Ok so I'm new to forced induction other than a couple VWs that were turbo from the factory. I've read most of the forced induction faq and I've been doing research for a couple months now. I'm just about ready to start gathering parts.
I originally was going to use forged pistons and rods and an eBay turbo kit. But reading some things here has steered me away from the eBay kit. So, since I am no longer going with the cheap eBay kit I'm not sure my budget will allow for forged internals. I know with arp rod bolts the ls block can handle 300whp. My question is what are the weak points? To reliably achieve over 300whp would I have to upgrade everything in the block but the crank?
At the risk of sounding like an idiot, my other question is about the tuning, break in process. I had a vw tuned but the shop that tuned it also installed the new parts. So when I'm completely done with the build, haven't even stated it yet, do I need to do any type of adjustments as soon as its started? I just don't want to wait for that first start up until I get to the tuner because they're 2 hours away and if I have done something wrong I will have trailered the car there for nothing.

 

My best advice for you is to get your feet wet first.

Im assuming you have an lsvtec already? Stock block, yes? Do a leak down and compression test on the block to make sure its a healthy motor

Piece together a decent turbo kit. Pick a good ems and a good tuner.

Tune that motor to 250whp and have fun with that till you want more power.

Build a block later. Thats a whole other sack of **** you dont wana stress about.

Ap a turbo on that motor and go have fun.

I see time and time again people come here with crazy goals, built motor most expensive everything and drive the ******* car 2 times and part it out because it took so long or ran out of money

Start with a fast spool turbo nothing thatll over shoot your goals by like 400 hp because you want room to grow.

Keep the turbo within the expected power limits. Laggy turbos are no fun at the end of the day unless all you're doing is drag racing and no other type of driving

 

I am completely 100% still in the planning phase. No parts or motor aquired yet. I want to have a definite set parts list before I start buying anything. My budget is flexible but I'd like to build the lsv with a $1000 cap so I still have room for a decent turbo kit and tune. When I say planning phase I mean I haven't even decided which car it'll go in yet. I have an ej8 with a mostly stock y8 in it but I think I'm selling that and using something else. Just not sure what yet. The only 2 I've ruled out is a crx and del sol.
What kind of prices am I looking at for a good tune? The tune for my vw was $600.

 

And the reason I'm not using the ex coupe I have is because I can sell it for $1600, buy another car with a better trans and either bad or no motor for $1000. Then the left over $600 can buy my head and IM

 

And the reason that I haven't started buying parts yet it's because unfortunately I'm about 60% leaning to lsv turbo and 40% toward full gsr turbo.
I don't want to turn this into a debate of gsr turbo vs lsv turbo because I have read a thousand of this debates already. As far as power, I think lsv would be better but reliability and ease of workload gsr would be better.

 

Whats your budget? An ls bottom or longblock is gonna cost around 100-300$. Then a b16 or gsr head is around 350-450$. A hydro tranny which i would get a gsr and thats gonna be around 400-500$. 130$ for arp headstuds, get a blackworks lsv kit 140$ cause its cheaper than golden eagle and its the same thing. You are gonna need a 22 teeth waterpump, a gsr timing belt not a b16 cause they are shorter and wont fit. If you want reliability and on a budget, i would look into nippon low compression pistons with scat rods, they sell them as a set on ebay for 530$. They are cast pistons but will handle 500whp easily because many people run them without a problem, im using nippon and eagle rods right now. You can buy just the pistons and ask for a full floating wrist pin ones so you can buy eagle, manley, or brian crower rods instead of the scat rods but they are all made at the same place with different stamps.

 

In that case is seems like it would really be cheaper to just buy a full gsr swap

 

Buying a full gsr swap is gonna be hard unless you can find one, and full swap that comes with a tranny is gonna be over what the price for an lsv.

 

Is it advised to trailer the car to the tuner after putting the turbo kit all together?

 

Or use a basemap to gently drive the car there.

The FAQ exists just for people like you. You really should give it a good read - it would answer all of your questions.

 

I spent about 2 days reading it all but still had a few unanswered questions. I guess my build will all end up coming down to what deals I can find on what parts.

 

Easiest way to find deals on new parts - figure out exactly what parts you want, get part numbers, and punch that number into Google. Most reputable vendors will use the part # as an inventory #, or at least have it in some way searchable.

Building a car 101 - Figure out exactly what you want from it, then figure out exactly what combination of parts will get you that, then buy only those parts, and start stockpiling until you have everything you need to do it in one fell swoop.

 

I have seen full gsr swaps with ecu, harness, and trans for $1200-1500 locally. That's why I say it may be cheaper

 

You'll be hard pressed to find deals outside of the sponsor market place.

Stop tying to find parts as cheap as possible... Your typical imitation cheap part isn't even worth the box it was shipped in.

Building a proper turbocharged car isn't cheap, especially if someone else is doing the labor. Expect to spend around 3-4k on just the built motor alone. Then you're looking at another 2-4k at minimum for quality turbo parts. Then there's another 1500-3000 on fuel and engine management plus thecost oftuning the car. None of those prices except the tuning includes labor, they are based on the assumption that you're doing every aspect of the build yourself. If you don't have any experience building motors, wiring, or familiar with the basic necessities of a turbo Honda, nor are familiar with turbocharging then I suggest you have a local reputable shop do the critical work. Of course depending on labor charges you'll have to double the above price as a rule of thumb. Most shops charge 80-130 per hour of labor depending on what kind of work is being done. The more complex and specialized the work is the more labor costs.

Also if you aren't familiar with the basics of working on cars, aren't mechanically inclined, and don't have a well stocked toolbox then I suggest you let someone else do the work.

You can read everything on the internet, all of the how to articles, read all of the books and still not know what you're doing. There's a gigantic difference between reading about it and looking at pictures vs actuallydoing the work . You can easily get in over your head in no time

 

Wow somewhere along the way I must have made myself sounds like an inexperienced idiot. During the day I'll have to take a picture of my garage. I'm not new to mechanics, just to hybrid motors and aftermarket turbo set ups.

 

Let me give you some info...

I had an lsvtec that I am currently taking apart.

Weak points are the LS rods. If your shooting for higher HP than 300, get forged internals... higher than 400hp get a sleeved block...

you can get the rods shotpeened to help strengthen them... this is what i did, ran reliably on 300hp for a while.... then cracked a ringland.. 10/13/10/10 is what my leak down test showed... and the car ran like ****.... so i am rebuilding correctly this time....

the OEM LS piston and rod will limit you to 300 hp.

ALSO dont forget to use a higher grade rod and main bearing from ACL (i use yellow box).

Balance the rotating assembly if you want reliability.

if you want over 300 get the pistons and rods.

as far as your turbo setup goes, 3 inch exhaust is a must and upgrade the manifold to skunk2 or blox... OEM isnt ideal

your also going to need injectors... 255 walbro fuel pump etc...


do your research and you should be fine.

 

Thanks for the helpful info. I have a chance to get an ls long block for $200. I can't hear it run that's why I told them only $200. I'm not sure what I'll do with the head but having that block will be a good starting point. As someone stated maybe I shot a little high for my first Honda build. I will shoot for 250-300whp to start then upgrade from there if needed.