2.0 Liter Forced Induction Build Part 1!
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Honda-Tech Member
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From: Carbon Fiber Land, USA
2.0 Liter Forced Induction Build Part 1!
So I figured I'd spice things up a lil bit in this forum. This is by no means a great how to, but a step by step documented turbo build. Please feel free to comment on anything, I am by no means calling myself a great motor builder. Just trying to help a lil and add some more technical information to the website.
Well to start things off, this motor will be using parts I got from Robert and Tom. Robert and I have talked over the phone and discussed the specs for this motor.
Engine-
2001 B18C5 Darton Sleeved MID 2
CP 7018 9.7:1 84.5mm Pistons
Rocket Motorsports H Beam Rods
ACL Rod/Main Bearings
To start things off the block was stripped and prepped. I had the machine shop bore and hone the block to 84.5mm and cleaned as well. Thanks Lou's Machine Shop for not screwing this up. The last machine shop overbored, so that is why the block is at 84.5mm now. Remember do not hot tank Honda blocks. Once I got it back I cleaned the exterior and interior of the block.
TIP: Make sure the block has no metal shavings anywhere, especially in the oil/coolant passages. After the block was prepped I started the build.
The block:
Essential Tools and etc-
Feeler Gauge
Complete Ratchet/Wrench Set
Torque Wrench
Assembly Lube
Plastigauge
Plyers
First thing I like to do is piston to end gap. This will also give me a chance to check to see if the bores are straight. I cleaned the walls using brake clean and Lacquer thinner and wiped down the cylinders walls.
Tip: Wipe down the cylinder walls till the paper towel does not pick up anymore residue. You should be able to take a clean paper towel and wipe down all the cylinders and not get anything on the paper towel. You want to do this so you get a accurate piston ring end gap measurement.
Once I was done cleaning the bores I sprayed the walls with a thin layer of WD40. After the bores were lubricated I then started taking measurements. I separated the ring sets and wrote down on each bag which ring set is for what cylinder. This was also a great time to label my rods, rod caps, and pistons.
Tip: Make sure you label the rod cap as well so you don't mix those up. That would be a pain in the *** if anyone including myself got those mixed up.
Once everything was organized I took the first ring set and removed the top and middle ring from the corresponding bag.
Rings Specs-
Top Ring .019
Bottom Ring .021
I inserted the ring into the matching cylinder.
Tip: Use the piston to push the ring evenly about 4 inches down. Take the feeler gauge out and measure the gap. With my experience CP Top rings tend to fall at .011 every time. The bottom rings usually falls at about .020. So there is quite a bit of filing to do on the top ring.
I recommend purchasing a manual piston ring filer. They usually run about 50 bux, and are a good investment. If you don't build engines a lot then this will be quite suitable. There are electric filers available, but they are about 200 bux. I recommend that for a person that does engine building on a daily basis. Another option is to use a nail file "takes forever" or a dremel with a grinding wheel "real fast so be careful not to take off too much material off the ring". Whatever you do keep the ring flat on the file so you do not produce a angle. This will give you a even/flat file and make sure the ends of the rings butt together properly. So take the ring out and file it down till you file it to spec. When you reach the desired gap you should feel a slight drag when you slide the feeler gauge between the piston ring gap. Also make sure your rings are seated evenly in the bore to assure proper gap measurement. When you measure the end gap with a feeler gauge, make sure to take measurements 1" from the top, 3" from the top, as well as 5" from the top. Make sure that no matter where the ring is placed within the bore the readings are consistent. If they are not even close to each other then there is something wrong with the bore. Either it's out of round, or was not bored properly. This is critical because ring seal is part of the foundation of making big power.
Each motor will be different, but most people like to use bore size x .0050. To figure out the bore size multiply your bore size x .03937.
Example:
84.5mm x .03937= 3.326
Now take the bore size 3.326 and multiply that by .0050= .016
That is a good place to start; if you are going for those big numbers then I recommend them a lil larger.
Image of Piston to end gap.
Image of Piston pushing ring into cylinder for measurement.
Piston to end gap can be time consuming. Take your time and make sure you do it right. Making good power requires good ring seal and proper clearances. So don't sketch out on this. Once I got my measurements and proper clearances I put the rings back to its corresponding bags and started on my Piston/Rod Install.
For this build I chose to use the Beefy Rocket Motorsports H Beam Rods. They come standard with 3/8 APR2000 bolts. Not only were these affordable, but they would hold up to the power I planned on making with this build. After matching the pistons to its matching rod I started installing the C-Clips. PAIN IN THE BUTT. This can easily be frustrating to someone that has never done it before. Take your time and make sure you have a pair of plyers handy. I started inserting 1 C-Clip into each pistons first. Once all the pistons had 1 C-Clip installed I then moved on to install the wrist pins.
