Let us start with a formal introduction of the car



I purchased this 1996 Cx back in June in 2019 while I was in the process of selling my 1990 BMW 535i, needed something more reliable and that got better fuel economy than 15mpg for commuting to college every day. Oh yeah and it's an Arizona car in Michigan so no rust which is a treat I tell ya. I told my self no mods until I sold the bmw, which i did in July. Right when that happened I bought some Progress Cs-IIs 350/350 and slapped on some tirerack special OZ wheels wrapped in Nitto Neo Gen 205/50R15s from my other parts car.


Here it is at a local autocross event



The car looks the way it does because I'm in the process of wrapping it to cover all the nasty clear coat failure. Lots of sanding damaged clear coat and all the black paint is where I filled in some dings.

My goal for this build is to make 180 - 200 hp reliably on the stock D16Y7 and keep AC, after all it does have 260k miles. It's a daily/commuter and my only other vehicles are my 2 other honda... but they're bikes.. so it can't be out of commission too long and once it starts getting cold (Michigan remember) I am not riding my bikes 20 minutes on the highway to school.

Parts list

Engine/Trans

• Arp head studs
• Oem head gasket
• Exedy Stage 1 clutch + oem flywheel
• EX trans + Synchrotech bearing and seals kit
• Yonaka Poly Engine mounts

Exhaust

• Ebay cast manifold
• Ebay cast t3 to t2 adapter
• 2.5" dump with flex join
• Yonaka 2.5" catback
• EMUSA 38mm wastegate

Turboooo
Garret T25 off of a 1994 saab 900 (TB2569)
54mm inducer
60 trim
0.49A/R cold
0.48 A/R hot
+turbo rebuild kit (already complete sorry no pics)

Wastegate welded shut (or soon to be)

OIl feed off of pressure sender glowshift oil sandwich plate
Coolant lines series through iacv

intake

• ebay intercooler + charge pipe kit
• D16Y8 intake manifold
• No blow off valve​​
• 1G dsm Bov

Fuel delivery

• P28 Ecu
• Demon v2
• Neptune
• Aem wideband
• walbro 255
• dsm 450cc (would 390's work? they seem a little cheaper and like they would be alright for this build.)
• Advanced Auto Parts special Bosch Boost Gauge

The other day I took the stock manifold off to do some test fitting



Everything went pretty well, It clears the factory AC lines except for the stock internal wastegate which I was going to keep but an external will sound cool I guess. It is tight to run that down pipe so a very tight 90 as well as heat wrap + fab an aluminum heat shield for the compressor. I'm trying to keep the stock fan but I guess I can get a slim fan if I have to no biggy, but so far it's all good.



The only issue so far is how close the slave bleeder is the intake. My brother tried drawing up an intake flange to 3d print that would clear it but it's just really in the way at about an inch from the center of the turbo inlet. If only I had a t2 manifold my turbo wouldn't sit so slow.. I digress. The solution is to mount an F/H series slave cylinder which is has the flange come outwards. It's pretty similar to the d series slave except the mounting holes are slightly closer together.


Here's a comparison, just went to autozone and asked for a slave for a 96 accord and viola.


Finished project with the angle grinder



Here's the finished project, gravity bleeding is the way to go if your doing it by yourself, it only took like 10 minutes to bleed and it was super easy. I've used the waterbottle method in the past and this way easier. I tore my boot in the process but it was already ripping. I already ordered one from Honda. Feels like a stock slave cylinder.

 

I wouldn't suggest running no BOV for a daily driver, even at low boost. Even if turbos are a-plenty, let's say the lack of BOV causes the bearing(s) to let go and the compressor wheel slaps the housing and explodes.. You'd have to **hope** those pieces don't end up getting eaten by the engine. If you can spare the cash for replacement boneyard turbos, you can certainly spare the cash for a BOV. Hell, you can even get a knockoff model for less than 40 bucks. Run a BOV on this cool little project and save it from a totally avoidable issue.

 

You're right. I just wanted flutter though.

 

Flutter bad.

Psssshhh good.

 

You right

 

Today I was able to Fab up a downpipe for the turbo, well at least the start of one, I had my welding buddy weld it up for me, it's enough of a downpipe that one's the turbos installed I can drive it over to him so we can connect the turbo to the yonaka full exhaust.


