Well ive got a 1995 integra ls. B18b1. 155,xxx original kms on the motor. Bottom end is solid. Burning some oil and looks to be the valve guides/seals. Im contemplating rebuilding the head and getting it all refreshed and such.

Now my question is with doing this id like to swap for a few aftermarket parts. Pretty much stock rebuild though, but I was thinking of better valve springs (skunk2 or crower or something) and titanium retainers along with a set of aftermarket cam gears. Otherwise a stock rebuild with arp headstuds. Will these few mods make any, if at all, difference to performance. Thought was some better lightweight parts and things allowing for better/high revs (and a safety thing for autox) Other bolt ons include a header, short ram intake and 11.7lb flywheel and stage one exedy clutch.

Thoughts? I love the LS motor though. Pretty quick for what it is!

 

Best thing for a stock bottom end is a stock head. The flywheel isnt a bad idea though. Itll give it a little more pep when youre driving.

Springs and retainers are only good for aftermarket cams. Titanium retainers wear fast so they shouldnt be used on street cars imo

 

Dont waste your money on Ti springs and retainers. A fresh OEM set will be just fine.

And you cant just drop in a set of cams and put it all back together.. So adding them will need fuel management.

You dont need a stage 1 clutch. An OEM Exedy Replacement will be just fine. I think I paid 120 shipped on Amazon for the whole clutch kit. My B20 is pushing 190/160 at the crank and the clutch is fine.

If an OEM clutch can handle my non vtec engine, yours will too. For the Flywheel. I would recommend Fidanza as they have friction plates that can be changed Vs getting machined/replaced of solid flywheels. Friction plates run about 60 bucks.




If you want some performance out of it, Swap for vtec head, Or at least clean up the ports, port match, 3angle, and whatever else you can get that crappy head to flow.

 

^ Hit every single nail right on the head.

Another vote for a lighter flywheel here. It's a great bang for the buck mod if you're already in there, it will make the motor feel much more snappy on shifts. I went with an Exedy because I God a good deal on the full package from the classifieds here, but Fidanza has been putting out good stuff for years now too.

The absolute best mod you can make to a non-vtec b-motor though, imo, is a gsr trans.

 

My 2 cents

Lightened flywheel is def a good choice. I myself have an OEM shaved/lightened flywheel, 6 puck sprung cluth, with a local shops stage 2 pressure plate. I like it and the motor seems to respond well to it.

Vtec is a good idea as mentioned before, but depending on how much the head costs you, there is other things that need to be done to make it a "reliable" hybrid and it gets expensive qwk.
Cams are def a good idea depending on what you can get them for. I built my non vtec setup from just bartering stuff and got something thrown together. I'm running Crower 404's on my stock bottom end B20, and It's amazing! Sacrifice some MPG, but it should clean up when I get tuned.

 

^^
Just to add.

These type of high lift cams are made for high compression (11.5+) engines for them to really shine. Better then OEM by far, but still need valvetrain to complete the whole package.

 

i also vote for flywheel upgrade. i use the oem type r flywheels, i think they are 12lb compared to 18 for the factory ones, and can be found pretty cheap between 50 and 100 dollars

maybe you can run some 403's, but it still want higher than stock compression. perhaps shaving the head a bit while its off and using a 2 layer hg can get you around 10:1

throwing this out there too, in addition to the light flywheel, a gsr trans, or maybe b16 trans with gsr 5th gear would do wonders. its all in the gearing as far as acceleration. only thing an ls trans is really good for is cruising on the highway

 

No head mod i worth squat if he doesnt crack ipen the bottom end to address the weakest link in the stock bottom end.

At the very least he needs arp rod bolts, which require re sizing the rods, and as a result, a full bottom end rebuild.

Best thing for op to do is a stock spec head rebuild, a fidanza flywheel, oe style clutch, a decent 2.5in exhaust, and keep the ls trans. Imo at least

 

If you value tuning, then get some cams and tuning and wake up that 4 banger

 

If you're going through all this work, swap in a B20 and call it a day. A stock b20 will be more fun to drive than a modded b18 (more torque, sooner) and you can pick it up for cheap.

The bottom ends are plenty strong but if you want 7,000 + RPM then the ARP rod bolts are a good idea. The rod bolts can be changed WITHOUT removing the rods. If you change 1 bolt per rod at a time the rod cap does not unseat itself and therefore the bearings are fine. I ran a stock b20 to 7500 rpm for years like this, WHILE learning to tune and abusing the **** out of the thing and it's still fine.

 

^^
If hes using the OEM P75 head, then I certainly hope he doesnt rev past 7K!

 

Yeah, there's no point on stock cams anyway.

 

Thats horrible advice to give. The big ends warp and oval when you use arp rod bolts because of the higher clamping force. If you dont torque them to arps specs, the bolts wont stretch to their proper setting and they wont do their job properly.

(Stretch gauges should be used when torquing rod bolts, but torquing them to spec usually gives the desired stretch)

Hell, b series are known for spinning rod bearings at the factory limiter.

 

Agreed. The roundness needs to at least be checked when installing high tension bolts.

 

Well, Theyre not really high tension.. Just 26lbs IIRC

But its good insurance just incase. I did mine.

 

I did the same thing with my ARP rod bolts and everything has been fine. Stock valves float at 7000; swapped to Crower 403, springs and retainers and 8000rpm doesn't seem to be problem.

 

I just checked arps site. The b18 kit needs to be torqued to 50 lbs. Stock are 23lbs

 

B18C or A/B? the C bolts are a bit bigger, A/B are the same as D-series.

But yeah, by definition, they are high tension bolts. It's pretty amazing the amount of force that a little bit of extra head torque generates.

 

Yeah those are the b18c kits. I just noticed they dont list them on arps sote very well. The 8mm kit is to be torqued to 26lbs. So I do suppose that doing it one at a time can work but I still dont trust that