Tip: When installing the rod to the piston. Make sure the side where the bearing notches are located on the rod are installed on the Exhaust Side of the piston. This is a critical step and should not be ignored.
Once I got the rod bearing notches on the exhaust side I installed a wrist pin with some assembly lube into the piston/rod. The wrist pins slid PERFECTLY into the rod with no binding at all. The rods were machined exactly to the size of the wrist pin. After I did that to all 4 pistons I installed the last 4 remaining C-Clips. Also make sure the groove where the C-Clips fall into are clean before installing the clips.
Image of installed rod. As you might notice there is a slight knick close to the C-Clip surrounding area. Do not be too worried about that, you are probably going to slip the plyers or screwdriver a lil bit. Your probably going to make a few scratches like me. As long as your not destroying the piston and taking chunks out you will be fine.
With the rod and piston together I started installing the rings onto the pistons. The rings will only fit into its designated groove. It is really hard to screw this up. This was quite easy and did not take long to do.
Tip: When installing the rings make sure to have the marker facing up. Also be careful with the CP middle ring, it can be a lil fragile.
Image of marks on the rings I mentioned. Make sure they are facing up.
Image of assembled rod and pistons. That is Sta-Lube Assembly Lube. As you can see in the picture each rod is labeled with a cylinder number.
Now comes the fun part! Measuring bearing clearances and checking out how good these ACL Bearings are.
Mains should be around 0.0015-17
Rods should be around 0.0017-19
First things first..preperation. I started cleaning the main journals/caps with brake clean. The crank was next and that was cleaned as well. When everything was residue free I started installing the bearings. Once the bearings were installed I got the crank and carefully placed it into the engine. When the crank was installed I went on honda-tech and got the main cap torque specs.
b18c 1, 5 caps are 56 lb-ft
b18c 2,3,4 caps are 49 lb-ft
I placed a piece of plastigauge onto each journal and torqued the main caps to spec. I checked the clearances 2 times to make sure I was getting a accurate reading. As you can see the clearances are perfect. 1 and 5 are a lil tighter, but not much. The pictures speak for themselves. I am very pleased with the ACL Bearings. They came within spec and as you can see all are pretty consistant. The rod bearings were just as good and I got a reading of about .0017-.0018.
The safest and most convinient way to measure rod bearing clearences is with a crank holder. If you do choose to install the rod/piston into the bore and measure it that way then you must be careful to make sure the rod does not hit the crank journal on its way down. Big Teggie from the Rocket Motorsports makes a nice crank holder that is affordable and good quality.
Images of bearing clearance.
Summary:
I prepped the block and cleaned out the bores. Started off measuring the piston to end gap. My clearance of choice [Top: .019 Bottom: .021] After measuring the piston to end gap I assembled the rods and pistons. With that finished the piston rings were installed onto its matching piston. The assembled rods were set aside for now and the bearing clearances were measured. The ACL bearings came within spec and the clearances were consistant. I have always used OEM bearings till now. Like I said, I am very happy with the results.
Part 2:
I will install the assembled rods/pistons into the block. This will require me to use my piston ring compressor tool. I will also finish installing the crank and start on assembling the rest of the motor. That will include installing the oil pump, water pump, and other pieces.
I'd like to thank Robert, Earl, and Tom for help with the parts as well as there technical input. They have been a great help and have always been willing to help me with technical question, even ones that have nothing to do with this build up. Thank you guys!
Also I would like to thank honda-tech and the RM board. I have been doing this build without a helms manual. It just shows how well the search function works as well as the technical knowledge that is avaialble on honda-tech as well as RM. I by no means recommend doing a build like this without a helms manual. I personally just chose to see how much useful information there was available online as well as the rocket motorsports board. I do own a helms manual and I highly recommend it to everyone that chooses to build there own motor. But if there is ever a chance you may not have it with you, then honda-tech probably has the answer you may be looking for. Such as torque specs, bearing clearances, torque sequences, and other useful information.
Modified by BodyKits NW at 8:26 PM 2/12/2004
Modified by BodyKits NW at 5:28 PM 2/13/2004
Well to start things off, this motor will be using parts I got from Robert and Tom. Robert and I have talked over the phone and discussed the specs for this motor.
