so i am curretly working on a side project. i have a 92 civic hatch with a b18b in it. i have a spare b18b head i am working on. porting it out a bit. port matching the throttlebody and intake manifold. some mild work on the exhaust port aswell. mostly just smoothing out all the runners.

i want to do as much as possible to help the head breath but like most people i dont wanna spend any money lol. i was wondering if any stock cams from another engine will help. based on what i have been reading. the b1 cam is better then the a1. the b20 cam is the exact same exhaust side but sightly less intake making the b1 better. i am going to get the head milled. whats the max u can mill before needing adjustable cam gears or affecting the timing belt tension(or clearance issues ie.valves/pistons)

i know this is alot of questions. the head is getting a complete overhaul(all new gaskets and seals) i have read that the b1's make more power in higher rpms but their springs are weak and cause floating. can u use a stiffer spring from something to help with this? any suggestions are welcome. i am a d-series guy personally. i have a fully built and turbo'd z6 crx. but unfortunatly my b series knowledge is lacking.

this is my gf's car. she did all the body work/paint and interior. and is learning how to do the engine part now. so all help is appreciated. heres some pics







here is the cars current set up

92 eg
b18b1
full magnafow 2.25" exhaust with magnaflow highflow cat
4-1 header with 2.5" collector
full cold air intake

thats really all for aftermarket. there may be more that i am forgetting. thanks in advance

 

First thing i'd invest in, thats cheap and will make globs of power on a ls motor

is a GSR manifold, with the butterflies removed.

 

do u mean intake manifold or throttlebody? i dont exacty know what u mean by remove the butterflies.

 

The actual Intake Manifold. Off of a GSR. The manifold is a two staged manifold.. removing the butterflies makes it a 1 stage manifold.

 

ok. did some reading. it wont bolt strait up from what i am reading. i will need to redrill some holes. i will also need the gsr iacv. there also seems to be some issues with the throttle cable not lining up. do u know of a write up i can view to see what i am getting into? from what i can tell i can expect almsot 10-15 hp out of that mod. which is well worth my time if that is true.

 

Honestly?

I wouldnt steer you in the wrong direction.
B19Coupe did this mod to his ls motor and gainned i believe almost 18whp over a aftermarket manifold.
Granted there are manifolds out that could produce the same amount of power for less headache.
But think about this for a second.. You can get a gsr manifold from anywhere for chump change, i'm talking 40 bucks maybe. You can remove the butterflies yourself, and put it all back together in a matter of 45 mins.. if you're taking your time.
From there, its a matter of putting the manifold on the head, basically this is a 8th grade auto class, w/e holes dont line up, you drill new ones..


Here's the write up bro, so i can make it ez for you.
Buy a ls hondata gasket..
Put it on a gsr manifold..
Drill the holes that dont line up.

Throttle cable? I believe you can get by with a ls TC, if not i'm pretty sure a GSr will be fine.
As for as Throttle body, i'd upgrade to a ITR or H22 TB. Unless you plan on flowing some big cams and alot of air through your motor, anything over 65mm is overkill
A h22 TB is around 62mm which i believe would be a nice addition to this manifold.
All in all, you'll spend maybe 100 bucks on all this stuff, and half a day. To gain what, 800 dollars would probably gain you on a ls motor.

 

sweet. thats the kinda stuff i am looking for. now that the intake and tb are out fo the way. any cam options without spending 400+?

 

you best bet for cams would probly be crowers or somthing but then your lookin at more then 400 bucks look around for a used set then see if u can some "vt"

 

Brian crower, has had the most success on ls motors..

 

I would recommend adjustable cam gears, engine management, and good tuning. If you want to spend a little more, Crower 403's with springs and retainers will give you some nice gains up top without sacrificing much bottom end.

 

When I did the GSR IM, it took a bit of work. I had the help of a professional fabricator; this mod is not simple-there was welding involved. It required a GSR throttle cable and throttle body, some custom wiring, and the use of a VTEC ECU. I used VTEC to control the butterflies, which gave me two sets of tables for fuel and ignition tuning, a nice bonus. Dyno time was free, and so was the tuner-me. The end results were gratifying: the bottom end was better with the long runners, and with the butterflies open, the top end gains were not bad. This is as compared to the stock IM. When the Blox ITR style IM was used, top end was better than with the GSR IM, but bottom end torque and power suffered quite a bit.

