500HP Stock-Block B16A - Tuned To Perfection - Wrenchin'

A Little Tuning Goes A Long Way
The question seems simple enough: What's a turbocharged Honda engine's most important component? The variety of answers is surprising though. Naturally, the usual suspects are quick to appear-there's the turbo itself, forged pistons, even connecting rods and sleeved cylinders. Intercoolers often make their way into the conversation as do fuel injectors, fuel pumps, even things like billet fuel rails and camshaft timing. While each is an important component to any successful buildup, the key to any turbo engine's success lies with tuning. Turbochargers, blowers and nitrous oxide don't ruin otherwise perfectly good Honda engines, detonation does. Controlling ignition timing becomes even more critical once boost is added to the equation. Miscalculate by a degree or two and it can be off to the Internet forums for new piston research.

Who's To Blame
Speaking of online research, while the Web generally proves useful, morons attributing catastrophic engine failures to Honda's "notoriously inferior" connecting rods abound. Ditto for the "cheap" cast pistons, the "undersized" injectors and the "insufficient" fuel rails. Never mind the fact that Honda's B16A engines easily exceeded 8,000 rpm from the factory, came with a lengthy warranty and that the number of those who've successfully run otherwise stock engines in 24-hour endurance races-including this author-are not few. Despite the facts, those who insist it's got to be those pesky connecting rods will never shut up but the reality is that the B-series VTEC engine's weakest link is, more often than not, the owners themselves-that and the lack of a proper tune.

Tuning Is Key
Tuning is important in terms of safety and power but is absolutely critical when it comes to turbo engines. What better way to illustrate the importance of tuning and further fuel the well-deserved reputation the B-series has for making big power then to crank up the boost on a near-stock B16A. Despite the occasional need for block guards, sleeved blocks and forged reciprocating assemblies, the majority of the stock components are fairly stout and require little more than the magic of proper tuning to produce big numbers. Don't think for a minute we're condemning the use of forged components, proper block preparation and things like ARP head studs. No, the point here is to highlight just how important tuning really is.

At lower boost levels, which generally go hand in hand with pump gas, most turbo engines can safely operate using many factory components. It's surprising just how far the stock stuff can take you with proper tuning. Keep in mind: the turbo engine's number one killer is detonation. While many are quick to point to the connecting rods' "poor" design, "weak" cast pistons or even something as silly as a "low-flow" fuel rail, the reality is that they're likely to blame for cranking up the boost without spending a bit of quality time tuning on that dyno.