I'm rebuilding an extra d16a6 in my garage, goals are mainly reliable daily driving, occasional road racing, and maybe a small 50 shot just for drags. I was planning on rebuilding it...except using the old pistons and rods too...but do these go out often when they get miles on them? I don't want to be in the middle of a track day when a rod lets go. Will they be fine if I use them again, or should I replace them with new stock ones? -sean

 

Since you are going to have the rods out anyway, might as well get them shot-peened for a little added strength. Or if you can find a set of 86-87 Integra rods, those would help strengthen the bottom as well.

 

Would you happen to know what the average price is for shotpeening? So the pistons usually don't go?

 

To answer your question.... heat, lack of lubrication, detonation, shock load, contamination, corrosion, lack of maintenance, and abuse of centrifugal force. Did I get them all?

 

pistons are only like $40-$50, that's cheap insurance if you're doing a rebuild anyway

 

i just bought a wagon with a d16a6 in it 122k on the car and motor. replaced the head due to a timing belt accident. after putting 200 miles on the motor with it all back together i broke a rod. not sure why it broke. im the third owner and the car had sat for a year before i bought it. i would say due to major lack of maintanance by the previous owner. it had an oil sticker on it that showed it being way overdue on an oil change. dont remember the exact numbers or even if it was the last oil change sticker. it all depends on maintanance or lack of, IMO.

 

40-50 each or for a whole set? What about rods usually?

 

dont shotpeen your rods, its a waste of money. shotpeening works great for the old domestic motor rods since they were made really shitty. for hondas they are actually litely peened from the factory. call a shop and ask them and theyll tell ya that peening honda rods only released very modest amount of strength from them, id use some aftermarket rods or the old zc rods which are suppose to be slightly stronger, or have heard people have been able to mod the ls rods and use them in d-series blocks.
usually people blow motors from from the head or rods. both are caused usually from high rpms or high hps.
face it if you rail the **** out of it only expect a 1-2 yr(s) life span from the motor and youll need to replace the tranny once a year since we always seem to blow ours

derek