ejsoslo

hey all, i've got an ej coupe and am looking to create a daily turbo build. looking for 200-220whp, but i'm mainly looking for a torque boost. goal is 140+. i have an s4c trans non lsd (ik, ik...) motor is a b16a2 stock bottom end with 56-60k doesn't burn a drop of oil, pretty healthy. the wheels look oversized, which ik hurts torque a bit i'm looking at getting some buddies for it in a smaller size. its already got a cai and full exhaust which doesn't mean anything cause that all goes out the window. i want to push maybe 5-6psi on a daily build, i don't drive it alot, but i don't want to blow the hell out of it, no need for crazy. i feel you get 2 kinds of responses, those who want to push the safe limits to the max, and those who will push b18+. thats the plan later down the line. obd1 chipped p28. this is my first turbo build, i know the b16 is a bit higher compression than is ideal for boost.. but the torque is so lack luster until the higher rpms. car came with the b16, not exactly the motor i would have chosen. but i imagine i can run it with an ebay turbo kit for a while til i can do a b20 swap. which everything should bolt right up so its not really wasting time or money to turbo whats already in it. question is, will that net me the torque i want? i see alot of people focusing on whp with these motors in the forums, which seems like a waste of time if you don't have the torque behind it. if its been covered, just point me to a link.. but whp is secondary to me. ik i'll need a tune, but know zip about turbo and making sure it pushes the psi i want. i'll be doing a bit more research on that but tips appreciated. also this is my first b block. yay? lol

DumpdEJ6

I don't know much about turbos, so I'll just stick to the basics: ebay kits are rolling the dice on your engine. It's possible that quality has gone up since the early years of cheap chinese turbos destroying people's engines, but it's up to you whether you want to risk losing the $800 or so the kit costs, as well as likely your engine when bits of turbo go into your cylinders, vs. spending $1500-$2000 and having a legit system that will be reliable.

The good news is that you are using a B-series engine to begin with, so any kit you use can be repurposed down the road with little to no modification for a B18 or B20 engine.

It seems you're wanting some low RPM grunt, for that you're going to want to go with a smaller sized turbo, you can piece together a kit using a stock DSM/Mitsubishi turbo that will spool up very quickly in the lower RPMs, although a slightly larger aftermarket (quality) turbo with ball bearings may spool up just as fast if not faster and still leave you with more room to grow should you decide to switch to a larger engine.

My suggestion is to peruse the Forced Induction forum and use the search function to find stock builds similar to what you're looking for and emulate those.