Right now I am looking for a used car to turbo. I wonder what things I should think about when deciding on a car. I want a body that is in really good shape with good paint. A title that is clean is a must. But most used cars have engines with 100,000 miles or more. So lets say I find a nice LS Integra that looks great and supposedly cared for, with lots of miles on the engine. Knowing I want to turbo, what should I do? Do I rebuild the engine or buy a newer engine with around 20-30k miles. Which is cheaper? I know buying a JDM LS engine is around $700. BTW, I am a noob to boost and only want to go with entry levels of power, so around 250hp.

 

Sounds like you've got a pretty good list of criteria there. Do a compression test on the engine and you'll get a good idea of how well it will handle the boost.

 

It'd be more reliable to build the motor with forged internals...that way your motor can take more of a beating

The forged internals will be more (I think I paid ~$900 for SRP 9.5:1 pistons, JE Pro-Seal rings, and Eagle rods), but as said before...your motor will be able to take more abuse as opposed to the used engine that supposedly has 20K-30K miles.


Depending on if you're building it yourself or if you're paying someone will make a big difference in the price...you have to figure ~$1,000 for the internals, at least 3K for a complete turbo kit (unless you piece one together yourself), some kind of tuning program (you can go the cheap route and use Crome or expensive and use Hondata...or all out and AEM stand-alone), the labor to build it, and the labor to tune it.

 

Well this car will probably be my daily. My goal is to have a fun, light weight, good handling, high rev, good sound, nice looking, and around 250 hp car.

The only things I have ever done mechanically is change my oil, and install new rotors/pads. I am eager to learn as much as I can about all things mechanical. So, yes, everything would be done by me and with help from friends.

From what you said, I would tend to go along the engine rebuild and upgrade route. I have looked at some websites with JDM engines, but don't haven't read much user feedback from sites like that. Just to be sure, you paid $900 for parts and labor?

 

I work at a shop, so I got a small discount on parts and did the labor myself.

Pretty much everything comes with directions (on upgrades) but on OE replacements it's just "take it off, put it on" pretty much.

But I'd take the block to a machine shop to have it cleaned up and pay them to put it together because you have to be very precise with the piston rings when filing them.