quick question about turboing a gsr

the more i drive, the more i find that i hate driving my gsr. it’s so annoying to have to wind it up to 5k or so when i just want to accelerate normally because there’s never enough power. the car is bone stock and has been all it’s life. i’m giving a little thought into turboing / supercharging it. i’m only going to have the car for one more year if i decide to do this, and i only have 1.5 months to work on it before i have to take it back to school with me. its a stock 1992 gsr w/ 113k miles on it.

from what i can find on the forums, there’s no simple bolt-on turbo for the gsr, but at the same times i haven’t found many posts about boosting a b17a. what i’m wondering is if i can just bolt on a simple/custom turbo kit to my car. i’m not interested in actually rebuilding anything, replacing more than a few parts, or losing my a/c.

Re: quick question about turboing a gsr

Originally posted by zakiu
i’m not interested in actually rebuilding anything, replacing more than a few parts, or losing my a/c.

I would suggest you stay away from turbo. to make a safe and effective turbo setup, those things that “you’re not interested in” are very important. (not loosing the a/c, but rebuilding). if you are taking it to school, I would say keep with the reliability of a N/A motor. heck you have a very RARE vehicle, stock b17a1’s are hard to come by, so you wouldn’t wanna blow it up.

besides, you can turbo a VTEC, but it’s not really made for turbo. Turbo setups are low compression, whereas VTEC/ N/A cars excell with high compression.

that’s what i figured, i just wasn’t sure. thanks :slight_smile:

the truth is b17’s do have relatively low compression compared to b16’s etc, there 9.5 like an ls motor, vs. the over 10.2:1 of other dohc vtec engines, but non the less id say those things are rare and wouldnt want to blow it up, id jsut throw some bolt ons on it to make it faster, like cai and catback and everything inbetween, if u want :slight_smile:
-Toby

Bolt on mods are going to do very little to lower the RPM’s that you recieve power at. I know Fmax Drag and Greddy all have kits that can be made to fit a GSR, but I don’t know about keeping ac (most of the civic SI b16a kits should be adaptable to a B17a). The only issues are fit issues, so you might need a custom pipe somewhere or a thinner radiator fan. You can keep AC with a 6psi Vortech, but you’ll loose Powersteering unless you convert it to 99SI PSing. You have to remove your ABS to do the aftercooled kit, the non aftercooled just runs a pipe to your TB.

What if you keep the boost to about 6psi?
That would be a safer amount and not have it blows up so easily right?

BTW Would it make sense to send the block to GE to be resleeved if I were build an all motor B17? I’m thinking of using CTR pistons as I have 93 gas pump here.

B17ATT: golden eagle does AWSOME work i had mine done and pleased with results… like peace of mind and a warrenty that is void if you boost over 60psi :smiley:

zakiu: drag and f-max… both have kits to keep the a/c, i have the drag kit its a little work to modify your bumper for the intercooler its not too bad, however the rods are the B17’s week point you could run it n/a and a rod could still go. its a tough call i went through and i decided to wait till after i built up the motor before i turboed it … i tried basic bolt-ons and it did not do the job, you wont get a real increase unless you dip into the valvetrain with type r components and higher comp, its a little more relieable. in the end its really up to how much you wanna spend? and do you wanna take a chance?

yeah, considering the car is all stock and in pretty damn good condition, it’d be a total waste to mess it up. also, i don’t really want to spend the money on a car that’s only worth 5-6k in the first place, especially considering i’ll only have it for 1 more year. i won’t have time to really work on it / maintain it at school, either. :frowning: translates to no turbo :wink:

93B17A : who’s golden eagle? a tuning company?

By what means do you only have the car for one more year? I don’t know where people get myths of B17a not being good to Boost. It’s a great motor to boost. :confused: :shock: :mad::shock::confused:

I really don’t want it anymore after I graduate. It’s a nice car, don’t get me wrong, but assuming I get a job (which I will), practicality won’t be as large of an issue and I’ll easily have the budget for a better car. I haven’t decided if I’m going to sell it or give it to my dad as a supplement to his minivan. I’d feel kind of bad selling it because it’s in such good condition.

I don’t think it’s a bad car to boost, I just think it’s a bit of trouble/inconvenience and more money than I want to spend right now.

I’m actually in the same boat as you Zaiku. I’m planning (as of now) to boost my car. The only real difference between the two of us is that, I am already planning a rebuild, and at that time, I’m going to change the rods (mostly preventative maintanence). I too want to keep my A/C, because in the South, you can’t really live without it. Also, I’m not planning on boosting more than 6-8 psi. For the amount that good bolt-ons cost, I could easily have a turbo’d engine, and still be as safe as the NA guys. Sometimes a little safer, when you consider those that are running Toda Bs are always worried about the timing belt, etc. It seems like you could do it, with little worry. There are several members on this board that have been running boost for thousands of miles. The key is not to turn the boost up too high. Moderation my friend, moderation. :slight_smile:

golden eagle does sleeve work on motors

yeah, i’m in augusta over the summer, so it’s not like we can do without our a/c. :wink: i try, but it doesn’t work, i’d rather run my a/c than let sweat soak into my seat and stink my car up. :slight_smile: i agree with your logic, if i were doing some kind of engine work to make the engine a little more durable, i’d go ahead and boost it while toying, but i don’t touch the internals outside of small things like oil changes and fixing the occasional rattle / malfunctioning part (right-hand side washer fluid squirter is next on my list)

when are you planning the rebuild and turbo?

Originally posted by zakiu

when are you planning the rebuild and turbo?

I’m hoping to get everything together, and have stuff done within the year. I’m going to have to buy parts as money becomes available, and hopefully I’ll come across some good deals. After deciding that I would need a rebuild anyway, I decided that instead of sink the money going NA, I could just boost a small amount, and spend something similar to a comparable NA setup.

I am also looking to turbo my 92 gsr but im not sure wat all ill have to change as for internal parts. Rods, rigs etc. are things like these gonna need to be replace? im looking for a 6-8 boost range also.

no offence zakiu, but i think when your “done” with the car, you should sell it to someone who would appreciate it, you have a very rare car and lots of people would damn near kill for it.

Originally posted by VTEC_Teggy
no offence zakiu, but i think when your “done” with the car, you should sell it to someone who would appreciate it, you have a very rare car and lots of people would damn near kill for it.

my dad appreciates a well-taken care of car a lot more than most people who want my car for it’s engine. i’ll sell it if i decide it’s worth more to someone else, obviously. if i don’t sell it, then it’ll be because the car will be worth more money to me than anyone else is willing to pay for it. if you’re saying i should give it away, i can’t afford to do something like that right now. hopefully if i’m making enough money i’ll be lucky enough to do something like that. there are lot of people who want it just b/c it has vtec and it’s one of the cheapest vtec cars, and don’t have the money to maintain it. you never know who you’re selling to.

How could you hate your GS-R ? :sad: Like VTEC_Teggy said if you feel like you don’t like it anymore just put it up for sale, I’m sure someone will appreciate such a rare car. Sorry to hear that you feel that way

i guess i’m spoiled :wink:

Originally posted by 93B17A
B17ATT: golden eagle does AWSOME work i had mine done and pleased with results…:smiley:

What did you have done? And if you don’t mind my asking, how much did they charge you?