Upcoming B16a2 rebuild and upgrade plans


B-SerialRacer

New Member
Joined
Jun 8, 2018
Messages
5
Car(s)
civic ek4 vti '99
Hi everyone!
I’m a proud EK4 hatch owner since 2007 and I have some questions about an upcoming engine rebuild that I’m planing to do in the near future. Before I begin I want to apologize for the long text but I’m in a serious dilemma and also I’m really worried about this process.

So, first things first. I’m the second owner of this car which I bought with 68.000km on its crank back in the day. Now it has 215.570! Maybe you will find this number extremely low comparing the 23 years that this car being in the streets, but it’s worth mentioning that it was my weekend car for a long time. I promoted to an almost everyday car the last 6 years. Back then and during all these years I’ve made some light mods such as:

- Bilstein B6 suspension
- HR springs
- Spoon torque damper
- oem airbox with a k&n drop in filter
- accel spark plug wires

- 4-2-1 Custom headers (the 2 secondary pipes between the OEM 4 pipes and the catalytic converter, are resized to 48mm)
- 200 cpsi high flow cat
- 54mm handmade cat back exhaust
- CRV calipers and 282mm rotors
- Exedy Stage 1 clutch

The initial plan was to keep it light modded and after a while I was planning to change the ECU into an AEM or similar aftermarket kind of stuff (my oem ECU is an ODB2b so there is no room for programming here) but my budget was tight for a lot of years so I stayed with the set up that already mentioned. During quarantine I decided to invest some money and I bought some stuff in order to make a proper upgrade before I finally buy this ECU and put some magic into the mix. So I already have an OBD2b to OBD1 harness, a Skunk2 Pro series IM, and a set of Skunk2 double springs with retainers.

These are the good news but I also have some bad news as well! During the last 3 years I’ve noticed some unusual oil consumption. At the beginning I thought It was completely ok because there was a period of time that I used to travel a lot and sometimes I pushed the car really hard till redline (more than usual to be honest, because I ‘ve always redlined the motor throughout the years – never with cold engine though). To make long story short, from 300-400ml per 5000km that the motor used to burn at the begining, nowadays it reached the ridiculous number of 4500ml per 5000km. It’s obvious that I’ve fried my piston rings and definitely my valve seals. Also my engineer mentioned that there is a case of cylinder distortion due to the following odd behavior: when I drive the car to a low-mid rpm range (changing gears up to 3500rpm) the engine doesn’t burn oil at all. But if I push the engine hard to redline sometimes a cloud of white smoke comes out of the exhaust and also oil consumption increases dramatically. So if this scenario is true I have to increase the diameter of the cylinders as well...

So, all signs are leading to engine rebuild. Buying a new car is not an option because I love this chassis and I don’t want to change it and also I don’t have the extra cash for K swap. And even if I had the money, nowadays even K20’s need rebuild which means extra cost. And now is where the big dilemma kicks in: since I'm going to open the engine anyway, would it be the time for an upgrade or is a waste of money?

I’m thinking something like mild cams e.g.: Skunk2 tuner series stage 1, adjustable cam gears, high comp valves, (valve guides if needed), thinner head gasket with some head work, new piston rings of course and finally a dyno tuning. If I follow this scenario I’m expecting something like 170-175whp (maybe less, it depends… I want also your opinion about that).

So, kindly tell me your honest opinion on that dilemma. Is it worth the extra money considering that an engine rebuild is required once in car’s life or is this an overkill? Some people supports that if a rebuild is done properly and everything that needs replace is replaced, the engine gains some serious life expectancy because its components have already taken any tolerances they had to take through the years.

Thanks in advance for your time
Looking forward to your reply!
 
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Hi everyone!
I’m a proud EK4 hatch owner since 2007 and I have some questions about an upcoming engine rebuild that I’m planing to do in the near future. Before I begin I want to apologize for the long text but I’m in a serious dilemma and also I’m really worried about this process.

So, first things first. I’m the second owner of this car which I bought with 68.000km on its crank back in the day. Now it has 215.570! Maybe you will find this number extremely low comparing the 23 years that this car being in the streets, but it’s worth mentioning that it was my weekend car for a long time. I promoted to an almost everyday car the last 6 years. Back then and during all these years I’ve made some light mods such as:

- Bilstein B6 suspension
- HR springs
- Spoon torque damper
- oem airbox with a k&n drop in filter
- accel spark plug wires

- 4-2-1 Custom headers (the 2 secondary pipes between the OEM 4 pipes and the catalytic converter, are resized to 48mm)
- 200 cpsi high flow cat
- 54mm handmade cat back exhaust
- CRV calipers and 282mm rotors
- Exedy Stage 1 clutch

The initial plan was to keep it light modded and after a while I was planning to change the ECU into an AEM or similar aftermarket kind of stuff (my oem ECU is an ODB2b so there is no room for programming here) but my budget was tight for a lot of years so I stayed with the set up that already mentioned. During quarantine I decided to invest some money and I bought some stuff in order to make a proper upgrade before I finally buy this ECU and put some magic into the mix. So I already have an OBD2b to OBD1 harness, a Skunk2 Pro series IM, and a set of Skunk2 double springs with retainers.

