All motor vs. Build your own Turbo System? Would like to know pros and cons of both ways. Any suggestions would be helpful.

 

Going all motor, the engine is within it's means. It is designed to perform at it's peak.

Forced induction involves forcing the engine to do something it doesn't necessarily want to do. This can be dangerous, and it will surely shorten the life of the engine.

 

n/a is hard to do wit the si. since there arent tuning capabilities that will allow cams and other internals perform to their potential. right now the way to go for alot of power is s/c or turbo. or nitrous. ct released a stage 2 pulley for their s/c and should be awesome.

the best mod to start out wit would be a race header then intake/catback.

 

Best bang for the buck hands down is a final drive and a new liteweight flywheel.


The first mod I will do when I purchase my 09 SI here in the next few weeks....

I have done this mod to 2 out of the 3 ITR's I have owned... Made more of a difference in drivability than the tuned Toda B's ever did.....

 

Thanks for the input. I have intake, hi-flow cat, and exhaust, and headers after i decide which way i want to go, all motor vs f.i. Obviously there isn't a definite answer either way.

 

at similar power levels, i'd say the turbo would be more reliable than an n/a build. once you open up the engine you're opening yourself to a lot more things going wrong. with a turbo, you can safely raise the power level to an amount that's simply impossible with n/a. i'd definitely go the turbo route if i had to choose.

 

i would say go f/i. youll make more power easier. unless you do the hytech engine build. thats the only way really to have a good na build on these cars.

its actually the other way around. a turbo has more things that can go wrong than an all motor build. if a motor is built right, you wont have any problems with the internals.

 

i would be careful with the flywheel. especially a new clutch. theyve been known to mess up in our cars

 

can you elaborate on this please ?

 

the flywheels dont do any damage to our cars , over doing a clutch does damage to our cars. they cant handle the extreme or stage 3 or higher pressure plates with the stock master and slave cylinders. I have been using an ACT-HDSS kit in my car for 13000 miles now with no problems, you do have to add washers to the pivot ball to obtain enough throw for the release, but a light fly and a 5.6 final drive is by far one of the best mods for these cars. it will take top end away a bit but i dont need my car to reach 140 , i need it to be responsive and run a fair 1/4 mile time. you will burn a bit more gas with the 5.6 final drive , but not enough to cry over so to me its well worth the gas loss.

 

Who makes the 5.6

I have seen the JDM 5.1, but never a 5.6

 

honda element gears

 

Will that FD work w/ our LSD?

 

yes..thanks to honda service tech friends, i had it done with my 3rd gear fix, along with my clutch..just be carful with what clutch you use in these cars , they cant handle much and some modification may be needed to use them with the stock system.

 

by how much does the 5.6 final drive affect the rpm in each gear? would you happen to have before and after 1/4 mile times? this is actually the first time i've heard of somebody changing the fd on the 06+ civic.

 

Yeah, if you are doing your own labor. Not a lot of guys can afford 10 hours labor and $600-$1,100 in parts.

No US Honda Element that I know of has a 5.1 final drive. Currently there are 2 K series cars offering a 5.1 final drive, that is the JDM CRV and the 07 JDM CTR.

Expect to spend a minimum of $340 on a JDM 5.1 FD.

The Civic Si cannot handle more than a stage 2 clutch as mentioned above. The spring pressure is too stiff and will cause the master cylinder to fail. It happened twice in my car.

The 5.1 FD is about a 300-400 RPM difference and the speedometer reads 3-4 MPH slower than actual travel. I had one on my car when the dealer replaced the 3rd gear set they installed the clutch and FD for only 3 hours additional labor.

 

wow, 300-400 rpm difference? so on the 1-2 shift at stock redline, you'd be at around 6.3-6.4k. was it a pretty noticeable change in acceleration? considering that shifting at redline you're constantly in vtec with either fd.

 

the change in acceleration is very noticable and gas will be used a bit quicker , the easiest way to compare would be to drive the car in 5th on the highway all the time. thats about the = to the gas mpg lost. Its totaly worth changing if your not a top speed guy and looking for a much more responsive car. Kidnkorner is who originaly set me out to do this when i went for his knowledge of our clutch's and his expierence with it. he is also correct it's a 5.1 and it is crv gearing, I ordered mine shipped for $377, however friends of mine are techs at my honda dealer so i paid no labor, since the trade is my lift for their services when they wanna work on their cars, so i could'nt give you labor cost's. We started the job of the clutch , FW and 3rd gear fix and new FD on a thursday night , and with the normal f**king off in between finished it by around 1pm on Friday. So id say somewhere between 8 -10 hrs labor, depending on skill level.

 

the gear drop remains the same, no change

 

nitrous

 

with a turbo you're going to need to replace the clutch and constantly spend money maintaining and supporting the system - my rule of thumb is to budget for the turbo, and then double that - because that's what you'll wind up spending at the end of the day, especially if you aren't a shadetree mechanic yourself.

NA is cheap - header, exhaust, reflash - $1500, definitely power improvement but nothing insane - if you want to go really fast for cheap, buy a swapped 90s hatch and boost it.

 

The problem with that is anyone selling one thinks they are rare and wants 2 to 3 times their true value.

Here is but 1 example

http://phoenix.craigslist.org/wvl/cto/1123855165.html

 

IDK about AZ but in NY that would be a steel, $1600 for the good crx shell alone would be jumped on in a min, with a good swap, those cars are unbeatable, 2 guys in our club have them setup with AWD..For under 10k and both are 9 sec's or better cars, it also helps that we live near 1 of the largest JDM motor importers in the country being that the NJ shipping yards are only an hr away , and we can have complete k swaps for around $3k...you guys get all the good shells out west , since here they just rott away, to find a good shell is nowhere near as easy..