I am rebuilding my B18C1 engine w 167k miles bc the rings are worn out. I plan to install new rings and valve seals after I have the block honed. Questions below:

1) As far as the bearings can I just go and reorder the same bearings I have now or would I need a different size or something due to wear of the crank over time?

2) Is there anything I need to have done to the crank at the machine shop or can I resuse as is?

3) Ive been reading up on plastigauging your bearings/journals however, what i dont understand is after you do it if something isnt to spec how do you go about correcting it? Do you just get different size bearing to get it within spec?

Thanks in advance!

 

The bearings are color coded, I dont recommend using a plastigauge, it isn't as accurate as dial bore gauges/micrometers. I would atleast micro polish the crank, its usually around 80-110 bucks. If a bearing isn't in spec, you use a different color bearing. You could also line bore the block and have all the bearings the exact same (costs a bit more to do this.)

 

If you are running stock (i.e. no turbo or extremes) with a few bolt-ons, you could bring the crank and rods to the shop doing the hone. They will measure journals/rods/crank and tell you what your clearance is, after polishing the crank.

At that point, you can a) purchase ACL bearings that suit or b) purchase Honda bearings. Anything other than Honda's OEM make it pretty easy. Honda goes an extra step and sorts them to the nearest few 10-thousandths of an inch and color-codes them, allowing you to dial-in the clearance with more accuracy.

Most who routinely use aftermarket (without the color codes) find them to be just fine.

I'm sure there are also those (even here) who will swear "OEM Only".

You should read up on Honda's system if you go that route, as the shops (unless they major in Honda) won't get the coding system and typically won't measure things reliably to that fine of tolerances.

Mark

 

just had my b18c-r bottom end done at machine shop they put in new acl rod and crank bearings stock size and posihed the crank as long as the motor was running good and no spun bearings before tear down you will probalby just have to have crank polished all that was done to mine and it runs great

 

Thanks for all the info so far. Seems like im going to be having the block honed and the crank polished. Ill probably also have the block hot tanked or blast whatever they offer.

One last question in terms of the bearings:

Ok so according to the manual it seems I should read the markings from cam gear end to flywheel end. But as you can see in the picture below that would result in the letters being upside down. The letters read C-C-B-B-A. Can someone tell me if C would start the cam gear end bearing or the fly wheel end bearing?

 

when you tear down an engine its all about inspecting and measuring EVERYTHING!...its all about being clean tidy and organized...

i rebuilt my b18c when it clocked 150,000 miles and i did not have my crank polished but i suppose it would b neccesary if noticable signs of wear are present...

as far as bearings go i used oem the first time but now im building my engine for a turbo so i decided to upgrade to ACL race bearings

when it comes to plastiguage im actually a huge fan i use it all the time and so far its been completely reliable i never had any issue with it people been using it forever now

check cams for noticeable wear as well as rocker arms and cam covers

dont leave any gasket un touched or any clearence unchecked

compression and leak down test before you drop it in can be a life saver so be sure to perform them

most of all have fun

GOOD LUCK!