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Hey guys, I'm new to the forum and wanted to start a thread about the crazy story of my 1995 Honda civic vx turbo.
The story starts about a year and a few months ago, I had just bought my first manual transmission car (99 Subaru OBS) and was excited to start modifying it. I got some tires and wheels and started hooning around, around this time I found a local car club (Drift 406) and started regularly attending meets. Well I met some people with moderately fast cars and got some ride alongs. Well those tires and wheels I got were forgotten and all I then wanted was power. I got this crazy notion to turbo my car by doing nothing but bolting on a hacked together turbo kit and make POWWWAAAA!! Well long story short, I had many conversations with many people telling me how stupid I was, and I (not ever dealing with anything turbo before) finally understood it was a bad idea and started looking for faster options. Little did I know, at the same exact time a local club member had just gotten his turbo civic together and was finally ready to sell. How the car looked when I purchased it, dick sticker and all
Slammed son! haha
(Now to where the story really begins) The first time I saw my now car was at a friday meet where I saw a weird Honda I've never seen before pull up. I'd talked with the guy a few times before but never saw him driving this car. When he popped the hood I saw for the first time in my life what looked to me like priceless gold in the engine bay. A huge turbo, screamer pipe, Big intercooler piping, flashy bits everywhere. I just about begged for a ride, and the (then) owner reluctantly agreed. The car didn't disappoint with many rolling burnouts while on the limiter, I was sold. I needed to do anything and everything in my power to own this car. The next day I put my car for sale thinking, if someone were to buy my car before the Honda sells I'd buy it. Well within about two hours I got an offer I wanted and sold the car that day. Brought cash and bought what is now named OG Turd Burglar AKA Jankies AKA Lord of the Jank. The next two months were filled with Learning how to drive a big power Honda (dyno'd at 340 wheel @16.5 PSI) with very short gears, blown struts and bad brakes. Now when I bought this car I was told by the prior owner, the shop to that tuned it, and a few friends that it would last a long time and I had nothing to worry about. Boy were they all wrong. After about a week of driving it in getting used to it sounds and smells I learned that at 2000 RPM cruising it knocked about as hard as someone at your door. I asked the prior owner and he told me the piston ring gap was set very loose and was a little bit of Pistons slap that I was hearing, Nothing to worry about. Again very wrong. After the first month I noticed the oil catch can starting to ooze oil around the filter after a few hard pulls. After another week or two the car started puffing blue, and finally on the two month date of ownership catastrophic failure. I was taking a friend out that had ever been in a fast car and thankfully we weren't far from my house. Everything was normal and I did a few roll ons, finally I got a big break in traffic and did a second through fifth pull. When I let off I put the car in neutral and as it came down to Idol it stalled. Coasting back down on the brakes to highway speed I start the engine again and it starts idling at about 200 RPM. I put the car in and started to drive and oh boy James Bond smokescreen. Turned the car around and limped it home. I knew I had blown the the motor, But I wasn't too concerned as all I thought I needed was pistons rings and seals. Again I could not have been more wrong.
Fast forward about a month of trying to get the car trailer to my garage the next town over, a friend finally hooked it up. I knew nothing about rebuilding engines taking out engines or turbochargers really. So I found a good friend of mine who was really into Hondas and enlisted as help to rebuild it. After about five or six days at the shop over about a three week span we finally pulled motor, I was getting so excited it was about to run again even though we kept finding places where corners were cut. I had already found replacement Pistons (P2P0 viterra which was already in the motor when I bought it) and set up an appointment with machinist machinist to get the block tidied up. Can you tell which cylinder let go?
Learning quickly what parts had been skimped on 1 Human power Honda
Well this is where the heartbreak happens. My big smile that you see in the prior photo turned into a very scared face when he pulled ahead off the motor. We found that every piston had been melted and one piston in particular had melted it through all three ring lands, causing damage to the block. The motor had already been bored over five thousandths so in my opinion the block was toast. Everything came crashing down, my put a set of $300 pistons in it turned into a full motor rebuild including lots of many bits that needed replacing or upgrading.
Thankfully I have a really good friends and was able to get hooked up with a donor motor that had spun a rod bearing for cheap. Stripped it down to reveal a good block that had not been bored over, the new heart for OG has been found.
steal of a deal
This is what came out of the oil pickup. the crank was toast
This was the point when I decided I wanted to go all out on this build, not just making the bottom end strong but build the top properly as well. I purchased BC upgraded valve springs and TI retainers, bronze valve guides, Super tech X8 intake valves and inconel exhaust, and some supertech seals. The bottom end received Manly forged H beams, Wiseco forged pistons 5 thousandths over, King Race bearings, JE Proseal MLS headgasket, and all new seals from Honda. Also ordered a Competition Clutch stage 4 sprung six puck and lightened flywheel, Mish thermostatic oil cooler, gates racing kevlar timing belt, and new arp goodies
Things were moving along quickly but money was being spent like a motha ***** and before I knew it my college refund was gone (I was working at the time but the plan wad to save the refund to live off of and use work money to pay for parts). Put the motor back in with a built trans my buddy supplied used, it has much longer gears and a heavy LSD. Also an ATI super damper was installed as the stock HB was splitting and I didn't want to risk it. I found putting the car back together to be much more difficult than ripping it all apart. Progress was slow.
