turbo owners? need opinions.

[1sikda]

Hey just wondering whats your experience with a turbo car for a daily driver. Is it reliable? is it a big hassle.? things break alot? whats yoursetup and whats an estimate price of all the work done. Post it up ok thanks guys.

[b16turbohatch]

my car was very reliable for 3 yrs untill this year when i blew it up lol. it is no big hassle unless warmimng it up and cooling it down everytime u drive it. i personally didn't break alot of things but i did have to upgrade driveshafts after i broke them at the track. the setup question is easy cuz most people have somewhat the same setup. price is relative, do u want new parts or used parts? replace shafts from the start? new clutch? stuff that would normally break?



i hope this helps a little.

[conv2vtec]

depends on how u drive it

i drove a 92 supra turbo for 5 years and was a big hastle...broke down all the time...but depends on the car, the set up, and how hard u drive

[b20ek]

you won't find a set answer because guys like me had nothing but problems and guys like b16turbohatch had very few. Everybody has their opinions, but what I am sure of is that your car is now a whole lot less reliable, so be prepared.

[SlowGsr]

my car was super reliable except it ran hot, which was due to the fact of my half rad on a angle and a 1600cfm slimfan. If the rad sat flat, and i had a better fan.. It would have been good. Turbo cars are high mainteance!

Not worth the money IMO, unless its more of a weekend/cool evening driver.

[sirguy01]

My b16 was awesome for about a year and half. The car was bone stock and I drove it all year round. Started up everytime no problems at all. Then it took a shit on me.

Then I Built my next motor and it hasn't given me problems yet. It just runs super hot sometimes on those hot days and gets flamboyant on some cold starts other than that its pretty good.

IMO you really have to love your car to spend that kinda money on it. You will never get this money back and you have to be willing to accept that. A lot of ppl complain about it being expensive but if you are having problems copping the money for it then dont do it.

I spent good money... i dont regret it for one second but thats just me.

[Turbo-D]

IMO you really have to love your car to spend that kinda money on it. You will never get this money back and you have to be willing to accept that. A lot of ppl complain about it being expensive but if you are having problems copping the money for it then dont do it.

I spent good money... i dont regret it for one second but thats just me.

Nicely put^^

[LUDE_4_LIFE]

IMO you really have to love your car to spend that kinda money on it. You will never get this money back and you have to be willing to accept that. A lot of ppl complain about it being expensive but if you are having problems copping the money for it then dont do it.

I spent good money... i dont regret it for one second but thats just me.

I spent a good amount of money as well, but my regret on that part is I didnt spend the money the way I should have. Do research before you start to buy parts. Depending on your motor pick and choose where to put your money and select parts that you know are going to work well IE dont buy by an ssautochrome turbo manifold off of ebay lol or any other parts, and no I didnt either but I am running a log style manifold that doesnt flow worth a s***. Its causes lots of boost spikes and helping my setup not make the power it should be.

As far as reliability my car ran great last year, even on hot days. The only issue I had was an idler screw in the throttle body going (which was very annoying lol) and me breaking an axle at the track. Tuning is definatly the most important factor in getting your car to stay reliable and make good power.

My setup is an H22A built block, stock head, log manifold(new one this year), 2.5" down pipe and exhaust (bigger this year), 22x9x3 intercooler, t3/to4e 60-1 cant remember the trim sizes and of course the other obvious goodies, making 290whp at around 12psi spiking to 14psi.

If you want a nice setup to make good power and be reliable expect to pay around 5000 and make sure you always have extra cash cause you might need more than you think.

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c228/LUDE_4_LIFE1/POTM5.jpg

[Kingjames1983]

and this is one of the many reasons I am going N/A

[LUDE_4_LIFE]

^Going N/A can easily be just as expensive and harder to run on the street, give or take how high compression you are going, you will most likely have to run race gas all the time to avoid pinging. Also the majority of your power will be in the higher rpms, so if you plan on doing circuit racing you wont have to much low end power in the tigh twisties.

I still say bolting on a turbo kit is the best bang for your buck. It can be done on stock motors so long as the motor is in good shape already and you get a great tune on it. I have seen several stock honda motors last a long time making over 300whp.

