Hello all, I recently mishifted my AP1 and dropped a valve right before I swapped to AP2 retainers (ik, I'm a little stupid) so I'm planning on doing a mild build just to slightly increase HP and get it track ready. This is my first motor I'm building myself, so looking for a little advice. I'm wanting to keep it a little more on the budgetish side, nothing too crazy. So far I'm planning on going with stock size BC valves, ferrea or BC springs/retainers/keepers, ferrea guides, and resurfacing the head .005, and been thinking about getting BC cams but not sure if they are worth it. Hoping to stay with stock rods and changing the pistons to get the compression ratio up to around 12:1-12.5:1 but keep stock bore, stock intake manifold, stock intake, bigger throttle body, upgraded exhaust manifold (the car already has a catless test pipe and skunk2 megapower exhaust), bigger injectors and upgraded fuel rail and pump, AEM EMS, and a higher capacity/dry sump oil pan. I'll also be adding an oil cooler, and new cooling system components. As I said before, this is my first go at building a motor so I don't know everything, just looking for advice on what would be the best bang for buck mods as the engine is out of the car and torn down, any and all advice on brands, sizes for throttle body/injectors etc. is greatly appreciated. Also to note, I'm located in SC so emissions is no worry, and also have to keep it on pump gas as e85 is not easily accessible in my area. Thank you

 

Nothing too crazy, he says

 

When you say building yourself, what do you mean? Do you mean that you're doing the disassembly, sending stuff to a machine shop, and you're doing the blueprinting/assembly yourself?

 

If it scored the cylinder, you need a motor. Get a used one that comes with compression/leakdown results. You cannot machine out any significant scoring in this block as you will go through the FRM material. These motors are known for being tricky to rebuild even without any cylinder damage. There are threads about it here though. Honestly, just stick a scope down the bores and see how they look at go from there. With a dropped valve I feel like you are looking for a motor. Used ones run $3500 to $5000 easily. They are not cheap. If it is rebuildable, you may find billman250 on here for advice. He knows these motors better than most I have heard and knows the tricky parts.

 

I think you probably want to figure out what goal you're building towards, before you do anything.

Otherwise....a stock F20/22C is a factory built almost-race engine. You won't be able to do significantly/any better by throwing a bunch of off the shelf parts at it like its a civic.

Consider a K swap if you're looking for a traditional engine to go make NA power with.

 

Yes, I am planning on sending the head and/or block to the machine shop and building it back together myself. I don't believe the valve fully dropped, as I know it broke off in the retainer and from the look of it it didn't score the piston except in one tiny spot and no damage it seems to the cylinder walls. My main concern is keeping the car alive, as I absolutely love the car and don't want to sell it for parts. I'll definitely have to try and get ahold of Billman for some advice, I would even be content with upgrading the valvetrain to prevent cracking again and adding some bolt ons with an EMS. Thank yall for your input so far!

 

Upgrading the valvetrain is actually a huge downgrade in reliability and longevity. The stock valvetrain is best, so long as retainers updated to ap2.

You are planning to throw a lot of money, time, and parts at it, and your results are going to be disappointing. Some additional power in very specific rpm ranges, but loss in other areas.

Best bang for buck by far is to lower vtec rpm. You'll need a hfc or tp, and a tuning solution. And a tuner.

Beyond that, its just as easy to put parts on this engine that perform worse than stock than ones that make any real gains. And any gains are going to cost a lot.

There is an NA subforum. Go do some research in there, revise your plan, then submit your plan there for comments.

 

None of this is gonna work.

Most of this is a list meant for a marginally reliable B series build. Then there's a dry sump in there for some reason.

I wouldn't build an F series unless you're seasoned and/or have done a lot of research.

I'm trying to be helpful, BTW.

Try starting here...

What does a stock F series NOT do that you want your ideal engine to do?

 

I want to be positive on self builds. I learned to rebuild an engine by jumping in and just doing it. I was 16 and my buddy's ATV jumped timing to the point that valves hit pistons. I had no experience except changing a clutch in mine and told him I'd figure it out. Very few people expected me to actually get it together. Aside from a few bad valve adjustments due to a Harbor Freight tool, it went great. I think there's a lot of value to just jumping in and doing it.

However, unless you have deep pockets and/or way more experience than you're alluding to here, I don't think doing it on a F series is a good idea. Too much to risk here and if you're trying to save yourself money, you're probably going to do the opposite. If you have the tooling, money, and time to do it *right* and you love to research way in the weeds, it'd be a cool project. By research, I don't mean posting on here though. I mean finding old documentation from the factory and doing whatever it takes to replicate their specs.

I'd suggest removing the head and looking at the cylinder walls. If the crank still turns smoothly and the cylinder walls look good, it's a rebuild candidate. I'd recommend sending it to InlinePro or 4Piston for a rebuild. If the walls are no good, shopping for a good condition used F is probably the path of least resistance. If I were in your spot and the cylinder walls and head casting are somehow still good, I'd probably get an InlinePro F24 build. I'm not as familiar with 4Piston's offerings but I'd research them too. An F24 in these cars sounds awesome. If your core is trashed, I'd price out IP's build if they supply a core and probably end up just finding a compression/leakdown tested F22.

Agree with B Serious in terms of most mods not making sense on these engines. Throwing parts at these engines does not accomplish anything, in most instances, aside from decreasing reliability. There are a few cams that make more power and that's about it aside from stroker and raise compression. Very little reason to "upgrade" valvetrain unless you get a bigger cam that necessitates heavier springs or lighter components. Everything you listed is $$$. Only bang for the buck on these motors is forced induction. They take it very well. The rest of the drivetrain has challenges though.

 

Haha