How Can You Check For A Motors Age And Mileage?

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ASpec818

Junior Member
i just got a b18c1 swap into my eg. the seller claims its a 98 with about 30k miles. is there a way i can verify that?
 
after seeing an abundance of timing belts.. you can begin to see how much wear it takes at X amount of miles...

my swap.. we estimated there was about 50K on it because of how the timing belt was worn
 
Originally posted by Vexamus@Feb 19 2003, 12:08 AM
Cut it in half and count the rings. ;)

if you only have 6 out of 12 of the piston rings does that mean it is still growing or is it on its last leg? :lol: Also, this wont tell you the millage so much but a compression check along with a quick look at under the valve cover can tell you pretty well how the previous owner treated it.
 
No way to tell really--my parents are all paranoid about me buying the sol, they are making me spend 60 bucks taking it to 2 shops. I already test drove, and gave a compression/leakdown test :angry:

Unless you have the front clip, all you can do it look at the engine and guesstimate.
 
As far as milage goes you cannot tell unless you were there to verify what it came out of, because timing belts and things like that can be changed, as far as telling what year the motor was made look on the front of the block just above the exhaust manifold, there are several numbers on the the front stamped inside of little circles, one of them is last two digits of the year the motor was made, my JDM 2gen B16A has a stamp inside of a circle that looks like this ===> 9|5 meaning it was made in 1995, hope this helps!
 
hey krsvicic, are you sure about the circle with two numbers meaning the year? For my motor it says 9|9. does that mean it's a 99? The guy told me it was a 98 motor and the reciept from the auto junkyard said it was also a 98 motor. Can it be a 99 head or something?
 
well i was told this by a guy at the honda dealership and also i read it in a honda tuner book that i bought so yea it should be a 99, either way its only 1 year off, if it is a 99 and not a 98, and yes they could have put a 99 head on the block as well, as far as the block and head goes on the b18c1 motor they were all the same from the first year they were made until the last year, only difference was the wiring that was used to connect it to the car. They may have just wrote the wrong year by accident or changed the head for some reason, which would scare me cause why would you change the head unless something had gone wrong with it before u got it, anyway I wouldn't worry about it that much as long as the compression and leakdown tests were good and you don't hear any knocking u should be in good shape, but i hope u did get a warranty! Hope this helps.
 
Do a compression test and if possible pull the head and check the cylinders for wear, if there is little wear then you are set. If there is a large ridge at the top of the cylinder bore then the motor is high mileage and will need a rebulid.
 
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