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sohc turbo?! or dohc n/a?!?!

1800 Views 18 Replies 12 Participants Last post by  redfox
I have a '97 ex coupe, with a d16y7 and i need more power!!! bolt on's aren't doing enough for me, so what's the best and most vost effective solution. swap out engine for a b16 or/18, or go with forced induction. also, which setup would allow me to retain most of the stuff i already have (I/H/E). What do you guys think?!?!
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I was faced with the same delema: get a turbo or get a prelude or an engine swap.

Well, what I would gain in power and TORQUE with the turbo most definitely exceeds that of N/A B16 or H22. You can probably make a N/A engine go, but do you really have unlimited funds?

GO WITH THE TURO on the SOHC!
Boost your sohc..........you'll love the torque, which n/a b-series motors do not have. It'll be a lot more fun to drive too. I'll be boostin sometime this year. And its auto:D
All a matter of opinion

The SOHC turbo from greddy would be cheaper than a b16a swap and give you a little more power. The thing about the DOHC is you have greatly potential from the motor. If you want to go really fast go with the DOHC. If you are satisfied with a pretty quick car for ~1500 or ~2100 with intercooler.
I have the same engine and am very happy with the results..
go for the turbo, i´m boosting my d16 in the summer.
TURBO the sohc
so it looks like boost is the option of choice, huh? couple more questions then:

1. What's kind of power potential am i looking at with stock internals? on a greddy kit (non-intercooled and intercooled)?

2. What other modifications must i do to accomodate the turbo?
(so that i know what i'm getting into beforehand)?
Do yourself a favor if you are boosting your SOHC...get a DRAG turbo kit. They are better (IMO) than the GReddy kits and come with EVERYTHING you need (all turbo piping, turbo, intercooler, intercooler piping, wastegate, BOV, etc...). Check out www.importparts.com , they have the DRAG kits for a pretty good price. I am probably gonna get a DRAG Gen3 kit for my b16 in like 4 months. I just love the sound of a turbo spooling up then ppsshhhhhhhhhhhhtttt (ohhh the joy of a BOV!!)
skoolbui18 said:
so it looks like boost is the option of choice, huh? couple more questions then:

1. What's kind of power potential am i looking at with stock internals? on a greddy kit (non-intercooled and intercooled)?

2. What other modifications must i do to accomodate the turbo?
(so that i know what i'm getting into beforehand)?
If you are buying a complete kit, you don't really need anything else.

Drags's quality is not very good.

Greddy has the best turbo kit for SOHC, reliable, but you are not getting much power and will not have much room for improvement because of the small turbo.

RevHard and F-MAX kits are the ones I vote for. Both lets you run 9psi stock and if you build your engine later, you can push 15 psi easy.

At 9 psi, you'll get betweel 190-200 at the wheels, pretty sweet. Bye bye RSX Type S, maybe even the S2000 if you have a good take off, because the amount of torque you are getting which kicks in at about 4000 rpm.
thx for the input... also... another reason why i was pondering between swapping a b16/18 and turboing was because my motor is now approaching the 60k mark (mostly commuter miles) will my motor last?? whichever i do, reliability will be important, and i'm on a budget. thx
im bosting 7psi stock internals 74,000 miles on the engine no problems what so ever except i had to change the gasket on my oil pan the new added pressure ruined the old gasket
but if you replace the gasket and torque it to 9 lbs instead of the factory 7 lbs that fixes the problem
with proper tuning you can boost close to a bar on stock internals.
dude its possible to hit 13's with the greddy kit. the greddy is the most street friendly. i to am or was in your dillema on whether to buy a b16 or b18 or to just say fuk it and turbo my 00'ex well im gonna turbo it. besides if i blow th engine up it will hurt less that a blown b series engine would!
what's the the approx. labor charge to put in a new head gasket? one thing i hate is paying for labor!!! but opening up my engine is something i want a pro to do.
can't you get a turbo kit and upgrade to a bigger turbo? or tat jus isn't possible?
Thane said:
can't you get a turbo kit and upgrade to a bigger turbo? or tat jus isn't possible?
No manifolds/dowpipes/deltagates are universal for turbos.
Yeah, turbo the SOHC....I don't know if anyone has seen Jeff Copes drag Civic EX, but it is still a SOHC and has ran 10.80 with severe traction problems. It should be going even faster this season. Look for it....it is black and says Phatridz on it. Makes insane power for such a small motor. Can spin 10.5 inch wide slickls almost all the way down the quarter. Stay SOHC - stay with the underdog.

Later, Chris
Chrisneon said:
Yeah, turbo the SOHC....I don't know if anyone has seen Jeff Copes drag Civic EX, but it is still a SOHC and has ran 10.80 with severe traction problems. It should be going even faster this season. Look for it....it is black and says Phatridz on it. Makes insane power for such a small motor. Can spin 10.5 inch wide slickls almost all the way down the quarter. Stay SOHC - stay with the underdog.

Later, Chris
Well said... JE Engine Dynamics makes SOHC race engines with 400 whp output. Now that's POWER!
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