I have a bone stock 06' rsx base 5speed for my daily driver and have been kicking some ideas

my initial was a crx or 92-00 civic to b-swapand do a turbo build bc of the simplicity and abundance of info.I have had multiple cars and turbo cars so im not new, although like anything, can use education.

Anyway if i bought a civic/crx and built it right i would be spending $8-10,000 dollars for the car, swap, and turbo components (thats a liberal guess assuming there are not a lot of speed bumps along the way).

Anyway, i ran across a local who has an 05' civic si turbo, kpro, and all asking $6500 (thats before negotiation. Heres the ad http://stlouis.craigslist.org/cto/3621921924.html

Having read up a lot i have obvious concerns due to the limited info in the ad such as what components were used for turbo swap, what engine support mods, how long has it been turboed (id like to meet the owner, which says a lot), how recent was it tuned, hows the trans holding up, etc etc.

Assuming all of that is legitimate, which i have a good feeling due to certain parts usef that are mention and the shops reputation who built it, I have highly considered buying this for a few reasons.

1. I hate buying other peoples work but if this has been properly done it would be a $15,000-20,000 car if i were to buy an si and build one. Therefor $6000 is cheap. I hate the wheels and bodykit but not a huge deal.

2. I could potentially gut the car of all aftermarket parts, save turbo parts, sell the car none turbo as is for $5000 running N/A and have most of the turbo components I need for my base rsx (k20a3, again assuming the manifold will work, kpro etc/ i know intercooler piping wont work).

3. I could just keep both cars and continue to modify and improve the si.

Ladtly, my main reason for posting and coming to this site is to get educated on the k20a3 engines turboed. There is a little info online on the a2's turboed. Im trying to find exhaustive writeups on the k engines with turbochargers to see the weaknesses, limitations, and have a good understanding of what i may be getting into. So if there is anything you could tell me, links, or advice please share.

Thanks

 

I guess i searched the wrong site hah

Found this to start
http://forums.clubrsx.com/showthread.php?t=564105

Opinions still wanted

 

"One of the most important things to decide is to choose if you are going to upgrade your motor internals. The stock rsx has been show to hold 350 whp without much problems. However anything about that you take a lot of risk of damaging or destroying your motor. Just take a qucik brouse through the turbo forum and most likely you will find quite a few "Help: I blew my motor" threads. Engine Rebuilds are the most work intestive parts of the build process. The most important thing to understand about the rebuild stage is compression ratios. The stock rsx has 11.0:1 compression ratios. This ratio is good for naturally aspirated motors, but with a boosted car you want to go with a lower compression in order to prevent premeature detoniation (aka knock). Knock happens when the gases inside the motor explode on thier own, without a spark from the spark plug. This happens because the air and gas are compressed to the point where they spontaneously combuste. Most turbo cars run a 9:1 to 10:1 ratios. The lower the compression ratio the more you can advance the fuel and ignition tables (which are what give you power). However, the draw back is that the lower the compression the less exhaust gases you have, so the longer it takes to spool your turbo. It's all a matter of give and take." From article above

 

The k20A3 is 9.8:1 and the A2 mentioned above is 11.0:1

Reminds me of the b18a/b versus the b18c engines

I assume the high compression and more powerful k engines are similar to the old b series vtec engines and similarly pricey

Without knowing much still on the k20a3 other than it is not expensive to replace compared to a2 engines, ill need to know more on its limits and weaknesses.