94 civic ex with odd markings on the engine

I recently bought a 94 ex. It is fully loaded, has the stock engine in it. The stock exhaust manifold was cracked so I replaced it with a cheaper header from summit. It's a pace-setter one that no high-temp paint will stick to, not even the primer it came with would stick, it just flakes right off. But anyhow, after I put that on, I noticed that on the block it has writing on it from a yellow paint marker, and it's at such a wierd angle that the engine almost would have had to be out of the car to do it. It says ".98" or thats what it looks like. It has the d16z6 in it, but you can easily get smoke out of the front tires, which are in good shape. I just have a hard time believing that a 125hp engine can do that.

... Sounds like the original engine blew. He either had it rebuilt, or had a new one put in. It's hard to say. Get some pictures of the marking.

-Wes

either way the engine should be better, my little d15 will smoke the tires lol.