I have a 97 Prelude with the H22 engine with only a 104k miles on it! Previous owner put a turbo on it "pretty sure a cheaper one" and i was told some internal work has been done. Idk what psi its pushing BC its not sucking air or running like it should, but anyways pretty sure my rings are bad and needs a new headgasket! Its not knocking or making any bad noise either! My question is how much would it cost to rebuild and fix the motor to where i could run 6 to 8 psi as a daily? Or should I do something completely different like get rid of the turbo and just build the motor? If possible would like to keep the price around $2000 give or take.

 

Get rid of the turbo and buy another engine to stick in. Unless you do the rebuild yourself, it'll be the cheaper option.

 

I agree with the above. Stock H series with a turbo is asking for disaster. You likely have more damage than you know anyway. You say bad rings but it's more likely you have cracked pistons and/or scuffed piston walls.

 

I wouldn't call stock internals and turbo necessarily a bad idea.

I would certainly not run more than 220-230whp but these engines can handle a little bit of boost. It's just usually cheap turbo kits either will fail or are used by irresponsible owners who cant help but turn the dial on the mbc. I say put a fresh healthy long block in, but if you're not committed to buying new turbo, wastegate, fuel and engine management hardware and then budgeting another 1k for dyno time, just go NA.