Building an LS All-Motor Monster
Just because you don't have VTEC doesn't mean you can't romp on others who do. In fact, the LS B18B1 motor is a very good starting point for building a good-power, street-able motor on a budget.
Let's take it in 2 steps- head and block.
The LS Head
As we all know, the LS head has horrible flow ratings in comparison to a VTEC head. No problem. With some machine work, a port and polish job can up the flow a good amount. A couple hundred bucks at the machine shop can increase your flow ratings significantly. Talk to your local shop and have them show you have they flow bench.
The intake manifold is also highly restrictive. A simple bolt-on upgrade to a Skunk2 intake manifold will help get some power in there as well. Paired up with a free-flowing header/high-flow cat/cat-back exhaust, you'll open up the lungs of the LS.
Cams: how big do you want to go?
Crower makes some good cams for a reasonable price. Coming in at nearly half the cost of VTEC cams, LS cams are a bargain. With the savings over a VTEC came, there will still be budget left over for the much-needed valvesprings and retainers. If you don't plan to upgrade the springs/retainers, I would not recommend taking this motor above the stock redline. Valve float IS an issue in the LS motors after redline with stock springs/retainers.
For a street car, the 44[/ATTACH]
b18b1
ported head, crower valve train
crower 403 cams, stock cam gears
jdm p30 pistons
stock LS rods
stock LS computer - no vafc or anything else of any kind for tuning
stock header
stick & filter short ram intake
2 1/2" dc sports integra exhaust hacked to fit a hatch.
which gave this dyno:
and this a/f ratio for that pull:
As you can see, it runs pretty rich from the mid range all the way up.
And that was good enough for 150 whp. That's just behind gsr territory.
With tuning, there is easily a 5-10 hp gain.
With cam gears (which Crower recommends a degree tune), there is probably another 5-10 hp gain.
With an aftermarket header and a real intake, probably another 2-5
With more rpms from a tuned computer, there's a bunch of top end left. remember, this was the stock b18b1 ecu. (cams are said to be good for 8500)
After all that, on the dyno- Bill had a bad pcv valve, which was making him suck in oil and smoke like crazy while doing the pulls, so I'm sure that was robbing him some power.
For under $2000 for the full swap, build, and parts, Bill put together a hatch that walked HARD on b16 SiR powered hatches - on the stock LS tranny - and could easily hang with modded GSR's.
Roughly, 160-170 wheel horsepower is obtainable with this setup and a couple bolt-ons, runs on premium octane gas, and will surprise a hell of a lot of people when they ask you what you got- and you tell them, "LS". "What??!?!?!? no Veeetechk y0!?" "nope."
Happy building
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