The only concern is how close the ac compressor is to the turbo. I had to beat in the downpipe with a hammer to at least get it to fit and there's milometers of clearance between the AC compressor and the exhaust, it will be heat wrapped but I'm concerned for the health and wellness of my ac compressor. Anyone have anything to chime in about the resilience of compressors? Will post pictures of downpipe off of the car soon.

 

Dax is running AC on his build. He would be able to enlighten you here!

 

-It looks like you already have the eBay T3 manifold & the T3 -to- T2 adapter...I was gonna suggest just getting an eBay, cast T2 manifold meant for the D series. Here's one for $55: Honda T25 D-Series D15 D16 Jdm Iron Cast Turbo Exhaust Manifold

-A/C Compressor clearance, have you considered cutting away aluminum on the compressor (Given its an area you can safely remove material and that it would even buy you anything). I couldn't get a good look at the interference between the turbo and a/c compressor in the pics, where exactly is it hitting? Is it that pic of the (what I think) is the downpipe hitting one of the compressor mounting bolts? I'm thinking the real way to avoid that is all in the fab'ing of the downpipe and specifically the bend where it meets the turbo. It sounds like your fab work is done on a budget and time-tight, "fit-in" at a buddy's shop but if you can, cut out a section of the completed downpipe where that interference is and weld in a curved piece of tubing to fill the hole.

-Injectors: 390cc's are gonna be good to just over 220hp @ the crank, thats at 43.5 PSI and 90% Duty Cycle. I'd go with the 450cc's if you can afford them because theres more room to grow (they can support 255hp @ the crank or so @ 90% duty cycle) but mainly because you can run them at a lower duty cycle so the injectors you have running are not running at such a high demand.

-BOV: I'd at least run a re-circulating boost valve or a cheap BOV, even though you may only be running 4-6psi and 200hp, boost is boost and when that throttle plate closes quickly after even a 3/4 throttle, 4,000rpm throttle lift...the compressor wheel is gonna get all kinds of turbulence and you risk warping the throttle plate and bending the pivot rod.

I am lovin this build, its a great platform, fairly stock, well maintained and rust free. You seem to really know what your doing mechanical wise, your doing the ultimate budget build and carrying it like a true enthusiast. You've chosen a very reasonable power goal id say staying at 220 or less at the crank is safe, a great turbo for the motor (used cuts cost), have a decent (at least brand name) wastegate, a effective and cheap cast manifold and have thought out all your exhaust, coolant, oil and plumbing. Love the background story. You seem like an intelligent, well informed and capable dude, props.

 

Dammit I guess I didn't look hard enough for a t2 manifold oh well lol. The picture is the down pipe clearing the AC compressor (I bashed the down pipe with a hammer). I doubt it's due to poor fab the down pipe is a 90 that was cut flush (I don't know how to explain it). It's 2.5" pipe and the down pipe is 2.5" + shitty saab flange so I'm pretty much at my limits for down pipe clearance when it comes to using a 2.5" down pipe. It clears just not by much. Welding a bend into it wouldn't help either as the AC compressor is right next to the turbo due to the length of the adapter. I think my only option for a downpipe is going to 2.25" or 2.0".

Man I live in Michigan and deleting the AC is tempting me.

Yeah I'll probably just shell out and get some 450ccs

I have decided to run a bov, I haven't decided between a knock off greddy rs or a dsm 1g off an eclipse/talon/laser. I've heard great stuff about the dsms.

I don't know is EMUSA is a name brand it's still a replica, none the less I've heard good stuff about them and if it fails neptune has an optional boost limiter so I'm not going to break anything.

What you said really means a lot, I've never turbo'd and have been wanting to since I bought my first peice of **** civic when I was 16.. funny how that was 3 years ago.. spent countless night staying up late going down the rabbit hole of d-series and honda-tech forum post. I read corky bells entire book on designing turbo systems. Now I'm a college kid and I just sent it one day and went to the junkyard looking for mitsubishis to snag a turbo from and ended up leaving with a saab turbo which got the ball rolling. Thanks for recognizing my hard work mate, you see so many turbo builds these days that you get blinded by the fact of how hard it actually is, especially if you're piecing your own kit. Cheers!

