After years of thinking about it I'm planning to move forward with a turbo system for my 93 Civic EX which has a swapped in B18C1 and wanted to get some feedback on the combo. The goals for the setup is a fun street car, for now I was shooting for 250 - 300 WHP to keep the stock engine happy. Down the road I will probably do a forged piston / rod setup and would like to hit 350 WHP or so. Car will keep PS and AC.

Engine:
- OBD1 B18C1 with ARP head studs and Honda head gasket. Currently has the early ITR cams and a Blox Intake. Compression test was good but burns a bit of oil at high RPM.
- I also have the stock GSR cams, with the turbo kit listed below and the goals stated am I better off swapping them back in? Or stick with the ITR cams?

Trans (already have all this):
- Clutchmasters FX 250 clutch.
- Rebuilt GSR trans with MFactory LSD
- Insane Shafts axles

Proposed Turbo Setup
- Go Autoworks SX500 Street Turbo Kit w/ cast manifold. SX500 Turbo Kit Not sure what turbo to go with here. I'm between the GT2860RS, GT2871R and the Gen 2 GTX2860R. It seems like the GT2860RS will be a bit on the small side if I go to a good piston / rod setup later. The Gen 2 GTX 2860R is a bit pricey (+$400). Leaning towards the GT2871R at the moment. Any input on which turbo would best fit my goals?

Fuel System
- Walbro or equivalent 255 LPH pump
- Was looking at the Grams 550CC injectors, not really set on those though

Tuning
- Hondata S300 is already installed in the car.

Any input is appreciated. Thanks!

 

What fuel? For the relatively small cost difference, I would recommend going with 1000cc/min injectors and a 450 lph pump. This will give you plenty of room to grow your setup and experiment with E85 if you ever choose to (assuming you'll be running pump 93 initially). The Bosch-style EV14 injectors have great idle quality, so you aren't sacrificing anything there. I think the cost difference between a 255 and 450 lph pump is less than $50.

I think the SX500 kit is a great idea. I'm making 400 whp with that kit/cast manifold on a D-series.

I'm a D-series guy so I have no input on which cams to choose.

For turbo sizing, have you talked to Greg @ Go-Autoworks for his input? I'd recommend it. Be prepared to notch the front of your block to clear the compressor housing with the SX500 kit. It's not too bad, though (on D-series, anyhow).

 

Agree with everything DaX said, and will add that you'll be better off with the GSR cams.

Only other things if doing an E85 system I would put in teflon fuel lines and a Fuelab stainless filter.

 

If your engine already burns oil at high RPM, you might want to do the rebuild sooner than later, and just keep it at 250whp until you rebuild the block. It might be the valves or the block. For cams, I think there is just a different powerband. Just look at GSR vs ITR cam dynographs, there's a lot out there.

The clutch might not hold 350whp if it's an organic/kevlar type of clutch, but it depends on driving, like if you dump the clutch and launch the car a lot.

The turbos should be able to produce that horsepower, but it will take a good amount of boost on 350whp. I used two different T3/T04E and they worked good for me and are only about $450-$500, but not ball bearing. Just make sure you can fit those in if you plan on keeping A/C and P/S. You'll need a downpipe that works, and hopefully a 3" exhaust after that.

The Walbro 255LPH fuel pump can support 350WHP, but you might want to go bigger to be on the safe side.
You'll want bigger than 550cc/min injectors because they will be maxed out at 350WHP. 1000CC/MIN injectors will be plenty, but they are more difficult to idle less than 1000rpm, so there's a tradeoff. Maybe go with 880cc/min or 720cc. One thing to consider with fuel is what if the car overboosts for some reason, and the boost spikes to 30psi all of a sudden, say a waste gate/boost control problem- then you want to tune for bunches of fuel if this happens. With 550cc injectors, you will be risking going lean on high RPMs at 350hp.

The Hondata s300 is good.

Good luck with it. Seems good overall.

 

Thanks for the input! For what its worth I've been wanting to do this for years and have been researching different combos for about the same amount of time. I did email back and forth with Greg a while back, the recommendation there was GSR cams and the GT2860RS. Just like to get extra input where its available.

On the fueling side most things I'd read had stated that for the power level I was looking for 93 octane was enough. We do have a few stations around here that sell E85 so will keep that as an option though. My concern with going to E85 is stuff kind of snowballs, a little more here for larger injectors and pump, a bit here to re-do some lines and filter....starts to add up.

I've checked several threads / dynos on the GSR vs. ITR cams and while the ITR cams seem to make more power several have mentioned they don't work as well with the cast log style manifolds. I don't feel like I'll have any issues making the power I want with the GSR cams, plus I can sell the ITR cams to help pay for some other things. Should I swap back to the GSR intake as well?

On the injectors sounds like I should bump those up a bit, Grams also has a 750cc option. I'm not set on Grams but they seem to have the newer style injectors at a decent price.

I am going to need to change the exhaust at some point. Currently the car has a Yonaka catback which is 60mm I believe, so that will need upgraded. It should get me going at least.

 

Got a hold of Greg the other day and after a few emails back and forth ordered the kit yesterday morning. Went with the Street X kit with a Turbonetics C15 5257 turbo.

Next steps will be to change out the clutch and swap the GSR cams back in. Still need to order injectors and a fuel pump, will get that coming in soon.

Pretty excited to finally do this, been wanting to do this since I got my first Civic around 13 years ago.

 

Awesome man! Exactly what I'm running (Street X kit with C15 52/57 turbo), but mine is D-series. I think you'll be happy.

 

OOOOWWW boy get ready to get your socks blown off! Boost is addicting lol

 

Yeah, I read through your whole thread when I was researching that turbo. Nice build!
I know, that's kind of what got me into this. Used to have an 08 Cobalt SS/TC with a tune which was a lot of fun. My dad and I have been working on an 87 Grand National for the last 20 years, after driving that a lot this fall I realized the Civic needed more power and here we are.

Going to swap the clutch in this weekend and had a question for everyone. I have a stock flywheel as well as a Comp Clutch 12 lb unit. Planning to go with the Comp Clutch unit but in some older threads people seem to be pretty split on stock vs. lightweight flywheels for boost. Any feedback?

 

I stayed with stock weight on my flywheel. I think the general consensus is a lighter flywheel will rev faster but will also fall out of boost faster when shifting. I haven't found myself wishing I'd spent $ on a lightened flywheel yet. You'll probably still get strong opinions on both sides of the argument.

 

^^ This, all day.. Having come from a lightweight FW in my previous build, I went with a stock FW this time around and the difference was incredibly noticeable (for the better). I had a 9lb flywheel before and it was zippy but, meh. The stock weight is highly negligible when really digging in. I have been happy and have not thought twice about switching.