B and B

iTrader: (3)

I am curious to hear from fellow daily driven boosted Honda owners. I realize it's a dwindling number,but..
IF YOU DON'T DRIVE YOUR BOOSTED HONDA ALMOST DAILY, GTFO.
What's the longest your charger lasted before death or smoke?
Don't care about your roadrace or drag car, We're aware of the gruelling conditions your car undergoes. You don't have to sit at stop lights nose-down, run errands with less-than optimal cool-down shut-offs, etc., and pile up miles with the myriad variables of maintenance (or lack of) and such which contribute to turbo death like a daily driven car may be subject to.

Not asking for a tutorial about proper turbo setup.

I want to know how long whatever you went with has made it..

What's your setup as to mani,turbo,feed/restrictor, drain, and pan (stock?)

TheShodan

iTrader: (14)

I'll help cut to the chase so that we don't have yet another style of build thread (Stock block setup thread, Stock sleeve setup thread, etc.... see the trend here?) in order to have 30-40 similar turbo setups that are going to somehow discover an abstract pattern of the formula needed for a successful daily driven turbo setup.

The average turbocharged application is about 100,000-300,000 miles. Larger applications like diesels can last over 1,000,000 miles, if there isn't a design flaw involved in the coolant system (2004 Cummins) This is why Garrett and BW have contracts with the OEM companies. It doesn't matter if its a Honda, Vauxhall, Kia, or a homemade engine. there are just some things in the turbo world that are constants.

The problems only come up when used in an aftermarket racing capacity. On average, aftermarket turbochargers from the major companies (except for Precision *snicker*) are about 60,000-100,000 miles depending upon use.

So in essence, the formula to keep a daily driven retrofitted turbo setup to last is to do this.. (*whisper* It's really, really easy). COPY WHAT THE OEM DOES!! It's really simple. And since the OEM uses equipment that many people on this forum don't like to buy because its .... "soo expensive", are many of the things that several of us here have mentioned before. If nothing else, give it the maintenance it deserves. This whole thread will undoubtedly not take into account personal care, people's habits, OCD, etc. But it must be taken into account when going with this blanket approach.

1- Run water lines on the turbocharger (even if its journal bearing) whenever possible.

--Do you run your car without water in your radiator? Why not? Because it will overheat, right? Soooo, why do that to a system that runs over 20x the speed of the max rpm of your engine and has even fewer moving parts?

2-Change your oil at reasonable intervals, but not necessary to change it every damn week. And run QUALITY oil.

--Yes, oil gets more contaminated more often than even NA engines due to the increased abuse it receives from increased cylinder pressures and temperatures. No-brainer there.

3- Get a quality turbocharger that uses the proper internal components that don't skimp!! (Brass thrust bearings and collars, higher tolerance fitment, the correct restrictor in the proper style, etc). This doesn't mean I'm going to bash the "other" companies, but it does have everything to do with their internal components and boost pressures.

Ball-bearing CHRAs do tend to last longer because of the fact that (again with the exception of Precision), require water lines, which assist in allowing the oil itself to do its job of simply lubrication, and not both lubrication heat dissipation. This keeps the thermal dissipation at maximum efficiency, which is why you see them on daily driven cars ON AVERAGE, driven longer... (Easy Pattern to find).

Journal bearing turbos can do that as well, even without water, but then you MUST take into account proper cool down times so that the oil doesn't coke onto the turbo and cause damage! -- (Again, an easy pattern to follow)

4- For any retrofit setup, OIL PLUMBING DOES MATTER!!. OEM stock pans with bungs in the correct location are best, but each case is different, especially with the variety of exhaust manifolds that are out there. Even the same style from different companies can have VASTLY different oil return routing lines, be it OEM pans, or those ridiculous Morosos..

So, this will knock out the first 20-30 descriptions.. Any others would again more than likely reference to this. And yes, I'll edit as needed.

One!

AZ_CIVIC

iTrader: (1)

When I street drove my Turbo Civic years ago it was as follow. 500whp setup daily driven in PHX, AZ everyday. I ran AC/PS, Garrett 60 trim turbo, Inline Pro manifold, -3 feed line , -10 drain line going to a stock oil pan at the time. Turbo never broke so I can't give any details there. I was also on E85

The car ran like that for 2 straight years before it became a dedicated drag car.

Also really important, I used a Koyo Radiator, Mishimoto fan shroud and a Maradyne 1600 CFM fan that I actually still run on my drag car. With that setup I would get to maybe 201-205 degrees even on a hot PHX day.

I also used a Treadstone Performance K-Series intercooler because the height of the intercooler wasn't tall but still was thick enough to cool properly. This allowed air to get to my radiator to keep nice and cool.

B and B

iTrader: (3)

Thanks AZ

1158

My setup is in my sig. I was in the 450-470 whp range for first year or so the setup then increased to 470-500 whp. Turbo was still good after damn near 5 years of daily driving and abuse. Run AC/PS in summer where I am temps are frequently low to mid 90s with stretches of triple digit heat and very high humidity. I'm in the 35,000-40,000 with the current setup.

Biggest thing is if you want the car to be reliable do not cut corners or take the cheap way out and make sure you have a good tuner.

Now I did send the turbo out to Shodan to be "upgraded" to the latest spec of the turbo that I have but the turbo itself was fine, other than looking a little ragged lol.

LSTurbo23

i made max 375 hp on my turbo ls(log manifold,sc34 turbo,stock ls head,wiseco pistons,eagle rods,stock sleeves)....had a deltagate wastegate(easily the worst purchase i've ever made in life) caused massive boost issues..also had an ebay sandwich plate..that leaked as it was double gasketed somehow from the factory and i didnt catch it..that caused a mean oil leak...my precision sc34 started leaking oil and caused a smoking issue but aside from that it was the most reliable vehicle ive owned..even my stock E46 gave me more problems than that boosted hatch. drove it to va from nj and back multiple times with no problems. setups still alive..just in pieces..i parted it out..sold the shell..still have the block with new pistons/rods actually waiting to go in another shell right meow.

