When Turbo'ing

[Furbyxv]

I came to plan of buying an ebay turbo kit (yes i know thats prolly the biggest rice move i'll make), but i'd like to have the extra horsepower for the long straights to school or the occasional full acceleration at a green light.

now i'm running a d16z6 pretty much stock other than exhaust and intake. I have heard that d16,s when turbo'ed, blow a lot of head gaskets... what do i HAVE to have in order to run a proper turbo on a d16?

-thanks, Furbz

 

[slomotion]

you have alot more to worry about than just head gaskets. this is a worn out topic, so search. but i will say that if you slap a turbo on a D series with out a build, kiss it good bye sooner or later. If you drive hard, sooner. i know how hard it is to wait. My turbo set-up is sitting 6 miles from me in a fed-ex wherehouse that doesnt deliver on sat. FAIL! but wait, save you're money and do it correct.

 

[Shiznit]

save yourself a lot of hassle in the future and make yourself knowledgable on the subject. i guarentee if you dont know what youre doing and you just throw a kit on your car without knowing what each and every piece on the kit does and how it works you are going to run into a lot of trouble/headache in the future. the following link should provide you with the knowledge to never have to ask a question about a turbo kit again.

Must Read For Anyone Whos Thinking About Boost

 

[got traction]

this wont end well.

 

[civhatch92]

this wont end well.

Something is going to break very soon.

 

[bud6770]

Ok, guess ill be the nice guy today. As long as you run only 8lbs of boost or less, all you need to be safe is a cometic headgasket and arp headstuds, and that will be good enough. How many miles on the motor? also i say piece together a kit. You can do it for under a grand, use a 14b dsm turbo for quick spool, have a mani made for you, find good used bov, used piping and intercooler, dsm 440 injectors, and a good tune!

 

[got traction]

Ok, guess ill be the nice guy today. As long as you run only 8lbs of boost or less, all you need to be safe is a cometic headgasket and arp headstuds, and that will be good enough. How many miles on the motor? also i say piece together a kit. You can do it for under a grand, use a 14b dsm turbo for quick spool, have a mani made for you, find good used bov, used piping and intercooler, dsm 440 injectors, and a good tune!

im very dissapointed in you, I figured you knew what you were talking about.....

Boost pressure or PSI HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH IT!!! Its all about how much power the motor will hold. People on Turbod16 and D-series.org say that a stock motor with just ARP headstuds will be good to about 200 whp. That is IF and only IF you have a very good tune, adequite fuel supply, etc.

not only that but 8psi on a 14b is different than a t3/t4 than a s372r...etc.

 

[bud6770]

Lol dont bring me down....

Thats what ive ran, and friends have ran. Its turned out to be good on a few d's. I tried the same thing with stock headstuds and headgasket, blew it out, replaced with cometic and arp and was fine =] and of course, good tune makes a world of difference, thats common knowledge.

 

[Furbyxv]

Ok, guess ill be the nice guy today. As long as you run only 8lbs of boost or less, all you need to be safe is a cometic headgasket and arp headstuds, and that will be good enough. How many miles on the motor? also i say piece together a kit. You can do it for under a grand, use a 14b dsm turbo for quick spool, have a mani made for you, find good used bov, used piping and intercooler, dsm 440 injectors, and a good tune!

unfortunately..... the motor has 220,XXX miles on it... should i just get a b16 swap and run NA?

I'm not sure what would be better...

 

[UCCRacing]

unfortunately..... the motor has 220,XXX miles on it... should i just get a b16 swap and run NA?

I'm not sure what would be better...

If your going for more power for a good price, you can build your D16 for pretty cheap.. Vitara Pistons/Eagle rods, Ive seen the combo for like 450 bucks or something cheap... Cometic Head Gasket and ARP Head Studs, fresh build on your head and then boost it... In order to do a B series you can find a swap around 1000 in a lot of places... And then can boost later or whatever you want...

SEARCH and you shall find the best answers...

 

[bizoneoeh]

I boosted my STOCK d16z6 with 8psi and running off a small 14b. I did this about 5yrs ago and it's still running strong. I will admit that the motor only had about 60,000mi when I added the boost tho.



with the miles you have, I would build it up even if you are going to be running low boost. I suggest searching the site or google for more info.


My hatch is now in Europe tho Norway to be exact!