Pumped on the progress so far
Full stand alone ECU, no more chipped jankyness for me!
Ended up running out of money for a new turbo so I ended up keeping the Precision 5031 that was on the car when I bought it (donor block's turbo was toast due to a restrictor being placed on the oil return) as well as the cast manifold that was on the car. Brought the car up to a tuning shop in northern Montana called Brewed Motorsports to be tuned and broken in (due to some weird wiring problems I couldn't figure out dealing with the wideband). Car was finally done and tuned to 8PSI and it ******* rips. The power is so much more useable now with the longer gears and LSD. Many small silly things have been tweaked such as new ignition switch, distributer, coolant hoses and lots of heat wrap to the intercooler piping.
Most recent setup, just switched out the rad mount though
So now that you guys are all caught up, the next things the car needs is Koni Yellows (should be happening this week), new front brakes and adjust the rears, tires (so badly, this thing likes to roast them at 80 MPH), getting the oil cooler mounted, and more heat mitigation. I'll keep you guys posted!
Wow trial and tribulations fr. But this is why I always advise to not buy someone elses "project"
Nice comeback on the car, you'll have a bond with it forever now
Yeah I definetly learned my lesson. Although a lot of good came from it, I learned so much through the process and I'm happy for that. Also now I've got a pretty sweet car that rips and the motor is way stout. Raced a cammed evo x the other day from a 40 roll and had a car length on him till we let off at 120
Yeah I definetly learned my lesson. Although a lot of good came from it, I learned so much through the process and I'm happy for that. Also now I've got a pretty sweet car that rips and the motor is way stout. Raced a cammed evo x the other day from a 40 roll and had a car length on him till we let off at 120
Sounds like fun, at 8psi you still have some more boost you can tap into... To blow the doors off them super cars haha.
Sounds like fun, at 8psi you still have some more boost you can tap into... To blow the doors off them super cars haha.
What's your whp wtq looking like?
Absolutely, someday it may see 12-14 PSI finally bringing the big 50 trim up to it's efficiency range. It really needs supporting suspension, brakes, and tires before it gets turned up to put the power to the ground. Brewed did a road tune on the car so I'm not too sure the whp and wtq numbers yet. Friends that have gotten rides, the few fortunate to drive it, and I guess around the 250-260 whp range. I really need to strap it down to a dyno and see what it's really making but money is sparce and I'd rather put it into parts the car needs. When I bought the car it was making 340 whp @ 16.5 PSI with pistons melting. I'll attach the old dyno graph.
16.5 PSI with the P2P0 Vitara setup W/ melted pistons
How much wheel spin are you getting? I want to turbo my car but am not looking forward to the potential wheel spin that comes with it.
The answer to you question is a complicated one. When I first got the car it had a really shitty lsd in it, super short gears (stock D16 I believe), shitty worn old 400 treadwear tires, and blown struts w/ ground control sleeves + stiff springs. So in that combination and also making 340 wheel, yes spinning was out of control. Second bounced the limiter as soon as you got on the power, third even bounced the limiter immediately sometimes according to things like ambient air temp,dirt on the road, grooves in the road etc. So my recommendation is to put on a good set of adjustable suspension bits, get good 200-300 treadwear tires, get a d15 trans or get one built with longer gears and get a heavy lsd in it. And with that combination you should have a car that'll hook pretty well. Also I'm a big believer in making as much power at the setup can handle. It's cool to brag about huge whp and wtq figures but spinning aint' winning haha, and it can be pretty rough on components. Also if you do plan to shoot for big numbers, get a hondata that's got the bits in it for boost by speed/gear, that'll help a ton as well.
Quick update on the car, put some sound deadening in the trunk area today (made a nice cruising tone difference, since the VX came with no insulation from the factory). I'll have to snap a picture of what it looks like, I was really surprised how light the stuff was. It was four 1 yard sheets of regular thickness and it weighed about 12 pounds, not really killing the weight haha. Also finally finished mounting my socket shifter (It's a bit of a story I can go into if someone wants to know) and swapped out my heat controller for one with a **** (oh man how nice it is to not need pliers to change the heat settings). Got a nice price for Koni yellows from Brewed so those should be ordered Friday, and possibly some nice front brake rotors with performance pads.
09-12-2016, 01:18 AM
My turbo Honda build story thus far...
