Hey what's up good Honda people? I have about 160xxx miles on my b18a1 with i/h/e so before disaster strikes I wanna rebuild or swap. I'm wondering if a mildly built b18a1 would be better than a b16 that will be eventually stroked to a b18? I already have the b18 but I plan to stuff the bottom end with itr internals and do some head work... port, polish b16 cams after market valves, springs etc. etc. . I don't usually race but sometimes I gotta put suckas in their place. I would daily drive it about 80 miles per day. I was thinking b16 because of vtec and high revving plus more horse power stock but I would miss my torque. Ok so basically is it worth building my b18 or buying a b16 and later stroking it... both will serve the same function. Any ideas will be greatly appreciated. Oh yeah I'd be running a b16 cable tranny with LSD and LS 5th gear.

honestly i would just do ls/vtec if your gonna rebuild the bottom end

I thought of ls vtec but after some research decided that ls vtec is a no go for me at this time.

ok then i would just do a b18b, just cuz it will cost you a lot less money building a 1.8 nonvtec than a stroked 1.6

Sounds good, but is the B18B more powerful than a b16a?

depends on the build perception... if you actually stroke the b16 to 1.8L, you are pretty much gonna have to sleeve the block which costs a lot of money (1000$). a 1.8L vtec motor will put out more power than a 1.8L non-vtec if you had unlimited money. the cylinder heads on the LS motors do not nearly flow as good as a vtec head. now u can spend around 2-3 grand in head work to have the ls head flow roughly the same as a stock vtec cylinder head, but its not worth it. how much money do you have to spend. For like 2-3 grand or so, you could rebuild the ls bottom end with b16/forged pistons, crower cams, valvetrain, and maybe some nitrous and make well over 200whp. The torque that you get out of the LS will be a lot better than a 1.6 vtec motor.

Nice! All I have is about 2-3k to spend and thanks for clearing up the confusion for me.

honestly this is what i would do if you have 2-3k to spend...

stock crank w/new bearings etc...
forged pistons and rods (if you are going to spray)
b16 pistons (P30) if all motor...compression will be around 11.5:1 with two layer Headgasket
ARP rod bolts/headstuds
crower valvetrain and crower 403/404 cams (depending on how aggressive u want it to be)
all the bolt ons (Intake/header/exhaust/Intake Manifold/throttle body/velocity stack etc...)

The machine work will prolly cost around 500 for them to assemble the motor together, then add about 1000 for bolt ons and around 1500 for internal parts and you got a good 1.8 non-vtec that will put around 170-180whp depending to the turner (but dont quote me on that)

It will be another $530 to balance and blue print the bottom end with new bearing.

i agree with integraguy04. i use to run a similar set up in my crx many yrs ago b16 trans with a b18a block stuffed with forged rods and the p30 pistons i kept my ls head and had it ported polished 3 angle valvejobb done and ran new factory retainers with crower dual springs and a set of kms swirl polished valves i believe they were and ran 403 cams it was a very fun set up strong pull.

When I'm not dd I'm feeding my car some speed. I plan to either rebuild or swap my motor in mid to late February. I want to be sure I got the right motor for what I want it to do. I got bout 3gs but only really want to spend half. I'm surrounded by s-10s wit 4.3s and some 350s neons cavaqueers and other import haters. my b18 holds its own but she's tired, I want power and reliabilty so would a built b18 be enough or should I jus swap? I do my own work just not the machine stuff and if I gotta blow 3gs it is what it is I just want the right set up.

it just all depends what you want out of your motor, and what you want to do with the car. i think a solid b18a/b is a fun little motor and awesome in terms of reliability and maint. costs. its not gonna make peak power like a b16, wont rev like a b16, so if thats what you want, swap it. but, if you rebuild your b18a, (all new bearings, freshened up crank, forged rods and pistons, gasket kit, bore and hone,) you could have a good, rock solid motor. If you really want more power and you want to keep your LS, look into some forced induction?!?! haha, these motors can be easily built to reliably handle boost, ya know... good luck bro, im in the same boat, but im starting from scratch, so LS motors were too cheap to pass up.

Thanks for all the info now i'll make it do what it do.