The Straight Story: Part Two

Here's the cylinder head off our B18C1, intake manifold included. We hauled this over to Alaniz Technologies in Gardena, Calif., so the master himself, Joe Alaniz, can get an idea of what he's in for. As a primer, Alaniz explains that the more work that is done to the motor before you bring him a head, the better, simply because it is easier for him to determine how to best tune it.
In our situation Alaniz points out that the stock GS-R manifold is quite restrictive and needs a ton of work for it to be a viable race manifold. Luckily we have a JG Edelbrock piece on the way, which he says makes two to three more horsepower at peak over stock. He also notes, though, that a tuned factory intake manifold can make more power at launch. (I think we'll stick with the JG!)

The manifold nuts are removed and the manifold put aside so Alaniz can begin a somewhat lengthy evaluation process. This procedure actually starts when Alaniz fills out a detailed work order beforehand that helps determine the background of the head. The battery of questions includes whether or not the head came from a working car - junkyard heads can be problematic. Also, if the head was smoking, this could indicate cracks in the head or valve guides.
Other info Alaniz is looking for includes: engine application (street, drag, or road racing) - important to determining valve seat angles; fuel type to be used; cam type; piston diameter; block type; deck height; and gasket thickness.

Each step of the way, Alaniz checks for any signs of trouble. When he pulls the cam holder plates, caps and camshafts, he inspects for journal and guide wear to make sure they're within spec. If he feels ridges or severe wear patterns that would cause the cams to function improperly, it could mean a manufacturing flaw or earlier lack of lube. He admits the former is very rare for a Honda head. At this point, Alaniz unbolts and detaches the VTEC solenoid valve.

Before removing the rocker shafts, Alaniz makes sure each rocker arm assembly moves easily and free from binding. Then he removes the shafts, looking for any binding that could suggest that the head is bent.

Installing the camshaft caps without the cams, Alaniz uses a telescoping gauge and a micrometer to measure camshaft clearances.

Disassembling the valve train, Alaniz first frees up the springs by tapping the edge of the retainer with a punch to loosen the keepers. When everything is reassembled later, he'll use a valve spring compressor to install all of these components.

Next, he whips out a set of needle nose pliers to extract the lost-motion assemblies. If not working properly, these will cause instability in the valve train.

You can check 'em by pushing in the pin and seeing if it rebounds without binding. If they don't rebound, replace 'em.

Out come the valves. Alaniz slides each one out only partially at first and gives it a wiggle, then carefully finishes sliding it out. He does this to check for any binding of the valve stems, an indication of a larger problem with the head.

Alaniz uses a micrometer to measure the diameter at two points along the valve stem, an effort to make sure it is within spec. In over 15 years building engines, he's never seen any significant stem wear on factory Honda valves, which are typically within 0.0002 of an inch of being perfect. He attributes this to the coating the valves receive at the factory.

Alaniz replaces each valve temporarily to verify valve-to-guide wear with a machinist's dial indicator mounted on a level base. He also uses the opportunity to examine stem play by positioning the valve to approximate its maximum lift and jiggling it sideways in the guide. He notes that critical wear occurs in the up and down axis (versus side to side and in and out axes). The up and down axis is where all the load is, considering that when the cam pushes the valve down, the lobe is naturally going to cock the valve to one side, and when the lobe releases the valve is going to want to cock back to the opposite side.

Finally to the flowbench. Before any testing begins, the head is relieved of all seals and hot-tanked clean. For an accurate baseline on the bench, it doesn't make sense to test a dirty head. Whatever might be in the ports could affect results. The piece of wood mounted to the intake port is used to simulate a velocity stack.

Now on a metal plate holding a pair of micrometers and mounted to the top of the head,various amounts of valve lift are reproduced by Alaniz. He sets each micrometer so it just barely touches the tip of the stem then marks the handle of the micrometer, thus creating a starting or zero point. Each full rotation of the handle is 0.025-inch of lift and he adjusts flow by lift increments of 0.050-inch. He records the results for each turn, and then plans a porting strategy accordingly.

To make the results repeatable, Joe allows the exhaust air temperature on the flowbench to stabilize at 100 degrees before he begins testing. In his view a round temp reading makes calculating flow much easier and eliminates implementing correction factors.
Flow is measured in percentages on the bench, and Alaniz later converts those percentages to cubic feet per minute numbers, or CFM. Then he compares those numbers to his own record of stock GS-R heads. The amount of air moving through the bench, regulated by various sized orifices and valve lift, determines maximum CFM. Alaniz has found that flow numbers at a lower valve lift usually relate to torque, while flow numbers at a higher lift tend to indicate peak horsepower. When all the head work is completed and the head is retested, this information is given to the customer in the form of a blueprint chart, which includes chamber volume, how much the head was milled and theoretical horsepower - typically a conservative estimate.

After determining a baseline on the flowbench and coming up with a viable porting plan, Alaniz begins the porting regimen by choosing the correct burr. Cutters tend to clog up with aluminum, but the wide grooves on the coarse burr can minimize clogging. For a finer finish before polishing, a double-cut burr is utilized. It also requires a lot of lube. The other burrs on the left are used for getting into hard to reach places.
One other point on porting: since air must always be moving - and where it's not, you have to force it - sometimes the implementation of a venturi is required. This essentially means that some material must either be added (by welding) or removed to help facilitate movement.

