Hey guys, Ive done a fair amount of seaching but can’t seem to find any info on this. Im building up a non-vtec B20 and i’ve come to the point of buying pistons. The problem im having is the only pistons I see for sale are for B20 blocks with vtec heads. Will these pistons work with an LS/CRV head? My initial thought was that they would but I never see them advertised as “B20 pistons”, always “B20 w/ B16 head” and that makes me wonder. If anyone knows if these will work for sure that would be a lot of help. If they don’t work is my only option a custom piston? By the way, looking for 84.5mm pistons w/ approx 11.5 cr. Thanks.
i THINK that they would work becasue a VTEC head has a higher lift on its cams (when in VTEC) and the pistons need to have a little bigger dish so the valve clearance is ok, so i would think that chances of a vtec piston working with a non-vtec head are better than a non-vtec piston working with a vtec head (at high compression levels).
Someone else that knows more will answer im sure but I think they would work, any b series piston sized to 84?mm (cant remeber b20 bore size) shoudl work fine unless you mill the head and stuff or run high enough compression that piston to valve clearance becomes an issue.
all that matters is the size of the piston, it doesnt matter what head you have on the block. just go look up some JE pistons online, i know they make em for the B20 around that CR.
Thats what I assumed but like I said, just couldn’t find anyone to actually say it. Appreciate the help guys. 
CR might not be accurate, since the VTEC heads might have different combustion chamber volume. Physically it should fit, might want to contact the manufacturer and ask what kind of CR you could expect with a B20 head.
Would the CR go up or down in that instance?
If the advertised CR is for a B20 block and a VTEC head, CR will drop if you use a non-VTEC head. If you know the actual piston dome size you can calculate the CR here:
I was in the same situation, and realized after doing some math that they work fine, and what the compression ratio would be.
Say they claim the pistons will be 11.4:1 w/ a VTEC head.
With a non-VTEC head, this would be about 11:1 compression, so about .4 less with a nonvtec, stock nonmilled head.