First off let me introduce myself since this is my first post. I am 20 years old and from Rohnert Park, CA. I have been reading stuff for a few moneth and just recently got tid of my 87 Supra Turbo bought a 91 integra.
I have been going over posts for the few months and been trying to decide what to do when I got the car. After tossing out putting in a B16 or maybe a b18c I decided just to rebuild the motor and turbo since I realzed I will probably miss the oomph I used to get in my turboed supra.
At point I dont plan on going with alot of boost. I am really just looking to get somewhere inbetween 190-210hp reliably. This will be my college car for the next few years and I would like to not have to worry about another major engine overhaul in that time.
My question is this. I plan on tearing down the motor and rebuilding not only so it will be more reliable but so I have the experience. What kind of build up should I go to achieve my goal reliably. Will the stock pistons and rods reliably do that? What sort of mods to the head should I do to make it run better with the turbo? Alot of posts tell you how to build up the car for big turbo but I dont plan on boosting a whole lot so how much of that is necessary for a small amount of boost?
Thanks for the help guys and I look forward to seeing what you guys have to say.
it doesnt run really great right now…it has like 180k miles and burns a bit of oil. A rebuild will be necissary pretty soon and I just need to know if I should just build it to stock or will some aftermarker internals give me a more reliable ride?
well if you’re rebuilding you might as well get forged pistons and rods so you can turn up the boost later (and believe me when the bug bites, it doesn’t let go).
piston rings, rod/main bearings and thrust washers, valve seals, cam seals, and pretty much every gasket on the engine.
A light port and polish would be ok…for more airflow into the head you are going to want to get an aftermarket Intake manifold, cam gears and maybe turbo cams if you have the dough for all of this. That would require you to upgrade your valve train as well and thats def not necessary for the low HP #;s you are looking for.
I am sure there is a ton of seals and bearing I will need to get but $3000 seems a bit low. Please let me know what else big I am missing. Keep in mind that I will be building this for turbo but will be running the car NA till I save for the turbo parts and break the engine in.
i wouldn’t go with SRP pistons. for $400 you can get CP’s custom made to any compression ratio you want ($100/piston), any bore you want, anything. the SRP’s are a high-silicon forging, which is bad for forced induction.
if you haven’t yet, look into rocket motorsports cams and valvetrain. the retainers are a snap fit into the spring, so you don’t have galling issues like with pretty much every other brand (including crower). the cams also have longer duration to help the upper rpm powerband (which is sad on the LS platform, even with crower’s cams). The head needs the valves to be open longer more than it needs to be open farther in order to breathe better in the high rpm’s.
the 14 engines i’ve built didn’t need retorquing at all. sounds like another internet bandwagon to me. not to mention the way i was laughed at and hung up on numerous times when i called aebs and asked when to expect head studs out for LS engines. apparently nobody uses just LS engines anymore, EVERYONE who builds something with a LS block uses a vtec head on top.
oh and it’s not like ARP has been in business for very long either. :roll:
the reason people are claiming ARP’s suck and they “have to be retorqued” is because those fools didn’t install them correctly the first time, causing them to lose their torque spec. i too fell for this rumor until i started building engines for people locally. ARP was the stud of choice because it was the same price as AEBullShit and we didn’t have to wait 2 weeks to get them. the first couple engines were built 3 years ago–haven’t had to retorque any studs yet. the first engine we actually went to retorque and they didn’t need it; they were already right on spec. wasted half my saturday afternoon on that misleading information.
How many of those motors have you actually checked after the break in period?" just that one? Maybe you got lucky there and figured they would all turn out that way. A customer just came in for a routine headgasket, tbelt, water pump, and supplied me arp studs. They were torqued properly, and sat overnight. Come in and the morning to “double click” all of them before finishng the job, and guess what…They were all at least 6-10 ft lbs less than they were the night before. It has been this way many a time with engines on stands that we were assembling. And just so you know, we are tool whores and dont use a 60 dollar crafstman torque wrench, snap-on digital all day long(calibration is checked bi-monthly)…
AEBS studs have a dimple below the threads which causes the stud to bottom out and “preloads” the threads. We use these in any motor we build, unless the customer supplies the ARP’s, even then i will try and sway them. Not because im on AEBS’s jock(i think their sleeves are a waste of money), but because their studs are a superior product. Call me crazy, but we have built numerous motors in the 400-600whp range and why take a chance with a customer who is making that kind of power?
not a single engine i’ve built yet (nowhere near all of them honda) has needed retorquing. :shrug:
like i said, after the way i was treated by AEBS’ “customer service” department, they’ll be lucky if i ever buy ANY of their products or recommend them to others. How long has AEBS been “making” head studs vs. ARP? And i use making in a loose sense with AEBS, since 99% of their R&D AND production is outsourced by other companies, and they just rebadge the shit and sell it as their own.
tell me what people did before AEBS “came out” with their version of headstuds. used ARP. for how many years? what, you’re saying that until AEBS started selling studs that every engine would either blow up or need to be retorqued? come on, i know you’re smarter than that.
who supplies top fuel dragsters? definitely not AEBS. you go ahead and use the stuff you want to use. i’ll stick by the company that has far surpassed them in terms of product development, customer service, customer relations, and long-standing history of all of the above.
Many ppl choose to retorque the head studs(if they need to) because ARP even recommends you retorque them. But on a side note. 500miles after my ARPs wwent in, I took the cams out, etc(damn VTEC head pita) then after all taht found uot my ARP studs were still perfectly torqued only one was maybe about 5 pounds less. My other engine I’m nuilding tho I bought AEBS… :giggle: Onyl cause. with ARP studs. you do hear of them needing retorquing in some cases, weather it was installation error or not. I’ve yet to hear someone ever having AEBS studs back out any so weighing out the pros and cons and the fact that theyw ere the same price pretty much, and the fact taht I’m lazy, I decided to go with AEBS. It’s more just personal preference these days. Just because it’s semi new, doesn’t mean it’s not as good. As for your customer service dealings, that’s too bad But I have yet to hear of one company that doesn’t have one bad customer service rep that someone has experienced
many people don’t know this, but i don’t discuss customer service experiences with any company after just one or two instances. i wait until i can see an established pattern before i make any decisions.
well since frodo is thinkin of rebuilding his motor for his turbo i’m curious to know how i would know if i need to rebuild mine. i bought my teg with like 180k on the guage but i’m not sure if that’s what the real mileage on the motor is…it still runs very strong and i used to be able to chirp when i shift into 2nd(auto) but since i haven’t driven it in like 2 months the motor seems in pretty bad shape…i’m thinkin maybe a tune up or somethin may do the trick for me…anyways it’s a b18a and i’m wondering what i’d look for to know if i have to rebuild it or not. just like him i plan on just running maybe 7-8 psi and lookin at 190-210 hp reliably…don’t really want to spend more than 1500 total and i plan to make my own turbo kit…i kno i may not be that specific but i’m still learnin about all this…
well unless you already have the turbo kit I dont think your gonna get very fard on $1500. From what I know and have read about integras that your gonna either need to put a kit together yourself or buy one and that is gonna cost you somewhere between $2000 and $3000. Maybe some of the more experienced people could tell you more but from what I know you really have no chance of rebuilding your engine and putting a turbo on it for $1500.
But I have yet to hear of one company that doesn’t have one bad customer service rep that someone has experienced