Engine-
2001 B18C5 Darton Sleeved MID 2
CP 7018 9.7:1 84.5mm Pistons
Rocket Motorsports H Beam Rods
ACL Rod/Main Bearings
To start things off the block was stripped and prepped. I had the machine shop bore and hone the block to 84.5mm and cleaned as well. Thanks Lou's Machine Shop for not screwing this up. The last machine shop overbored, so that is why the block is at 84.5mm now. Remember do not hot tank Honda blocks. Once I got it back I cleaned the exterior and interior of the block.
TIP: Make sure the block has no metal shavings anywhere, especially in the oil/coolant passages. After the block was prepped I started the build.
The block:
Essential Tools and etc-
Feeler Gauge
Complete Ratchet/Wrench Set
Torque Wrench
Assembly Lube
Plastigauge
Plyers
First thing I like to do is piston to end gap. This will also give me a chance to check to see if the bores are straight. I cleaned the walls using brake clean and Lacquer thinner and wiped down the cylinders walls.
Tip: Wipe down the cylinder walls till the paper towel does not pick up anymore residue. You should be able to take a clean paper towel and wipe down all the cylinders and not get anything on the paper towel. You want to do this so you get a accurate piston ring end gap measurement.
Once I was done cleaning the bores I sprayed the walls with a thin layer of WD40. After the bores were lubricated I then started taking measurements. I separated the ring sets and wrote down on each bag which ring set is for what cylinder. This was also a great time to label my rods, rod caps, and pistons.
Tip: Make sure you label the rod cap as well so you don't mix those up. That would be a pain in the *** if anyone including myself got those mixed up.
Once everything was organized I took the first ring set and removed the top and middle ring from the corresponding bag.
Rings Specs-
Top Ring .019
Bottom Ring .021
I inserted the ring into the matching cylinder.
Tip: Use the piston to push the ring evenly about 4 inches down. Take the feeler gauge out and measure the gap. With my experience CP Top rings tend to fall at .011 every time. The bottom rings usually falls at about .020. So there is quite a bit of filing to do on the top ring.
I recommend purchasing a manual piston ring filer. They usually run about 50 bux, and are a good investment. If you don't build engines a lot then this will be quite suitable. There are electric filers available, but they are about 200 bux. I recommend that for a person that does engine building on a daily basis. Another option is to use a nail file "takes forever" or a dremel with a grinding wheel "real fast so be careful not to take off too much material off the ring". Whatever you do keep the ring flat on the file so you do not produce a angle. This will give you a even/flat file and make sure the ends of the rings butt together properly. So take the ring out and file it down till you file it to spec. When you reach the desired gap you should feel a slight drag when you slide the feeler gauge between the piston ring gap. Also make sure your rings are seated evenly in the bore to assure proper gap measurement. When you measure the end gap with a feeler gauge, make sure to take measurements 1" from the top, 3" from the top, as well as 5" from the top. Make sure that no matter where the ring is placed within the bore the readings are consistent. If they are not even close to each other then there is something wrong with the bore. Either it's out of round, or was not bored properly. This is critical because ring seal is part of the foundation of making big power.
Each motor will be different, but most people like to use bore size x .0050. To figure out the bore size multiply your bore size x .03937.
Example:
84.5mm x .03937= 3.326
Now take the bore size 3.326 and multiply that by .0050= .016
That is a good place to start; if you are going for those big numbers then I recommend them a lil larger.
Image of Piston to end gap.
Image of Piston pushing ring into cylinder for measurement.
Piston to end gap can be time consuming. Take your time and make sure you do it right. Making good power requires good ring seal and proper clearances. So don't sketch out on this. Once I got my measurements and proper clearances I put the rings back to its corresponding bags and started on my Piston/Rod Install.
For this build I chose to use the Beefy Rocket Motorsports H Beam Rods. They come standard with 3/8 APR2000 bolts. Not only were these affordable, but they would hold up to the power I planned on making with this build. After matching the pistons to its matching rod I started installing the C-Clips. PAIN IN THE BUTT. This can easily be frustrating to someone that has never done it before. Take your time and make sure you have a pair of plyers handy. I started inserting 1 C-Clip into each pistons first. Once all the pistons had 1 C-Clip installed I then moved on to install the wrist pins.
Tip: When installing the rod to the piston. Make sure the side where the bearing notches are located on the rod are installed on the Exhaust Side of the piston. This is a critical step and should not be ignored.
Once I got the rod bearing notches on the exhaust side I installed a wrist pin with some assembly lube into the piston/rod. The wrist pins slid PERFECTLY into the rod with no binding at all. The rods were machined exactly to the size of the wrist pin. After I did that to all 4 pistons I installed the last 4 remaining C-Clips. Also make sure the groove where the C-Clips fall into are clean before installing the clips.
