New Guy w/built JDM B16

We may earn a small commission from affiliate links and paid advertisements. Terms

rex2hatch

New Member
Hey guys, how's it going! I am new to this forum and I am also new to owning a Honda! I wanted to post in this motor build thread because I have questions and know little to nothing about building a honda motor and have not experienced the power to weight ratio effect with them as well! I recently blew the motor on my subaru wrx after tuning it on e85 through Church Automotive tuning. A week after Sean tuned it I had misfires on the freeway as I was pulling and I do not have the money to keep on fixing and rebuilding this subaru anymore. It has cost me a lot of headaches and over the 3 years I have owned it and it seems like its time to move on. Btw, before the motor crapped on me it was dynoed at 327whp/315wtq on a ej20. Anyway the reason why have brought this is up is because I came across a dude at the shop who wants to trade my non-working subaru for his 94 eg hatch. I want to know if what I am getting is worth it and what kind of power I can look to get out of it once I take to the dyno. Here is a list of the mods:

1994 Civic hatchback (NEVER BEEN CRASHED)

Sound dampening removed
Buddy Club P1 XL race seat
Buddy Club low down seat rail
Behind dash clean up- metal, AC, Heater and firewall pad removed
Custom behind dash battery mount
Odyssey battery
Custom wire tuck with fuse box relocated to behind dash
JDM p30 chipped burned with spoon program specs to closely match build

Has also provided this for tuning: P28 socketed and fitted with Hondata S200

Skunk 2 short shifter and weighted knob
Carbon hood
Carbon trunk
Carbon duck bill spoiler
USDM 32mm ITR 5 lug brakes
Kosei K1 5 lug race wheels
Kumho racing slicks
Apexi N1 coilovers
ITR front and Rear sway bars with energy suspension poly urethane bushings
ARC half core civic radiator mod’ed to clear race header

Not sure which header is on the car now but they are heat wrapped:
Rage side swept race header
DC 4-1 header JDM ITR style with 2.5 inch collector

2.5 inch test pipe
1995 civic SI hatchback axle back muffler
Skunk 2 flat black axle back canister muffler
JDM B16 short block
Toda forged pistons ( 11.5 compression )
JDM B16 Vtec head with light polish on intake side
Buddy Club Valves
Buddy Club Springs
Buddy Club titanium retainers
Buddy Club spec 4 Cams with custom anti-ware / anti-friction coating
ITR intake manifold ported at throttle body and ported runners
STR 70 MM Throttle body
65 mm Throttle body
JDM ITR intake arm and box
JDM CTR N1 Racing crank pulley
AEM fuel rail
AEM fuel presser regulator
Custom fuel line rerouting all AN- fittings and AN fuel filter
Wallbro 255 fuel pump
RC 310 cc injectors
Custom vented and baffled valve cover stock wrinkle black
Custom catch can
Custom shaved valve cover custom gloss white and non-wrinkle
ACT 6 puck unsprung clutch
ACT pressure plate
Fidenza aluminum flywheel
1998 JDM ITR transmission with 4.9 final drive
Hasport black anodized medium hardness motor mounts

I tried to delete the mods that do not provide any power such as cosmetic modifications, however I might have left some on the list by accident. Sorry for that. So that hatch weighs about 1800 or less pounds and I just want to know or have a guesstimate on the possible power this b16 will make. It is a fresh build with zero miles on it. Thank you for having patience with my lack of knowledge and will continue to do as much as I can to learn more and more about honda b series and k sereis motors!
 
Welcome to the site!

Do you have any pictures of the car? Based on the list, there has been quite a bit of money thrown into this thing. have you ridden or driven it yet? The car will be very quick. More so than any stock or lightly modded 1st gen wrx. One thing I can tell you about a civic with no sound deadening, hard motor mounts, aftermarket exhaust, and a 4.9 final drive is that thing will be LOUD AS FUCK and rattle like a bitch. Just letting you know in case this will be your daily driver.

It looks like there is a bunch of high dollar stuff inside that motor. Make sure it's actually there. Anyone can claim it's there when it isn't readily visible. Also - is that thing tuned? With those cams, injectors, and compression, some generic "Spoon Chip" isn't going to cut it. Most likely blow it up sooner than later. Make sure it's dyno tuned on that S200.
 
Thanks bro for responding to my thread! I have 1 pic on my phone but wouldn' be able to upload it to my IPAD haha! I have seen it in person though, and the setup under the hood looks very clean the only thing I noticed that is stock still is the airbox intake. No, I have not driven it yet, him and I are waiting on a new AEM fuel pressure regulator to come in the mail. When it was ready to start up for the first time, it wouldn't start ended up finding out that when we took the fuel rail regulator apart, the little rubber circle inside of it had a small tear and was leaking fuel before the injectors. It's a small fix and I have yet to test drive it! In terms of the ecu chip in it now, according to him, he said his buddy burned a spoon program onto the p30 chip he had and closely matched as best as possible the spoon engine build setup to what the b16 has all in it now. He said it's just a temporary custome burned p30 chip to run on until I tune it with the Hondata s200. At first I started to do research and realized that spoon does not make a chip for a p30 ecu and that threw a red flag, but once I asked him what it exactly it was he told me his friend new how to custom burn a spoon program onto the p30 chip. So not sure if this is possible or not, but unless I tow the car from oceanside to either long beach or ontario for bisimoto, I will have to limp the car up to get it dynoed anyway. Any suggestions on that and also, what kind of power and motor reliability will I have with this high compression setup?? Will the rings burn out quick because of the high compression or will the motor have longevity and take abuse?? Thank you 99sidude!!
 
