I'm very mechanially inclined and have swapped motors, tranny's etc. I weld and can do electrical a little. However, I've never gotten into the internals of a motor. In a couple of days I'm going to be taking on a 94 cx hatch with ls/vtec turbo. Here's the build just to show you how strong it is.
Engine::
JDM B16 head:
-Skunk2 dual valve springs & titanium retainers
-B17 camshafts
-Full-Race adjustable cam gears(gold)
-Edelbrock Victor X intake manifold
-Hondata i/m gasket
-BBK 70mm t/b
-RC 750cc saturated injectors
-Golden Eagle Fuel Rail
-Aeromotive FPR
-Walbro 255lph fuel pump
-Golden eagle ls/vtec kit
-Cometic Headgasket
-NGK blue wires
-NGK bkr7e plugs
-Koyo radiator
-FAL Slim Fan

LS block:
-JE 9:0:1 pistons
-Eagle H beam rods
-ACL Bearings
-Hasport mounts
-Moroso Street/Strip Oil Pan

LS Trans:
-Competition Clutch stage 4 kit SPRUNG
-ACT Prolite flywheel
-GSR shift linkage w/ skunk2 dual bend short shifter

Turbo setup::
-Precision sc61-52e
-Neukin exhaust manifold
-Tial 38mm wastegate with 8psi spring
-Turbonetics style manual boost controller
-2.5 & 2.25 i/c piping
-FMIC
-3" Galvanized Aluminum Piping to 3" MagnaFlow Muffler
-ectune
-3 bar GM map sensor
It's got a nice suspension setup as well but for intensive purposes this is the motor. The car was tuned by Dave Blundell and said to put down 444hp. This is all heresay but regardless it's a strong car. Here's my question. I'm getting this hatch along with $2000. The motor is making a knocking / tapping sound. If I'm doing the labor of pulling the motor out, inspecting it, diagnosing it (with the help of a Honda certified tech) is $2000 going to be a solid amount to fix say.. a spun rod bearing, bent rod, or dropped valve? I know this is vague but I'm just kind of wandering the normal expense is for rebuilding a bottom end or a head. Thanks in advance for intelligent answers.

 

If you are rebuilding both the head and bottom end, 2k is very realistic. It can add up quick when have the bearings pressed on and all that, etc...Helps to know someone though.

 

2k is very workable, just got to figure on either buying new rods or getting the ones you have reconditioned, then youve got bearings (mains and rods), rings, assembly lube, machine work, and if your pistons and crank are usable then thats about it. There is some small misc stuff i didnt mention. I think that you will be able to all of the bottom end for around 1kish give or take a couple hundred. The head will most likley be fine.

 

Thanks guys. thats the answer i was looking for. I should have it going in a few months tops. I live in indy and the shop that built the motor for the fastest Civic record holder is just a 15 minute drive away so I figure there's no reason not to have any machine work done by those guys.

 

Checked the car out a little more. Has good compression (150 on all cylinedrs), used a stethiscope and the tapping seemed louder in the bottom end right by the "engine tag". no metal shavings in oil. plan on pulling the valve cover off and oil pan. I figure either the top or bottom will reveal the secret. haha

 

eagle sells a few forged rotating kits(crank, rods, pistons) for $1500. a few options, more stroke, more bore, both, stock, high compression, low compression..........eagle uses really good materials but dont get a balanced kit, buy it unbalanced and have it balanced. which leaves a decent amount of room for bearings, balancing, and any work that might need to be done to the block. id say if you had to have a main cut down because of a spun bearing, and the balancing, and the bearings.......that would probly put you at about 2k with the kit.
heres where you can see all the options
http://www.summitracing.com/search/m...s/?Ns=Rank|Asc

i would recommend having the mains line-honed as well even if they dont have to cut one down. ive seen brand new blocks fully built pushing 600hp pick up 5-7hp just from line honing the mains. so if you think about it........thats wear on the bearings, no much but enough to make a difference.

if you did the full package which includes but is not limited to fully checking the block for cracks, checking to see if the cylinders are perpendicular to the mains, taper and out of round in the cylinders, professional honing, making sure the deck is flat and parallel with the mains. cleaning of the entire block including oil galleys, match-fitting bearings........id guess that would be another $500ish. but that number would rise quickly if much work had to be done to fix anything.

im not saying that in a street car you really need to do all that, just throwing info out there.

the tapping by the engine stamp sounds like either piston slap or wrist pin to me. i dont remember from school how to tell which is which though.

good luck, hope it goes well.

