I’m working on my first full motor build so I’m looking for comments, suggestions, and advice. Its going to be a DD motor so I’m more concerned with torque and the midrange power. I am a student so I want to keep this build as budget minded without sacrificing reliability. Here’s what I have so far:

B20 block
RS machine ITR pistons
Shotpeened rods with arp rod bolts
Golden Eagle Vtec kit

GSR head
Street port and polish
Rosko fuel rail with rdx injectors
Arp head studs
Skunk2 Stage 2 camshafts
Supertech or blox dual valve springs
AEM cam gears
68mm throttle body
DC 4-1 header

Tuned with s300

Im only looking to rev to 8500 maybe 9000 tops depending on where peak hp is so im trying to stay away from Ti retainers if possible to get a longer life out of the retainers. I have heard of people using cromoly retainers but I can’t seem to find anywhere to get them. Anyone know what companies have them and where they can be purchased?
Also I am not sure what to do about an intake manifold. What do you guys think would be best for me? Port and polish the short one or get an skunk2 manifold or one from another company?
Also in regards to blox equipment I realized that a lot of their stuff is cheaper than a lot of other companies, is the quality/reliability not up to the level of skunk2 and other companies?

Thanx for any help in advance

 

any1?

 

Im always very iffy about the cheaper brands.Some Blox products have had questionable performance, so id lean to Skunks products instead...Thats just me though.
The 68mm throttlebody gains may be minimal, might drop this item if you want to trim the budget a little. Or try Maxbore. $100 and he reworks your factory one. I just havent ever seen any significant gains from throttle body upgrades...
As far as intake manifolds go, the PerformerX is said to give good midrange due to the long runners...

 

to me blox is just as good same with omni to be honest there are lots of other product from other companies thats just as good and are cheaper then skunk heck they all made in china and taiwan anyway lol i have seen people say skunk products are junk but its personal prefrence skunk is a lil over priced to me but i guess they can do that because they have been around longer and the name is more known

 

Thanx for the advice. Pyro are you saying i would be find just running a stock TB?

more suggestions?

 

Retainers-I would try Crower or Brian Crower and call Supertech.
What about a stock retainer? I'm running stock retainers to 8700rpm. I do have lighter valves and my rocker arms have had weight reduction done to them.
As for the IM, I run the Performer X, very nice piece I strongly recommend it.

 

I would try and borrow a friends throttle body and test it out on the dyno. Shouldnt take too long to swap out. I just think the cost of a bigger throttle body ($200-$300?) isnt going to provide good power gains. They do seem to give you better throttle response in my experience...
Only way to know for sure is to dyno test them back to back...

 

bump for suggestions

 

if your going to run a larger TB i would have it port matched to the manifold to make it worth the money you put at it. bolt on power wise IMO not worth it. portmatched and bored, worth it

I am also i huge believer in Blox products. I have run numerous parts of theirs and always had good luck and performance from them.

 

Ive had nothing but good luck with blox parts !!!!

 

93egSLEEPER
I was definitely planning on portmatching everything

 

undoubtedly worth the extra cash then.

 

any of you guys have an experience with the vteckidd bseries header?

 

I would get Crower cromoly retainers, they are $65 on amazon. (horsepowerfreaks sells them)
In my opinion, vteckidd header is very good one for the money. I have it and like it very much, also it is very durable construction and I have no issues at all for a year now.

If you are going to run this engine for longer than a year (two at the very max), I would get Toda valve springs. If you are going to open head up and replace valve springs more often, maybe some of those other valve sprongs are OK. Also Supertech VS have a very high installed seat pressure and they task your timing belt quite a bit, Skunk 2 pro series springs claim to be low pressure, and good quality, but I do not know if this is true or not.

Toda on the other hand is safe bet, you get what you pay for...

Nino

 

ninor are u still running ps and ac? do you have any clearance issues running the header?

 

Nope sorry. SMSP, no clearance issue to the AC or PS.
There is a lot of discussion about the vteckidd headers right now.
I ran a DC Sports 4-1 header to 184whp. This header in the past has been on cars that made around 200whp. You may not need that new header just yet.

 

running ps and ac, no clearence issues, straight bolt up to Type r cat back in my case.

Needed to trim fan shround, that was all.

Nino

 

For the money, it's probably your best bet for your application.

 

The Rosko fuel rail is so that i can use the RDX injectors without having to modify the tap on the injectors...makes them a direct bolt on minus the plug adapters.
I was originally thinking about using the Pro 1+ but then i wasnt sure about the idle and suck since it is going in my daily driver. do u think with this setup i would be able to run the Pro 1s with cromoly retainers without any problems? I also thought it put more wear and tear on the valve train in general but i could be completely off with this thought.
I would go with the complete Skunk2 but its got a pretty big price tag and i was able to find the supertech components on sale so thats y im considering getting those.
any reason y you dont like the aem cam gears? wat would u recommend? any reason y these are like half the price of the skunk2?

 

Bigger cam.

 

care to elaborate?

 

Just FYI, OMNI has a sale on their 70mm throttle bodies... $100. That's if the sale is still going. (They're a sponsor on here and have a listing in the sponsor marketplace if you want to check or phearable.net)

I had the big tube tri-y, I absolutely loved it on my B18c.

 

how much power do you want to make? Heres my setup and maybe you can get an idea because i just finished with my build like last week..

b16 slightly ported head
hot tanked, resurfaced, and valve adjustment
blox type b cams
supertech dual valve springs and titanium retainers
aem cam gears
bmw 330 injectors

b18 bored out to 84.5 mm resurface, rehoned and decked
sleeved block
11.5:1 wiseco forged piston
eagle rods

jdm itr headers
itr manifold
itr tb
itr water/oil pump
itr timing belt
arp head studs
2.5 magnaflow cat

i tuned with p28 chrome and a full 2.5 ws2 exhaust because like you, i am a college student and it is my DD. I also replaced all these other lil junk like cam seals, valve stem seal, etc.

My goal was to have a reliable ls vtec build and able to beat rsx ! I spent roughly 2000ish that included like illegal smog, registration, tuning, and labor.

I made my setup conservative because i dont want to get harassed by cops. My bay looks really stock with even a stock itr intake.

Rev limit is still at like 8000. I start losing power at 8200 because of my exhaust, but with the right parts i can easily go to 9000.

The motor has a lot more potential than i am pushing it. If i went with some better headers bisimoto, or hytech, a victor x manifold, test pipe, greddy exhaust, and bigger tb. i can easily make 225-230.

on 91 octane i get roughly 250+ miles


and fyi. lose those dc headers for sure.

My future plans is just get a cut off so i have control of when i want to go open headers to get a lil more power, but other than that whats under my hood is doneeee.. just gotta work on cosmetic cuz exterior looks like crap..

I think you should be more specific about ur budget, how much power u want to make, how much are u willing to risk, (cop wise) etc. I didnt sleeve my block it came with the block which i got for free from a friend. I wouldnt have done sleeve because im not beating the motor all day, but that made me upgrade the pistons because i didnt want to ruin the cylinder wall.. i had some arias 10.5:1 pistons that i decide to take out. There are a million routes man, take your pick and have your fun. Good Luck.!

 

How much power are you makin with that setup? and as far as number for my build id be happy with around 230 whp and 140tq but the numbers arent super important to me. im just looking for a fun car to drive with some decent power. copwise they never look under the hood by me so its not really an issue and as far as the budget im planning on starting to assemble everything at the end of the semester when i go home. when i said budget i meant more like i dont need the best of the best. just spending my money smart and not on useless items.
p.s. im also runnin the ws2 exhaust

 

bump...tban?