Calling all experts. I have a 1992/1993 GS. I was planning to swap in a B18C5 (type R) engine. I was told I could make significant gains with the engine I have if I went turbo. I have read the turbo guide posted here which is extremely helpful but I still have some questions.
Firstly I do not want to get rid of power steering nor do I want to get rid of A/C (actually being in South Florida, it isn’t even a option). So I wanted to now if any of you guys are running turbo setups with A/C and Power steering and if so how did you get around the space limitations?
I also wanted to know how much WHP is possible in our cars and STILL be reliable and practical for daily driving. Also I do not care at all about price or deals, I care about buying the best parts for the job, so I wanted to know manufacturers should I be looking at for this job. I won’t be doing any of the work myself, but instead have one of the local tuner shops do it.
If you’re going to drop your car off at a shop and have them do all the work, why not tell them exactly what you want and let them figure out which parts will work well? Ask them how much power they’re comfortable making reliably and see if they have any other similar cars they built for comparison. Depending on the manifold you can keep AC and power steering. If money is not an object, any decent shop could build you a very nice, very reliable setup.
i have a 91 db1 with agsr swap . i have a/c amd p/s its making 450whp on 20lb boost. thats for the strips. on the regular days is on 10lb .but this is not my daily car .but i do drive 3-4 times a week
stock gsr motor, shoot for 300whp with a solid dyno tune and a street tune, and you will be seeing 30+mpg on the highway with LS gearing, average 25mpg probably. It can be done relatively easily for you.
no…he’s thinking about boosting his b18a motor instead of getting the gsr. and he’s also asking which route to go for a reliable turbo build…internals, turbos, injectors, fuel pump, etc.
thats easy to answer. FORGED!!!, arp head and rod bolts, no ebay turbos, something 450cc and above (the higher the cc the lower the duty cycle u can run), walbro 255…
i would highly suggest doing more research on how to build a turbo’d engine for performance and reliablity. theres lot’s of posts and info on this topic already
i am thinking of either going all motor on the type r (b18c5) engine or going turbo on a GS engine (the current engine in my car).
My goal is to have a reliable daily driver that is putting out 250 whp. Something that isn’t going to kill my on gas.
On a side note, I went to a tuner shop here in south florida to have my HKS exhaust put on, right. So i pose the question to the dude at the shop, “type r engine or turbo my current engine” to which he responds “type r, more reliable” so then I say, ok how much whp and he says “170 whp”. I say, ok now what do I need to do to make it to 250 whp. To which he says “why put the money into that car, just go buy yourself a civic Si and be done” to which I smiled, said thanks, paid my money and left.
Turbo and reliable don’t belong in the same sentance, other than something like 'I installed a turbocharger and my car isn’t nearly as reliable as before. This thing is always freaking broke. I hate it."
I’d have to disagree. There’s the old saying of ‘Fast, Cheap, Reliable - pick two’ which i’d be more inclined to agree with. Sure you can have a reliable turbo setup in a daily driver but it’s not going to be cheap at all and will take more time to put together than throwing a swap in your bay. Turbo does not mean unreliable.
I’ve been looking for a replacement engine for my db2… for the past 4 months now and have finally formulate a game plan.
My 1st notion was to replace it with a 98+ Spec B18C-R, but at the cost of ~6,000$.
I don’t have 6+ grand to invest in my teg ( done that ).
I can’t go stock b16Ax because I feel that our db2’s are on the heavy side of the DA’s and after having a built B17A1 with ~190whp… I just can’t!
So my 2nd notion was the B18C of course. It could be made into a beast!
I still have a bunch of “go fast” parts from my other build. ie. light fly wheel, intake mani, header, s2s2 cams and gears not to mention the YS1. The plan was to extract around 180whp from JDM B18C, keeping my AC and PS. This was the most reliable setup I came up with decent power to get ole girl moving.
With the B18C selling for 2 grand (long block) and upwards of $3200 for a complete swap…the darkness fell upon me!
I bought a 2nd gen long block for 500 bucks(clean and running…still in the car)
I’ve been researching rods and pistons(around $700)
I have a South Florida Performance B series turbo manifold($200)
I have a split core I/C. The inlet and outlet is on the same side.(I’m going to retain my A/C)(free)
I’m still researching but my goals are 275-300whp and 180+ ft-lb.Tq. with AC and PS.
I think this would be fairly reliable for street use and still have enough power to companate for my little wee wee.
so you are going all motor then? Your plans so about like mine. Thx for the write up of your plans!
after reading everything I am going to do all motor with type r B18c motor. 6,000 is a lot of bread but i rather take my time and just do everything “right”
wildstyle…you shouldn’t have bought that exhaust yet if you plan to go turbo, because you will need a bigger exhaust piping for your turbo for better performance. Forget the b18 type r and just keep your b18a and boost it, stock internals are known to be good up to 300hp. b18a are good motors to boost, why waste more money on that type r motor since your going boost anyways? people usually only get the type r motors because they plan to stay NA which is a good motor, but since your going the turbo route…build up your current b18a motor’s internals and turbo it. no need for type r motor, unless you want to stay NA.
Wild Style, no I’m NOT going “All Motor”, I’m going Turbo!
If I stay “all motor” It will have to be a B18C-R @ the cost of ~$6,000. (bone stock, heat shield and all).OR. a built JDM B18C @ the cost of ~$3,000.
A B18C-R would leave me where I left off, HP wise… but the increase in Ft-Lb TQ would feel so much better not to mention Honda’s factory reliably. With some weight reduction this would be a fun package. (Willwood brake upgrade can shed over 15lbs (each side) of unsprung weight off the front of our cars.)
But I don’t have the 6000 grand to invest.
For about 1/2 of that… 3geez… I can can build a b16x to handle enough boost pressure to generate 300+whp hp and 200+ ft-lb of Tq reliably…and it has been done for cheaper.
Basically… it’s the cheaper and easier way to go if you don’t have the Time, Skills, Patients, Research, Fundings and Resources to build a high hp, reliable N/A setup.
Shifter has a good point too.
The Stock LS motor, if compression is good can make ~250hp to the wheels all day.
G2iC member Ralfy aka Redline had his stock LS boosted for over 1 year. He made 210hp to the wheels on 5 psi. And if it wasn’t for for the 3mm head gasket he installed he would have made more.
Good luck on which ever path you choose. ^5 .
so am I totally screwed with the HKS exhaust? If i boost this car and keep the HKS hi power on it for awhile, will there be serious performance issues?
Sorry Wild Style but I have some questions too Hope the anwser will help you!
If I understand correctly, Ralfy aka Redline boosted a B18A on stock internal with 5psi, was it 210 hp or Whp??
I will shortly have a B18A laying around, I’m thinking of rebuilting it. In this rebuilt, is there any parts that I can replace for cheap to help on reliability? I was thinking about ARP Head Studs.
What kind of torque does the B18A will have when boosted?
Will Turbo kill the B18A in long run even if tuned right?
How much money I would expect for building a Boosted B18A on stock internals?
Thanks a lot and hope the answers will help the OP
Hope the anwser will help you!