I probably wasted 200 smackaronis but desperate times call for desperate measures. I busted the pan on my JDM sohc ZC (r.i.p) due to ride height and a jettison of freaking asphalt sticking up about 3 or 4 inches in the lane I was traveling in. By the time I could get over and off the road the car sounded like a machine gun. Been parked since July. I can't even find any more JDM sohc in Texas any more...use to be like picking cherries in the early 2000's. Anyways I bought a long block from a GNC Civic with 70K for a couple hundred. I know the compression is 12.5 : 1...can I run it with a spacer, timing retard and two steps colder plugs with racing fuel 106 points or better? It's just a weekend toy. No road trips or anything. I plan on swapping the head with my current ZC head since I don't have V-tec.

 

you can swap the bad block for the good one without going crazy theres no spacer needed
just a metal head gasket a 3 layer if you can get one
other than that it should all be pretty simple

 

So with the pistons being domed are you positive about that? Theres a huge difference between the normal 9.4 to 1 compression in a regular gasoline D block and the 12.5 to 1 compression in the natural gas version.

 

on the natural gas civic the pistons are like the b series vtec ones but the exhaust side does not have the groves for the valves
the little indents like on the intake side

to be honest im not sure if you can just slap the zc head on that block
but to test it and find out for yourself is simple

with both heads off the motors you rotate the cam gear till you get the exhaust valves to go down as far as they can
and then you take a measurment
and if its the same than yes you can use the zc head on the d16b6 block


now let me ask you this
why do you want to swap heads?
if by you dont have vtec you mean you dont have the wiring or the ecu in your car thats fine
you can still use the vtec head that comes on the d16b6
you just dont connect the vtec plugs
this way it will run like a d16a6 or a d16y7 a normal d16 non vtec motor

 

Correct, I don't have VTEC and the ZC head I wanted to use for the more aggressive cam profile over the standard non VTEC USDM cams.