tmac333

I currently have a B18b1 in my 92 hatch, it's the second 92-95 hatch I've had with this engine. From the day I purchased it last fall, I always felt as though it didn't quite pull as hard as my last hatch. Still quick though.

Anyways, lately it's been leaking a ton of oil and I seem to be experiencing a significant power loss...it just doesn't pull at 4000 rpms like it used to. I have stock exhaust and was told my cat is somewhat clogged so I understand that can also contribute to power loss and bogging down..I keep thinking my head gasket is leaking because of all the symptoms, I'm leaking oil and my coolant in the rad seems to be slowly going down. No hose leaks though. As well, when driving on the highway with any type of vigor, my car overheats when I come to a stop and I'm required to slowly rev my engine to about 2500 rpms to get the coolant through the motor and cool it down.

The problem is, my oil is not milky and I'm not expelling any smoke out the tailpipe whatsoever. I'm taking the car in next week to have a compression and/or leakdown test to establish whether or not I should continue dumping hundreds of dollars more into this engine. I've already change all cam seals and 0-ring stuff etc. My mechanic says the rear main seal is why it's still leaking and says it's 450 bucks to get at it, replace it and fix my clutch release bearing while he's at down there.

I'm torn because even if I spend 500 to fix this leak, my power is still down, and who knows how long before the next issue. I've been looking at jdm engine places and trying to read up on b20 and b20 vtecs...I can get a b20 for 400 bucks but I have no idea how much it would be to have someone take out old motor and install that one properly. I've been told 400 bucks but is there any guarantee? and I've seen vtec heads (b16a/b18c) for around 500 bucks. I guess my question is how much would it be to have a proper b20 put in and a proper b20vtec put in my car if I bought the b20 block and vtec head. Everything involved. If it's more than 1500 then I guess I should just fix my leaky b18.

Thanks and sorry for the novel. Just tired of dumping cash (over 1000) into this motor. any help is appreciated.

MPR

I think you should read through this thread:

http://www.torontocivics.com/f54/b18...ussion-169610/

Might answer a few of your questions and help you decide what to do.

If you have anymore questions feel free to ask away. that's what we're here for!

D.T.P

if you are happy with performance of a b18b or b20, just get a swap, those motors aren't that expensive.

otherwise as Mike said, read up in the thread he posted, should help you decide whether or not to go ls-vtec/b20vtec. just to give you an idea of what is needed to be done to have a reliable setup. if you don't want the hassle, just get a b16 or a gsr

lets_ride

i think i might have the same prob with my d16