Bronze is slick. It almost works like a lubricant. If you go bronze, you NEED chrome stem valves. Without chrome, it will be NOT SO SLICK. As far as the broken guide story, It is very rare to see that. Those stems are tiny, and bend easy. In my machinist experience, I would say it is not at all necessary in a honda to run bronze, because you have no real angle on your rocker arm geometry to excessively wear on the guide like you would a underhead high lift cam.