Hey guys
Im hoping some one out there can help me.
How do you tell a spoon built engine from a stock?
Are there any markings or stand out differences?
Or is it all internal?

thanks...

 

they'll have MoTeC exhaust on them

 

whatever motor you are looking at isn't a spoon motor. just get that through your head now and everything will be okay.

unless you are buying it in japan from a guy who speaks only japanese, doesn't understand english, and is asking a ridiculous amount of money for just the long block, then it's not a motor built entirely by spoon.

 

I'm not looking at one atm but just wanted to know if there are any markings etc that prove authentic item.

I looked around but there seems to be no clear answer.

 

The only way to tell is to strip it down and look for "Spoon" laser etched on the pistons and rods. The pistons will most likely only have the top compression ring in place also. Not kidding, seen one in person torn down. Don't waste your money on one.

 

I thought this would be the only way of telling if genuine. I've heard of spoon etched serial no on the head for B series but not confirmed.
Oh well you never can tell from the outside then.

 

There may be markings on the outside but I didn't notice any. For the price you'll pay for a spoon crate engine, you could buy a gsr longblock and have an experienced builder build you something that will much more power than the spoon.

 

Yep i'm running jdm b18cR atm prob next step would be b20.
Just seen few motors at local jap wreck thought might be worthwhile.

 

i have a buddy that owned 2 Spoon engines, and there was no markings. This was maybe 8years ago so maybe there are markings now. Only thing i could see different from what we have here in North america is it will run the jdm p73-00 piston and a Spoon 2layer headgasket. Other than that i dont think there was anything physically different? Came with the regular red valve cover too, not the yellow one. The rest, like the balancing and blue printing you can not physically see, i'm assuming that's why the cost of the motor. I think back in the day they were selling for about 6-8000Cdn. So like 5500-7000US. This was for long block only, basically a brand new long block. Came with block, head, sensors, i can't remeber if it had intake manifold/tb. No tranny and no exhaust manifold i think.

good luck man.
Also, as some of the other guys have indicated you could find a cheap gsr engine and have someone build it like Laskey racing and beef it up for the same cost. Then again stock reliable Spoon engine is not bad either, keep in mind that peak or big hp was not Spoons goal for that engine, i believe it was more for endurance.

 

you buy overpriced jdm ****.. woohoo.

 

The whole idea of the spoon crate engine was to provide road racers in JDM land blueprinted replacement engine for classes that required all stock parts. Its the idiots over here that turned it into overpriced JDM ****. I believe they're good products but not worth buying over here.

 

i think you hit the nail on the head as they say

 

cheers buddy finally some decent info

 

Yep. that's exactly the reason

 

the spoon motor has a spoon vin tag on it now, if u look around there tech site it will show it, or just email edmun about it

 

look into it but spoon stamps the motor somewhere near the b18c... they add a number next to it i belive

 

This guy told me that the vin no is the black digits above exhaust port 3 on the head on b series. Can anyone confirm? If its not spoon marking what are those digits?

 

Found some pics of latest spoon crate engine, in the pics theres the vin plate but i also notice the black digits are the on the head as well. Dropped them a email hopefully will get a clear answer, fingers crossed.

 

to be honest, if you look at the first picture, you can see the engine stamp that says "b16b", but the b is all the way to the right. if you looked at a normal engine stamp, the code has room on the right for a number. jdm motors have a blank space on the right.

also, the serial number on the block looks like it has been shaved off. im not trying to jump to any conclusions. im just pointing out some differences.

 

When there were few people with hands on experience with DOHC B series motors the japanese tuners had a leg up on the guys tinkering here.....fast forward to the late 90's and that began to change

We have a much larger Honda following stateside than in Japan and there are only a handful of Honda tuners there anyway.

Spoon is okay but as others have said there are more cost effective ways of making power reliably than buying a simple warmed over block from spoon.

Skip the B and build a G23 (H2B) or a K series....you'll spend less and make more power than a B series NA

When I had my C5 I was already looking at going K....from 2003 to now there are so many proven motor combos you would be crazy to try to build a B to compete with a big bore/stroke H/F/K....

But thats your call...

If your hell bent on a "motor" from Japan I would call JUN before I talked to Spoon...but thats just me

 

I agree completely the motor I;m lokking at isn't for me. I've put together a few h powered EG but they sit so low bad ground clearance. Personally I've gone up against a few K and sure they bit quicker but for the money spent b series is better value.

The main issue is that the motor we are able to source is about the same price as a oem JDM b18cR but unsure of its genuine.

most recent H I've done in EG only few months ago


yeh i know overflowand intake was temp

 

"you will spend less" with a k-series? i highly doubt that. k-series swaps are still quite expensive.

 

i had one and it had a vin number on the head like shown above.

 

i think he meant h2b. u will not have ground clearance issues.

 

Ahh yep I get you now cause using b series gb, mounts, and shafts
Would also fix our binding shaft problems hmmm sounds good.

Have received email from spoon. they said there is no way of telling only the metal serial plate shows genuine item. On Older spoon built motors there is no markings to say spoon built.

thanks guys for your input