These are the good news but I also have some bad news as well! During the last 3 years I’ve noticed some unusual oil consumption. At the beginning I thought It was completely ok because there was a period of time that I used to travel a lot and sometimes I pushed the car really hard till redline (more than usual to be honest, because I ‘ve always redlined the motor throughout the years – never with cold engine though). To make long story short, from 300-400ml per 5000km that the motor used to burn at the begining, nowadays it reached the ridiculous number of 4500ml per 5000km. It’s obvious that I’ve fried my piston rings and definitely my valve seals. Also my engineer mentioned that there is a case of cylinder distortion due to the following odd behavior: when I drive the car to a low-mid rpm range (changing gears up to 3500rpm) the engine doesn’t burn oil at all. But if I push the engine hard to redline sometimes a cloud of white smoke comes out of the exhaust and also oil consumption increases dramatically. So if this scenario is true I have to increase the diameter of the cylinders as well...

So, all signs are leading to engine rebuild. Buying a new car is not an option because I love this chassis and I don’t want to change it and also I don’t have the extra cash for K swap. And even if I had the money, nowadays even K20’s need rebuild which means extra cost. And now is where the big dilemma kicks in: since I'm going to open the engine anyway, would it be the time for an upgrade or is a waste of money?

I’m thinking something like mild cams e.g.: Skunk2 tuner series stage 1, adjustable cam gears, high comp valves, (valve guides if needed), thinner head gasket with some head work, new piston rings of course and finally a dyno tuning. If I follow this scenario I’m expecting something like 170-175whp (maybe less, it depends… I want also your opinion about that).

So, kindly tell me your honest opinion on that dilemma. Is it worth the extra money considering that an engine rebuild is required once in car’s life or is this an overkill? Some people supports that if a rebuild is done properly and everything that needs replace is replaced, the engine gains some serious life expectancy because its components have already taken any tolerances they had to take through the years.

Thanks in advance for your time
Looking forward to your reply!

I assume that you have a B16A engine right?
 
Excactly! I have a b16a2 motor in an original vti chassis (or Si if you 're on USDM). Did you have a similar experience with burning oil issues? Have you ever reduild your engine?
 
4.5L of oil in 5000km is rather excessive!

IMO - if you have to open the whole engine for work its time to do some upgraded stuff just to cover you for the future
 
its time to do some upgraded stuff just to cover you for the future
Hey iReloaded, thanks for your answer! That's exactly what I'm thinking. But considering that I have a 23yo motor, the question here is: which scenario to follow?

1. Replace everything with genuie OEM stuff and put an ODB1 ECU & programming
2. Valvetrain upgrade, stage 1 cams, some extra head work combined with a thinner gasket in order to raise CR at 10.8 maybe 11, plus the stuff that I already have (Skunk2 IM, AEM gears & ECU programming)
3. All of the above plus a B20b block

Kindly keep in mind that this is my everyday car, so I don't want some crazy fuel consumption

Happy to hear your thoughts :)
 
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4.5L of oil in 5000km is rather excessive!

IMO - if you have to open the whole engine for work its time to do some upgraded stuff just to cover you for the future
In the newer hondas here at work. Its says, car can use up to 1Litre of oil for every 1000miles the cars are driven.
 
Hey iReloaded, thanks for your answer! That's exactly what I'm thinking. But considering that I have a 23yo motor, the question here is: which scenario to follow?

1. Replace everything with genuie OEM stuff and put an ODB1 ECU & programming
2. Valvetrain upgrade, stage 1 cams, some extra head work combined with a thinner gasket in order to raise CR at 10.8 maybe 11, plus the stuff that I already have (Skunk2 IM, AEM gears & ECU programming)
3. All of the above plus a B20b block

Kindly keep in mind that this is my everyday car, so I don't want some crazy fuel consumption

Happy to hear your thoughts :)
Ultimately this will depend on what route you want to follow due to:
  • Budget
  • Current requirements
  • Potential future requirements
Personally, I would go for the second option, but look at a standalone ECU.

I think your going to be looking at similar money between options 1 & 2 due to the cylinder issues you have and the fact option 1 means you would be replacing essentially all the same stuff with OEM parts.
 
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