Hi guys. New to the forum and have some some questions about a motor swap I am doing. I just picked up a 98 Integra RS manual from my neighbor for $600 for my son. It has 265K on it and I was told it had a bad head gasket. I did not want to bother with a head gasket on a motor with such high miles so I decided to just replace the motor. Knowing most B18's would have been beat on most their life I decided getting a JDM B20 was a better option, less likely to be beat on and should have slightly more power. (a 17 year old does not need a vtec swap, lol). I bought the car 2 days before taking a short vacation to Orlando and while there purchased what I was told was a lower mileage 99 JDM B20B from an importer that was recommended to me. I also ordered an OEM water pump, oil pump (that can hold a crank sensor), timing belt and tentioner. Also picked up valve cover and oil pan gaskets and new motor mounts. When I took off the valve cover of the new engine I noticed to did not look as i thought it would look. There is almost a coating of old oil or something on the head. Is it normal or something I should be concerned about? The original looked clean, like I thought it should look. Any input would be great. Thanks.

 

That is normal, just a little oil residue. You should see the inside of one of the engines I ordered from Japan.... looked about like this but I didn't take a pic

 

Thanks, that gives me some reassurance. Did they ever change the oil in that motor in the pic?

 

The darker "bronzing" inside that you have in that picture is from extended oil change intervals. I don't see a lot of "build up" of sludge or residue present and that is a good sign. The color is representative of an owner that didn't do routine maintenance quite as often as they should have... but did a pretty good job. The pic of the single cam head below your post shows just plain neglect.

You should be fine based on the pics above.

 

Great, you should be good to go... and no, they probably never changed the oil in the above pic, but then again you never know.

 

that does not look like lower mileage to me at all. its either high mileage or like said before poor oil change practices. I have never bought an imported engine that looked that worn so far, but I have only bought four or five...and the cylinder head in my original 250k mile engine looked better than that.