General Tech Articles

Quick answer: Short block = the engine block without the head (block casting, pistons, rods, crank, etc.) Long block = the complete engine, including the head (engine from valve cover to oil pan) A short block and/or long block are NOT substitutes for what most companies sell as a "complete changeover package". These changeover packages typically include the transmission, ECU, and other accessories you'll need to make the engine run in your car. If you buy just the long block, you'd better have the transmission/wiring/ECU for your application- and if you buy just a short block, make sure you have the proper head as well.

There are two main battles about break-in. First, is the easy break in. Personally, I don't buy this anymore. But, for the record- here it is anyway. Let the engine idle for 10 min then idle at 2000 rpm for 10 min. turn car off and let it settle for about 5-10 min. 0-200 miles. Try to keep the highest rpm under 3000 rpm. Every 15-20 miles, spin the engine to 4500 rpm in first and sometimes in second gear. 200-400 miles. Try to keep the revs limited to 3500 rpm. Raise the revs rpm to 5500 with the same frequency as above. 400-600 miles. Go to 4000 rpm for driving limit. Raise the revs to 6000 - 6500 rpm and include 3rd gear pulls, same frequency as above. 600-800 miles. 4500 rpm driving limit. rev it to 7000 rpm and...

Adjusting Cam Gears By: Adam Pilchak This procedure was performed on my 94 del sol with a JDM b16 sir II swap. It will be the same on any b16 engine and you can more than likely follow a similar procedure on any b series engine. First, make sure the car is not SUPER hot. You will need to remove the valve cover to do this job, so make sure the car is cool and all that stuff. Also, click the images for a larger version. First, gather all your tools: 19 mm socket wrench, timing light, 10mm socket wrench, 12 mm wrench, 12mm socket and a good set of Metric Allen wrenches. In order to change the timing on a b series engine with the valve cover still intact, we need to remove it. This can be accomplished by taking off the 8 chrome...

Lost motion assemblies are basically valve springs for the VTEC followers in your valvetrain. The normal intake/exhaust followers have valves and valve springs to press against so they're not flopping around all the time, but the VTEC followers don't. The LMAs help to control their movement. I took some pictures a year ago when I was swapping out my LMAs. I went ahead and marked one of them up real quick so you can see exactly where the LMAs sit and what they look like: The picture is of a B16 head with the cams removed. You can clearly see the cam journals and the retainers on top of the valve springs. The rubber banded items are the cam followers. The center one is the VTEC follower, and the ridge in the middle is what...

All obd 1/2 B series are 240cc's saturated All obd 1/2 D series are 240-cc's saturated 1992-96 Prelude non-vtec Peak and hold 240cc 1992-96 Prelude VTEC Peak and hold 345cc 1997-up Prelude VTEC Saturated 280cc

Unsprung Weight - Part 1 By: Eric Albert Introduction Every car built today has some type of suspension on it. Whether it's a double-wishbone or a MacPherson Strut design, we, as tuners, need to know a little more about suspension that just 'dropping' the chassis down a little bit. Let's take a deeper look at what exactly the job of your car's suspension is. Suspension on the Clock So we all know that suspension works. It works for you, but it never gets paid. In the same way as you and I work, we probably have different jobs. Suspension is no different. There are a few different ways your suspension works. The main job of your suspension is to suspend your car above the road. If that was the only reason for the existence of...

ECU Modes There are 2 main operation modes for the ECU. Open Loop OPEN LOOP - this is the mode your ECU is in until the coolant temperature and a couple other sensors get to operating values. The ECU also runs the car in open loop when you are at Wide Open Throttle (WOT) or if there is an error condition causing a check engine light. Limp Mode Open Loop can place the car into a fault condition called Limp Mode. The concept is that something is wrong and the ECU will allow you to 'limp home'. This means, rpm limit around 3k and pulls timing/fuel to generate just enough power to drive it home. This condition helps protect the engine components from further damage and saves you a tow to bring it home or to a shop for repair. If...

