He obviously thinks he needs a rebuild because something is amiss with his car. Just because your guy's cars have more miles doesnt mean a car with lower miles is that much healthier. My motor had 70k on it, and I did a rebuild because I was burning 2qt every 500 miles.
And yes, if he wants to turbo/supercharge this motor, with whatever problems he has, he will still need to rebuild it. Thats 2x as much money to get it running right.
I would suggest a Type-R swap, or even a GS-R swap. A full rebuild is going to cost you quite a bit to do it right, and you wont have the power of a VTEC motor.
its not gonna handle any different.
you re not dropping in a V6.
you will loose some low end torque.
but you will gain soem on top and few more 1000s of rpm will make up for the low end.
Oh really? A B18B1 versus a B18C5? A little on the top and a little less on the bottom? Come on... the B18B1 puts out 142HP at the crank, the B18C5 puts out 197HP at the crank. That is nothing to kick dirt at.