 

[Furbyxv]

alright so what i think im going to do is keep the z6, buy some new rods and sleeves, also head gaskets and studs. I'm not going to be cheap on those parts because if i buy a cheap ebay turbo, and it breaks on me i can just run NA, but if the internals blow out on me, im screwed.

so with the ebay kit, i'll just run about 6-8 psi, and when something gives i'll replace with better turbo parts.

Now i've heard a lot about it being extremely hard to tune a vtec turbo engine. is that true?

 

[UCCRacing]

Sleeves? Are you planning on HUGE numbers? If not, then no need to sleeve it! If you went and sleeved a block then slapped a cheap ass Ebay Turbo on the car then you would be less than smart... If your going to DO IT RIGHT, then DO IT PROPERLY!!!!!!!!!! For gods sake Ebay Turbo's are JUNK.... DO YOUR RESEARCH, I am not a Turbo Junkie, but I know Ebay turbo's are a waste... Yes you can get some things on Ebay such as piping and such... And BRAND name parts... But everyone here will tell you to do your research, search here, try google... SEARCH and you will see... Not trying to be an ass just been there done that, then realized my car is worth more than a few weeks on a ebay turbo.... Ebay Turbo = FAIL...

BTW yes some people have ran Ebay turbo's with no issues, but the fail rate is to high for me...

 

[Esotericimage]

you dont want to set your HP/Tq goal based on PSI. Shoot for a number thats realistic and hope for the best.

 

[got traction]

alright so what i think im going to do is keep the z6, buy some new rods and sleeves, also head gaskets and studs. I'm not going to be cheap on those parts because if i buy a cheap ebay turbo, and it breaks on me i can just run NA, but if the internals blow out on me, im screwed.

so with the ebay kit, i'll just run about 6-8 psi, and when something gives i'll replace with better turbo parts.

Now i've heard a lot about it being extremely hard to tune a vtec turbo engine. is that true?

you didnt listen to anything we said, did you?

First, find out who will tune the car..do they tune on crome, urberdata, hondata? based on that make your decision on what your going to use for engine management.

Its not hard to tune a 'vtec turbo engine' -- This shows your lack of research

 

[Autoworks]

this wont end well.

my same first thought

Ok, guess ill be the nice guy today. As long as you run only 8lbs of boost or less, all you need to be safe is a cometic headgasket and arp headstuds, and that will be good enough.

That isnt true. I was going to go into detail but got traction did...

im very dissapointed in you, I figured you knew what you were talking about.....

Boost pressure or PSI HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH IT!!! Its all about how much power the motor will hold. People on Turbod16 and D-series.org say that a stock motor with just ARP headstuds will be good to about 200 whp. That is IF and only IF you have a very good tune, adequite fuel supply, etc.

not only that but 8psi on a 14b is different than a t3/t4 than a s372r...etc.

It's in the tune. Blowing headgaskets can easily be resolved, and most of it resolved thru tuning the car properly.

unfortunately..... the motor has 220,XXX miles on it... should i just get a b16 swap and run NA?

I'm not sure what would be better...

220k...build the motor. If there is any damage to the bottom end now, turboing it will accelerate it and it will definitely show itself ...probably sooner than later.

alright so what i think im going to do is keep the z6, buy some new rods and sleeves, also head gaskets and studs. I'm not going to be cheap on those parts because if i buy a cheap ebay turbo, and it breaks on me i can just run NA, but if the internals blow out on me, im screwed.

so with the ebay kit, i'll just run about 6-8 psi, and when something gives i'll replace with better turbo parts.

Now i've heard a lot about it being extremely hard to tune a vtec turbo engine. is that true?

^That didn't make sense really.
For the bottom end you'll need pistons and rods. From the sounds of it, your stock sleeves will be plenty.
Pick up a set of pistons (75.5mm), H Beam rods, ACL bearing set, OEM headgasket, ARP rod bolts, check the specs on your pump, if they are out replace the oil pump, and just get a water pump while your at it along with a timing belt. You now have the ingredients of a fresh turbo ready block, get it assembled and drop it in.

You'd be just as screwed if your good block held up and your rolling down the highway and your cheap turbo kit falls apart. Save yourself the headache and skip the cheap kit. That kit is no longer cheap when you begin replacing all the cheap pars with quality parts. Doesn't matter if your running 2 psi, psi isn't the only factor breaking cheap parts.

SOHC vtec motors are not "difficult" to tune.