I have been doing a lot of reading and research to see what the best swap would be for my situation. I am trying to produce as much power as possible without killing my gas mileage and keeping it an daily driver. I have the option to buy a B20B long block for 500 bucks, or a B18A long block but without the head for 250 bucks. Either way I want vtec so I will be buying an LS or GSR head. I plan on turboing the car with a t3/t4 and putting crower stage 2 Speical FI cams with springs and retainers, and probably crower valves. Since my car is a OBD2 (97 civic ex) I dont want to go through the headache of an ecu connector and buying an OBD1 ecu. I just want to know what would be the cheaper way to go, and how much boost can I run on stock eternals without jeopardising the motor with too much boost. I will be purchasing the motor soon, so I've been researching like crazy to make sure I dont buy the wrong motor for my situation and regret it. I've heard so many pros and cons of different set ups that my head is spinning, please help.

 

read some more. LS head is not a vtec head...a motor with no head is a short block...

 

I'm sorry I mis-typed a b16 head or gsr head. either motor i decide to go with, its going to be vtec.