Mattsls1

Hey everyone,
I have been planning on boosting my 2001 Honda Accord for a while now, I'm getting to the point where I'm ready to start it because I just got a extra engine with 48k that came from a insurance company in texas out of a 2001 EX that was totaled. also I just rebuilt my head and installed ARP head studs. I'm not planning on going crazy with boost just 7-10psi not to crazy. When I first got the car and wanted to it the turbo kit's on ebay were around $399-$600, now that I'm looking at them there around $800 to $1,300. I was not going to use the turbo just the rest of the kit. My brother was going to use the eBay turbo for his prelude build when it comes time if I don't end up using it to see how it does. I've heard mixed reveiws on them but I have a really nice percision turbo that was on a civic that I bought for parts and the guy never finished. But no intercooler or anything like just mounted to the stock manifold with some exhaust repair hangers ( crazy I know ). I was going to use that because it's brand new never had oil it or anything?

Does anyone know why the prices went up so much on the kit's? I mean if I buy the manifold, a cheap waiste gate that comes with the kits, a down pipe, and blow off valve, and intercooler kit. I'm already spending more than what the kit is and thats with out a intercooler?
If anyone knows anything please feel free to enlighten me or share your information...

Thanks

Aradin

You don't want an eBay kit. This topic has been beaten to death. I will tell you from my first hand experience, that if you buy one of those kits you will be replacing parts constantly and sacrificing reliability. My CD5 has been boosted for over 5 years now. For the first 2 I was on the "eBay" train as well and thought I could cut corners. I started with a $500 kit that wasn't even complete and eventually I had to replace every single part in it because of failures or issues. All I ended up doing was wasting money since I had to buy everything multiple times. You can probably get away with the intercooler piping, possibly an intercooler, and a BOV from the cheap chinese companies. The rest of the stuff should be quality parts or you will have issues later. Try to piece together quality used components if you're on a budget.

You did make a move in the right direction with the ARP headstuds though. From my experience, for some reason the F23s like to pop headgaskets a lot more readily than the earlier F22s. I tuned a Prelude with a 40k mile F23 swap and a brand new turbo setup on only 8psi and it popped a headgasket within 2 weeks. Also be wary with the rods. They're pretty small and they don't have a lot of bearing surface area. I wouldn't go much past 280wtq on a stock bottom end.