Hey guys Ive been wanting to do my first swap for some time and I recently came across a 400 dollar b20b on a local forum and also a cheap b16 tranny for sale. My question is if it is even worth the swap? over my d16z6 in a 95 ex? Just want a little more "oomf" for the around town driving. Im on a budget and dont know if I want a b16 or anything just yet. thanks for the help!

 

well I guess it depends on how many miles are on your motor and the b20. could you not throw the money into your motor? im not really sure what the power numbers are tho

 

I would say go for it. it will def have alot more tq and will be funner in general to drive. there is alot of potential for a b20v or built b20 down the road too were with a d series your pretty limited when it comes to a na build

 

For around town driving the B20 would be more "fun". It produces alot more torque then the D's and mated to a short geared B16 it's quicker. Plus in the Long Run when the budget get's bigger there's unlimited option's for B20's.

 

I say go for it. Even if you pick up the B20, its from a crv, I mean, who beats on a crv? Yeah maybe a few, but now a lot. Honestly though, You should pick up both B20 and the B16 trans. I will be fun to drive. I had a b20z/GSR trans, and wow, that thig was a blast to drive. Plenty of power. Good luck with your decision!

 

The only probelm I've ever heard of with the B20's is throwing rod's. Which is easily fixed with ARP Rod Bolt's.

 

any B-series motor if overrev alot in time will throw a rod. Ive even seen stock rods with arp rod bolts throw rods before.

 

huh really? I have not heard anything like that before. When I had my B20z, I beat the hell out of it. all the way to 7k and not a rpm higher everytime. When i say beat on it, I mean i am suprised i am not dead..

 

Alot of people have told me they've thrown stock rod's with a B20B, I've never worked on a B20Z though.

 

all b20's have the same rodbolts. if you keep the revs within reason you'll be fine. the b20 is a underated motor!! my bro has 1 in his crx with a ys1 gsr tranny and i strolled a crx with a ls and b16 tranny. we did it from a roll so there was no driver error. the longer we ran the worse it got,and i mean by 5 cars or so!!! if its in good shape id say go for it. its a great bang for your buck

 

B20b's are very underrated, do not worry about throwing rod bolts or anything like that unless you exceed the factory limits. For a daily driver I doubt youll be doing that. a shorter transmission like the b16 you plan on getting will make a great combo.

I recommend rebuilding it slightly if you have some spare money, like a re-hone and arp rod bolts if you want to be a menace.

Even with minor bolt-on's I/H/E will make your b20 really fun to drive, and as mentioned before, the posibilities after that are wide and far.

Doooo It.

 

See personally, I love to Red Line all the time, So the first thing I'd do is rebuild the Motor like you said. ARP Rod Bolts, New Gasket's, The Basics, Etc,...I do that to all my Motor's though.

Between the B20's Torque and the B16's short gearing it should be Quick.

 

Thanks a lot for the advice guys. You definitely convinced me to do it but now the guy is acting shady. Says the head is stamped pr 4-4 and may be a ls head? Also how can I tell if its a 99-00. He said it has a thread for a knock sensor but doesn't have one. So is that the less hp version?

 

Any non VTEC b18/b20 is going to be fun as **** with a b16 tranny. Intake, header and exhaust would be all you need and just keep up on maintenice if the motor has decently low miles, but like someone said, who beats on a CRV?

Now the last post changes some things.. The head is stamped PR4? That's a 90-93 LS head? There should be a year stamp on the front of it. So the motor has been opened up so who knows what the story is with it. If its threaded for a knock sensor than its an OBD2 motor, If it has a PCV breather box on the back of the block its an obd1 motor.

EDIT: forgot to say, all the b20b/b20z heads are stamped P75, exact same casting as a LS head. Only the P8R head is different which has 84mm combustion chambers and larger valves.

 

the ls head will work fine and i believe have better cam duration opposed to the auto b20b/z cams. take the valve cover off and inspect the head along with turning it over and listening for odd noises. other than that ask lots of questions and i hope it works out for the best! its a fun torquey motor.

 

My brother had a B20 swap in his 92 hatch and it was great. Now it was a daily and he had no intentions of making 200hp but for 140hp 132lbft of torque it was felt great around town.
He had locash neptune it and tuning made tons of power over the stock program.

The best mod was a gsr tranny. The gsr tranny really woke the car up over the ls that he was using previously.

 

Thanks guys. If Ill take a look at in person before making a decision. I don't mind if it has a ls head but does make me worry about the motor and the guy got it in a trade and doesn't even know anything about it. But it's cheap I'll probably go for it. So I will need an ls intake manifold and what else I'll need. I want to keep power steering and ac if possible...

 

any help on the last question?

 

so wat do u guys thinkl about a b20 wit a b18 vtec head

 

That's what my Build is going to be B20B Bottom End and a B18 Head.

 

So the motor was sold before I could get to it. I'm looking at another this weekend. This one is kind of weird again. He says its a low comp with a b20z head...Im waiting for a response still if its a p8r head or not. Is it worth trying to get a high comp over the low comp like this one?

 

a low comp with a B20z head = typical low comp (most b20s have the b20z head aka P75 head)

Also, the P8R head won't do much for you since you'll have the 8.8 cr pistons anyway.

just look for a high comp b20. Any b20 with a factory knock sensor is a 9.6 cr block, regardless of engine code (b20z, jdm b20b, etc)

 

Okay I guess Ill keep waiting around for a high comp. Hopefully a salvage yard around here spits one out soon.

 

Worse case scenario you could come across a low miles LS swap instead possibly?

 

Could you still have PS with a b20 swap?