Quote Originally Posted by spardikis
in regards to fitting CTR pistons into your b18c block/B16a head combo.. I have a b18c2 block and pistons ready to be fitted but people keep talking about clearances and how I need to check them to avoid piston meeting Valve = engine death senerio... My Queston is - If I go ahead and fit them (of course with new rods/bearings) will this actually happen, where is the safe limit for high comp Pistons or do U need to be running Bspec or C spec camshafts for piston to meet valve = engine blow up?? Anyone know what the go is cause im stumped..
can you 'clay' the clearances yourself?

it is fairly easy and will give you peace of mind:

place blutac in the valve reliefs and put a used head gasket on:



swap the VTEC pistons in the rocker arms over so that one valve is in VTEC all the time (you can do just one cylinder)



then put the head on, torque it to specs, put the cams in and put the timing belt on:



crank the crankshaft around a few times (so that the piston beign 'clayed' is at TDC at least 2 or 3 times) and then remove teh head and see what happend:



then you can measure with a metal rule how much clearance you have:



if you are using adjustable cam gears, set them to full advance for the intake and full retard for the exhaust, (but if you are quite fearful of piston to valve contact, start at maybe half advance and work your way to full advnance (or vica versa)...)