I have a 90 integra with 105k original miles that i'm looking to make more fun to drive. Its my beater so i'm not too keen on dumping alot of money into it and theft is high around my area. My options are to either :

All Motor LS
p30 pistons
i/h/e (maybe not to keep stock look)
Intake manifold / Throttle body
Crower 403's
b16 or gsr cable tranny
Tune

LS/Vtec (i've read the 'reliable' build and it looks to be out of my budget)
B16 or gsr head
ARP Rod Bolts
GSR water/oil pump
maybe p30 pistons?
Tune (could i get away with a phearable ecu?)

My question is, has anyone done a very mild and basic ls/vtec build and did you run into any problems? I'm not going to rev the **** out of my motor, just need a little more power for daily driving. I don't drag race, track it, etc. Strictly daily driving with the occasional vtec. I'm sure there are alot of people who have done a basic ls/vtec build, just want to get personal reviews about them. Any recommendations/suggestions are welcomed.

 

Lol, any build is going to be as reliable as the parts used for the build and the assembler.

 

haha.

 

P30 pistons are good to use for both application
it all depends on how much $$$ do you want to spend
LS all motor has good low-midrange torque which is fun for daily driver

This is what my next project going to be.. B20 non-vtec NA

 

You've been on the forums for awhile and you should know that Unreliable is only because of the choices of parts and method of how the car was put together. Cutting corners regardless of how cheap or expensive the part is can make ANY setup unreliable.

But back to your build. In my opinion, since you're not really racing it, I'd concentrate on the cylinder head. Upgrade the valvesprings and retainers, recondition it with a new valve job and mill it 20thou. Put some cams in it, cam gears and tune it. Bolt ons such as headers and intake should be enough.
We've had customers use our Stage 2 LS909 cam grinds with totally stock bottom ends get 155-160HP to the wheels with just the mild cams and bolt ons. That should be decent enough for a daily driver without having a high maintenance setup.

 

thanks for the helpful input guys esp. exospeed. I'll definitely look into what you said. I could pick up a cheap head and have the milling job done. Any idea of how much it would cost roughly? Just need an idea of what i'm getting into. Also, what kind of tuning should i look into?

Oh and i've been using "unreliable" referring to the basic ls/vtec setup because of the popular "reliable" ls/vtec build thread by bambam.

 

To tune an aftermarket cam to its potential. you should have at least an adjustable cam gear and fuel pressure regulator. Its even better if you have some kind of engien management like a HONDATA.

Your tuner can make adjustments on the dyno to find the optimum cam position, fuel pressure, and fine tune the MAP and Fuel on the ECU to match what the engine needs with the camshaft.

Milling the head just a little helps increase compression but dont mill it too much where it can have valve to piston clearance issues.

The upgraded valve springs helps in taking the RPMs higher than stock safely. Aftermarket cams usually have higher RPM powerbands over the stock rev limit so this will help you take advantage of the potential of the camshaft.

Valve job, Milling will cost roughly $250.00
Good brand springs and retainers for the LS is $350 for Supertech
Our Exospeed Stage 2 LS cam grinds are $240.00 with core exchange

And the rest I'm sure you know the common prices on cam gears and fuel regulators.

 

nice info helps me out

 

Mines about as mild as they come. Was built on a budget so it's mearly a small upgrade from a stock LS made almost entirely from OEM parts. I'm debuting on other NA upgrades or just rebuilding for boost in the future but haven't decided yet.

Reliability wise I've had no issues with it so far other then a slight oil leak as a result of a broken cam-cap bolt (small outer bolt) near the distributor that I need to get a bolt extractor to remove and replace. Rev wise I can take it to 8K or near the VT redline but I have no need to since I stop making power after 7300.

*B18A1 (81.25mm bore) surfaced to .018”
*P30 pistons est (~12.1:1 C/R)
*LS rods balanced w/ARP 8mm bolts
*PR3 head milled by .005"~.010" otherwise stock
*2nd gen B16 Intake/stock LS airbox (no CAI)
*1st gen B16 cams
*LS TB
*JDM ITR header
*2.5” testpipe
*2.36” EX
*stock injectors
*stock cam gears /+2 cam install
*Dynotuned on Ectune by MTBER/Phearable.net

 

my LS vtec was mild N/A
B18A1
usdm Type R pistons
stock crank and rods with ARP rod bolts
B16 Head
ferrea valve tran lil over kill but the price was right
Buddy Club spec 3s
S2 intake
Stock injectors
stock TB
S2 cam gears not degreed