I would not recommend this mod to the casual car enthusiast; it could be quite costly and time consuming.

 

Your D series background is actually pretty applicable to building an LS motor.

From the description of what you are trying to accomplish, I think you should keep it pretty simple. Focus on the cylinder head and making it breath better - good intake with a velocity stack, good intake manifold, decent headers. Aside from that, a good set of aftermarket (stiffer) valve springs and cams (with adj. gears) should be fine. Crower makes good LS cams and I have never seen them fail to make good power. You will need to tune it to really see the best results and to make it reliable.

With these mods a piggy back would be fine, but the cost on the fully programable systems (like Neptue) are comparable to the cost of a Neo (especially if you figure in the cost of tuning) so you might as well go with something like that.

Best of luck with your project.

 

as fas as tuning goes i am set. i had to tune a vtec single cam on boost. i have a lc1 wideband. moates ostrich realtime emulator. honda log. and i am gonna pic up a chipped p06 soon. i will self tune it. i am trying to steer away from actually spending money as dumb as this sounds. thats why a $50 intake manifold and some fab time is ideal for me. as far as the cam.... i will not be purchasing a cam. this is a very mild build. just some extra grunt for her to have fun in the car. her valve seals need to be done so thats the only reason i am doing the spare head. i got the head in a trade for some old **** i had. so porting is no issue (casue its free lol) i am gonna clean up the entire inner casting to let the oil flow smoother. port out and polish all the runners. and portmatch the intake and tb. simple cheap things to do.

the springs.... would a set of stock b16 springs or gsr springs be stiffer then the ls ones? from my research the ls cams seem to still make power past 7000 rpm with the supporting mods (intake and exhaust) but the valves are common for floating. if i can make the valves stay put without a set of $250+ valve springs i would be happy. used stock springs are usually very easy to find. so thats what i am aiming at. i am a boost guy. boost is very simple and very cheap if u can fabricate yourself. when we are after huge power i will boost it for her. untill then i would be happy with like 160+whp all motor. which shouldnt be to difficult. but i wanna keep my budget in the $200 dollar range. so with that, i need some technical info.....

how much can the head be milled before problems will occur. this will be my main gain in power is the higher CR. i have a 3 layer metal headgasket which i was thinking of removing a layer. with all the porting, intake manifold, exhaust and intake i think i can reach 160 whp

so here are my questions.

1. how much can the head be milled before problems occur
2. can any stock spring be used on the ls head to keep the valves tight at higher rpms
3. when using the gsr manifold, will welding be required (based on what b19coupe says)
4. are there any stock cams that can be used to make more power then ls cams(i dont think so but just want to verify)


here is a pic of my set up of my d series. i am very experieced in building honda's just not the b series in particular.

it was still unfinished in this pic. has had some serious wire clean up since then lol. and please excuse the projectors, they unfortunatly came on the car.

 

bump. hoping for some answers.

 

With 200$ you will never reach your goal of 160whp with a b18b1, maybe 130whp depending on wich dyno you will be.

 

would stock not be around 120-130 whp? my bone stock z6 had like 113 whp with just header and intake. keep in mind this car already has full exasut, header, intake and tuning will be free since i already have the tools to do it. i think 160 with a shaved and ported head is a very reasonable goal. thats why i am looking for the cheap simple upgrades. like the gsr intake manifold idea. i want to rev this motor past 7000rpm though. so thats why i am interested to see if there are any other stock spings that are more up to the job.

 

Are you willing to open up the block? You could drop in a set of used slugs from a b16 or GSR and bump the compression up. If you hone it yourself, it would cost the price of new rod bearings and rings.

Just a thought.

 

unfortunatly i wont be doing the block. this is my girls everyday ride. so a simple head swap will take hours to do since i have a spare head. as where a complete engine rip down will take days. i had thought about throwing in the higher compression pistons but its just not logical based on time.

 

hey heres a lil something to look at B18b1 crower 404 cams and a budget built turbo kit....19psi makin 380hp and 22psi 410hp stock block and has been this way for 4 months..daily driven..only took around 4k for everything and thats with clutch everything injectors blah blah blah ill post a couple pics in a sec


just the turbo kit in the pic is $780 out the door

 

nice

 

bump

OP, any progress??

 

unfortunatly no. the head has had some work done but i dont have any pics right now. the car is just about to hit storage in the next few days and she will be getting ripped appart soon. i dont get on h-t much so i dont make alot of updates.