Ok let me get this straight,your friend took a DOHC ZC from japan (non vtec D series family) and swapped either a H,K,or a SOHC vtec head onto it right,because he definitly didn't use a Bseries,right?Now the crack pipe is really cooking.For one thing NONE of this heads is going to come anywhere close to fitting that block.The absolute closest would be a B series vtec,next the K series or H series.I don't even want to go into why a SOHC won't work.So which head and block did he have completely reworked for $450?Or are you trying to say that he went in and rebuilt the head to accomodate vtec function?Things like this you really want to be very clear about.
No matter what though the fact is that it was a waste of time and money for such a novel concept as being "original" to wind up below what would have been a cheap and easy swap.But hey nowadays it is trendy to not be trendy,so let everyone waste their time,I'll stick with the TRIED and TRUE track proven alternatives to stock motors.