I was wondering if anyone could give me a rough estimate of the cost of getting the head from a b18 ported/polished and have the valves replaced. Also, any suggestions of good shops?
GOOD Port work is very costly. Just that work alone could run over 1K, for fully flow benched results. Replacing valves takes about 10 minutes, unless you are referring to a full VJ and new guides, not just the valves themselves.
That said, there is not a single place locally I’d trust for porting Honda heads. there are few that do domestic race stuff, but they aren’t too keen on Honda. Try steve at CCheads, or Portflow, Endyn, RLZ, etc.
What about PRETTY good work? I dont need the best work done, just trying to get a bit more power.
Not locally that I know of. Frankly, headwork will only be worth the investment IF you’ve already optimized your entire intake/exhaust tracts. You can scavenge power without it. What kind of power levels are you trying to reach, in what setup?
Watch out, people that are not on top of their game can actually cause you to lose power. Its not just about hogging it out and making total flow numbers, other elements play and important role like velocity, swirl, and even just properly de-shrouding the valves. I am no expert, but unless you are paying the experts, its just a waste of time and money IMO.
Im shooting for roughly 170-180 hp. Obviously, if I can go higher I will. I have a basically stock b18b, short ram intake, header, exhaust, just basic bolt ons for now. I also have Crower stage 2 cams/retainers/springs, just not installed.
Well in that case, there is ZERO reason to justify headwork. Those are relatively mild cams, so as it stands nowyou will not even be maxing out the stock ports. You would need much higher compression, large lift/duration cams, bigger TB and IM runners… and QUALITY long tube header/exhaust in order to even be thinking about extracting a few more CFM out of your head. Think of headwork as a last resort, once you’ve done everything you can to the internals, as well as all the accessory bolt-ons and would like to squeeze a few more hp out of it.
Not only that, but a b18b non-vtec head is pointless to port, a plain vtec head would be a serious increase in flow over what you have now.
Steve is right though, you will certainly lose power, or at least have your powerband shifted out of a useful rev range with subpar portwork. I don’t even recommend removing the casting flash from anything other than the exhaust ports on a Honda head. It is useful for atomization and swirl, which have tremendous effects on flame front travel…but I digress…
WORD. Lay it out for him. I say get some high compression pistons or a snail lol
yep good call
Thanks. I appreciate the help!