OK, I bought this b18b motor for my civic a while back and it never ran right. The cam timing was off everytime. So, after a while, I came to notice that no matter which way I would set the cam timing, it would be off by 1/2 a tooth. A friend and I decided to consider the concept that the head was milled down too far and now the cam timing is off.

I am very much impoverished, and although I have a gsr head sitting in my living room, I don't have the other stuff to put it on yet, so I want to get my car running in the best possible way.

When both cams were retarded by 1/2 a tooth, the engine was more quite and less peppy down low with crappy idle that surged but with more power up top. The way it is now, the engine is way louder (sounds really raspy like an open header) has more low end torque with less power up top, with 1/2 a tooth advanced.

What I am considering doing is maybe retarding the exhaust cam a tooth (which keep in mind would only be 1/2 a tooth retarded from stock) while leaving the intake cam 1/2 a tooth advanced. With the intake cam like it is now, atleast I could set my ignition timing, where if I retarded the intake cam like before, I couldn't set my timing correctly because the 16 degree mark would be off the map.

I am considering doing this now because my car is way too loud to drive on the street and I understand that I would suffer from some torque loss, but I am trying to be practical here because I don't race people or speed anyway (the epinephrine rush is too much for me these days).

So without having to bust out with your calculus text books, is there anyone who can give me some sound advice on how to tackle this problem? Does it sound like a good idea in your opinion to try this combination?

It doesn't take very long for me to change the timing on the timing belt because I found a way to leave the lower timing belt cover on, which means I don't have to remove the crank pulley. (it takes less than an hour to just jump the tooth one way or another). All I have are stock cam gears, so unfortunately for me, I am going to have a non optimal running setup anyway. Thanks for reading and I hope you all have some great times this holiday season.

P.S. I used a hacksaw and cut off the tip of a pry bar, and I take this tip and jam it in between the flywheel ring gear and the bell housing in the tranny, and then re-torque the flywheel cover so that if it pops out of place, it wouldn't shoot out and hurt anyone. This tip is only for loosening the crank pulley, when torqueing it back down, using a real pry bar with the help of a friend on the torque wrench is the only way I know of to avoid purchasing the special tool. (this tip is for other impoverished or frugal honda owners)

 

just get some cam gears

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by fasterthanueg &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">just get some cam gears</TD></TR></TABLE>





Or there is some company that makes off set keyways for this too. But I don't remember the name.

 

I tried to re-do it again today, but no luck. It looks almost dead on, but there is definitly still something off. As far as power goes, it has a surge of midrange torque between 4,000-5,500, and then it pretty much falls on it's face at about 6,000rpm's. As far as sound goes, it sounds really rice and I keep getting challenged by all sorts of characters, mainly rednecks and ricers. I have my ignition timing set to stock, and I am running 89 octane for safety precautions, although I know 87 would suite it better as far as power goes.

 

My pistons are .016 out of the bore and over .020 taken off the head, if you have OEM cams and aftermarket cam gears, just center the cams and lock them with dowels, set TDC on the motor and when you loosen the cam gears, they should move to true TDC, then lock them down, think I got 2+ deg out of the exhaust and 4 deg out of the intake on my car.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 96 GSR-T &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">My pistons are .016 out of the bore and over .020 taken off the head, if you have OEM cams and aftermarket cam gears, just center the cams and lock them with dowels, set TDC on the motor and when you loosen the cam gears, they should move to true TDC, then lock them down, think I got 2+ deg out of the exhaust and 4 deg out of the intake on my car.</TD></TR></TABLE>

EXACTLY!

And you can probably get a set of cam gears used somewhere for next to nothing.

 

Actually, I have a set of the old AEM's if interested, $50 + 15 shipping