Got some questions about a B18A1 that has been built by a mechanic as his daily that is now up for sale.

B18A1 block bored to 84mm on stock sleeves.

B20z2 pistons and a golden eagle block guard.

B16A2 head with a stock P28 OBD1 ECU.

The car is a 94 hatch very clean working A/C and everything. It appears he took his time with it and took the sleeves to a well known machine shop I have used myself.

He reports 40,000 miles on the motor.

Anything I can look at or listen to to determine the state of the motor?
The car has an oil pressure gauge what pressure should I be looking for?

It will just be used as a daily driver.

 

Boring the stock B18A1 block to 84mm makes the OE steel liner awfully thin (and weak)... Honda doesn't recommend this at all. So without taking the engine apart, you have one of two possibilities: 1) The owner is exaggerating a bit on the specs, and the bores are smaller than he claims... and this is why the engine has lived for 40K miles. 2) He in fact did build it as advertised making it a failure waiting to happen... you make the call.

As for the oil pressure... assuming you are using 5w30 oil... once the engine is warmed up, idle pressure (under 900 rpm) should be 10-20 psi, and the pressure should climb to over 50 psi by 3000 rpm.

 

That's what I was afraid of. I keep reading block guards are suppose to save the motor if the sleeves fail? Can't find a definite answer. Does the stock P28 seem odd to you?

 

Stock P28 will run an LS/V but not always well.

Block gaurd will help limit the flex of the cylinders but not really make them stronger.

 

Went and saw the car today. Guy is very very knowledgeable in Hondas. He's selling because his son's are old enough to move away and they have three of them sitting around that they've built over the years. They brought 2 when they came to meet me. I just need to find out if he's right on one thing and I'll pull the trigger on getting the car.

He claims the reason he kept the stock sleeves is because the factory B20's in the CRV are actually B18 blocks bored out to 2.0 by Honda. This seems to match what people say about the stock sleeves being weak in the B20's for boost and high revs. I have read something that said the B20's have a single cast iron sleeve though which is not how the B18 sleeves are.

Can anyone confirm if the B20 is a bored out B18 from the factory?

 

The B20 block is a completely different casting... it is NOT merely a B18 block bored out to 84mm. The saddle area of the B20 block is its weakness and this is why it is typically regarded as "weaker" than B18 blocks.

There is no truth to what you are being told. Sorry.

 

Well that's a bummer. Thing drove exactly like a Honda should. The EG CX hatch is so light I didn't even have to get into VTEC to get the car up to speed. Most I revved it to was 6,500 thats all he said he ever did. I'm sure he's done more a few times. Anyways I know I'm getting rose tinted shades over this thing, it just felt exactly like I've been hoping I could find in an older Honda.

So if you think having it to just putt around from A to B is still too risky please let me know. If your major concern with the sleeves is with trying to squeeze more power out of it or rev it to the moon I have no need to do that. I've already got a competition drift car to worry about all that with. Driving is just too important to me not to enjoy it every time I do it.

 

I've been running a weak B20b block .5mm overbore for almost 4 years now. 3 years NA with fairly aggressive cams and revving to ~8700 on the regular and now have been boosted making ~450hp for 8-9 months still no broken sleeves or anything yet, but it's not a daily just a weekend toy. I think as an NA daily that setup should give you a decent service life. The main thing I would nix is the stock P28. A custom map for your actual setup would be the most beneficial way to make it most efficient and last the longest IMO. Tuning is everything next to proper assembly/clearances.

 

But by decent service life you don't expect it to make the 250,000-300,000 miles you can get out of most stock motors? I suppose if I can get it to around 100,000-160,000 I could save up enough to have it re-sleeved to last even longer. I don't expect to take any major road trips with it just around town mixed highway and city streets. Absolute most I go in a day is 80 miles if I have to run all over the greater city area.


Edit**
Been running around all day talking to shops and trying to find information. Of course it has led to more questions than answers.

Most people have the opinion one way or another with the same kind of heard it from someone else sources. Until I got to the one shop in town that builds exclusively race Hondas.

They claim boring the stock B18 sleeves to 84mm is actually impossible as you would end up having aluminum cylinder walls. They also said its impossible to run Z2 Pistons in a B18 block, which didn't make sense to me. Especially since they agreed B20's are bored out B18's that have the same crank. He may have been saying since you can't bore the B18 sleeves to 84mm you can put an 84mm piston in the motor. Lastly he claimed that if the motor we're going to fail it would have been in the first few thousand miles. He believes they didn't actually bore the B18 to a B20 or have been using a B20 block to start. Going to talk it over with the owner shortly but any extra opinions would be appreciated. You would think as many of these motors there are out there we could have some hard data and specs over anecdotal evidence.