Image of installed rod. As you might notice there is a slight knick close to the C-Clip surrounding area. Do not be too worried about that, you are probably going to slip the plyers or screwdriver a lil bit. Your probably going to make a few scratches like me. As long as your not destroying the piston and taking chunks out you will be fine.
With the rod and piston together I started installing the rings onto the pistons. The rings will only fit into its designated groove. It is really hard to screw this up. This was quite easy and did not take long to do.
Tip: When installing the rings make sure to have the marker facing up. Also be careful with the CP middle ring, it can be a lil fragile.
Image of marks on the rings I mentioned. Make sure they are facing up.
Image of assembled rod and pistons. That is Sta-Lube Assembly Lube. As you can see in the picture each rod is labeled with a cylinder number.
Now comes the fun part! Measuring bearing clearances and checking out how good these ACL Bearings are.
Mains should be around 0.0015-17
Rods should be around 0.0017-19
First things first..preperation. I started cleaning the main journals/caps with brake clean. The crank was next and that was cleaned as well. When everything was residue free I started installing the bearings. Once the bearings were installed I got the crank and carefully placed it into the engine. When the crank was installed I went on honda-tech and got the main cap torque specs.
b18c 1, 5 caps are 56 lb-ft
b18c 2,3,4 caps are 49 lb-ft
I placed a piece of plastigauge onto each journal and torqued the main caps to spec. I checked the clearances 2 times to make sure I was getting a accurate reading. As you can see the clearances are perfect. 1 and 5 are a lil tighter, but not much. The pictures speak for themselves. I am very pleased with the ACL Bearings. They came within spec and as you can see all are pretty consistant. The rod bearings were just as good and I got a reading of about .0017-.0018.
The safest and most convinient way to measure rod bearing clearences is with a crank holder. If you do choose to install the rod/piston into the bore and measure it that way then you must be careful to make sure the rod does not hit the crank journal on its way down. Big Teggie from the Rocket Motorsports makes a nice crank holder that is affordable and good quality.
Images of bearing clearance.
Summary:
I prepped the block and cleaned out the bores. Started off measuring the piston to end gap. My clearance of choice [Top: .019 Bottom: .021] After measuring the piston to end gap I assembled the rods and pistons. With that finished the piston rings were installed onto its matching piston. The assembled rods were set aside for now and the bearing clearances were measured. The ACL bearings came within spec and the clearances were consistant. I have always used OEM bearings till now. Like I said, I am very happy with the results.
Part 2:
I will install the assembled rods/pistons into the block. This will require me to use my piston ring compressor tool. I will also finish installing the crank and start on assembling the rest of the motor. That will include installing the oil pump, water pump, and other pieces.
I'd like to thank Robert, Earl, and Tom for help with the parts as well as there technical input. They have been a great help and have always been willing to help me with technical question, even ones that have nothing to do with this build up. Thank you guys!
Also I would like to thank honda-tech and the RM board. I have been doing this build without a helms manual. It just shows how well the search function works as well as the technical knowledge that is avaialble on honda-tech as well as RM. I by no means recommend doing a build like this without a helms manual. I personally just chose to see how much useful information there was available online as well as the rocket motorsports board. I do own a helms manual and I highly recommend it to everyone that chooses to build there own motor. But if there is ever a chance you may not have it with you, then honda-tech probably has the answer you may be looking for. Such as torque specs, bearing clearances, torque sequences, and other useful information.
Modified by BodyKits NW at 8:26 PM 2/12/2004
Modified by BodyKits NW at 5:28 PM 2/13/2004
Re: 2.0 Liter Forced Induction Build Part 1! (BodyKits NW)
nice setup ....i got a similar set up just different sleeves, piston, rods same bearings and same bore......i just got done breakin my motor in waitin to get on the dyno
Honda-Tech Member
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 5,418
Likes: 5
From: Gresham, Oregon, USA
Re: 2.0 Liter Forced Induction Build Part 1! (GunMETAL_TEgRa)
Looks good Andy, I like it a LOT better cast then patchy silver/aluminum 
Now you just gotta get it back in your car 
Now you just gotta get it back in your car
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Honda-Tech Member
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 2,802
Likes: 0
From: USA
Re: 2.0 Liter Forced Induction Build Part 1! (BodyKits NW)
GREAT WRITE UP! Thanks! I really appreciate this writeup. Im just about to build my D and this is going to be of great use to me. It's people like you that really make Honda-tech a great place to learn for everyone 
Honda-Tech Member
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 3,105
Likes: 0
From: Scottsdale, AZ, usa
Re: 2.0 Liter Forced Induction Build Part 1! (int3gra)
too bad you didn't do this writeup about 6 months ago... i payed an arm and a leg to have a shop take a bazillion years to do mine 
damn good write up, VERY easy to read and in perfect detail
thanks,
ryan
damn good write up, VERY easy to read and in perfect detail thanks,
ryan
Honda-Tech Member
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 1,582
Likes: 0
From: Russian Mafia, dont, provoke, me
Re: 2.0 Liter Forced Induction Build Part 1! (BodyKits NW)
wow, this is great, you really spent a lot of time to get back to HT original roots, hope some more people appreciate your work. PS I guess you are looking for comments, when you get everything home wash with warm water and palmolive dont just assume its all clean and free of burrs from the shop. cheers!
