Honda tech is full of a bunch of stuck up guys that think just because they blew a ton of money on stupid things, but actually learned from it, they know all there is to know. The reason you see more "younger guys" here on HAN is because H-T is normally so abrasive to people with post counts under 100 that they go elsewhere. More than one "tech guru moderator" on honda tech has proven themself a complete and utter moron in engine matters for me to ever pay much attention to that site other than their large competition forum.

That said, I see more an more people bringing up the ZC for it's cost benefit. The thing to keep in mind is that in it's day, the ZC was a factory hot-rod engine, just as the B18C5 was later. Highly tuned and high-strung from the factory with the tranny gearing built solely for fast accleration. When comparing a B16a to a ZC, the thing I always have to look at is streetable potential. The ZC is a decent engine, but when it comes to boost or nitrous, the ZC is a ticking timebomb 8 out of 10 times. The main reason is because of a common Honda fallacy; a bad air bias to cylinder #3. Usually the only remedy to keep #3 from grenading itself is to run the whole engine on the rich side, which costs you power anyways because you end up with one cylinder running properly and 3 running rich versus the usual 3 running properly and 1 running lean [dangerously lean if you're relying on more oxygen in a poorly designed intake manifold]. Sure, there are other manifolds you can bolt up to a ZC, but none of them really solve that bias problem.

On the other hand, the B16, although much more expensive, is a much better engine if your goals are to build to the sky's limit. The aftermarket for this engine is much more widespread, and in fact is still being supported and developed. Besides the obvious advantage of a much higher usable redline, the B16 also has the advantage of much more transmission gearing options that you can't really find for a ZC. I know money doesn't grow on trees, but unless you just want a mild bump in power and want stock handling on stock suspension, the B16 would get my vote, even though it is far from my favorite engine to recommend.