i have a 97 type R... i bought it used... the previous owner had a t3/t4 turbo boosting about 6 pounds, intercooler, deltagate wastegate, everything... he had it for about 5k miles and said he never pushed it because he didn't have internals yet and some other stuff... but he ended up selling the turbo and eventually the car... i bought the car and had a mechanic check the motor visually (NOT opening the motor up or anything) and did a compression test... he said the test was fine all across but aren't there different specs for a type-r? Also.... my car is stock with just AEM CAI and GSR's with bolt-ons hang with me ... i'm suppose to pull away from them right?.... also... i talked to another guy who boosted on his R and later (a couple thousand miles later) found out he had a cracked piston that he would have never have found if he didn't change them...
overall... i do feel my R doesn't run to it's fullest potential... and beforei start modding in... i want to make sure it's running at it's peak in stock form...

what else can i look for besides pistons and compression test to see if there's any damage to my motor that might keep it from running the way it should be? how much am i looking at here?
thanks in advance...

 

leakdown test.

 

a leakdown test.... okay.. what else? what else? how much will that cost? also... i talked to that guy with the turbo R again... he said that i should do all these tests at a dealer because they know the specs for an R... how much is a leakdown test?

 

call the dealer and ask.

 

what were your compression #'s? On a typical drag set-up, the remedy for fuel is dumping a lot of it in to avoid detonation. I'd guess your rings may be worn, but that is reliant on the #s produced. You should be around the 200-210 range on compression across the four cylinders.

 

put it on the dyno. thats important before any modding. To see if parts give an adverse effect to what they claim.