The block itself is no stronger than a D's. The rods are but not the block. You can make 400 to 500whp on a stock D series block with reciprecating upgrades and such. The pistons/ring lands are weak on B16's and will give in around 280 to 310whp and there are people hitting close to those marks with a all stock D and good tunes.

 

I've seen several stock B16s near or above the 300 mark, and only one D16 to make it that high (Epic Tuning's, though I don't doubt there's a few a more). It just seems a general consensus that whatever a D can do, a B can do a bit more with less effort. Anyway, the rods were mostly what I was refering to. Maybe I should've said "short block." I guess I assumed the reader would get the point.

 

It's cool I just wanted to make sure people knew. A note on all this, the only reason a B series can muster more is because of the head design. If you could take say a DOHC D series head and sink alot of money in it and put it on a fully build Z6/Y8/A6 bottom end you could see great power. You could even with somebody that is on their game get a sohc head built and re-worked extensively and make crazy power. Remember there is a all motor D15 sohc world record in the mid 10's in the 1/4 mile so it's not that is cant be done it's just that not many have the drive to want to see what a certain engine design can and will do rather than swapping in what is considered a better design.

 

It might also be worth mentioning B16 heads flow paticularly well among the B series.

 

Yea the B16 heads are the best flowing of the bunch, look at it this way. The B16 is a 1.6 just like a D16, the B16 needs around 1500 more rpm and a full compression point higher to attain around 15 more whp and worse tq from idle to about 6000rpm. And when it does have more tq than a D it is only like 3 to 4 ft lbs more. These are the most overrated engines on the market IMO. Your talking paying $1500 to $2500 for something you can get with a $500 cam upgrade. Hell take that $1500 and do a tame little turbo setup and pounce on B16's and B18C5's. The H22 can be had and installed for right at the same price as a B16 and with it you will get more tq than the B16 has hp. Not to mention alot of the B16's quickness comes not from the power but from the stupidly low geared transmission.