On the intake ports, Alaniz likes to finish with a 60-grit cartridge roll, maybe even 40-grit in some applications. On the exhaust side, a much smoother finish is required, perhaps a 120-grit roll.

According to Alaniz, up to 50 percent of flow increases from head work can come from a proper valve job. Many believe that a thin 45-degree face on the valve is the way to go, and it does help at a specific valve lift. But by keeping the face a certain thickness, overall performance is improved. Alaniz also says that valve widths are equally important to maximizing flow.
Another pointer he gives us for intake valves relates to the thickness of the margins, which affect the way air passes by the valve. A correct thickness will allow air to flow smoothly past the valve, while an incorrect width will cause passing air to tumble as it comes off the edge, making for inefficient flow.

Before and After: When the porting is done and the valve job completed, the head is jet-washed and returned to the flowbench for final testing to ensure that flow is within one percent of projected results. Alaniz tells us that there have been no breakthrough gains at his shop.

But in one year doing solely head work and determining the correct piston rings, he's been able to squeeze an additional 60 hp out of Erick Aguilar's 10-second GS-R all-motor power plant. In that time, they've never had any failures or dropped seats.

The GS-R head is then completely reassembled, this time running with a set of Comp Cams B-series, high-rpm camshafts. The bumpsticks, supplied by Zex, sport 290 degrees of VTEC intake duration and 296 degrees of exhaust duration. Zex also sent a set of their valve springs and a titanium retainer upgrade. Once Alaniz is done with the head, he ships it over to Erick's Racing for reuniting with the bottom end. That's a story we'll cover another time.

Our drag car adventure takes us close to home next, Anaheim, Calif., to be precise, for suspension upgrades courtesy the crew at the Progress Group. They have a whole slew of mods planned for the ED9 chassis: Competition Series II coil-overs on all four corners; camber correction kits, front and rear; spherical bearings in lieu of bushings.

Progress tech Ed Flores starts us off by removing one of the forward shock/spring assemblies - that is, detaching the damper fork from the shock absorber and lower control arm and removing the nuts attaching the assembly to the strut tower.

Flores finishes disconnecting the control arm by unfastening it from the steering knuckle, removing the pivot bolt from the inner end of the arm and freeing it from the radius rod.

He also loosens and drops the forward cross member to get a better angle on changing the radius rod bushing.

Flores presses out the old factory bushings in the arm and replaces the one at the shock mounting point with a new polyurethane version.

At the chassis pivot point on the arm, rubber is replaced with an all-metal, Teflon-lined spherical bearing.

Why bearings, you ask? No deflection or binding, Flores tells us, which makes for a much more responsive suspension. At this point the front control arms are ready to be reinstalled.

The radius rod and bushing are removed easily enough from the cross member, the bushing supplanted with another one of those hip spherical bearings.

The bearing is actually tapered with a step cut for a perfect fit.

Prior to finally securing the new bearing, Flores has to drill out its mounting holes with a 1/4-inch bit in order to accommodate the fastening bolts.

Looks pretty sharp! With the spherical bearing in place, Flores can torque down the rod and cross member and work on the other side.

The first step to installing the forward camber kit is removing the upper control arm, accomplished by unscrewing the castle nut at the ball joint and separating the arm from the steering knuckle. Then Flores takes out the pivot nuts and bolts securing the arm to an anchor assembly in the wheel well.

For the kit to work properly, the anchor assembly is eliminated and replaced with a pair of pivot brackets prepped with heavily lubed polyurethane bushings and steel pivot sleeves.

Progress' camber correction system is spec'd to correct negative camber up to 1.75 degrees on the forward wheels and provides different offsets for different amounts of camber.

The pivot brackets are properly outfitted with hardened studs and attached to the control arm. Then the arm is returned to the wheel well where the brackets are secured to the holes for the anchor assembly.

Progress warns that the brackets should be installed so that the studs will mount away from the ball joint and toward the center of the vehicle.

The last piece to the front suspension puzzle is the CSII coil-overs. But before Flores can mount them he has to take a die grinder to the pinch welds in the wheel wells to create more room for the upper control arms' greater range of mobility.

The CSIIs come with springs, sealed unit struts that rock shorter cans for more up travel, and sleeves that lock into place with a snap ring. Flores reuses the factory strut tops to mount the coil-overs.

Coil-over installation is the reverse of removal, securing the top of the assembly to the strut tower and reattaching the damper fork to the strut and lower control arm.

The Progress guys think of everything, even a cool new bracket to reroute the brake line. The front of the car is now pretty much done. On to the booty end.

For the '88 CRX chassis, the rear lower arms need to be swapped with those from an '89-'95 Civic. Flores got his mitts on a pair and dumped the stock bushings, replacing them with fresh polyurethane versions (no bearings are necessary in back - remember, this car is designed to go only straight and fast).

For the rear coil-overs, a bracket is required to attach the lower end of the strut to the control arm.

Flores buttons everything up by bolting down the strut/coil-over assembly and the rear lower control arm.

One last thing before moving on to the other side of the rear suspension: camber kit. Basically Flores switches the two bolts that secure the rear upper control arm to the body with M10 bolts that come in the kit. Washers placed on the mounting bolts get sandwiched in between body and the control arm and correct any rear camber issues. Each washer provides about half-degree of correction, with a max of four washers per bolt.

All done!

After the rest of the suspension has been completed and weight has been taken with the vehicle at full load, the shop will set toe and camber, and then scale the car to square up the alignment. See y'all next month!