Thinking of starting a new project, what engine should I use?

[Black R]

.....just joining this late because it's starting to get good.

$8k is your budget including the car? Then we need to go back and think about your GOALS for the car... will it be NA or FI? Will it need to negotiate races that have turns or just in a straight line? Will you be sad if the idle surges or is quite lumpy?

If you haven't bought a car yet, then I'd suggest something cheap and throw a 2jz into it..... :P

If you're simply stuck on honda's and that's why this list is here, then obviously the kseries is out simply because you'll need quite a bit of extra $ to shoehorn that motor into any honda that's worth a damn ff... eg, ek, dc2, etc... not to mention the premium the Kseries is commanding on the market.

I don't know much about the H, but in the past it hasn't gained the aftermarket support that the bseries has. I'd probably go with the b18c in whatever form you can afford. BUT if you intend to build a motor, then I wouldn't necessarily buy a swap from hmo or anywhere else - I'd more than likely build a 2L B.

I'm a tranny afficionado, so I'd still recommend the b for that reason - or even an h22 with h2b adaptor plate and run a usdm itr tranny with 4.9 final.

Here's some quick gearing breakdowns of the itr and some other variations which I have employed (and enjoyed):

http://www.ff-squad.com/tech/temp/Bgears.htm

http://www.a-t-s-usa.com/ats-product...mparison.shtml


And I doubt it'd be much fun for an h22 to have my B18c5 tranny with ATS final drive and ats 1,2,3,4,5 gearset:

Gear Ratio Final MPH @ 9200 RPM @ 80 MPH

1 - 3.077 - 15.18 - 42.2 - 17423
2 - 2.105 - 10.35 - 62.0 - 11879
3 - 1.652 - 8.13 - 78.9 - 9334
4 - 1.308 - 6.46 - 99.3 - 7410
5 - 1.033 - 5.08 - 126.3 - 5827
Axle ratio - 4.929
Tire diameter - 23.44" (205/50/15)