Originally posted by machinehead
guess that settles it 
The h23 is just as reliable as long as you dont rev it higher then it was originally intended. The only weakness i see is if you have the faulty bearings still in it, but that would break regardless of the head swap.
therefore, you will never hit 170whp because you will either rev it up high enough to DO that, or you will keep it within the limits of the h23 and never reach peak power........i guess the way you drive matters, but mine sees redline about 99.9% of the time.....i drive the hell out of it......building an unreliable h23vtec when honda makes one seems like a waste....the h23 from the JDM market is 2.3 liters, DOHC VTEC, not very popular so it's not super expensive, but just not the easiest to find...makes 200hp, works well together and HAS OIL SQUIRTERS.........i've seen people build their own and they actually got squirters to work in the h23 block, but then he spun a rod bearing after a 7000rpm run.......coincidence possibly, but it just seems like a waste to me.....not beneficial like the ls/vtec buildup is......only seen one dyno and it says it's worth all of -3 peak hp and the same peak torque, but 2 hp/4 tq down low under 3000rpm......and that's compared to a stock h22 that was simply tuned with a vafc.....