Which engine?

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Battle Pope

Battle Pope

Well-Known Member
After I pay off some debts and such I plan on saving up for an engine swap. I rock a '95 DX Coupe (see sig for details). My question is as follows: What b-series would be the best swap for daily driving? B18 LS? B18 GSR? B16 SiRII? I don't want to do an OBD conversion, so I believe I'll be looking for an OBD1 motor.

My main concern here is drivability. I want something with more power than I have (at this rate I think a sewing machine is more powerful :p) without messing with it too much. Basically I am interested in having enough power to, say, pass on the highway, or maybe put some snotty EX drivers in their place ;). Torque isn't a big deal, but I have heard that the B16 is particularly lacking in it. I don't know how the B18 family is on torque, but I know I probably won't be going GSR if nothing else than because of price.

So what would you swappers recommend? B16SiRII, or B18(insert proper non-vtec engine code here)? Also, what are my options on going LS/VTEC? Does this require any engine building or is it just a head swap? I'd like to avoid building the motor any because I don't need it to go very fast and the most I'd ever do on it is light (50 shot or under) nitrous... Plus, it's addictive and progressive. Once I'd start I'd end up a year later 10k in the hole with a bulletproof engine that I'd never use to potential :p
 
I would go with the B18C1 but if you are trying to look for the cheapest straight forward motor I would say and the b16a2 would be your best option because it is already vtec has a good amount of power and as long as it is tuned right it could easily take a 50 shot of nitrous.
 
hmm, thats odd, everyone recomended a b18c1, which is what he said he didn't want to do. b16 is cheapest, also in the same category is an h22, hehehe. you could also do an LS. any of those swpas should be good enough for what you are looking for.
 
After checking prices, GSR seems reachable but ITR is still out of the question. I might not be doing the swap at all - just weighing my options heavily at this point. I dunno, the B16SiRII is nice and cheap for a good engine and all, but it is painfully torqueless.
 
the b16 gearing is good, but the GSR 1.8 is very good also.

hmm...not to deter you from picking the GSR, but my hatchie with the SiR2 motor would walk on GSR swapped EJ's (92-95 coupes), I shouldn't say walked but beat them by about 2 cars or so, maybe more...well atleast back in the day.


If you check online what I maybe recommend is buying a JDM GSR longblock (which I have seen for sale for around 2k with harness, ecu) and if your lucky get a decently priced B16 hydro tranny. Either way your going to want to run a p28 remapped for your motor for ease of install. Of course it will probably be a little cheaper buying a complete usdm GSR swap,.....oh well I don't know - you could also save up for the grand daddy of them all for the Jspec ITR swap, choice is yours....
 
If you are at all mechanically inclined, I suggest building yourself an LS/VTEC. If you look in the right places or have a decent parts hookup you can build yourself a very potent motor for not much money at all.
 
look around, you can find complete ls swaps for under 1500 bucks. that'll give you a nice boost in hp and especially torque, require the least wiring, and gives you a good base to build on later. its no the fastest out of the box, but it will be a better around town motor than a b16, which barely has more torque than your d15.
 
I would honestly just swap in a straight B20. If you're not planning on going inside the engine, it's perfect. You get more torque than any other B block, and if you want to spray a 50 shot on it, it will handle it with no issues. Good research should be able to find you one for about $2000.
 
reeeeally... thanks Calesta, that's a darned good idea. Does anyone know is Hasport or someone makes mounts for that?
 
It mounts in just like any other B series engines. Just don't get a B20A- those are the really long stroke versions that don't hold together very well under stress.

B20A = early 90s Prelude, 81mm bore 95mm stroke
B20B/B20Z = 97-00 CR-V, 84mm bore 89mm stroke
 
The B20Z has higher compression and thus puts out slightly more power. Either way, you'll need to convert to OBD I which isn't hard. Just use your existing harness and get an OBD I distributor from an LS. Also, depending on the year, you may need to get yourself an LS intake manifold to replace the "waterfall" style that came on some of them.

Good suggestion, Mike. I didn't think of that, but a straight B20 with a hydro B16 tranny would definitely be peppy. ;)
 
Originally posted by Battle Pope@Jul 13 2004, 11:18 PM
reeeeally... thanks Calesta, that's a darned good idea. Does anyone know is Hasport or someone makes mounts for that?
Click to expand...

dont need em. for a b20b, you'll need an ls intake manifold, (see if you can find an obd1 one from a 92-95 teg, complete with sensors and wiring harness, makes life easy). different sources say different things about the b20z manni, i wish i could tell you one way or the other, but mine already came with a obd2 ls on it. and stock mounts for any teg motor work. b20z has higher compression (9.6 vs 8.8 for the B) a better intake manifold, and i belive a bit more agressive cams and a better flowing head. the ls head flows better than both b20 heads.
 
with the b20 engine can you run a turbo on it since the compression is 8.8:1? and you can get the b20 engine for 1000 or less with good research.
 
Yes, you can definitely run a turbo on it. If you don't want to go too big and have the time to put in for good tuning, you could hit 300whp reliably on the B20 block with some mild boost.
 
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