ZC, D series, whoopty whoop

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U

UDT

Senior Member
Ok im gonna ask a few very basic questions seeing as how i have engines down in genral and im a B and H series kinda guy, i never thought i would be messing with a ZC so i never payed attenton to what people were doing and what does and does not work. I wouldint need to come ask this if it were gonna be for my B18c1 or something its just i have never done much reading on ZC/D series nor payed much attention to all the D series and ZC stuff going on.

I have a ZC i wanna build it. What can be done in the way of OEM honda parts to build it? I want as much power as i can get from it. what can i do? What kinda OEM stuff is there that can be mixed and matched with the ZC engines to make power. Whats every one else doing with there D series and ZC engines. Whats the best D series or ZC set up for power as far as the mini me swaps go? If any one has pointers tippers or stuff i should look for let me know. theses questions are all just to get responces on whats going on so as i can reffer to it when working on this project, an help in what my goals are gonna be for the build.

Pictures will be in a thread of there own in the regional/pecific forum some time tomarrow along with a few notes on the project and what are goals are.

HINT SCCA here we come ;)
 
The DOHC ZC is the bastard out of the D series engines. If you're talking about a SOHC ZC non-VTEC, you don't have any problems- you can treat it just like a D16A6... everything is the same except the camshaft.

The DOHC ZC already has the biggest dome pistons you can get from Honda for D block, so you can't really use any OEM parts to increase performance. There aren't any hotter OEM cams, and there aren't any stronger rods that will go in there- unless you want to stuff B18A/B rods in, and that doesn't really do much for you unless you add a turbo on top to take advantage of the stronger/heavier rods.

For the DOHC ZC, I would either bolt up a turbo and be done with it, or build it up with some aftermarket custom pistons to raise compression (or lower it for boost), then port/polish the head and get a set of custom cams to tweak for whatever power curve you're looking for.

If you have a SOHC ZC, you could always slap on a VTEC head and throw in some DOHC ZC pistons (12.0 to 12.6:1 compression), then port/polish the head and use a Crower stage 3 cam and matching valvetrain to get you to somewhere around 160whp or more, depending on tuning. Of course, bolt up a good intake/header/exhaust to help you get to those power levels.

What else do you want to know? There's a ton of stuff you can do to a D block to squeeze more power out of it without spending too much cash- just don't expect miraculous power figures unless you're willing to spend the cash for aftermarket internals.
 
If you have a SOHC ZC, you could always slap on a VTEC head and throw in some DOHC ZC pistons (12.0 to 12.6:1 compression), then port/polish the head and use a Crower stage 3 cam and matching valvetrain to get you to somewhere around 160whp or more, depending on tuning. Of course, bolt up a good intake/header/exhaust to help you get to those power levels
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Im likeing how that stuff sounds. And its a SOHC. If yo uhade a choice to build (all motor) a sohc ZC or a DOHC ZC witch would you go with? It seems as though with the pisstons from the DOHC in the SOHC might be a nice idea. We will shell for a cam for sure and the port and polish sounds good too. One thing with this crower Stage3 cam i asume will be required is higher lift valves ETC ETC is that going to be a must with the STAGE 3 cam?

And i just wanna say thanks alot celesta, i really trust you and im glad to see your going to be the one help me think this out........... (nudge, nudge) :p but yeah i thanks dude any other stuff you can think of off the top of your head as food for thought let me know. Right now F/I is out of the question and not do to lack of funding but more because of classification. I need to look threw some of the rule books more and see how were going to build this car.
 
the p29/pm7 pistons off the dohc zc and the free flowing z6 head should net you 12.1:1 compression. with the y8 head you'll be at 12.6.

the crower 3 you'll need the package valve spring/retainer. but just valve springs would be fine. but if it was me i'd get the package. port and polishing the head with a good 3 angle valve job should be sufficient if you're using the z6 head. the z6 head out flows the y8 head but the y8 head has better quench areas.

basic bolt-ons would be a good idea, the z6 IM imo would be replaced with the edelbrock IM and a 62mm b-series tb after being port matched to the IM should get you somewhere, bisimoto header and smsp has crazy headers for the d but quite expensive but worth it, 2.25 exhaust piping, hondata or the likes with a conversion to obd1 using the p28 ecu.

guys on d-series.org are pushing 160whp with the crower 2 and p29 pistons.
 
Ah, ok. I would definitely go with the SOHC ZC if you're going to build it for all motor. It's just that much easier. With the DOHC, you HAVE to go aftermarket to get static compression up into the 12s. There's only so much you can shave the head to raise compression. Aggressive all motor cams for the DOHC are also very hard to find. The SOHC VTEC cams are all over the market, especially because there are a ton of SOHC VTEC engines still out there- hell, they made them up to 2000 right? I'm not counting the D17A engines in the 2001+ Civics. The main disadvantage you have with the SOHC VTEC head setup is that you can't adjust intake/exhaust overlap. Adjusting the cam gear just shifts your power band up or down in the rev range.

I don't know about higher lift valves with the Crower 3 cam- I do think that you have to modify the followers to clear the bigger lobes on the cam though. Crower says that you have to modify some stuff in the head to make that cam work, but I've never done it or known anyone personally who used that cam, so I couldn't tell you. Call Crower and ask.
 
i emailed them a while ago and brian crower said that ecu tuning and a ported head with the proper spring package is a must. the usual stuff for a high staged cam.
 
quote=Arachnid,Oct 19 2004, 01:54 AM]i emailed them a while ago and brian crower said that ecu tuning and a ported head with the proper spring package is a must. the usual stuff for a high staged cam.
[post=404605]Quoted post[/post]​
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cool you guys thanks.

Heres a link two one picture we took, im too tired to post any more right now.

The link[
 
Nice one legged flamingo style JDM pose. :lol:

Originally posted by Arachnid@Oct 19 2004, 01:54 AM
i emailed them a while ago and brian crower said that ecu tuning and a ported head with the proper spring package is a must. the usual stuff for a high staged cam.
[post=404605]Quoted post[/post]​
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Ok, I was under the impression from other sources that some modification actually had to be made to the head to make the stage 3 cam work at all- something other than port/polish and springs/retainers, which would just make it work better. If not, then it's not a big deal. You should always upgrade the valvetrain, and a port/polish is a must to get the most out of any engine build anyway.
 
That's real nice of them to say. This is what they have listed on their web site:

Race cams requires cylinder head modifications and ECU tuning. Requires 84166 kit. 1000-8000+ rpm.
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They should give some kind of concrete information out to people who want to buy their product!
 
i remember coming upon a thread once where i think transex or someone mentioned that the head really did need to be modified (out of ordinary) to work with the camshaft.

blanco: 2 different guys 2 different answers. it smells fishy.
 
yeh, found the answer. transex says that you'll need to clearance the oil valley. but some guys with it in his y8 says it's good and makes huge power (butt dyno). and he had the c2 and switched to c3.

i think it's only a problem with the z6 head.
 
Originally posted by Arachnid@Oct 19 2004, 07:16 PM
yeh, found the answer. transex says that you'll need to clearance the oil valley. but some guys with it in his y8 says it's good and makes huge power (butt dyno). and he had the c2 and switched to c3.

i think it's only a problem with the z6 head.
[post=404925]Quoted post[/post]​
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Hmm. I have no clue. I guess I'll find out if I ever build a D block with that cam.
 
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