[1.8el?]

hey, my advice is try not to go for crazy unrealistic hp #'s . If your looking for just an extra kick try to keep it low...don't skimp out on fuel management .. do a lot of research as it is the most important piece of the puzzle, and once you get that together don't forget to take it to your local tuner to get ya running at stoich....my .02

oh ya, price wise you could build a kit for less than $600 properly....believe it or not ...........^$5000 to me means , buy another car and turbo it for less!!!

[b20ek]

a full turbo kit for $600?

Yeah maybe with a small turbo with shaft play, a hacked up manfiold and downpipe and a SMIC with prelude injectors.

I bought a HMT a while back, I regretted it, worst decision i've ever made.

[LUDE_4_LIFE]

hey, my advice is try not to go for crazy unrealistic hp #'s . If your looking for just an extra kick try to keep it low...don't skimp out on fuel management .. do a lot of research as it is the most important piece of the puzzle, and once you get that together don't forget to take it to your local tuner to get ya running at stoich....my .02

oh ya, price wise you could build a kit for less than $600 properly....believe it or not ...........^$5000 to me means , buy another car and turbo it for less!!!

600 bucks for a PROPERLY built turbo kit sorry but that kit will give you nothing for power, i know you said for just an extra kick but seriously how are you going to get to even work with 600$ . Please dont tell me that you also recommend buying your turbo stuff off of ebay. It will be around 600 bucks just to TUNE it on the dyno, so how do you figure it can be done for 600.

I guess your kit plans on using stock injectors, stock fuel pump, stock exhaust, no intercooler, no FPR, no BOV, and the rest all junkyard parts?

If you ever want to make power out of your car and have it be reliable, 5000 bucks is around what it should be. Injectors, fuel pump, exhaust, intercooler, FPR, BOV, all intercooler pipeing and couplers, manifold, turbo, down pipe, wastegate, new plugs, clutch TO HOLD THE POWER, proper guages to read whats going on, oil lines, all required gaskets, boost controller, all required flanges, tuning, upgraded rad and fan not needed but recommended, and there is more depending on the shape of the car like new motor mounts to prevent wheel hop etc, I might be forgeting something. There is so much to be done. THe people that do it FOR 600 are the ones that blow up and break consistantly and shake their heads looking dumb going ummm what happened I got all I needed. You always have to factor in extra costs.

Do you seriously think you can do all that for 600. Even if you did all the work yourself its going to cost you WAY more than 600. A basic kit should be around the 3000$ area, and thats basic for around a 60-100hp gain, and to have your car stay intact.

[b16turbohatch]

hey, my advice is try not to go for crazy unrealistic hp #'s . If your looking for just an extra kick try to keep it low...don't skimp out on fuel management .. do a lot of research as it is the most important piece of the puzzle, and once you get that together don't forget to take it to your local tuner to get ya running at stoich....my .02

oh ya, price wise you could build a kit for less than $600 properly....believe it or not ...........^$5000 to me means , buy another car and turbo it for less!!!

My head hurts just thinking about this post...

[1.8el?]

my kit consists of all junyard parts.....450cc dsm's w/ 10k10ohm resistors, dsm smic, dsm BOV, HF Manifold IHI RHB5 turbo internal wastegate@ 8 psi ( I know it's small) also have a 14b from the dsm, but it had a crack on the exhaust side, chipped p28 tuned by myself with crome.......all for 600 give or take, and repectfully makin around 170 whp....the single most expensive things were the ecu and the conversion harness,they cost me about 200......this is on a stock d16y8

[1.8el?]

and lude4life, Idon't appreciate you calling people like myself dumb, your the type that gets ripped off ... I buy shit that works and doesn't necessarily have to look nice.....and i've had this setup for 1 year now with no problems also my car has 290 xxx k on it. I take care of my shit, so don't be fooled by this e-whore ricer that has to much money to burn

[LUDE_4_LIFE]

^Did i come out and say you were dumb, nope. I said the people that have their cars blow up on them becuase they cheaped out on everything, and sit there and go it should have worked are the ones not thinking well when it comes to forced induction. Im coming across saying that 600 dollars for a forced induction setup is scary. I have a buddy with a stock 02 civic running 6psi and his clutch is fried already, it cant even handle the extra little bit, and no it was broke before and he knows how to drive. I had other friends consistantly blowing off there intercooler pipeing becuase they got cheap couplers.

