I recently bought a 99 Honda Civic with a B16 Swap.

The only thing that concerns me is that the engine has NO stamping what so ever on it where it should say "B16A, B16A2, etc".

It runs and drives as it should, no issues.. but I plan on building the engine this winter and boosting it and would like to know what exactly it is that I have.

Looking at the remaining stamping(and using the site's search function), it looks like the head is definitely a PR-3 B16 head from a 99 model Civic or Del Sol maybe? I'm hoping the block is the same, but have no idea at this point.

Honda guys here in town have told me you can tell differences in B16's by many things; including the valve cover with how big the VTEC logo is vs the DOHC logo size, or tell by what intake mani is on it, or by the other stampings on the block, etc; but they all have differing opinions and honestly I take that stuff with a grain of salt and trust you guys more.

The ECU is stock and VTEC engagement is right at 6k rpms(it continues pulling past the 8k on the cluster, but I'm not sure to what RPM it reaches since the cluster is still OEM from the EX Civic body it's swapped into and any estimate would be a flat-out guess).

The exhaust manifold is one I put on it(from a friend's old B-Series), as the one which came on it was a cheap SS header and was very beat up/leaking. Nothing else has been changed, adjusted, or swapped since buying it besides the oil and filter.

I've attached pictures.

Here's an Imgur Gallery as well: Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet

Thanks in advance for any info on this.

 

Cut off VIN stamp on the transmission, shaved off engine stamp, both classic signs of stolen parts.

 

You could attempt brushing sulphuric acid on the stamp plate and see if the etchings of the stamp re-appear. After some time has passed and you see evidence of the acid eating at the aluminum of the stamp plate, flood it with baking soda solution to neutralize the acid.

If you begin to see the etchings of the stamp, this will confirm the stamp was ground off and you may possibly recover both what block it was as well as the serial number to check for theft status.

Could use Muriatic acid too but it eats aluminum much faster than sulphuric acid.

 

On a side note, Is your strut tower brace up-side down?

 

You're also missing a bolt on your transmission->block , right next to the connector.

 

I was afraid of that being the case. The guy I bought it from was a straight-laced younger guy in Auto-Tech school, nice family, nice home, etc; and had bought a wrecked civic (with a title) which came with this swap in it. Unfortunately no one knows where the swap came from into the donor car since it was bought & traded many times from person to person until it got to someone who wrecked it and sold it to him(to use as a swap).


This is a good idea. I'm going to try it once we get the engine out, and see what comes out. I'll update this thread with what we find. Thanks.



Asking the important questions...

I'm not sure. I assume it's just an eBay item with no name on it, since I've seen strut braces shaped the same way. It's pretty skinny so I'm not sure how functional it is anyway..but it's there.