 

EMUSA is ebay TRASH. That is as simple as it gets

 

Those eBay T25 manifolds have bad WG placement, I wouldn't waste my time. With the adapter, how does your oil return routing look? That's what would concern me the most.

I also agree with NV, EMUSA are cheap China / eBay knockoff parts. Some have had success with it, some haven't. I've heard the fit is terrible on some of the parts.

Loosen your manifold/head nuts, turbo/manifold nuts, and downpipe/turbo bolts and clock/twist every little bit of movement you can out of your setup, then tighten everything back down. I was surprised at how much room I was able to gain by doing this (a few mm).

Wrap everything - downpipe, dump tube, AC lines, etc. Have your manifold ceramic coated and run a turbo blanket. Make sure the downpipe is not in contact with the compressor. Here is a picture of my clearance between downpipe and compressor before I wrapped. It's 2.5" pipe and flares to 3" before turning under the oil pan.

I've only got about 3,000 miles on this Civic with AC. I started off with a brand new Denso compressor. Hopefully it will last a while. I haven't had any issues so far with the AC getting warm, and I've done a few multi-hour trips in it.

 

I was able to test fit it yesterday for the oil drain and it is tight. I was actually able to lower the oil drain a little bit to get more room. I filled the engine with oil and no oil came out of the hole so it's not below the oil level so it will be fine.

 

He's talking about the drain line, not the fitting at the oil pan. If the drain line has a bit of downwards angle, oil can back up and eventually damage the seal on the turbo.

 

Im aware what he's talking about and I'm aware of the importance of a proper oil drain. I had to make the fitting in the pan a little lower to compensate for how low the turbo is, however its still above the oil level. There will be no downwards angle in the drain line.

 

If it fails it fails, Neptune has a boost cut. But reading what the people who have ran them have actually said about them they don't seem too bad.

 

Neptune boost cut works VERY well. Lol! I've been saved by it many times so far.

 

That's what I like to here. So far I've been very happy with the product and it's capabilities besides it's general ugliness for being so much money. I get it this software doesnt have a big market and takes a good amount of r&d but come on if I'm paying $150 I might as well get some better UI and not these weird windows

Sorry for the rant

 

It's been nice out so my car has been in mock up mode while I daily this. Rode it to school half hour both ways and to work.

 

Started assembling my wastegate, people said to get some of the burrs off of them from manufacturing. I didn't see any. I used the the reducer spring to bring the wastegate down to supposedly 4psi. I guess we'll see where it lands me.



I also picked up a throttle body and iacv from the junkyard as my d16y8 intake didn't come with either. I yoinked them both from a Honda CR-V, so far they both seem to fit except the b20 has a fitv and I probably should delete that right as the y7 and y8 never had it. Right?





Needs a little cleaning

 

that's just money wasted but then again, that's your money. Buy quality parts once and call it a day. Buy crap, cross your fingers it doesn't fail when you're on the road or on the dyno.

 

^^ I have to agree here. I spent a LOT of worry time on my first build. When I revamped everything, it dawned on me that waiting another year to gather parts wasn't as bad as I thought. I spend a lot of worry time now, actually. Hoping the quality parts don't go boom from some stupid reason. Lol!

 

As much as I agree with you I'm not totally convinced it's crap either from what I've heard from people who have actually ran them, I'm not too worried about it. Sure if it goes that's money I have to spend but it's a risk I'm willing to take. So what if it fails while I'm on the road... It's not going to break anything, again Neptune has a boost cut.

 

As long as you go in with the knowledge of what may happen. That's the key take away on that. It's your build and your budget. There have been many folks throw builds together against the advice given, then had **** results or something grenaded then they come back wanting to know why. Lol! You'll receive large amounts of flack going the "cheap" route, but there are reasons behind it. Don't take it personally.

 

I understand the risks. It was kind of a last minute decision because this whole timr I was planning to use the internal wastegate but it ended up hitting the AC lines.

 

The majority of the people using EMUSA stuff (and glorifying them) are usually kids working at minimal wage jobs, still going to school. Nothing wrong the latter portion by no means. I have used cheap stuff with no issues of course. When it comes to turbos, clutches, wastegate, internal engine parts, etc....always buy/use the better brands. The price difference is reflective of a better product.