Hi guys,

I'm hoping to finally get my car on the road SOON, its been 4 months Here's my setup, I'm after some opinions as to what boost will be safe and how hard I can drive it!

Integra Type R
Stock internals
440cc injectors
T3/4 turbo with front mount intercooler
Hondata s200
Adjustable FPR
Walbro 255 pump
7psi Tial wastegate

I've been told I'll be safe running 6psi max to stay within a wide safety margin - this is my daily drive so I really don't need it blowing up on me, and am not bothered about getting Maximum power from it, I just want it safe and fast.

As the wastegate spring is 7psi, does this mean if I'm heavy with my right foot, it'll boost up to 7psi, and therefore I might do some damage? I always used to drive the car quite hard when it was stock, regularly over 8k RPM. Am I gonna have to stop doing this now its boosted?!

I'll have a wideband permanently wired up (PLX M-300) so as long as my AFR is ok, can I assume everything is ok, or are there other things I need to be aware of too?

I'm just a bit nervous about being too hard on the car, and want to hear from those experienced in boosting ITRs. Any advice would be great

 

Are you planning on getting your car dyno tuned? 7lb should be safe. Its all in the tuning!

 

Ok here's my dilemma:

I've got a big car show in 3 weeks and I can't find anyone who can tune the car before then. Someone I know has the Hondata software, he's very familiar with the software and has tuned several turbo CRXs (including his own) and is well respected in my club. He's written me a chip for a boosted 1.8 engine with 440cc injectors, with all the correct fuel maps etc for this setup.

He says my car should run fine on that chip, and as long as I retard the timing to 16 degrees and keep a close eye on the AFR, I should be ok to run on that to get to the show. Then I can get it on the rollers in a couple of months time to fine tune it.

I'm nervous about this but I do trust the guy, he always preaches about doing things properly, having a safety margin, not just trying to extract maximum power etc. This is why I want to know what else I should be keeping an eye on so I can be sure in myself that everything is ok. Until its properly tuned, I won't be nailing it hard or racing, but I do want (obviously) to be able to experience a little boost and see some of my hard-earned cash in action.

So with the timing retarded, octane booster + 98RON fuel to protect from detonation, a close eye on the AFR and the oil pressure (plus I've got a gauge on my FPR so I can check fuel pressure) - what would you advise? Should I be sensible and not drive the car AT ALL until its properly mapped?

And if the answer is that I should be able to drive it 'sensibly', what do you class as sensible? No higher than 4k RPM? 6k RPM?

 

To any boosted ITR owners out there, please share your experience/knowledge with a nervous newbie!

 

Basically the guy made you a basemap with stock 16degrees BTDC. You can drive normally just watch your A/F, most likely you will be rich, but who knows if it was made correctly. Just stay out of boost until you get it tuned. You can still drive normally without being in boost.

 

Keep it out of boost and you should be fine. I just recently added a turbo kit to my JDM ITR swap. My setup is similar to yours. Except I went with a .3 bar spring in my wastegate. Get one stage colder plugs and gap them to 0.028". When I was gettng my car tuned I was having an issue with the plugs getting blown out at 7000 rpm and beyond. The plug gap was to big. Changed the gap and everything is cool.
Good Luck.

 

Thanks for the advice I guess deep down I knew I shouldn't run on boost till its properly tuned... hey at least I'll be able to drive it again after all this time!

Blumeany - what kind of power are you making with your setup? How do you like the power?