ok, i've stayed out of this for along time now... but i think its time to step in and set somethings straight.
First lets talk cost. b16 sir2= 2500, b18b = 1500
myabe my prices are a little high- but i did them on both. this is considering everything to get it into a 5th gen.
Now, lets make things equal.
swap trannys- give the LS a b16 tranny. minus 500 for the sale of the LS tranny, plus 700 on a b16 tranny. for a total of 200. b18b now = 1700.
head work on the ls. i picked up a complete portflow'ed head, inners/outers/retainers/crower cams for 700 bucks. The LS will now rev to 8200 and make power up top. 1700+700 = 2400. minus the 100 bucks i got for selling my sotck LS head, minus the 50 i got for the stock cams/gears. The 250 we have left goes to chipping the LS ecu to use the revs that we now can. most people like Kenji, etc will chip it for less than that price. shit, maybe add an intake.
so now we have an equal cost, an equal redline, and an equal tranny.
for the same cost, the LS as described above would smoke the ever living shit out of the stock b16 sir2.
And Don't want to hear "yeah well we are talking stock for stock..." well, no were not. I don't know where you come from, but money is a BIG deciding factor to me.
You can't aruge that. I bet the LS dyno's comparable horsepower number to the b16, and the toque is probably 20-30 higher for any given rpm. who wins? i don't think i need to take this any further.
From day one of me being the influence on the LS motor on this site, I have stated that, "It is the BEST CHOICE FOR THE MONEY."