So your DSM setup, all those parts are ordered from the factory? If not which im sure would be far more expensive than just 600 dollars, then you got your parts off of used cars, IE JUNKYARD PARTS. Not to say they are pure junk, you might even get lucky with good working parts, but its the term used. And for the dyno, you chipped and tuned it yourself, so does this mean you own a dyno. If not you had to rent one out and that is easily around 100 an hour. Your ecu will be about was arond 200 you said, so that means you got the injectors, mani, turbo, smic, bov, downpipe, intercooler pipeing and couplers for around 300-600 dollars, you got a deal and then some.

I would say 99 percent of the people that go for forced induction are doing it because they want to get lots of power out of their car. They want to be fast, but at the same time they dont want to blow up. It scares them, and the only way they can do it without blowing up is by paying the right price for it. You cant honestly tell me that you will hit 300hp with 600 dollars and have it be reliable.

Seriously man I can agree with you that if your looking for a 30hp gain, then your kit could be the way to go, but anything more im going to have to disagree with you. I have read, and heard so many stories of people blowing and saying damn I should have done that differently.

I dont appreciate you calling me an e-whore ricer with to much money to burn. It has taken me 5 years with my car to get to where I am, I do enjoy modding it but I have other more important things to get done first. I dont get ripped off lol, I dont go OHHH I HAVE so much money so here it all is and charge me whatever. I budget out everything, plan it all, reasearch etc. I will admit however that I cheaped out on my manifold and I regret it big time. I should have spent the proper amount and got what I needed for the power I wanted to achieve. I got this log manifold and it is crap. Spikes everywhere, and doesnt flow well at all. 290whp at 12psi lol, markpa is running a stock H at 7psi and is making 303whp. I hope you can understand where I am coming from man.

[1.8el?]

Im Just stating that you don't need to spend 5g's is all... I did a lot of research before hand and I got lucky with parts...I built a reliable turbo kit using parts from the junker which in turn requires a lot of running around....as for the dyno, no im running on a street tune. I plan on getting it on the dyno this summer once I make up some nicer charge pipes..... or I might just crank up the boost and see how long this tired old motor will last me, cause Im collecting parts for a new build this year

[LUDE_4_LIFE]

^Nope I understand that you dont need 5g's, in reality its all for what you are after. If you want 500hp its going to cost you a lot lol i hope you agree with that one. To make 200hp isnt going to require crazy high high performance parts.

Thats why my first post included this.

If you want a nice setup to make good power and be reliable expect to pay around 5000 and make sure you always have extra cash cause you might need more than you think.

Around 5000 for a setup for people that are wanting to achieve over 300hp is not that pricey. Also not everyone is capable of doing the work, or dont have the tools etc, and shop rates are included in that average price as well, and any unexpected parts that you might need.

[sirguy01]

there are soo many kits around ppl are selling are reasonable prices. IMO.. for those who are not technically and mechanically inclined then a mildly used turbo kit is definately a good option. For those such as 1.8el who have a high knowloedge of how a turbo system works and such it is problably a better option for them to piece a kit together because they know what they are looking for.

No you do not need 5g's to piece a kit together but like lude for life said.. if you want higher numbers.. the money is a must. Personally i definately think you got really lucky for being able to piece a kit that works together for 600. It takes a lot of time with that and most ppl dont want that and just want it in one shot and be done with it.

SO for the guy that needs an opinion. Personally.. I would go with a drag kit. It has almost everything you need, its a great starter kit all you need is an exahust and some kinda engine management. I saw a kit with 2500 miles on H-t go for 1300 Shipped. take in account you can problably lowball them a little bit have it shipped here for arounf 1400. And for customs.. I'm sure you'll be fine if he marks it down as used parts itll save you a ton just make sure it gets shipped via fed ex or ups. LAst year when i had my manifold made, the fabircator wrote used exhaust piping as the description on the customs paper. I paid 11 dollars on a 700+transaction. There are soo many kits lying around the forums. Also if you run into an issue there will be larger user base that may be able to help you with a particular kit. In the end it saves a lot of hassle of runing around from junk yard to junk yard. But if you like that kinda thing then go for it.


Good Luck

[1.8el?]

I love the running around, cause u learn soo much from it :)