i was thinking about getting a race eng. block guard the other day but my automotive teacher said they are used more for race cars they daily drivers. he said the car will run hotter with them in... im just asking if anyone runs them on thier daily driver and how its working out or if he was just wrong all together... its going to go on B16A with boost around 10-12PSI any help would be apreciated and here is the link to the block guard http://raceeng.com/ShowSupplie...at=BK

 

I really think you would be wasting money installing a block guard if your plans are to run under 20-25 lbs of boost. Strong internals like good quality rods and some good forged pistons would go a lot further in keeping your bottom end together on a daily driver than a block guard. I think one of the most important things to setting up a turbo is remembering to keep the compression fairly low (8-8.5:1) and making sure you have good rods/rod bolts and head studs.

Some people, however swear by them. I have had bad luck with them in other engine applications for daily use. And they will run hotter. In an all out drag racing application, with huge amounts of boost, it is fine to "Rock" a block, and I even recommend it.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TurboHondaGuy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i was thinking about getting a race eng. block guard the other day but my automotive teacher said they are used more for race cars they daily drivers. he said the car will run hotter with them in... im just asking if anyone runs them on thier daily driver and how its working out or if he was just wrong all together... its going to go on B16A with boost around 10-12PSI any help would be apreciated and here is the link to the block guard
http://raceeng.com/ShowSupplie...at=BK</TD></TR></TABLE>

For the most part you teacher is correct, but he is wrong with the overheating aspect in hondas. If you have a block guard with plenty of pathways for the coolant to pass through, then you will be just fine. The reason I say this is, if you look at a honda head gasket, how many holes for coolant do you see? The head gasket will determine the rate of flow past the sleeves, not the blockguard. Yes in some cases the block guard could slow it down a bit, but most of the cooling effect of the coolant is happening before the block guard. You have to remember that the block guard is only .5 inches thick in most cases, and is only ment to help the support the tops of the sleeves for severe walking cases, but sleeves will still crack even with a block guard. So I would say you fine, I'm running one on my new engine, and other on HT users have them with no problems with overheating. So go for it, it's just a piece of mind product, and will not prevent you from blowing up you engine. Only great tuning and driving will keep you from blowing it up.

 

Also the reason why I say that your cooling effect will not be effected is because if you look at any toyota, or nissan block that is closed deck, the closed deck is much more restictive than a block guard(semi-closed deck). The number of coolant passages are matched to the number of passages in the head gasket. Honda has a great design, and has had their B-series heads compared to Ferrari heads, because of their superior design/valve arrangement. So you have nothing to worry about, but others might disagree; but there is no proof that block guards harm the engine.

 

i also heard that these things need to be welded in? is this true?

 

I have one in my cr-vtec, daily driven, with no issues.