Mag22

I recently bought an 02 EP3 (K20A3) with 30K miles, and it's my only vehicle for a daily commute of 25 miles each way.

I want reliable HP - probably 200-240ish whp, and have considered the JRSC race kit, or a Greddy turbo kit, either one with a Hondata K-pro. I need to keep the exhaust reasonably quiet, and the budget under 5K USD.

I'm sure most of you started the same way - just dabble in a little bit of boost and maybe walk a V8 on the highway for giggles now and then. It's addictive, and I see many people here want a lot more out of their car, but let's presume for a moment I'm strong willed and can live with this modicum of boost.

If this was you for a year or more with your Honda, how did your car fare on reliability? How often did small but detrimental problems crop up? I plan to have the car professionally installed and tuned, and would like to hear what sort of problems to expect from others that have already been there.

And will 220 whp let me outrun my wife's 07 Camry SE V6 She can run low to mid 6 seconds to 60, and 14.5 quarters at 97-98 mph. Unacceptable! She walked me like a dog today.

Mag22

Plenty of views and no replies.. maybe I should be more specific.

JRSC - Belt and pulley issues seem to be common, and I would suspect proper installation cures most of this. Can I slap my factory belt back on and circumvent the new idlers and nose on the side of the highway if I have to?

I'm in Alabama - humidity and high temperatures are a 3 season issue - will the JRSC experience any heat soak difficulties on lengthy highway runs of 80ish MPH (about 4K RPM in the little egg).

Greddy or other turbo - Most of the failures I see are feed lines coming loose, or oil leaks. I have to ASSume most people have taken every precaution to secure vacuum and oil lines - do they work themselves free regardless like a Harley Davidson and it's bolts?

I also understand the turbo is going to make more WHP. Obviously more HP is more drivetrain strain - has anyone experienced anything other than clutch failure below 250 whp?

I've been reading forums and websites for a week researching my decision, but few people ever mention their longterm success or failure with their boosted Honda on a daily driven basis, it's more about initial install issues or which mod is next - please take a moment to let me know how your project car fared as a daily driver, and thank you.

95jeremie

well i can't answer all your questions because I'm on my quest for boost as well
but i can tell you that 220whp will be sufficient to spank your wife
and by the way i know how you feel last year i bought my wife a lancer
BUMP for you

vtec.dc2

[QUOTE=Mag22]
I want reliable HP

I need to keep the exhaust reasonably quiet

and the budget under 5K USD.

I plan to have the car professionally installed and tuned

QUOTE]

sounds like you want too much, high hp and reliable just isn't going to happen. a solution? pick another car for daily driving. even if its reliable, you're still going to be waisting milage for daily driving, when you could be using it to have fun.

so bottom line, if you want to keep it reliable, don't boost it. or if you have more funds, get another car for daily driving, profeecionally installed or not, whatever that might mean as its not all that complicated to put together turbo kit and tuning is either done right or not..

who's best for boosted cars? people with larger wallet, if you got more money, i say go for it but still have another vehicle for DD.

Dartanian

I am running a modified Greddy kit on my GSR. The engine has 159k on the odometer and I run 10 psi daily.

As long as you have proper fuel management and the engine is healthy, a quick spooling turbo would be ideal for what you are looking for.

Harassing Herbs

you best bet is to get a hooptie with a good motor for like 600 bucks then use the 4400 and get your honda set up.
as with any heavy modifications you will run in to minor problems that you donot foresee causing down time

when you start to make power your car becomes more fun to drive

just for the piece of mind id drop some money and get a daily beater

Mag00n

boost is not necessarily unrelaible but it does bring out the worste in motors.

e.g. my timing belt was slightly loose on my old crx. It was fine and ran great n/a. A month after boosting it skipped a tooth. Took me 2 weeks to figure out why the car was running like total ****

bottom line no matter how carefull and thorough you are and how good your tuning is things can still happen.

Id say a reliable daily is a must but theres plenty here who dont have one.

Mag22

Thanks to all for the insight. The sensible little angel in my head says get another car for emergencies, but the little devil in my right foot says !#$& it and get boosted now.

Some of the replies here are also making me rethink my idea of "moderate" whp. I'm guessing 7 psi is just as likely to cause a serious problem as 10, (or unlikely if all goes well) and that wasn't how I was thinking before I asked these questions, other than drivetrain problems from excessive power.

Another question... the GReddy turbo, from what I understand, is a smaller, faster spooling unit - so it makes sense to me that a larger turbo would not only make more whp at higher RPM's, but also tax my motor less during low RPM daily driving... is this a logical assumption or not?

95jeremie

yes a larger turbo will give you more rpms pre boost for dd
but when it hits the power band is much shorter
smaller turbo= boost 3500 rpms and up
bigger turbo= boost 5000 rpms and up
the larger turbo will put more strain on everything because the power will come on over a shorter period
a smaller turbo is more gradual increase in power thus less strain

regardless what turbo you choose it is whp that you look at
230 whp on a small turbo= 12 lbs of boost
230 whp in a larger turbo= 8 lbs of boost
it's whp that breaks things not psi

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1004578

Gott_Mogen

mine is 400 whp (91 oct) dd, been driving it for a year with no problems, change the oil, that is about all, even on a built motor sitting in 100 degree summer traffic. As long as it is put together right and that wasn't by me...you shouldn't have any problems.

The greddy kit should suffice

Schister66

oh man....i think about this all the time!

My 99 GSR before i turboed it was a happy little car. It had 54k miles on it and loved driving around, but wasn't very fast. I was really happy with the car at the time because it was faster than my EJ8. I never had any problems with it ever....now that its been boosted, i have had a few problems.

1. Timing belt shredded
2. Car has a hard time idling until its at operating temp....IACV is screwed up (intake manifold problem)
3. Smokes on really hard boost (like all turbo hondas)
4. Has a distinct smell of burning something...lol

My car is just pissed off in general, but it is an absolute blast to drive....i'm going to build it and have more fun with it....

it is basically as reliable as before, but with a few little quirks....i love it just the way it is though

Mag22

Your timing belt issue concerns me a bit too - I've read the tensioner on the chain for K20A3's is not built to the same specs as a K20A2, and some people have used Toda tensioners with very mixed results.

Hopefully a "mild" 220ish whp will keep me below the threshold for these sorts of failures. I'm supposed to get a quote tomorrow on a JRSC race and a GReddy turbo to make my final decision.

The shop I visited had a dyno and 15+ civics on site - the one on the dyno was pushing 658 whp, so I have some confidence in their expertise. I think I'm going to roll the dice on my daily driver.

Schister66

as long as you do things correctly and dont cheap out, you shouldn't have problems....there are the odd things that happen from time to time, but that's life....once you boost though, those little problems are negligible....its too much fun not to have!

bigb16

I say just turbo the thing and don't go hard on it all the time. I've been driving my Civic since July 2006 to work and school. My car has a high milage JDM b16, so we are in a totally different boat, but my 3rd gear synchro went bad, so I bought a different b16 ys1 trans for $350. It has smoked ever since I installed the turbo, but it has gotten worse (rings going bad, so I have to add oil). Even though these are pretty big problems, they never kept me from driving from point A to point B. Let me tell you though, after you test out the power on the street, you will not regret your decision.