Brake Downgrade?

[B16vtek]

Originally Posted by Ecky

When I blew my B16, I was rather upset at the thought of having to drop a larger displacement engine in, especially one with less peak power output. Oddly, I found that I improved my mileage when I swapped for an LS motor. After doing some reading, I can only conclude that it's some combination of leaner burn and the fact that the B16 is oversquare and the LS is undersquare.

The old D series might have been better for these purposes, though there's probably a lot of room for improvement in the B16 if you're willing to tune for economy.

Well, like i said I'm a tuner at heart. The D-series motors weren't strong enough for me. I bought the car and blew the stock DX motor in 3 months. Just driving it too hard, im used to B-series. Then went with a D16y8, and blew that in 4-5 months. I decided to stop killing motors and just get one that wouldn't blow up.

So far I've increased my tire pressure to 50psi. I'm going to switch back to a stock air box as soon as i get home today. There is no belts on my AC or PS, so that should help. I also plan on turning my distributor to max out my ignition timing.

Spark plugs are old, there next, any word on the most efficient spark plugs?

Im not swapping back to a D-series so please dont suggest. and im not going to hypermile just eco mod.

Thanks for the suggestions guys

[B16vtek]

Originally Posted by ProDarwin

Its very common for full-prep SM cars to downgrade brake diameters as far as possible to decrease weight (and upgrade pads significantly).

Also, its very possible to upgrade brakes as well as decrease weight. Aluminum hat rotors and aluminum calipers can easily drop a significant amount of weight off each corner of the car. Even when the rotor itself is larger.

I know something I will consider at some point is reducing the weight of the stock rotors. Some creative milling should be able to mimic the "hat" of a two piece rotor and drop a pound or two from each. Combine that with some aluminum calipers and you've got a pretty good eco-setup.

The first setup is what I would do given your situation. The DX brakes should be able to handle a B16. Plan on doing any trackdays?

I think i'm gonna keep the stock brakes for now since i am trying to squeeze every ounce of MPG out of this Civic. Its so hard not to upgrade to bigger discs its so easy, this is gonna be a hard project. I just wanna tune the **** out of this dang car, but i need one daily driver!

No track days for this beast, just daily driving. I have a DC2 GSR and a DA Integra that are more for racing/spirited driving.