I have a B16A and am highly considering a turbocharger. I plan on pushing anywhere's between 8-12 lbs. of boost. It's been suggested to me that I build the head by doing vlaves, springs and retainers. Is this essential for somewhere who uses they're car as a daily driver and races it 1/4 at a time? A little more detail ... I plan on going with the T3/T3 intercooled setup from turbonetics.

Thanks,
~Speedshift23

 

you dont HAVE to to build the head. But it wont hurt to do so.
I made 300+whp on a stock block, stock head b16. Sure, doing headwork would have helped, but it certainly wasnt a necessity, so I didnt.

Of course this was on race gas and no exhaust...

 

300 all motor or turbo ... com' on now ... a little detail. I am good mechanically but a total newbie to the tunning world. I'm looking for 220-240 whp.


Modified by speedshift23 at 9:01 PM 10/17/2003

 

turbo, if I was making 300 whp N/A, my name would be a household-word...

220-240 is attainable w/o headwork.

 

turbo...hum ... no bottom end work either? and you make this power safely ? i didn't know the b16 was THAT strong.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by speedshift23 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">turbo...hum ... no bottom end work either? and you make this power safely ?</TD></TR></TABLE>
stock block, on race gas, and ran the car all season... (trailered drag car)

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by speedshift23 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i didn't know the b16 was THAT strong.</TD></TR></TABLE>
neither did I, but the plan was to run a 10.99 or blow up the motor, whichever happens first. well, needless to say, Im removing a perfectly good b16 that has run 10's.
Gotta make room for the RACE motor...

 

its not a necesity but i would still recommend it...ive seen people put down big boost numbers on stock heads and ive seen people crack retainers and drop valves with alot less power..i think atleast springs and retainers are cheap (somewhat) insurance....remember spend 300 bucks now or drop a valve and **** your whole motor up and pay a lot more...remember never go by.."well so and so did it on his car" u might not be as lucky!

 

If you're just looking for 220 to 240 on a B16, then you probably should do a little "insurance" work such as springs and retainers, a stronger head gasket, and/or stronger studs. You should be able to run around 10 (give or take) psi on the stock engine though. It all depends on the condition of the engine, if it's high milage and abused, you may want to keep the boost down to 6 or 7 psi, if it runs great and has the "insurance" work mentioned above then you can probably push 12 psi without issues.