rebuild kit recommendation for d15b2?

[incomplete]

hey everyone!

my friends and i are building up a 91HF w/a d15b2 for lemons and lucky dog racing... and the first thing we're doing is rebuilding the engine. i'm about to hot tank the block and pan, and get the head and block planed. the clearances are all within spec (crankshaft, cylinder bore).

i'm looking at a bunch of ebay and amazon.com full rebuild kits, but am unsure of the quality of them (esp given the wide ranges in price).

does anyone have a recommendation for a complete kit?

thanks in advance!

[Dave_Darling]

You may be SOL. A few years ago I remember that some of the wear parts (bearings I think?) were not available. For a Lemons car, I would suggest either swapping in a DX motor (keep the HF engine management as much as possible) or finding something that is just completely stupid to swap in.

Maybe a non-turbo diesel from an old Rabbit or some such. I bet that would be looked upon relatively favorably by the scruts. As long as it is weird and makes very little power, they seem to like swaps. Putting something in that makes real power (e.g., B16 swap) will get you a lot of penalty laps.

--DD

[incomplete]

You may be SOL. A few years ago I remember that some of the wear parts (bearings I think?) were not available. For a Lemons car, I would suggest either swapping in a DX motor (keep the HF engine management as much as possible) or finding something that is just completely stupid to swap in.

we planned on rebuilding and racing w/the already-swapped-in-from-craigslist 88 d15b2 and multiport upgrade... isn't that engine from the DX originally?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_D_engine#D15B2

the car was originally an HF.

however, as you said, we may be SOL. this is a weird engine that's really not compatible with what's available in the pick-n-pulls... for instance, our crank (which i discovered today) is 22mm, versus 24mm for pretty much every other honda from that time. womp womp.

i've found three kits that look decent... thoughts?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Engine-Rebuild ... 0698371323
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Fit-88-91-Hond ... 0807457883
https://www.amazon.com/OK4026-88-95-Hon ... B007P73B7U

we're planning on upgrading the head bolts w/some industrial-grade hardware from here:
https://www.bowlinbolts.com/

Maybe a non-turbo diesel from an old Rabbit or some such. I bet that would be looked upon relatively favorably by the scruts. As long as it is weird and makes very little power, they seem to like swaps. Putting something in that makes real power (e.g., B16 swap) will get you a lot of penalty laps.

i'm a seasoned lemons builder/racer (since 2009), and this is going to be a B-class (mid-pack) car... our goal is 'slow car fast'.

if we throw in some high-strung vtec (or the ultimate: an odyssey v6) we'll be racing w/the big kids in A. west coast lemons has gotten FAST.

maybe we should just stop rebuilding what we've got and either get a later-generation d15b2... or perhaps a d15b7, of which there are a million of in the oakland and richmond pick-n-pulls.

i raced a non-turbo diesel once, back in 2009. 1979MB 300D... that thing was a complete dog, but it did get great mileage. don't give me ideas! a diesel crx would probably be a hoot to drive and we'd probably only use a tank of gas per day.

[msc]

An 88 D15B2 should be practical to rebuild. It's the D15B6 engine that is a problem to source some key parts for.

Be sure to Plastigauge all your bearings. You may be lucky and the mid size bearings supplied in the kit may fit. If you lookup the size codes on your block, crank, and rods to see what size code are called for you can get a good idea if the kit bearings will fit. If you need bearings from the middle of the range the kit bearings should fit. If you need bearings from out near the limits you will probably need to get fitted bearings from Honda. I think the fitted bearings are still available from Honda for the D15B2 engine.

The 22mm vs. 24mm snout really only affects the pulley/balancer. As long as you have one that matches the crank your good to go. 88 had the 22mm and later years were 24mm.

Mike

[Dave_Darling]

Thanks for the correction! I knew one of the D15s was hard to find parts for; I saw "HF" in the description and didn't realize the B2 was actually the DX motor.

--DD

[incomplete]

An 88 D15B2 should be practical to rebuild. It's the D15B6 engine that is a problem to source some key parts for.

phew.