How to Solder In these photos I'm changing the plug connector and replacing a missing bulb socket on a taillight I got at the junkyard. That's not the point though. The point here is to show you guys how to solder. I see a lot of crap wiring out there. It's scary, it's just bad and there's no reason for it. Soldering doesn't require any expensive equipment or any great skill. It takes less than $50 for tools and supplies and maybe a couple hours practice. Tools Required: *100 Watt soldering "gun" from Sears or Radio Shack $30 **wire stripper from Harbor Freight $10 Supplies spool of .032 solder electric "black" tape ***spool of 18 gauge stranded wire inline fuse holder (depending on what you're trying to make) split loom aka...

How to Remove a Steering Wheel with an SRS Airbag Ok, so today I started my intermittent wiper project. I have read threads about it being a plug and play deal, but IT IS NOT. Ones without the intermitent wipers, do not have the plug in the back of the switch. Now, chances are that it is taped up under the dash, with the power mirror and sunroof switchs, I have seen them, but in my time constraints, I couldn't look around for it. So I will update this when I find it.... This how to can be used to say replace your steering wheel with a new high speed one, or do the intermitent wiper "mod" or just or some maintance under there, but are nervous about playing with your SRS. First step is to disconnect BOTH positive (+) and negative (-)...

Okay, after seeing how messed up my tires looked after the 30.5mm drop from the Tein SS coilovers, I decided it was a good idea to get a camber kit and fix my camber problems. I went with a Skunk2 front camber kit (which I got new for $175). The kit is very simple. It comes with two adjustable upper arms. The install is simple enough but Skunk2 does not provide any instructions, so I figured now would be the time to write up a how-to article. :) Here we go: The Skunk2 camber kit [attachmentid=44] you'll need these tools [attachmentid=45] First, jack up the car and take the wheel off. I started on the driver's side (left) first. [attachmentid=46] Look at the tread... ouch [attachmentid=47] A couple pics of the OE upper arm...

Unsprung Weight - Part 2 By: Eric Albert Introduction In the first part of this series, we took a look at the effects of high unsprung weight on suspension and handeling. In this part, we will look at rotating mass. Be careful not to confuse unsprung mass with rotating mass. Reducing both is good, but they are not the same. Let's take a look. Rotational Inertia (or Momentum) Rotational inertia is a concept a bit more difficult to deal with than unsprung weight. Inertia can be thought of as why a car wants to keep rolling once moving, or remain in place once stopped (unless you forget to set the parking brake on that hill). I believe the terms momentum and inertia are interchangeable. The term “flywheel effect” also refers to these...

Here's a quick lesson into how and why you'd want to solidify your motor mounts. Let's start with a little bit of theory. Back in the day, engines were just bolted to the frame rails of the cars making for very little inter-chassis movement(engine moving inside the car). This was ok, because with a V8, the power hits every 45 degrees alone the axis so the vibration is distributed pretty evenly over a circle. However in I4 configurations, the power hits every 90 degrees of the crank turn and it's momentum sometimes is transferred forward or backward depending upon where in the cycle, each cylinder is. This is why they came up with rubber engine mounts, that look something like this: This flexibility makes it so that the harsh...

I take no credit for this... but i built mine own according to this article. https://www.autospeed.com/cms/a_0353/article.html bought my materials at rad shack for $20 open it up. the microphone was cut off of the circuit board. take care to not forget the polarity. i wired up 6ft of wire and soldered it to the mic, then stuffed it into the alligator clip and secured it. repeat on the other side. i used green for negative and red for positive. put it back together and test it out. works best with a friend. put the headphones on and clip the "mic" to something that makes noise (like the fridge... or your cat!) turn it on and listen! and that is how we do it.

By: Adam Pilchak B18C5 intake manifold onto a JDM B16A SiR2 The Integra Type R intake manifold is designed to utilize high-end power. It combines a large, high volume plenum with short intake runners to produce high end HP and torque. This item can be acquired from any Acura dealership with the part # 17100-P73-A00, and is a great combination with CTR or ITR camshafts and a header, to increase overall airflow. Start by removing the b16 intake manifold from your engine. This can be accomplished by removing the 10 nuts that hold it to the cylinder head. You also need to remove the intake manifold support bracket; this is a black mount underneath the IM. There are three bolts holding that to the block, and two holding it to the IM...

