integrawow

I'm on the brink, or at least i've been so for years, of just going at it and ordering all the parts to put a 300 crank hp setup together. I've had three integra's, and i've been slow in all but one of them. I'm sick of being slow, and as hard as I work as a student, I deserve a reward of finally putting together a turbo kit when this semester is over. I work as a tech and have the tools and equipment to make it happen as well. I'm talking lifts, tools, and capability. Thus, I should be able to piece a kit together.

My current setup is an 00 DC2 with gsr everything except the shortblock. It's a B16a. I'm still running the gsr cams, and when I put the motor together I installed another set of intake springs in the exhaust so I now have dual's on both sides of the valvetrain because I had the springs and figured it could only be a good thing. Whoooptie doo. However, I still have the stock PR3 pistons and had the head decked .008," so i'm dealing with approx. 10.75 to 1 c/r. I'm still running the stock 00 spec gsr tranmission as well. The motor itself is healthy from what I can tell. The B16a shortblock should be right at 75,000 to 80,000 miles.

We have a very reputable tuner here locally, and this guy has put out some wild turbo honda combo's before. He is (oh my bad, they are) factory trained for a handful of the leading engine management companies such as AEM, I think Motec as well, and they've all taken other engine management courses as well. So that's a plus.

So, since i've gotten rid of all my other cars, would I be somewhat making a mistake to have a turbo combo that makes right at or just over 250whp, and rely on it to be my daily driven pos? Be honest with me. Let me have it. Hell i'd probably be afraid to pound on it thinking i'd scatter my motor. Hmmm, yeah we all say this at first, but I might really mean it.

ahobbs

that's too much to read for a simple question. Can you daily it sure, will it break, i dont know. Is your tuner bad ***, probably so, can you get a bad tank of gas, of course.

will **** break........Hell yeah it will. It sucks to be in a rush to get your broken car back up or bumming rides. Tons of people do it but im speaking from my experience.

No.

LightningTeg

Risky business is the name of the game.

Im still daily driving my 250whp+ turbo LS for the second year in a row now and its treated me well. Thats 20,000 boosted miles on a stock motor, with 75+ passes down the track and countless highway pulls. Drive it to school and back everyday and across the country 8 times for breaks and summer. Its never been a slap on and leave it deal though. I've modified the setup a whole bunch over the course of the year to make more power so its been under the knife alot so I know whats going on under the hood always. Im currently working on a daily driver so I dont have to worry about breaking anything anymore though.

integrawow

Hey, that's what I want, honesty. Thank you very much. Really.

Little_Nolan

iTrader: (3)

I dd'd a turbo LS and it was such a headache, always fixing this or tightening that.. things break and wear out plain and simple.

Yes you can drive one every day, but it takes work with quality parts.


I am going to try a daily setup again someday, but it will be a greddy or edelbrok kit.

integrawow

Whoa, so from what I can tell so far, I need to just go pick up my old da integra chassis, and put a motor in it, and boost that instead. Haul it to the track, kick ***, then haul it back. Hmmm. Understandable for sure.

It's so tempting to want to ride around free ballin' with gobs of power, but in the end you have to ask yourself if it's really the best option. I think I know what to do.

Thank you guys.

jetspeedz

you get what you pay for, that has been my experience, if you build it right and tune it right you will have much less issues to no issues if you don't abuse it.

ahobbs

my setup was put together perfectly for what we had back n the day. Tuned by tony1, doesnt matter **** will break, from axles to Iacv. From driving down he road and your dupe tube rattles loose. **** WILL HAPPEN

raene

Just have a backup plan and you'll be fine. Treat the car like a luxury and enjoy it. Stuff breaks even if you're not turbo, it's just exaggerated when you're turbo more **** to break/rattle/come loose... but if you do it right then your dumptube shouldn't rattle loose, hehe

integrawow

Is there constant engine failure issues? I can see throwing alot of power to stock axles and having issues, and the like. I can understand parts vibrating loose as well. I'm easy on my equipment. If it's constant engine failure issues, then that's not good. Also, do the turbo related parts themselves have problems holding up, such as BOV, WG, etc?

I'm looking to do something with the car though. I didn't think an engine swap would net me very much considering the money you put into it. Engine swaps have always been, based on my experience, EXPENSIVE per amount of realizable gain in performance. One guy recommends going with an F20b or H22, but uhhhh, try to find parts for an F20b in the US.

TypeRfit

iTrader: (6)

Jetspeed is correct, you get what you pay for. Boosted cars do take a little bit more maintenance over n/a. I drove my turbo ls (as a pizza delivery guy) for almost two years with out one major issue. I would recommend replacing the head studs though as mine started lifting. Overall i would do it again. Just make sure you do buy good quality parts and make sure your tune is done right and you shouldn't have problems at all. Good luck with the build

integrawow

When you say major issue, what is considered a typical issue? lol

I mean, what did you find yourself fixing so often? What was going on?

