I know people will say search but I have researched and wanted to get opinions on ideas.

heres the initial condition: I need to replace my head in my 92 integra due to a stripped spark plug hole, and I am unable to afford building the whole engine for LSvtec right now which I was initially wanting to do.

for now, I was thinking of this:
used b18b head on ebay ($45.50 shipped, already paid for and probably has bent valves)
mill head .030 in. to increase compression ratio to about 9.8:1 ($49.50 + tax)
ferrea valves ($190 on ebay shipped)
Crower cams 403's ($300-350)
Crower dual valves and Ti retainers ($350)
ebay head rebuild kit with all seals/gaskets($65)
ARP head studs ($117)
and probably water pump and timing belt if it looks old (its a replaced, lower miles engine) ($60)
I would also lightly port the intake and exhaust ports and polish the best I can, and maybe get the head hot tanked and blasted to look really nice ($60-100)

this way, if I ever do an LS/vtec conversion, I can pull this head and sell it as a partially built head... maybe... and I'll be happy in the meantime.

any comments or recommendations? (constructive criticism?)

thanks! -Aaron


Modified by aaronhume at 12:24 AM 1/16/2007

 

heres what I would do:

stock head. crower springs, retainers and 403 cams.
get a decent header and exhaust put on. maybe like a dc 4-1 or something.
hondata and some dyno time.

If you are trying to stay cheap, forget valves and all the other rinky dink stuff. milling the head would be worth it but .030 is quite a bit, not sure how the piston to valve clearance would be.


Modified by Runnerdown at 2:59 AM 1/16/2007

 

I believe .030 would make it 0, like the d16z6 motor... according to my compression calculator... it says the factory b18 series and b20 series are .030 piston-to-deck height plus whatever space the head gasket adds...

so I should forget the ferrea valves and use the good ones of the current head?
it would drop almost $200 I suppose that would be nice

thanks!

PS: this is the calculator I use:
http://www.c-speedracing.com/h...c.php

for including the head milling, I changed the clearance (last value at bottom) from .030 to 0.00

 

piston to valve clearance. not piston to deck height.

By the time you buy all the stuff and dial it in, you are over the price of a good vtec head. A mildly prepared ls/vtec is a fun setup and good bang for the buck.

 

ya, except I figured the cost of the lsvtec build I wanted to do not including valvetrain and cams to be about $3k--- doing it properly as far as I could figure... but others may consider it building...

I just want to focus on the head at this point and not worry so much about the bottom end as I wouldn't be revving over redline with this head.

 

What I would do...

Throw on a stock head, save for the build that you REALLY want.

 

Dude i was in the SAME EXACT position as you like 2 weeks ago.
My advice is to try and repair the plug hole first if you can. You will save money in the end to buy the motor setup that you really want.

 

It sounds like you have enough money and mechanical acumen to do an LSVTEC. You can pick up a VTEC head for around $300. Get yourself a set of valve springs and retainers, pay your local Honda machine shop to do a good valve job and assemble the head for you. Get the Golden Eagle Manufacturing LSVTEC kit and a mild set of cams-Skunk Stage 1's, Toda A's, or even ITR's. Assemble. Get a Crome chipped P28 ECU. Run one wire from the ECU to the VTEC solenoid. You will also need an OBD1 VTEC distributor and an OBD0 to OBD1 conversion harness.
Get to your local Crome dyno tuner and tune. 175 WHP fairly simply.
An LS has lots of potential and responds well to bolt ons and tuning. With Crower 403's, valve train, intake, header, and exhaust you can make around 150 WHP on a stock block-tuned; but if you are already considering an LSVTEC conversion in the future, do it now.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by b19coupe &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">do it now.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

 

alright heres what I was thinking...

I have learned that I can deal with what I have... and not need to go ls/vtec to gain power.

for now I figured I could just rebuild the head with new valvesprings/retainers and mill the head .030" and run crower 403's and use my b-series cam pulleys to fix timing.

Then, when I am done with school or something... run an LS JR supercharger kit for about $2k for want of boost and a nice supercharger whine and a good torque line.

I know I seem a bit undecisive but I have done a lot more reading since I started this thread hehe.


PS: I need to sell my blox type a vtec cams... anyone interested?

 

I have ready built LS heads in stock right now at our shop.
Has our full Exospeed Port and Polish
Isky Valvesprings and titanium retainers
Rev Valves Std size Stainless steed
3 angle valve job, hot tanked, resurfaced and new OEM valve seals
choice of our Exospeed LS cams too Stage 2 or 3

We sell this setup all day long for $1280 and does not need core exchange. We provide the head already.
We do alot of LS setups actually for alot of the Circle track racers. The LSVTEC isnt popular in their application and in most cases they haveregulations on head choices anyway.

If you are looking for a quick fix, I would just get another stock head and put that on and save up your money for a better build in the future.

 

so what would the power difference be between a polishd head and a fully ported/polished/etc head? dyno charts?

$1280 without cams is too steep for me. I can do it all myself without the professional porting snd stuff for &lt;$1000 with cams. is the extra $600 worth a couple of hp? or is it really worth it? (I am looking for proof)

thanks for the information though!

 

the price I mentioned, does include our camshaft with it as well.

you dont necessarily want just a "polish" on the head. just a clean polished look, can actually hurt performance. A full port/polish, takes out material in certain places to help the efficiency and volume of air flow into the head. Expecially with a cam that lets you take in more air, you want the head to compliment that for a good combo to make the power.

Hp figures has so many different factors that can make a difference from type of intake manifold, condition of the block, tuning on the cams/fuel/timing, etc., so all we can really say is a hp range. with stock slight polished head vs a ported head, you can gain a good 10-20hp to the wheels.

Everything will depend on how you plan it and the parts to complement each other. We've done alot of non-vtec builds for people that have had great results. We guide them in getting the right parts for the whole setup and the results are similar to what we've done and tested ourselves. Then in contrast, you see alot of other people trying to do the same thing but they are unsuccessful. Its not because they havent spent the money in parts, its more of choosing which parts to work with each other.
I guess what I'm saying is.. choose wisely before you do anything to your motor. You really have to make sure you want to work on this LS head instead of a VTEC head. the LS setup is a fun motor to mess with, but it takes the right combination to make it work to get the most out of it.

Good luck on which ever route you take on this build.

 

great information and website, btw!

I have a B18B head now that I have cleaned up a bit and started some initial porting on the intake and exhuast sides starting with the ports above the valve openings and the intake side (promarily welds and smoothing of stuff) but will wait until it gets back from NAPA and for my porting (sanding) kit to show up to continue work.

I just bought Crower 403 cams, and intend to buy Supertech dual valve springs/seats/retainers.

I already own adjustable cam gears.

as far as more head work to be done, I was thinking about milling the head maybe 0.010" and get the valve seats re-finished (is that what a valve job is?)

I don't mean to rip you off of business, but what are the basic areas that should be ported on the head and smoothed out?

I understand that if I make the area inside the ports too large, it will slow down the air coming in, so I am not trying to just make everything bigger.

Thanks for your help!