When can I turbo?

[Allo]

I have a 2k LS Integra. I want to build the engine up but I also want to put a turbo on it. Should I build up before or after I put the turbo on? I'm pretty anxious to get a turbo b/c I drove my brothers TT 300zx the other day and loved it (it was my first time driving a turbo car). How great is the risk of me totally fucking my engine if I don't build up first?

[acuradriva]

depends what u wanna do if you wanna do. throw a turbo on now with a little boost and you can build the engine later. or build it then have a lot of boost

[SuperStud]

well if you have a lot of money (like at least $6k+) you could do both now.

if you have a lot of patience but not a lot of money, you could build it now and add the turbo later (but i say what's the point? might as well just save the cash to do them both together, cause an engine built for boost isn't much good on its own.)

or if you're like most people, and you don't wanna wait till you can afford a balls-to-the-wall bulletproof motor, and maybe you're not even sure how far you wanna go in the future (like myself), i would suggest building yourself a pretty good turbo kit with about $3500 and be sure to leave room for improvement. get parts that are good enough to produce more power than you want right now (turbo, intercooler, fuel management, etc) that way you don't have to start from scratch when you want more power (which you will). then when you decide to build the block up to handle more power, you can just crank the boost, add some fuel, get re-tuned, and you're good to go!!

another thing to consider is down-time for the car. if you're going to build the block up, you'd better have another car to drive in the meantime. a turbo kit alone can be installed in a few days, but building the bottom end take a lot more time than that, so take that into consideration as well!

[OdiedogCX]

It all depends on what you want and you're price range. You can make good power on a stock engine, but high boost won't be an option.

[jdmhonda98]

10psi with stock internals and enough fuel you should be fine.

[-Todd-]

Originally posted by jdmhonda98
10psi with stock internals and enough fuel you should be fine.

10psi, are you sure about that? I was thinking more like 5 or 6.

[mls]

Originally posted by ctj121683
10psi, are you sure about that? I was thinking more like 5 or 6.

Yah, 5-6pounds sounds about right on standard internals. It would be wise to run an intercooler too, even on light boost.

You might need to upgrade your fuel system too. Don't just bandage the system with a fuel pressure regulator, as you will just screw up your injectors, etc., if you increase the pressure too much.

But on a standard engine, light boost would work fine (as long as the engine is not a junker in the first place). This might be all you are after, so it might be best to test drive a similar car with a light boost bolt on turbo kit & if you like the way it drives, stick to that.

[Allo]

Thanks for the info. Ultimately I want to get a different car and make my Teg solely for racing. While it's still a daily driver I think I'll run light boost while I build the engine over the next year.