My buddy bought this 1994 civic ex coupe and he has had it for about a year now, it came with a b16 JDM SIR II motor swap already in it. The motor runs great ever since he bought and still runs great.

The mystery is we did a compression check on his b16 and it showed 97-99 psi across the board. I thought they were normally supposed to be in between 170-210 or so for a b16 motor.

It stumps me, I wonder if it is possibly built on the bottom end, maybe even sleeved? I haven't pulled the head yet to so but I will be soon. It also had a 160 degree thermostat that looked as if it could have been aftermarket.

What does everyone think? Car sounds perfectly normal and has good power for a b16.

 

I'm not trying to be Captain Obvious or anything, but are you sure the tester sealed properly. (not that there is any real way to do it wrong)

 

was the engine warm and the throttle wide open when you did the test?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by doood &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">was the engine warm and the throttle wide open when you did the test?</TD></TR></TABLE>

That was my first thought as well, because 97-99 is really low.

 

you should try another tester........cause im not thinking that a built motor would bring you compression that low! check your tester. i think i could fart and make thoes numbers..lol. good luck!

 

Use another tester. My last built B16 was just over 9:1 compression and would hit just over 200 psi across the board.

If they are almost even all the way across like you said, it's most likely your tester because a normal engine won't even fire at less than 100, much less run "great" by any stretch of the imagination.