Seriously I would run away from this so fast! Why would anybody dump that much money in a build just to burn a "spoon" chip on it. Also why would anybody build a motor but not upgrade the intake, injectors, header, or intake Mani.

Seriously dude to me it sounds like some one is passing off a stock engine as a built engine
 
Before you do any trading I would ask the guy to tow it to bismoto so you can get a dyno pull that way you see what powder it makes, that engine should pull at or above 190
 
So just to see if I'm getting this correctly, the DC 4-1 headers and the ITR intake manifold and ported throttle body are basically stock?? And the injectors are stock too? I plan to take it to the dyno asap once it runs anyway, but I do agree on double checking first...
 
DC headers are about the cheapest junk header you can but for $50

ITR intake is a Stock IM flows just as the B16 mani

ported TB is another cheap way out and a modified stock part

Seriously dude these parts are maybe 10HP or less on a B16

Also you list two different headers and two throttle bodies. not to mention it says P30 short block and then you add aftermarket Pistons? a short block is a complete bottom end pistons and all.

Clear things up, Im just making sure you don't get robbed, your dealing with a monkey off the street for a modified econo box not a salesman at the Mercedes-Benz dealership.

all in all its your choice and not my problem
 
One of the headers is on the car now and he is giving me the others just to have as extra, the original block that has been completely rebuilt at this point WAS a jdm b16 short block,mother p30 is the modified ecu I was talking about earlier so im not sure what your saying but it's all good. I definitely appreciate you telling me about the headers and the the intake manifold and throttle body though! It's good to know! I'll check on the internals by pulling the valve cover off and even if the chip is garbage I can still get dynoed with Hondata right?? So assuming the car IS the way it is now, I should be looking to barely under 200hp? Thanks again for the responses! I'm learning as I go!
 
I would also pass on this if you don't know what you are doing. being new ot hondas, it doesn't sound like you are certain about most things.

Think about what your car is worth.
even if this hatch is mint and has everything it says it does, it would still be a hard sale for 6500 bucks.

If you replaced your motor with an off the shelf swap in the subby ($3k?) and sold your car, could you get more than 9 grand for it? I think you could.

You're on the off-side of this trade. And that's before you get into dumping money into someone elses money pit that you have no idea what they did with it.

It it was running, turned, driving, etc, it might be a different story.... but as it sits, i would pass on this.
 
and totally off topic, but this is not the first time i've heard of this church auto blowing people up....
 
I want to know if what I am getting is worth it ...


Sound dampening removed


No

Ok, I'll elaborate, hell no.

B nailed, your Subi is worth more probably without an engine than you can get for a whoknowhowit'sbeendriven modded Civic, and I don't even like Suburus.
 
Last edited:
Cool thanks guys! You don't know how much I don't want to get rid of my suby, but if you guys must to make better sense of my situation, I 2 weeks left in Cali and my wife and I are driving back home to Texas where we are from. I am getting out of the military and I need a car to drive to and from school and work. The bad thing is that I still owe on the suby and as how it's not running right now I have NO car at all. I do not have the money or cash set aside to drop a new motor in and tranny assuming I go 2.5l block, and even if I parted out the suby, I don't think I will get 9k for used parts u know. Now lets say I sell it for As Is, then I still won't get 9k to pay off my loan. So this will put me careless with no cash to buy a new car and stuck with a partial loan still. When this opportunity presented itself to me, I decided to consider since I NEED a running car and assuming this civic is what it is suppose to be, these seemed like the best overall option since I'm still losing out either way. So how I looked at it was lose out and have no car or lose out and have a running car...
 
Cool thanks guys! You don't know how much I don't want to get rid of my suby, but if you guys must to make better sense of my situation, I 2 weeks left in Cali and my wife and I are driving back home to Texas where we are from. I am getting out of the military and I need a car to drive to and from school and work. The bad thing is that I still owe on the suby and as how it's not running right now I have NO car at all. I do not have the money or cash set aside to drop a new motor in and tranny assuming I go 2.5l block, and even if I parted out the suby, I don't think I will get 9k for used parts u know. Now lets say I sell it for As Is, then I still won't get 9k to pay off my loan. So this will put me careless with no cash to buy a new car and stuck with a partial loan still. When this opportunity presented itself to me, I decided to consider since I NEED a running car and assuming this civic is what it is suppose to be, these seemed like the best overall option since I'm still losing out either way. So how I looked at it was lose out and have no car or lose out and have a running car...

Just get the cheapest running engine that will fit easily into your car, get back home, settle in, and then work on getting a real engine for it. Hell if I was in that situation I would put a POS CX engine in my car if I had to.
 
yup, you can probably find a $400 buick on craigslist that will get you home if necessary. ship your stuff home later when you can.
 
Well, I'll definitely take into consideration all of everyone's input, it's much appreciated! I hope what ever I decide ends up working out for the best for me financially in the end.:)
 
It must take skill to blow up an EJ motor on E85. What the hell were those guys doing?

Anyways, the car will be loud as shit if it really is down to 1800lbs. You will hate driving it on the street.
 
Back
Top