Well my buddy wants to up the compression on his 99 LS. I tracked down some ITR pistons and a set of eagle connecting rods for a grand total of $600 ($400 for the rods and $200 for the pistons). After calling a bunch of shops turns out the labor to drop everything in is going to run about $900. Holy crap!!!! that seems like a ton of dough. Can anyone either refer me to a good shop or tell me a cheaper way of doing this install. One shop suggested milling the head .040, but after what happened to fellow member non-vtec I am leary of such things. Please help Thanks

 

Umm..you can always do it yourself for much cheaper. Its really not that bad...REALLY. I did my first motor rebuild a couple weeks ago and I was amazed how simple it was.

 

haha............dont mill .040 you will only gain about .4 cr and it's hardly noticable. plus there are the negative side affects as well.

900 bucks for labour....well it is a big job. keep shopping around and you might find it for cheaper.

OR look around for a B18B short block and assemble it yourself. then just have someone swap then engine's..........and since you have the thing apart you can have the crank balanced and put all new bearings into it. it will be like a new engine........

 

I would....... except my friend lives 5 hours away and I am starting another *WONDERFUL* semester at my gay school soon

 

why do you need rods for? if youre just wanting to raise the compression..the pistons will do..while your at it..id go with the CTR pistons...higher compression. labor on it should be about 600 average if you have no hook ups. it is possible to do this without taking the motor out..where is mahattan beach? my only hook ups are in the orange county area.

 

Yeah, it's not cheap to rip the head off an engine. As already mentioned, you might as well replace the bearings and balance your crank. Might as well get back an engine that's as good as new for that expense

 

Rods are a good idea because he can then rev higher safely and make more power (if he has the correct cams) Since its out anyway..might s well do the rods too.

Remember however there are other costs..such s a top end gasket set you will need..which runs around $150 or so I believe. Also it is recommended to get new head bolts when you reinstall a head..so thast another $100 there.

 

if you're in cali, Kaizen can do it for a good price. just call them up at

562-981-2552.

or visit there website. which is below.

 

what makes them good? Can you vouch for them?

 

Well you could look in my sig and contact Brian at Prospeed. He built my motor, along with lots of other motors that pushed over 200whp. I can vouch for him, because i do all the swap work, he does all the internal work (i.e. headwork, block building). This means i work there. So it may be a little biased. But we do guarentee all of the work to make more power, can dyno tune if you want as well.

As others have said, it is alot of work to do the internals of a motor. At least to do it properly. One of my motos is get it done right the first time, or dont do it at all. If its not done properly, your motor may smoke, and it will not last very long.

BTW for around $1500 you could get a B20 installed in your car.

 

I just got my GS head milled to bump the compression to about 10.5, a race port and polish and the AEM rail/reg done. I am thrilled with the power gain in the midrange and the revs pick up so fast.


[Modified by 1QWKGS, 3:00 PM 7/26/2001]

 

1QWKGS: You can't get from 9.2 to 10.5 compression by milling the head? Do you have high compression pistons or have the combustion chamber welded?

Halo: What are you doing getting rods and pistons. I thought you're gonna do a B20Z turbo.

 

I believe its his buddy that wants the rods and pistons...not Halo himself


1QWKGS: Jesus...10.5:1 from 9.2:1? How much is that thing milled?! No problems with clearances?

 

My mechanic prepares a type r for a race team, he milled the head 40 thousand of an inch on the R, and they rev around 6000rpm to 9000rpm for 2hr stright and have never had a problem. My mechanic told me that the machine shop that he deals with, said that I would improve by just over a full point.

(I thought my compression was 9.4 stock, thanks for the correction).

 

Im sorry...Im no mechanic..but how is milling the head .004 going to raise compression 1 point? Someone stated earlier that .040 raises the compression around .4.

 

I also read that earlier, and I'm starting to have doubts about how much compression I have. The good thing is I didn't pay for the milling because I did the port and polish job, so he didn't charge me. But there is a BIG difference when I got this done, so what ever the compression is exactly it was worth it. I going to ask my mechanic again, and make him confirm with machinist how much my head was milled and I will ask about the ITR head and I will let you know.

 

I did some research...and heres what I found

The general formula says that for every 1 cc less head volume 0.1:1 increase in compression is gained. Every .010 milled is equal to 1 cc less volume.
So...the statement that .040 = +0.4:1 is correct.

So to raise compression a full point...you would have to mill the head 0.100...which I do not think is possible. The maximum you can safely mill a head is .050 I believe.

 

thanks for the info.

 

1QWKGS: Who did your port and polish? You said you noticed a good gain? Are you running stock or aftemarket cams?

 

The machinist who did my port and polish, makes custom race engines in Toronto and is really experienced. When I got my car back I didn't have the AEM rail/reg because I was waiting for them to be shipped, but the power had increased noticalbley. Yesterday they finally arrived and when it was installed what a difference the rail/reg made, even my friend with his ITR has it and when VTEC kicks in it feels like a kick in the ***. I recommend getting it's worth the $. My mechanic said that because of the better air flow due to the port and polish that it would make a big difference by adding extra fuel, and it did!!!!!! When I'm in first and second gear the revs shoot up so much faster especially past 5000rpm, it sort of feels like a mild vtec.

 

hmmm, i don't think the previously stated numbers/formulas are correct. in my case, my B18C1 was milled thirty thousandths (0.030") which raised my compression from 10.0:1 to 10.8:1. my guess is that 0.040" would bump you up one full point (to 10.2:1). that would bring the USDM B18C5 to 11.6:1 - i'm surprised a race team would mill instead of doing it with pistons.

 

The reason why the race team milled was, there was less of a chance of being caught in the post-race inspection, due to the fact that there are restrictions laid out by the series and one of them is stock compression, every team does it anyway because they never check that. And milling the head is much cheeper for the amount of power.

 

Go Mifune: How do you know your current compression was raised to 10.8:1 from 10.0:1...did you test it somehow are is that a guess?

Here are two links that support the fact that 0.010 = +0.1 rasie in compression.
http://ferrari.colowatch.com/php/sho...=&view=&sb=&o=
http://ferrari.colowatch.com/php/sho...=&view=&sb=&o=

Also..if your head was milled 30 thousandths...wouldnt have be represented by 0.003 and not .030? I kinda forgot my math here..but wouldnt .030 mean 3 hundredths...while .300 wouuld be 3 tenths? Correct me if Im wrong.

 

wow, i never knew post-race inspection was so hardcore (verifying you're using stock pistons). yeah, milling is cheaper which is why i did it but sometimes have regrets. you have to know what you're doing with your cam gears because of the offset. also, i wouldn't go FI at 10.8 so i'd have no choice but get lower comp. pistons. (where's that vortech for gsr?!?!)

 

yeah, all this math stuff is really fuzzy - i did all these complex math equations to find my CR but that was back in '96. when i went in to pick up the car they confirmed it. this was at group-a in hayward (z.speed>skunkworks>skunk2).
ok, 0.1 is a tenth, of course. 0.01 is one hundredth. 0.001 is one thousandth so the call 0.030 "thirty thousandths" - nobody says "i milled my head 3 hundredths" just like you don't say the gsr throttle body is "six centimeters."
i don't really see stuff in those links that i would take to the bank. when i have more time i'll try to find formulas and **** but i was gonna "really focus on work today."
+ enuf people here are milled so maybe someone will jump in...