if youve got it...has it been pretty reliable? a shop told me they could build be a good head with the gude (sp?) package and make it reliable but i'm a little nervous.

kinda sorta the same question: the shop also said i could give them a budget and they would build me the best head they could with the money i gave them....how much money would get me a good reliable swap?

 

a typical vtec head swap runs for about 1000. it differs a little from place to place, but should be in that area.

 

socal? 16 18 22

 

An LS/VTEC can be reliable, but it will take a bit of work and will end up costing you about the same as a B18C1 would in the long run. It's not simply a process of just bolting a VTEC head onto a non-VTEC block. You also need to change the water pump, timing belt and oil pump for VTEC versions and also installing a VTEC block girdle (which requires a lot of B18C1 parts or some machining to make it fit) and other parts is highly recommended. If you also don't have a more aggressively geared VTEC tranny, your really going to be hurting performance.

As for head works, the skys the limit on how much you can spend, but a good set of cams (skunk2 or CTR/ITR's) along with an upgraded valvetrain is probably going to set you back around $1000. A good valvejob and some port matching will also be around $800-$1000 but you would see solid performace gains from either. Seeya.

 

had it for 3 months no prblems so far..

 

if you do it right its perfectly reliable....

as for the block girdle... you can use the z10 girdle, it dosnt require any machining at all. the z10 kit comes with everything you need to put the girdle on the engine.

 

Andy: I agree on the water pump just because of my timing belt woes... But the oil pump for vtec engine is the same part number as a non-vtec one... Provided they're B-series of course.

Harry

 

I though the VTEC oil pumps had more pressure? Never checked for myself, but it makes sense considering the VTEC is activated by oil pressure and the squirters aren't going to help. I swear I remeber someone saying that you can shim a non-VTEC pump to work like a VTEC one but it's not the best solution. Maybe they are the same piece?

It might also have the same issue as the water pump. Since their both turned by the engine, they turn at the engine's RPM. An LS engine is never designed to go past 7000 rpm so that's where the pumps are set to turn their fastest. If you put a new head on and take it to 8000, they're going to spin too fast. I'm pretty sure the VTEC water pump is geared down to avoid this, I guess I assumed the oil pump was too. Seeya.

 

im getting ready to do ls-vtec

b18b1 block
b16a first gen SiR head

so what exactly does the z10 block girdle do ? do you guys recommend it for a daily driven ls-vtec ?

thanks, joe

 

The girdle kinda keeps things on the bottom end in check... especially at high-rpms. It's like this... the more u rev... the greater the forces are in the engine... and not all of those forces are simply pushing the piston/rod assemblies up and down... u have some "turbulence" ;-)

So the girdle keeps the main caps in check cuz it fastens them together to make them nice and stiff.

I don't recommend revving a stock LS bottom end very high anyways, but I'd definitely do it for the "added insurance"

btw, my LS/VTEC is finally done ;-)

Harry