Think about what R/S means for a second. Rod length / Stroke length. All it says is that ideally your rods are 1.75 times the length of you stroke. Now if you stop and consider why that ratio is so "good". The longer your rods are compared to you stroke the smaller the angles are between vertical and rod position as the pistons travels up and down. Envision a cross section of an inline reciprocating piston engine. As the piston starts to climb from BDC the rod forms an angle with vertical at the wrist pin. If you have taken any physics this is pretty basic. Think of a force diagram illustrating the forces acting on the wrist pin ( for simplicity sake assume that the piston and wristpin are one unit). The larger the angle between...

Computing The Compression Ratio of a Motor By: Dennis Adams Compression Ratio To measure compression ratio of an engine there are two variables you need to be familiar with. One is swept volume and the other is total chamber volume. Swept volume can be thought of as the displacement for a single cylinder or the area a piston travels from bottom dead center (BDC) to top dead center (TDC). Total chamber volume is all the area above the piston at TDC. This area includes the piston dish volume, the piston valve relief pocket, ring land volume, compressed gasket volume, piston to deck volume, combustion chamber volume of cylinder head. Some other factors you'll need to know engine displacement, cylinder bore, and cylinder stroke. The...

Choosing the Correct Wheel By: Chet Hewitt Overview: Aftermarket wheels play a major role in the import performance scene. In many instances the first “upgrade†made by auto enthusiasts is getting alloy wheels. Usually, these wheels are “plus sized†and chosen for their looks. However, most people fail to consider all of the aspects concerning this very important piece of performance. Alloy Wheels provide superior strength and are usually lighter compared to steel wheels. There are some misconceptions that are often overlooked. Bigger wheels are not always better and “mag†wheels are not usually magnesium. Hopefully this article will help in making an educated decision when purchasing a pair of alloy wheels...

There are many things you can do to increase the power of your engine. I'll briefly list and explain just a few ways. 1) Decrease air intake temperature --Decreasing the air intake temp causes more oxygen molecules to fit into your combustion chamber, which then requires more fuel for combustion. This causes the combustion reaction to explode with more pressure, and more power. Hot air intake would not allow as many oxygen molecules to enter combustion, hence making a weaker air/fuel combustion reaction. 2) Increase the intake flow --It is very important to let the combustion chambers of your cylinders recieve as much air as possible. With a restricted air flow into the cylinders, it creates more resistance when the crank has to...

Originally posted on the now defunct: http://www.geocities.com/chipman_13/AN-NPT.html AN and NPT Fittings Chart "AN" Thread Sizes AN sizes, originally developed for use by the U.S. Armed Forces ("A" for Army and "N" for Navy), describe the outside diameter (O.D.) of tubing in 1/16-inch increments. For example, an AN 2 fitting will fit a tube with an O.D. of 2/16", or 1/8", while an AN 8 fitting will fit a tube with an O.D. of 8/16", or 1/2". Because the actual thickness of tube walls can vary from brand to brand, the inside diameter of a tube is not used as a reference. You will also find the dash (-) symbol or the word "dash" itself used in conjunction with AN sizes. A "dash six" fitting translates to AN-6. AN fittings and JIC...

How to: Leakdown and Compression Tests There is some confusion between the leakdown and compression test. They are two different tests that test two different things. In this article, we will explain the basics of how to do each test, and what the results mean. Compression Test: To do a compression test, you remove the spark plug and put in the gauge. Remove all the spark plug wires from the dist or just undo the coil if so equipped. Now turn the key with the throttle wide open and keep cranking the car until the gauge reading rises as high as it seems it is going to go. Repeat those steps for all the cylinders. You want all the numbers to be somewhat close of each other. If some are way low, you know you're losing compression...