Sk8ermane

I bought a b18b to put in my 94 civic ex because I spun a rod bearing with my d16. Here is my question. This motor has a 123,000 miles on it, and allthough it is clean, and it runs good, the guy who sold it to me said that I would have to do something about the bottom end if I wanted to put a vtec head on it. He said that the main issue is the reving. Is this due to the rod/stroke ratio? Lack of girdle? weak internals?

What is your experience with the ls vtec and reving to 8,000 rpm's?

boosted2182

as far as the bottom end goes it pretty stout as it sits when you add a vtec head the only thing i would recommend are some arp rod bolt and if you want some more compression use either itr or b16 pistons to clear the valves.

Of course when you rebuild just replace the oil and water pump with GSR units and with that you have a solid reliable combo that can go 8000 on a regular basis. now the rod ratio issue is something that has been debated for over 50 years.

Basically it boils down to this if you want a super high (12000+ rpm) race only engine then start to worry about the rod but if all you want is a good street engine then leave good enough alone.
long rod = good high rpm breathing
short rod = good low-mid range breathing