Thread Starter
Honda-Tech Member
Joined: Jan 2000
Posts: 4,468
Likes: 0
From: Carbon Fiber Land, USA
Re: 2.0 Liter Forced Induction Build Part 1! (rtype11)
Why you should not hot tank your honda block.
Here is a link to answer this question.
Click here!
I have never used palmoilve. When I got the block back from the machine shop I cleaned it with Castrol Super Clean and used a thick wheel brush to scrub the motor down. If I ever run out of Castrol Super Clean I will have to try palmolive. After rinsing the motor I then sprayed the motor with brake clean to help dry the surface of the block. If you do use a wheel brush make sure you don't get any brissles in the block. With the block cleaned inside/out and dried I started to spray a few coats of Plasti-Kote Cast Finish [Part number #285] This gave the motor more of a natural look rather than the aluminum color I am use to using. I then sprayed the cylinder walls immediately with WD40 to prevent them from rusting and let the paint dry. The next day is when I cleaned the cylinders and prepped them to measure my piston to ring end gap. That is when I cleaned the cylinders out with brake clean and lacquer thinner to remove the WD40 from the day before and also to remove any grit that the machine shop was not able to remove completely.
Thanks for the compliment guys.
Here is a link to answer this question.
Click here!
I have never used palmoilve. When I got the block back from the machine shop I cleaned it with Castrol Super Clean and used a thick wheel brush to scrub the motor down. If I ever run out of Castrol Super Clean I will have to try palmolive. After rinsing the motor I then sprayed the motor with brake clean to help dry the surface of the block. If you do use a wheel brush make sure you don't get any brissles in the block. With the block cleaned inside/out and dried I started to spray a few coats of Plasti-Kote Cast Finish [Part number #285] This gave the motor more of a natural look rather than the aluminum color I am use to using. I then sprayed the cylinder walls immediately with WD40 to prevent them from rusting and let the paint dry. The next day is when I cleaned the cylinders and prepped them to measure my piston to ring end gap. That is when I cleaned the cylinders out with brake clean and lacquer thinner to remove the WD40 from the day before and also to remove any grit that the machine shop was not able to remove completely.
Thanks for the compliment guys.
Honda-Tech Member
Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 2,462
Likes: 0
From: 310, Ca
Re: (vietjdmboi)
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by vietjdmboi »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">dang.. thats a beautiful write-up..will come in handy for me one day.. </TD></TR></TABLE>
Junior Member
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 99
Likes: 0
From: Binghamton, NY, USA
Re: 2.0 Liter Forced Induction Build Part 1! (BodyKits NW)
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by BodyKits NW »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">hehe thanks for the compliment guys. I am pretty picky, I try my best to do things right the first time. </TD></TR></TABLE>
Absolutely nothing wrong with being picky when engine building. Good to hear
EP
Absolutely nothing wrong with being picky when engine building. Good to hear
EP
Honda-Tech Member
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 2,954
Likes: 0
From: Somewhere in South Philly, usa
Re: (1.8t)
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 1.8t »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">All I can say about that write up is </TD></TR></TABLE>
ditto Really good info for a rookie like me , I really appreciate it too. Goin into my favorites .
</TD></TR></TABLE>ditto
Really good info for a rookie like me , I really appreciate it too. Goin into my favorites .
Honda-Tech Member
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 1,222
Likes: 0
From: AZ
Re: (roydogg)
Nice write up, looks like u didn't mention one thing though. The ring end gaps have to be positioned so that none of them are on the thrust sides of the piston. The helms manual has a diagram showing exactly how to do that. Our motors are very similar, I have the 84.5mm CP 9.1 pistons, Manley rods and closed deck Dartons too.