 

2k is very realistic. i built my bottom end with the eagle kit ^^^

 

pulled the valve cover. everything looks good. It was a little odd because alot of smoke rolled out from under the valve cover when we lifted it. Not real sure what thats about. The tech I have helping me says it sounds like a wrist pin or some sort of piston noise. The tap would sort of stop when the engine revved a little. Next up the oil pan.

 

oil pan's off. Looks like we were right abotu the piston noise. We found one of the spiral clips in the oil pan out of cylinder number 3. Looks like a chucnk off of the skirt of the piston broke off and of course the wrist pin has slid out enough to score up the cylinder wall. Next plan of attack is to pull the head and make sure it wasn't beat up. then out comes the motor.

 

could be bad news for the block.......luckily B18 blocks are cheap, youd wanna have a new one checked out though. doubtful that the head got torn up at all. but you never know.

 

I've been told I can just resleeve the bad cylinder. And others have said the same thing you did, that I'd have to look for a new block. The new block idea kinda scares me and my $2k budget. ERL and other aftermarket blocks are kinda expensive and throwing new pistons in there would alot too. Is resleeving the bad cylinder not an option for some reason?

 

2000 is a good price im thinking around 2000 just for my bottom edd and installation and everything

 

Resleeving is ok, a shop close to where I live suggested it when I cracked one. I just traded my old block to a guy and found another block.

It'd be a fine time to think about resleeving with MID sleeves...

 

you dont need a NEW block. you can find perfectly acceptable used blocks out there. resleeving is ok...........BUT youd have a steel sleeve and the rest of the cylinders are aluminum. my thinking says that you would want a ring made of a different material for that one cylinder. correct me if im wrong anybody.

 

if you are doing a completely stock rebuild using just OEM parts 2k will be a breeze even with machine work. i did a b16 for right at 1400 with all new gaskets pistons and machine work.

If you are going to do a aftermarket/forged internal build with 2k good luck. the rods i want for my otor alone are close to 900.

 

u didnt read my first post in this thread did u? fully forged rotating kits for $1500 unbalanced. http://www.summitracing.com/search/m...s/?Ns=Rank|Asc

 

i did read that, but then you will want it balanced (at least $100 at a good shop usually closer to $35 a hole), you will need all new bearings (about $70), you will need the pistons pressed onto the rods (usually $10 a piston) you will need a complete gasket set ($220ish), you will need a set of arp rod bolts to hold it together ($60) not to mention any other small thing that comes up here and there while building. IE(oil pump, water pump, timing belt and he said the block may need a new sleeve. usually another $100 for that) that would put him over his budget. people always think a kit like that is a good price and deal until you realize that there are still many things that are required to make that kit able to run at its full potential.

 

well the bottom is already built. We're going to reuse whatever is still in spec. As of now the one cylinder is scored up. Obviously the one piston is f-ed. So it appears the rods are still good, headbolts, crank, and hopefully the valvetrain/head is still good. I'm hoping I can just re-sleeve the one bad cylinder and install a new piston, wrist pin, ring in there. I have a very reputable shop able to install sleeves no problem and any other boring, honing or balancing I need. The only question is whether it's going to be done on 1 cylinder or all four. That was something I'll ask the shop since they would know better then anybody. http://www.stewartengines.com/

 

actually realistically with resleeving new pistons rings rods and crankshaft pulley plus install is more like 3000-3500

 

Install isn't a problem. We are doing all work ourselves besides the block preparation and any other kind of machining work needed. There is no labor charge factored into this. One of the great perks of working at a dealership! haha And you guys seem to keep throwing rods AND pistons (I don't know where the crankshaft pulley idea came from ^) in the mix. It looks like just one piston is bad. I would think the rods would all still be fine.

 

oh okay gotcha your probably looking at like $150 max for the piston. and you might be able to just hone the block unless the walls are scored really bad then youll have to resleeve

 

I lucked out BIG TIME!! I bumped into a friend of a friend who was building a motor exactly like mine for high boost and everything. He recently gave up on his project due to lack of funds. Long story short, I picked up a freshly bored (81.5mm) and honed b18a1 block, micro-polished crank, new uninstalled Eagle H-beam rods pin fit with Wiseco billet 9:1 pistons, new wiseco rings, and new acl rod bearings all for $600!!! Now I just gotta take it all to the engine assembler and let him do his thing.

 

2k good luck

 

so I just paid 600 for a block that doesn't need any machine work, with a crank already polished and installed in the block, new pistons already fitted on the rods, which leaves me with $1400 to have a shop assemble it, and have a tuner tune it once we install the motor back in the car (at no labor charge because it's at the dealership I work at) and you say "good luck"?