I've been researching this for quite some time now, found that I wanted an 02-03 with the glass rear window and 9k redline. Picked up an 03 with 45,000 miles on it last week. The car is fun, but not like the z51 corvette we used to have. I've been looking at turbo kits etc, I know it's best to piece together a kit that would keep cost down and gather higher quality parts, but I have heard great things about the Inline Pro kit and T1 manifolds. I plan on having a pump gas (93 oct) tune and a race gas (e85 or 110) tune. For the pump gas I was shooting for ~325 horsepower (daily) and race gas ~450. Seems like a somewhat larger turbo would make it easier for daily'ing without breaking the tires loose all the time. Plan on leaving the engine in the car, and keeping a/c. Stock internals with a 3mm head-gasket should be able to hold this easily with a good tune. I want this to be as reliable as it can (not going to be easy..) as it will be driven everyday it's not snowing / torrential downpour.

Could I get some recommendations on a kit? Or first hand experience?



Thanks in advance,
Pete.

 

inlinepro stage 1

http://www.inlinepro.com/s1/p-15-sta...turbo-kit.aspx

 

400+ daily driven will be fine on 93oct. if you choose to do that. I had something along those lines on an inlinePRO log manifold running 91octane (California's Premium is 91). The turbo was a GT3076R and it was at 16pounds of boost

 

use a Precision Billet 5857 for a turbo. you wont need anything big and journal bearing will be cheaper then a waste of money Garret BB turbo. Kpro for engine management over AEM EMS do to the fact that you will have check engine lights and be able to take emissions if you have them. 2mm head gasket you will make a little more power and compression has nothing to do with how much boost you can run, 3mm will be a over kill. If you only want 400 dont waste your time with e85 or 110. This is from first hand experience with different turbos and EMS set ups.

 

I'll have to agree w/ almost everything from HondaKyle. In your case, I think that a Precision unit will be a cheaper route than a GT3076. Depending on who your tuner is and how he feels about headgaskets would be a better idea before you go changing anything. Some prefer the OEM HG (i.e. Tony Palo, John Reed) and others prefer 2mm/3mm HG (i.e. Evans, Mase, ect.). I think whoever is going to tune your car is going to be able to give you the best answer in terms of both drivability and power.

More often than not, having a proper cold start calibration from your tuner will dictate how well your car starts up and runs. K-Pro is somewhat better at having a better base calibration for startup. If your willing to spend more on tuning and less on an EMS, then AEM would be my choice. This is what I used, and what I still run. I used to daily my car w/ my Full-Race kit on AEM. Cranking is very close to what OEM is, so long as you allow your fuel pump to prime.

I really don't see as many people run K-Pro, but those who do swear by it. I know K-series motors and F-series motors are slightly different, but when I sifted through my tuners tunes and another tuners tunes and all the dyno sheets. I've seen that when you take smoothing down off of the dyno sheet; the maps are not as smooth as a EMS map. This would be because of timing; the AEM allows you to select the resolution of the map so that you can have a smoother and allows for better fine tuning.

That's just my opinion. Pump gas is fine for your power goals. You can run either the Cometic gasket or SCE gasket. However, if you choose to run w/ a stock headgasket; it allows you to make more power w/ less boost. If your looking for an extra boost, you can install a 1 gallon methanol injection kit so that you don't have to purchase race gas or E85.

 

Don't install a thicker head gasket the engine doesn't need it. Take for example Mase's kit it made 420whp on 93 pump gas on a DynoDynamics (Known to read low) with all stock internals. The only thing done to the car was a TP was installed, even the exhaust was stock.

In fact if you want quality parts and don't want to shop all over the internet and wait for it to come from all over the US, just get Mase's kit. Buy the kit, install it, tune it, and drive it that simple. For you initial stated power goals it will easily fit the bill and still have room to grow when 400 isn't enough, which it won't be.

 

Kyle is right
daily driven k-pro recommended

 

How about the FlashPro for someone that wants to boost an 06+? Apparently it has all the features of a K-Pro minus boost control by gear & RPM. Is that a deal breaker?

 

OP wanted 00-03

 

upgrading internals is always a good idea when it comes to boost. one thing u learn from having a boosted car is that playing it safe now will not only make it possible to turn the boost up later and retune but also why not make sure the motor can handle it?

 

OP wants to keep stock internals...

 

Also because people daily drive their internally stock boosted s2k's with great success

 

Good purchase. Let me know when the build thread starts. And IMO, an Inline kit would be pretty sweet.

 

Trolld