Type R Rebuild - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
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Honda-Tech Member
Joined: Mar 2009
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From: Northern California
Type R Rebuild - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
Hi HT,
So it's been a little over 2 years since I started my journey at attaining my immature and childish dream of building a semi-fast B18C Civic. I'm now one of those ******** that rips down the street with VTEC screaming and tires melting... Okay so maybe not so much.
However, I think I owe the rest of the HT world some insight into my experience. Hopefully to save people money who are dreaming the same dream.
Here's a quick summary of my timeline:
August 2009 Purchased a JDM 1999 B18C Type R motor off of some dude on CraigsList
December 2009 swapped the motor in to my EK coupe
December 2010 Rebuilt the B18C R and re-installed it into my coupe
The Bad and Ugly:
The guy I bought it from said the motor burned a little oil. A little oil was a complete lie. He had run his JDM P73 ECU on 91 Octane California gas and ruined the motor. (Dead rings, bent rod, blued bearings, detonation, detonation, and more detonation.)
When I initially pulled the motor apart in 2009 I should have rebuilt it from the start. There was nothing to consider, there was no hope that the motor was fine. It wasn't. So I should have rebuild it right then and there and saved myself a few 1000 $$$.
During my 2010 rebuild I got a nice view of what worked and what didn't.
A list issues I had with parts and other things:
1) Yonaka and/or cheap eGay gasket kits. They are crap and leak after 7000 miles.
2) Cheap eGay water pumps, they will leak
3) Supertech valve stem seals leaked oil. Get OEM Honda seals
4) 10mm silicone spark plug wires. They are not insulated properly. Use OEM NGK wires
5) After-market dizzy's are garbage. My RPMs freak out around 7500.
6) Iridium/Platinum spark plugs. These are expensive trash. Use good old standard NGK plugs, and change them at every oil change (if you drive like an *******. Like me)
7) Gates racing low temp thermostat. I bought it before researching that it will do more harm then good on a NA motor. Go OEM Thermostat for NA applications.
8) Gates racing hoses - they hate mating with Aluminum inlets. They are soft and the force of the clamps cuts into them easily. But if you don't clamp them tight as hell they leak.
9) Cheap carbon fiber hoods don't fit properly. I got one from JDM carboy in So Cal. It was cheap, but it took a lot of work on my part to make it work on the car.
10) Take the caps off your Drag Racing rims if you elect to buy some. The caps will mysteriously go missing on unspecified corners.
11) Don't use too much Honda bond when assembling the block/head. It will do more harm then good.
12) Expect to spend a few weeks fixing misc crap that didn't go right. I imagine this gets less as you build more motors
How about things/parts that worked out well:
1) Tie bars, lower/upper front/rear H-brace
eGay all the way
2) Cheap eGay dual core radiator - smelled funny for about 20k miles, but works well
3) eGay slim radiator fan - except it came with the polarity reversed so it pushed instead of pulled... easy fix.
4) Sun Pro gauges have worked well. Oil temp and Oil Pressure = peace of mind
Suggestions:
1) Upgrade suspension and brakes before upgrading to a new motor, or do them together. Stopping is more important than accelerating, its just not as fun. Cover your *** first, ie. safety first.
2) Tune you motor asap. Getting the OBD1 computer and socketing it is easy. There are tons of write ups. Save money and prep the computer yourself. Then take it to your trusted tuner.
3) Once you change the internals of your motor, you need to have it tuned. End of story. Cannot emphasis that enough...
3) Conversion harnesses suck. But I've made 2. If I can do it, so can you. Save yourself $200, and spend $20 at a junk yard. DIY.
Hopefully my money and experiences will help you save money
So it's been a little over 2 years since I started my journey at attaining my immature and childish dream of building a semi-fast B18C Civic. I'm now one of those ******** that rips down the street with VTEC screaming and tires melting... Okay so maybe not so much.
However, I think I owe the rest of the HT world some insight into my experience. Hopefully to save people money who are dreaming the same dream.
