Ok guys, I’ve been rebuilding my 91 rs for a year now and its getting close to the time I put my b20b in. I’ve already got my header, intake, exhaust, high flow cat, ys1 tranny with new clutch, crank pulley (ebay), tokico’s 5-way coilovers, 17’'volks, and the full energy suspension bushing kit. I’ve got everything installed except the motor. I was waiting to put it in last incase there was something I wanted to do to it that was easier to do while it was out.
The things I was wondering about are cams and cam gears, and arp bolts. I’m hoping that I can get some good opinions on what would work best for my setup. This will be a dailey driver (about 20-30 miles a day). I’m ok with a rough idle as long as it doesn’t die all the time. Are all aftermarket cam gears similar?
I’d like to put arp bolts but I’m unsure on which bolts are the most important ? I do plan to rev it higher than the stock redline after I rechip my ecu.
Any info will be deeply appriciated because it takes me to long to make a decision and I need help making up my mind.
ARP rod bolts are cheap insurance since it’s less than $30.
Not all cam gears are the same. Some do not have the proper degree makings which can make tuning diffcult. I’ve read that some have marks that are actually 2°.
Well first of all, what’s the point of revving your car higher if it doesnt make power higher? You rev to your HP peak, and after that, you’re just hurting yourself.
So you want cams that can make power up in the higher RPM range. And to make use of those cams, you should put in higher compression pistons. And to do that you may need to bore, and you either way you will definitely have to hone. And attached to those pistons you should have some high strength connecting rods that will hold onto your pistons. And you should have some ARP rod bolts holding those connecting rods in place to your crank. And in between the crank and rods should be some new bearings. But there’s no point to new bearings unless you polish the crank.
Do you see where I’m going with this?
A lot of $$$$$
Don’t screw with your motor’s internals at all, unless you wan to spend a lot of cash.
you’re asically right but you don’t have to be so negative about it,
first of all the stock rods are fine for his build, i’ve never seen anyone bust a rod with a N/A LS/B20 build, upgrading to arp rod bolts will do.
But you are bang on about the relationship between compression, cams and ultimately the powerband. spamhater, in order for you cams to make power higher than redline you will need to use cams with bigger lobes than stock, the bigger the cam the higher the compression ratio it requires to perform to it’s potential.
Now, there is some middle ground, for example crower 403’s run fine on stock CR and I’ve seen these make power up to 7500rpms, the 404’s however will cause alot of losses in the low-end because the 9.2 CR is just too low, and in that case you would want to replace the pistons/hone the walls/replace bearings.
The other thing to remember is even if you go with the 403 set-up, that doesn’t require new pistons, you will still require the ARP rod bolts in order to raise your redline, and to install these properly the rods should really be removed from the engine which means you’re goin into your bottom end anyways.
None of that info was negative to me. That does help me understand a lot better. Now lets say I go with the 403’s and get my friend to shave the head then get some decent cam gears. Would that setup be ok without the rod bolts? I really didn’t want to go to far into the motor. It only has 25k miles on it, but I would if it was as easy as turning the motor over and having the bolts right under the oil pan like I think they are.
IMO, don’t bother with higher lift and duraton non-vtec cams. If I were you, and had a few more dollars laying around, I would go CRVtec. That would really make use of the cylinders’ volumetric efficiency.
Pretty much the B20 is a bored over, and stroked LS motor. The heads are next to identical–in regards to flow, and OEM cam lift and duration. A Vtec head should be your next focus IMO, because they simply will outflow a non-vtec head, pretty much hands down.
Building up a non-vtec head, is just an uphill battle. And in the long run, if you plan on gradually improving the Vtec head it is a much better platform to work off of.
Say for instance, you take the B20head, and port and polish, 3 angle valve job, get oversized valves, Ti valves, springs, retainers, big crower cams, mill/resurface the head, etc…
After all of this, most likely the B20 head will have similar flow rates as a STOCK GSR head, or maybe a B16 head!
but you would have the reliability of stock oil passage ways and wouldn’t have to risk everything on the builder who puts your engine together.
I think LS/VTEC is awesome, i just hate the amount of risk you need to take when building one, how many posts have you seen of freshly built ls/vtec’s burning oil? if you have a builder that has done dozens of ls/vtec’s then he knows what he’s doing and there isn’t much risk, however if your builder has never done one before then you’re the giunea pig,
imagine spending $2000-$3000 on an engine build only to have the engine blow up 6 months down the road.
besides, the LS bottom end can’t handle the revs that the VTEC heads are built for, so it doesn’t matter what the flow rate is @X RPM, the bottom line is the LS block can’t rev high enough to ever BUILD a setup with the vtec head, its better in my opninion to either build the LS to it’s max potential under 7500rpms, or just buy a VTEC engine.
Yeah I’d love to build the crvtec but I feel the same way about being the guiney pig and it would be my first build up. I’d rather keep it an ls.
So I guess the best option for getting the most out of this motor without FI or vtec would be 403 Cams, cam gears, P&P, and mill the head. The good thing about that is I can put all that on once the motor is in. That way I can get a feel of how this car is going to perform before and after mods. Another good thing about my old b18 is that I can build that head up and just swap it out with the b20 when I’m ready. What about putting a gsr nonvtec head on the b20? Would that be the same as doing all the head work to my b20 or b18 head?
Thanks in advance for all the advice you guys are giving me,