My motor will have a good bit of compression on top on everything. We do, though, have a pretty damned good tuner locally.

TypeRfit

iTrader: (6)

The biggest issue i had was my head studs, replaced oem with arp and solved that problem, other then that stupid stuff, axles, tires, oil changes more frequent, constantly checking clamps and hoses. I ran mine on 13psi. The only other thing was my manifold cracked, (bought a cheap ebay one) after that i put on a lovefab mini me and was good to go. If you are going to piece together a kit spend a little extra money to get quality parts and you shouldnt have any problems.

B16Drag

"Just do it."

integrawow

I checked out the lovefab units as well as other brands. What's a good rule of thumb as far as knowing how the turbo will be clocked such that the hot side inlet and the cold side outlet will be going in the correct direction? Hey we don't want the turbo outlet going straight towards the hood now do we? lol I personally like the idea of the top mount configuration.

Next, which radiator, half size that is, fits the DC the best right out of the box? I'm sure the hoses will be a pain to match up.

Lastly, I see so many different downpipe flanges. Geez. How the heck does a guy know? Every turbo unit that I see has a different downpipe flange, or at least it seems that way. What's the general rule on downpipe flanges?

Thanks guys.

ahobbs

this was before the vbands where out, and it rattles loose from races. Maybe Tony1 should have welded the dumptube to the wastegate back then.

I drove a turbo daily for 2-3yrs, worked perfect 90% of the time but it's just that down time that is tuff when you dont have another car.

OP if you can get another car do it. save yourself some headaches but if you dont have a good time

jdm95

When you put the turbo on you will have to clock it for it to line up, just loosen the bolts on the compressor housing and turn it where you need it and retighten them that easy. As far as which half size fits best out of the box? Any of them Koyo, fluidyne, PWR which ever fits your price but any you use are made for a civic so you will have to cut out the spot welds on the driver side lower tray mount and move it over and re weld it. Not a hard thing to do. Also have to modify your top mount bracket for the radiator. I just took a little time to rebend mine and drill new holes so it still has the stock appearence to it. What ever you do buy quality parts and do the research using the search button first off and if you cant find what you need just ask most people will help you out no matter how stupid they find the question everyone was a noob at one point.

TehGhett0P1mp

I DD'ed a 330 whp integra for almost a year so far..nothing had gone wrong yet, just get a good tune and get a wideband because you will get a bad tank of gas and that might be the only thing that saves your motor. Other then that had zero problems until I cracked a ringland but that was my own fault and stupidity so if it was not for that it would still be running strong today.

omiehomie

there is a saying. cheap , reliable, and fast. you can only pick two...

if you want it fast and cheap it is not going to be reliable.
if you want it cheap and reliable its not going to be fast.
if you want it reliable and fast its not going to be cheap.

i stand by these statements because it has taken me a little over 4 years to accumulate all of my parts (half being nice quality used parts from the HT market place) to finally turbo charge "reliably" my 99 DD gsr. its on a stock block and im not going to be planning for anything past 10 psi. just wanted a little more kick to teh DD, and i also chose higher end parts that will last and serve me well for reliability...

just a thought

CoreyR

250whp isnt asking for much even out of a b16 bottom end. i would say go for it.

at that power level youre hardly any more likely to break parts over an NA setup. drivetrain parts are run without problems at twice that power level. not to mention when youre not putting your foot to the floor, whats different from a turbo car and NA? the both make the same power out of boost.

also if its put together properly the first time you wont have to go around tightening parts all the time. lock washers were invented for a reason.

ive owned 4 turbo hondas and ive never had an issue with any of them the was due to them being turbo. only 1 wasnt daily driven.

brian15

I daily drive my eg coupe , w/ a gt35r .... about 100 miles a day thats just too and from work .

make sure you use good quality parts the first time around , and make sure the tune is on point and youll be ok.

Always have a back up vehicle because stuff will go wrong when you least expect it ....

non-VTEC

I DD my turbo B20/vtec for over 4 years now........few issues mainly due to tuning and exhaust setup but nothing i could not repair easily.

it all comes down to proper parts selection and tuning.

fmfkid250

My girl friend drives her integra every day its a 99 GSR with a 94LS motor with 250,000 miles. at 10psi it made 258whp (he351 holset)

integrawow

You guys have been great. I consider myself somewhat of a professional when it comes to cars, and it impresses me how this thread is so responsive. Better than I could have ever imagined.

There is one more thing. Vacuum. This has always bugged me for years when thinking of it. From what I can tell, and in a nutshell, the MAP needs to see positive pressure, the iac can get over it, the fuel regulator vac source may hate positive pressure, and the brake booster might pull out a knife if it ever saw big positive pressure. I want a vacuum log to make the vacuum routing neat, but what's the general rule for vacuum required items and turbocharging?


^^^^^ This answers alot of questions for me. This info should be put in most turbo writeup guides. Good info!

kyden

vacuum stuff is fine. the brake booster has a check valve to keep boost from getting to it. the regulator is fine with boost.