B and B

iTrader: (3)

Yeah, the engines are another story, although interesting anyway
But I'm mainly curious about the chargers themselves.
5 yrs, damn..

so, about how long before that happened? And did you ever fix the issue?

m4xwellmurd3r

Honestly, the way i see it, the longevity of a boosted honda is completely dependant of the quality of the engine assembly, quality of parts used, and quality of the tuner. As well as diligent maintenance. The reason why they are killed early is usually because the owner runs them ragged without doing proper maintenance for a turbo car, cheap parts were utilized to work around a low budget, or the tuner was questionable.

LSTurbo23

id say that turbo lasted a good year and a half before the car started smoking. and even when the turbo seal(s)blew i still drove the car back to nj from va....i bought it used from a guy who ran it hard for a year or so before he sold it to me as well...no problems with response or spool or anything.just smoked like a diesel. and i drove this thing everyday..had no turbo timer either which probably wasn't helping.

Schister66

Well, i daily drove my 99 GSR for ~4 years boosted. It started as a relatively simple log mani setup and evolved from there. Never made more than 400whp on it (on the built engine) so I can't speak to the unwieldy-ness of the higher hp setups, but as far as longevity is concerned, my only issue was breaking a timing belt and some oil coking in the turbo. The car is still running on the same built engine (from 2008) and same turbo setup from 2010 - engine has ~28k miles on it, turbo setup (BW S256) has ~18k ish and she still runs strong. They require more maintenance of course and will blow gaskets (oilpan & VC namely) more often.

Longevity is going to boil down to a few things: Proper, timely maintenance, quality parts, and a good tune.

$amGD3

boosted since 2011 and daily driven/only car checking in

What's your setup as to mani,turbo,feed/restrictor, drain, and pan (stock?)


Log manifold
Precision 5431B
-3 feed no restrictor/-12( or 10) don't remember, drain
tapped/welded stock pan

turbohatch96y7

iTrader: (15)

Sup sam fam

TheShodan

iTrader: (14)

In the end, it will always boil down to this... I'll wait a day or two, then show the obvious patterns I just showed.

Let the games begin!!

B and B

iTrader: (3)

It's not a secret how to do things correctly, I'm interested in the raw statistics.

This is what I'm asking about.
Did you ever clean or inspect the turbo?
The turbine didn't load up so as to cause problems?

B and B

iTrader: (3)

Still going with no problem?

B and B

iTrader: (3)

Lol

t3h jam

I have a b18c with weisco pistons, eagle rods, 8.9:1, stock head, stock trans, stock radiator, ebay td04 turbo and I have logged 15k without issue whatsoever. the turbo has started using a bit of oil... but again, ebay quality. I'll buy another one this winter for $200.

the car makes 352 hp / 220 tq at 17 psi

the big things are building the motor - spend money here. my motor was built by a very reputable local shop and has taken lots of abuse and still is great

tuning - I had the car tuned by a local guy who has tuned Hondas for going on 15 years now. hes stepped up to other bigger and better things but still tunes Hondas from time to time

the engine assembly and tune are the most important aspects imho

I pretty much daily drive it all summer long. sometimes ill take my element when its insanely hot out (no ac or ps in my em1)

hope this helps

edit - and run a goddamn air filter. just do it, ok?

$amGD3

whats hannin turmonica

$amGD3

yezzir

few random issues here and there but was electrical/spark/dizzy related

mechanically it's been fine


to think what my rings/valve seals/seats etc look like doe...150k all oem B16a2 untouched lolololol

Schister66

Before I sold it in 2011, i took the turbo off and cleaned it out...both housings off, but no further than that. We also took that opportunity to fix the oil drain so the problem would be less likely to continue.

As far as I know, its still running just fine - no turbo issues, no smoking, etc. The car will be under the knife this winter - just freshening the engine with new gaskets and inspecting everything (not touching rotating assembly tho).

98vtec

OEM bottom h22
turbonetics 5454
15psi
380whp
1 yr/10-12k miles
~250psi compression test results from the time I put the kit on to when I parted the car out.
Engine is still running to this day in someone elses car.
never had a problem and it was beat on at least 2-3 times everytime it was driven.

B and B

iTrader: (3)

What was done to improve the drain?

LightningTeg

OEM B18B from head to Pan
Greddy 18G than GT2560R
10-21psi
3 Years / 40k , 150k old engine
Daily driven, over 100 passes made in 1/4, autocrossed, driven in snow
Compression tested 180psi across the board when turbo kit was removed and engine sold to a friend

B and B

iTrader: (3)

Never knew u were on a second block?
You sold the original and picked up the Benson sleeved one?
anyway..neither of those turbos died?

turbo-life thread..hey, that would've been a better thread title!

LightningTeg

Neither turbo died. Neither smoked or did anything bad. I just bought the GT2560r because It came up in the market place for a killer deal brand new.

-Boosted the stock motor in 2008
-Put it back to stock in 2011 when I bought my college roomates 97 civic with the built LS already sleeved cammed etc.
-Had Shodan rebuild the JB Precision SC6152e and fit a Reaper compressor wheel on it
-Spun a rod bearing and I rebuilt it (just bearings, crank and rehone)
-Swapped the motors between the 2 cars so the civic was the daily stock B18B that was previously boosted
-slowly improved everything over the years, switched to E85 blah blah.
-Reaper hybrid precision took a **** again and now is a display piece
-Now LS/VTEC with STC interceptor