I've been thinking of doing a rebuild of my b16 recently. I've never rebuilt an engine before and had a few questions. What is the best parts path to go with when building, stock internals or performance? I don't plan on putting a turbo in any time soon but do plan to so I'm thinking using performance internals so I don't have to do another tear down in the future.

Do I choose pistons before taking the engine to the machine shop to know what the bore size needs to be?

 

You chose your pistons based on the cylinder bore. If it isn't damaged and you just need a hone, you can run stock-sized pistons. There's nothing wrong with getting slightly larger pistons and having the cylinders bored, though. The weak point of any B or D is the rods. They bend, snap, break, and all sorts of other unpleasant things. From weakest to strongest (assuming a good tune) its rods > sleeves > pistons.

 

order pistons after taking the block to the machine shop, in case they would need to make the bore bigger for some reason

 

Awesome thanks for the info its exactly what I needed to know.

 

If you want a stock rebuild, use stock parts. If you want my power, choose your upgrades.

It seems you want to rebuild you motor stock. Which I would recommends seeing you do not want to turbo. If nothing is damaged, a hone and new rings should do you good until you decide what upgrades you'd like.

 

I do plan to turbo, just not any time soon cause my wallet and wife have other plans with my money. I'll probably go with upgrade parts for the build so I won't have to do it all again when adding a turbo.

 

Is there a write up somewhere that list all the D/B/H/K series motors and the weak points at around which HP they tend to break?

 

Not that I'm aware of, I just know D/B from the raw amount of research I've put into my current and previous build, and all of the random ideas I've had in between. With the H having FRM sleeves, I'd imagine that puts sleeves closer (if not past) the pistons in reliability, but that's just mental theory with no proof. I'm not even going to try to comment on the K - I don't know enough about it's internals to start.