beginner turbo question

[JSui]

Hi this is my first time posting here. I have a 91 Canadian Accord EX-R

My friend's subaru is changing to a bigger turbo. He told me if I want to mod my car he will have his turbo BOV and intercooler sold to me for CAD$300 and help me on getting it to work.
figured it would take some more efforts and knowledge to make changes other than replacing a couple radiator pipes I looked in to our forum about how other setups are done.

I've gone through some earlier posts and found out that a lot of people are saying that without custom reinforcement F22As will likely blow up after a couple weeks/months.
I wouldn't want that to happen on my daily ride.
thought I needed a new exhaust manifold, some tweaks to the ECU and it would work. but apparently not so easy.
If it requires a lot of overhaul modding on the engine just so it works reliably I might have to give up for now.

Any suggestions on what I should do with my car? I do have a budget of under $2000 though.
Any comment appreciated! Thanks!

[h22sparkle]

It depends on what you want out of the setup. I'm going to let you know having a turbo setup on a non-turbo car your going to have issues regardless just like with any other car but more than others since it was never a turbo car. Just make sure you keep your setup simple if your not up to it or just get a actual turbo car but make sure you use quality parts.

[deevergote]

I believe most Subarus use IHI turbos, which won't bolt up to any common flanges. You'll need to get a custom flange (or an adapter) on whatever turbo manifold you choose. Yes, you will need a proper manifold to mount the turbo, as there's nowhere to mount it using stock equipment.
Most commonly used manifolds that I've seen have flanges for Garrett or Mitsubishi turbos. (edit: some Subarus use Mitsubishi turbos, but only a select few.)

The pistsons will indeed give out rather quickly if you don't swap them out for forged ones. On a car that you could afford to blow up, I'd say go ahead. Since it's your daily, it's a bad idea. Even properly built, turbo engines can fail unexpectedly. It's a pretty significant change over the factory design... and everything you change is another opportunity for failure. You also need to get an ECU that can be tuned, and have it tuned by someone that is knowledgeable of such things. There is absolute NO safe way to run a turbo on a previously non-turbo car without a custom tune of some sort. No "out of the box" fuel map will be safe (anyone who tells you otherwise is trying to sell you something, or a complete moron... maybe both.)

I would strongly recommend against it, especially since you seem to have little knowledge going into the project. Save it for when you can afford the time and money to make a mistake.


Rather than using your friend's parts, I'd suggest getting something from Treadstone (www.TreadstonePerformance.com). Their kits use quality components, and the price is reasonable for what you get. Then go to Race Engineering (www.raceeng.com) for your internals (forged rods and pistons, at the very least.) Finally, find yourself a local tuner that is familiar with Hondas and ask what engine management system they prefer... then buy that. Some will be cheap, like the lower-model Hondata systems. Some may prefer something pricier, such as AEM. Some may even be cool with bare-bones stuff, like a chipped factory ECU. Regardless, get what your tuner prefers. Don't expect them to work their magic with something they've never used before.

[JSui]

Thanks a lot for your help. What about if I run on low boost like 7 psi, the turbo he has is an IHI VF40.

[deevergote]

Any boost will greatly increase your chances of broken ring lands. There is no guaranteed safe way to do it without replacing the pistons.