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1. What are you future plans? You won't feel any gains with any header at this point anyways. Are you planning to boost like your name? If so, obviously don't get an aftermarket N/A header. Good condition DC-S headers aren't very expensive anyways...they give such little gains on small builds, you want as much as you can get from it IMO.

2. They're very close in their ratios. The S80 has a bigger final drive meaning more torque to the wheels in each gear than the S1. Check out the transmission sticky at the top of the Integra forum for exact specs.

3. You can do a valve lash job if you like. First step would be to get the feeler gauge and see if the gap between the rocker/valve is within spec. Get an Integra shop manual to keep track of which nuts do what etc for tightening the rockers blah blah. Read up on valve lashing to understand what it's all about. Why are you starting with a valve lash? Is the motor doing something that points you towards improperly set valves?

 

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If you're bored, and want to get your hands....slightly dirty lol, you could slap on the header. Most of the "gains" will probably be psychological from a different sound tone. Better throttle response is usually correlated with a less restrictive / better flowing intake. Or you could try to fix up the header, and sell it for like $50 to help offset the cost of your eventual turbo header.

A compression test would let you know what's up with the motor. It might direct you towards some other tune-up areas. Clicking could be good ol' Honda injectors, to a loud clacky valvetrain. Hopefully it's not actual piston pinging or slapping.

 

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I have a Garrett T3/T4 turbo sitting in my closet it has been there for almost a year now :cry

What size? Is it a "Garrett-made" Turbonetics turbo?

 

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I don't think M24 means much. After some quick research, people have M24 stamped on the cover for a huge range of turbo sizes.

Edit: Need more info on the turbo after I tried to figure it out from the info you gave me. Seems to be a T25.

This it? eBay.com.sg: Garrett M-24 A/R 80 Turbo Charger-Coupe Cabriolet (item 250376313067 end time Feb 26, 2009 12:28:30 SGT)

If it's a T3/T4, that .80 a/r would be huge...maybe an SR20 guy (wonder who that could be) could shed some light on this M24 dealio.

Wow...major computer freeze when trying to change WiFi networks.

Anyways, if it is indeed a .80 T3/T4, get rid of that thing, it's way too big, and you'll never hit boost on the street, and you'll be really pissed. You need something small that will spool really quick....a .80 a/r T25 would be better...or GT28, not sure if the T25 is too small.

 

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Sorry, read my edited post...my computer was going crazy.

You need to set a power goal if you're looking for max power on stock parts (300whp). Different setups will need different pounds of boost to hit that kind of power.

Sorry, I still can't quite tell by that picture what turbo family it's from, maybe somebody else can....or maybe I'll figure it out in a bit. If the seller is smart...he wouldn't be putting a huge turbo on his Miata...but lots of people put turbos that are way too big on their cars...so..

 

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Yea you won't have any issues at 250whp as long as it's tuned well, and the motor is generally in good health. You just need to figure out what to do about the turbo. If you're sure its a T3/T4, then get rid of it, and start looking for a smaller one.

 

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Thanks Marques, that's what I thought. That'd definitely be sweet for the street...can't hook up on street tires above 250whp in our cars anyways...unless you want to run drag radials on the street and replace them every month.

I think I'll go with something a tad bigger when it's time to move on from NA.