Here's a quick summary of my timeline:
August 2009 Purchased a JDM 1999 B18C Type R motor off of some dude on CraigsList
December 2009 swapped the motor in to my EK coupe
December 2010 Rebuilt the B18C R and re-installed it into my coupe
The Bad and Ugly:
The guy I bought it from said the motor burned a little oil. A little oil was a complete lie. He had run his JDM P73 ECU on 91 Octane California gas and ruined the motor. (Dead rings, bent rod, blued bearings, detonation, detonation, and more detonation.)
When I initially pulled the motor apart in 2009 I should have rebuilt it from the start. There was nothing to consider, there was no hope that the motor was fine. It wasn't. So I should have rebuild it right then and there and saved myself a few 1000 $$$.
During my 2010 rebuild I got a nice view of what worked and what didn't.
A list issues I had with parts and other things:
1) Yonaka and/or cheap eGay gasket kits. They are crap and leak after 7000 miles.
2) Cheap eGay water pumps, they will leak
3) Supertech valve stem seals leaked oil. Get OEM Honda seals
4) 10mm silicone spark plug wires. They are not insulated properly. Use OEM NGK wires
5) After-market dizzy's are garbage. My RPMs freak out around 7500.
6) Iridium/Platinum spark plugs. These are expensive trash. Use good old standard NGK plugs, and change them at every oil change (if you drive like an *******. Like me)
7) Gates racing low temp thermostat. I bought it before researching that it will do more harm then good on a NA motor. Go OEM Thermostat for NA applications.
8) Gates racing hoses - they hate mating with Aluminum inlets. They are soft and the force of the clamps cuts into them easily. But if you don't clamp them tight as hell they leak.
9) Cheap carbon fiber hoods don't fit properly. I got one from JDM carboy in So Cal. It was cheap, but it took a lot of work on my part to make it work on the car.
10) Take the caps off your Drag Racing rims if you elect to buy some. The caps will mysteriously go missing on unspecified corners.
11) Don't use too much Honda bond when assembling the block/head. It will do more harm then good.
12) Expect to spend a few weeks fixing misc crap that didn't go right. I imagine this gets less as you build more motors
How about things/parts that worked out well:
1) Tie bars, lower/upper front/rear H-brace
eGay all the way2) Cheap eGay dual core radiator - smelled funny for about 20k miles, but works well
3) eGay slim radiator fan -
except it came with the polarity reversed so it pushed instead of pulled... easy fix. 4) Sun Pro gauges have worked well. Oil temp and Oil Pressure = peace of mind
Suggestions:
1) Upgrade suspension and brakes before upgrading to a new motor, or do them together. Stopping is more important than accelerating, its just not as fun. Cover your *** first, ie. safety first.
2) Tune you motor asap. Getting the OBD1 computer and socketing it is easy. There are tons of write ups. Save money and prep the computer yourself. Then take it to your trusted tuner.
3) Once you change the internals of your motor, you need to have it tuned. End of story. Cannot emphasis that enough...
3) Conversion harnesses suck. But I've made 2. If I can do it, so can you. Save yourself $200, and spend $20 at a junk yard. DIY.
Hopefully my money and experiences will help you save money
Last edited by EJ8_Man; Apr 2, 2011 at 07:11 PM.
Honda-Tech Member
Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 245
Likes: 0
From: B.F.E. Tx
Re: Type R Rebuild - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
Pretty good list here for anyone new to the H badge, especially too much hondabond. Lol. As far as the ebay parts, i'll pass thanks. But to anyone on a strict budget, some stuff isn't that bad, but remember: you really do get what you pay for, doing something cheap twice still costs more than doing it right the first time in most cases.
And to the OP, congrats on finally getting to realize your dream. My current ride sat on jackstands for 5 years in the garage, and watched several projects come and go in the meantime. There's just something about finally getting what you want that's frickin sweet isn't there?
And to the OP, congrats on finally getting to realize your dream. My current ride sat on jackstands for 5 years in the garage, and watched several projects come and go in the meantime. There's just something about finally getting what you want that's frickin sweet isn't there?
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