should i turbo my b16a?

[mike15h]

Ok all. I've been doing the rounds to talk with our top local mechanics today (27th of Feb) and out of the the top 4 (that i know of) only two mechanics seem confident in turbo kits. One recommends opening up the donk and re-doing the bearings, pistons and head gasket but said the turbo kit was reasonably priced and said he couldn't put a kit together for $3600 (American kit), his work and all up would cost me $9000 roughly, this mechanic also said bolting the kit on directly wouldn't be an issue of course depending on how hard you push it and this would cost me $1500. And the other, my regular mechanic says he's willing to bolt the kit up for $500 give or take (I know they come with a full installation booklet but for someone not mechanically minded this could be a mission) he also suggested new head gasket which would cost me a further $1000?

My car has 210000 kilometers, though i bought it off a 60 year old lady if that counts for anything!

I'm on a strict budget and after reliability more then power!

I'm not willing to settle for anything other than turbo!

What does everyone think is the right way to go for someone very unsure?

[destrukshn]

rebuild your car, then boost it.

what's your budget?

[Rice_4_life]

why do you consider a turbo if you are on a strict budget?
Drive it for what it's worth, your current stock set up is more reliable than bolting a turbo on.

[VTC-8OY]

1. that 60yr old lady was a hoon

2. hook us up with the $500 kit

[Limo]

i'd rebuild it, nothing too serious, maybe just rods, pistons and port the head abit. just make sure you spend the money to buy a good manifold and turbo, they seem to be the parts that fall apart when you go for cheapies.

best thing to do is write up a parts list of whats needed and what would be good to have. also allow cash for labour. its the best way to plan these things

[mike15h]

2. hook us up with the $500 kit




dude i said my regular mechanic would install it for $500 the kit to bring it to oz is $3600

[DLO01]

What is the engine like? Get your mechanic to test it and if its A-ok, and your after moderate gains, why don't you just boost it the way it is? No need to build the motor if its ok, right? B16A is ways strong enough for your needs.

My ol Delsol had 219 000kms on it when I put a kit on her. 135kw to the road and was a very cool and fun car to drive. :thumbsup:

[teh_mechanic]

you can run a bit over 6 psi safely on stock internals.as always,the further you push it the more risk you run though.imo if you were going to rebuild the internals you would want to be going for big numbers, more around 15 psi,then you would look at lowering compression etc.,but then you are ofcourse looking at lots more $$$

[Benson]

Do it! but 9k is abit excessive.

If you want to save abit of money my turbo kit and JDM b16a is avaliable

[Limbo]

just boost it. You can always rebuild it later.

[TODA AU]

My car has 210000 kilometers....
I'm on a strict budget and after reliability more then power!
I'm not willing to settle for anything other than turbo!

If reliability is high in your priority list, I'd suggest you get a bigger budget.
Or maybe don't do it.
Your engine is on the high side of Km's
If you turbo it on a strict budget with no room to move & things turn to shit,
My guess is you will become very, very upset.

[hondavti25]

what kit you planning on getting dude for 3600? Greddy ?

[Q_ball]

Save more la...

[ProECU]

im going to go against the mould here (as per usual) and recommend you just turbo the thing, and run small boost...5psi
The transformation and driveability will be worth it.

[tekung89]

u want reliability? why not jus rebuild it NA style. might work out cheaper

[czy_sol87]

u want reliability? why not jus rebuild it NA style. might work out cheaper

lol n/a never works out cheaper...parts are expensive and not much gains
talks from experience...i've spent about 3.5k+ on mods to make more power and running only bout 108kw@fw

[tekung89]

yeh i jus thought it would work out cheaper seeing that u could get internal parts over in the US for fairly cheap. i jus assumed that with reliablity being one of his main priority, that staying NA would benefit him more. other options are still available like selling the b16 and dropping a b18 =) haha or yeh jus snail that thing

[Limbo]

turbo it you'll love it, on small boost you will get more torque and abit more poke in the b16. If you do it right the car will be reliable, no issue there.

And down the track the is plenty of room for improvement over NA power

Just think like this small boost on about 8-10 PSI will get you about 150kw+

NA needs alot of $$$ to get to those type of figures, but torque will never be there

$9k budget should be ok if you use that $3600 kit. If you run low boost there should be enough to get a reco and maybe some new pistons put in to make it even more reliable

[czy_sol87]

turbo it you'll love it, on small boost you will get more torque and abit more poke in the b16. If you do it right the car will be reliable, no issue there.

And down the track the is plenty of room for improvement over NA power

Just think like this small boost on about 8-10 PSI will get you about 150kw+

NA needs alot of $$$ to get to those type of figures, but torque will never be there

$9k budget should be ok if you use that $3600 kit. If you run low boost there should be enough to get a reco and maybe some new pistons put in to make it even more reliable

the man's right:D
low boost on ur engine should be fine
then after if u wanna get more power...rebuild the block and run more boost or get a bigger turbo

[bor3dboi]

just do a compression test on your motor to see it its ok.. the engine is a bit old considering its k's..turbocharging wont help either buts your money and your car...

i would save money and sell it buy a different car but if u really want to turbo it and running low boost is fine with you then just do it.. if not rebuild it and then turbocharge it, it would be much more powerful and can handle more boost, then again you would so have to consider head gasket, clutch, better brakes and suspension.. maybe im wrong but good luck anyways:p

[Weq]

IMO stick to a low boost standard engine kit. Once u open the donk up, u are taking away all the honda realibility and putting the hardware in the hands of a clueless generic engine reconditioner.

Even at 5psi u will rape NA cars. I loved my stock-boosted honda. Took it ouit everyweek and raped its ass off. Took it over and over and over.

Oh and my recommendation. Reserach. Since you have posed such a question, you do not know about turbo honda's to own one. Its not like a generic sr20 that has a sophisticated computer to guard against consumer ignorance. Turbo honda's are un-forgiving. But very reliable if understood. I researched for 10months before i dropped the money on a turbo kit. And research wasnt creating a new thread everyday. It was reading about peoples expericiences, then researching the install and learning about every single thing too look out for and how to recover from things that would go wrong.

[Waggy]

IMO stick to a low boost standard engine kit. Once u open the donk up, u are taking away all the honda realibility and putting the hardware in the hands of a clueless generic engine reconditioner.


^ Speaks the truth.

Get it compression tested and inspected by a reputable mechanic or even a Honda dealership, fix any leaks or even do a mild recondition (seals, rings etc.) with stock parts and turbo the stock engine.

[bor3dboi]

the mechanic side of things you should chose a reliable bolt on kit for the car there is a few out there greddy, drag, turbonetics there all good kits..

but software side of things i would say is the most important it comes down to how well you tune your car so make sure you bring it to someone that has a good rep of tuning honda's..

[thepope1986]

Even if the compression is down a bit youll be right to up the boost just slightly because the engine is decompressed

[Limbo]

ECU - go with the trusted choices if you want life to be easy. PFC or hondata.

Not saying that others are bad but these are Plug & play without installation issues.