I’m fairly new to the board… but know honda’s pretty well… but obviously not well enough, because as you can see, I’m asking the question. Anyways - I’d like to swap on a vtec head. B16A, B18C… who knows… the question is, when OBD is involved, does it cause problems when swapping on any head besides the b16a1 ? Someone said to me, i should only use the old b16a head, because its nonobd… and thats what i need, when i swap that onto my nonobd block… But… If i swap on a vtec head… I need a new ECU to fully enable the new engine hybrid… so does it really matter? Someone please steer me clear here. Im kinda lost. Thanks.
TravB
first of all, do a search for ls/vtec, and go through the many pages of this forum. There are MANY ls/vtec posts, actually WAY TOO MANY.
it doesn’t matter what head you use. the head itself has nothing to do with obd. but the distirbutor, and injectors will. Go to the teg tips and download the vtec swap guide. This will help you out a lot. It will tell you what you need to do if you use different heads (just ignore the fact that the blocks will be different).
another thing, i’m about 99% sure there is no such thing as a b16a1. There are b16a’s (which are jdm), b16a2’s and b16a3’s, which are usdm. there may be some other b16’s made for different countries. But all you need to worry about are the jdm b16a’s (both generations: 89-91, and 92+), and the two usdm versions.
lastly, the ls/vtec isn’t cheap, and isn’t easy. don’t think you can just swap on a head and be done with it. In order for it to be reliable, and last a long time you’ll need to rebuild and strengthen the block… which is going to cost a lot. Personally i’d abandon the idea and just build a poorman’s itr. It’ll be about the same price (if not less), but it’ll rev higher safer, and probably be more reliable.