Be sure to Plastigauge all your bearings. You may be lucky and the mid size bearings supplied in the kit may fit. If you lookup the size codes on your block, crank, and rods to see what size code are called for you can get a good idea if the kit bearings will fit. If you need bearings from the middle of the range the kit bearings should fit. If you need bearings from out near the limits you will probably need to get fitted bearings from Honda. I think the fitted bearings are still available from Honda for the D15B2 engine.

yep, planned on plastigauging everything... we're having the block/head/crank professionally inspected before buying a rebuilt kit.

The 22mm vs. 24mm snout really only affects the pulley/balancer. As long as you have one that matches the crank your good to go. 88 had the 22mm and later years were 24mm.

Mike

and herein lies the problem: the crank pulley that came w/the car looks like it got caught on something... the edges look like something actually ripped the metal (somehow w/o breaking it), and it's got a nasty wobble that's plainly visible when the engine was running. we definitely need a replacement and finding a 22mm pulley is turning out to be a serious PITA. i found a few aftermarket ones on ebay and messaged the sellers asking if they have a 22mm version, but haven't heard back.

shane

[Dave_Darling]

If you know someone with a lathe, they could make you a pulley... Depending on where the damage is, a good machinist could even make one good pulley out of a 24mm one and the remains of yours.

--DD

[msc]

It wouldn't surprise me if what killed the pulley was failed efforts to hold the pulley still while trying to remove the crank bolt.

I have to believe a 22mm stock pulley can be found it you look in the right places. Go to http://car-part.com and search for a 1988 CRX Crank Pulley to find yards across the country that claim to have one in stock. I expect any 88 Civic with 1.5L engine is a potential donor. Start calling yards and ask them to measure the ID until you find one that fits. I have heard that not all 88's had a 22mm snout. I don't know if any of the D16 engines would have a 22mm snout.

As a fall back plan I would look at making a sleeve to fit an available 24mm pulley to the 22mm shaft. I would need to take a close look at the parts to say for sure but I think this could be workable.

Mike

[incomplete]

It wouldn't surprise me if what killed the pulley was failed efforts to hold the pulley still while trying to remove the crank bolt.

it actually looks like something got wedged against it and tore the metal on the outer-most flange... it's crazy and we have no idea what caused it. i'll take a pic and post it next time we're thrashing on the car. it's absolutely insane how fsked up it is!

I have to believe a 22mm stock pulley can be found it you look in the right places. Go to http://car-part.com and search for a 1988 CRX Crank Pulley to find yards across the country that claim to have one in stock. I expect any 88 Civic with 1.5L engine is a potential donor. Start calling yards and ask them to measure the ID until you find one that fits. I have heard that not all 88's had a 22mm snout. I don't know if any of the D16 engines would have a 22mm snout.

yeah, we're checking all the yards around the bay area... something will eventually turn up.

As a fall back plan I would look at making a sleeve to fit an available 24mm pulley to the 22mm shaft. I would need to take a close look at the parts to say for sure but I think this could be workable.

Mike

this is our fallback plan. i will need the 24mm key insert and some 1mm tubing. the only problem is that the 24mm snout pulley we got off of this car (https://www.picknpull.com/vehicle_detai ... 46SL042265) has a significantly larger diameter than ours.

shane

[incomplete]

just heard back from the engine shop!

the only thing they found bad was the cylinder bores were pretty badly tapered (which explains the oil we found on top of a couple of the piston heads when pulling the head off). we will be overboring by .5mm, which is fine.

crank and head are in great shape, which is awesome!

i ended up ordering this kit: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Fit-88-91-Hond ... 0807457883

[incomplete]

it actually looks like something got wedged against it and tore the metal on the outer-most flange... it's crazy and we have no idea what caused it. i'll take a pic and post it next time we're thrashing on the car. it's absolutely insane how fsked up it is!

[incomplete]

after months of searching, i found a 22mm non-AC crank pulley on ebay for ~$30!

engine rebuild went totally fine... replaced every gasket, o-ring, etc that we could find. we 'upgraded' to the metal OEM headgasket (old was was paper) and ARP head studs:



https://imgur.com/a/188eXL7

we're hoping to have it running in a few weeks (scheduling build days is hard when you're all grown up lol), will post update(s) here.