Sean Kempt

im new to car modding and i was wondering what are some decent turbo kits that have all i need to install into a 2003 honda civic lx 1.7l and if you guys know of any instructional videos of how to do it? and any other suggestions you guys have that could help out with this sort of thing.

mac25

xRiCeBoYx

iTrader: (22)

do a LOT of research before going boost. I thought I had done enough research, but boy, was I wrong.

If you know what you're talking about, you can probably disregard the rest of this post. Anything typed out below here is me typing under the assumption that you know nothing about adding boost to a car.
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Find a VERY reputable shop that will tune it right. That was one of my issues. The shop I went to was recommended to me, but they were crap. They were essentially the lesser of the evils in the area I lived in at the time.

This brings me to my next point. Fuel management. This is what the tuner will use to make your setup not kill itself. There are some decent piggyback units out there, but in order to get the most out of it, a standalone engine management system (ems) is ideal. Hondata K-Pro is the ems of choice. I've heard hit-or-miss things about the AEM EMS.

That said, the ems is gonna make sure the engine gets enough fuel. The stock injectors can only do so much (230cc/min, if I'm not mistaken). RSX injectors fit, albeit a bit longer, but will up that capacity to 310cc/min. That should be good for up to 8psi.

That's just the start of it all. There are so many variables to keep track of that a turbo kit is really just a starting point, and there's so much more you'll have to tack on to make it a reliable setup. Here's some cause and effect stuff you'll have to upgrade (just off the top of my head), assuming you start out with a turbo kit that includes the turbo, mani, downpipe connection, piping, intercooler, air filter, blow off valve, and narrow band a/f gauge:

-The turbo takes up a lot of room in front of the engine. You'll need aftermarket slim fans in order to fit it all down there.

-Is the turbo water/oil cooled or just oil cooled? If it's both, you'll need to tap a coolant line to provide and engine coolant source. It's also gonna add quite the heat load to the cooling system. A larger capacity radiator (e.g. Koyo radiator) will probably be necessary. It is wider than stock, so the slimline fans come in handy here, too.

-Front mount intercooler? yeah, that **** ain't gonna fit behind the stock bumper. Well, it will, but you'll have to dremel out the entire black portion of the bottom part of the bumper. Not to mention, you'll probably need to dremel away some sheet metal to make the piping fit. Aftermarket bumper covers may help here, but that's all up to you.

-How are you controlling boost? Well, ****. The kit didn't come with one. Unless you have a strictly manual boost controller, you'll be drilling through the firewall to route some vacuum lines into the car's cabin.

-You know that a/f gauge it came with, toss that ****. It's useless. All it'll do is tap into your upstream O2 sensor and sweep back and forth like it's trying to give you an epileptic seizure. Wideband is where it's at. The AEM UEGO wideband A/F controller is a popular choice (one of which I still have installed in my car), and that'll run you another $300, plus installation of a new O2 bung 18" from the turbo's exhaust.

-speaking of exhaust, the D17A1 exhaust won't cut it. Convert to an EX (D17A2) exhaust setup. Still got a stock exhaust? Now's a good time to upgrade that. You don't wanna bottleneck the turbo at the exhaust, do you?

-The filter it came with. Chances are it's crap. Just saying. You may wanna change that. Gotta do everything you can to protect this investment.

-back to the vacuum thing.. If you wanna see how much boost you're throwing at your engine, a boost gauge, at the least will do. If you don't wanna hurt the turbo, the blow off valve needs vacuum input, too. If you have a fancy boost controller, prolly needs a line for itself, as well. A vacuum manifold works great here, but make sure you tap the brake booster line in the correct spot, otherwise nothing's gonna see proper vacuum.

-The D17A1 is a great bottom end to use for boost. Why? It has a lower compression ratio than the D17A2. The top end, however, sucks, since there's no cam support for the D17A1. Swap out for the -A2 head, you'll get better response from boost with a stage 1, 2, or 3 cam, depending on how aggressive you wanna make this build. They're all the same price (~$360), so why not?

-Speaking of stage 2 or 3.. those require titanium springs/retainers. There's another $300

-The power goes up, which means the torque does as well.. If you have a manual tranny (which I hope you do. Quit reading if you have an auto or ask Cam (mac25) how the conversion went), increased torque may warrant a stage 1 clutch at the least. You can prolly get away with an OEM one, but that's likely to wear out fast.

-remember the fuel thing I talked about earlier? Depending on your injectors, your stock fuel pump won't cut it. With the rsx 310cc/min, it'll do fine. If you don't wanna chance it, the Walbro 255lph pump is a popular choice. Furthermore, a return-style fuel system would be ideal, but that requires conversion of the returnless system the 7thgen has.

-Most people are fine with the battery in the stock location. Some people want that extra room. If you're in the latter group, you're gonna need to relocate it.

-As an extra added safety measure, upgrading the brake system might be warranted. You don't wanna go fast and not be able to stop well enough. This one is completely optional, though.

There's definitely a lot more, but that's all I can think of at the moment. I'm tired. That's just basic upgrades, too. I didn't even get into piston/rod/internals upgrades, block sleeving, etc.

If you have any more questions, ask away. I don't want to deter you from going boost; I actually encourage it. It's fun, and I know from experience. I just want to make sure you know what you're getting in to.

p.s. with boost, no more 87 octane fuel. You're looking at 91+ only, due to forced induction.

mac25

^true that!

Sean Kempt

Thanks for the information, lol I definitely needed the bottom portion I really don't know much about fixing or modding cars and I wanted to try learning with this car, so I really appreciate the info you gave me. I had already planned on changing out the front number for the inter cooler since my wife that used to drive it all the time got into a accident and ****ed it up so I had to zip tie the bumper back on luckily it only messed up the bumper and not the mount so I'm gonna get an aftermarket one. And I had already planned on changing out the fuel management system along with the turbo, since I had been doing a lot of research and found its a pretty good idea since going to forced induction requires more fuel obviously. It is a 5 speed manual I wouldn't bother if it wasn't haha. The only thing I didn't understand was changing the fans, I wonder if that's gonna be necessary since the turbo is so small. For this size engine isn't it like 3' by 2'

xRiCe_BoYx

I swear, I'm the same dude that posted above. I can't log into my main (read: administrator) account because logging into an admin account requires a google authenticator verification code, and I can't access because I had to reset my phone and lost the app data. x_x

The problem with the fans is the shroud and the sheer (front to back) size of the blades. The turbo I had installed was a T3 super 60. Now, the space in front of the engine is probably a good... 10 inches or so, right? I'm talking from the front of the head to the rear side of the upper radiator support. The turbo is probably 8" in "diameter," give or take, so that should leave you with 2" free space, right? Hell no. The manifold pushes the snail a good 2-3 inches forward, and the snail would occupy some of the room that the fan takes. The shop that finished the installation of my turbo up and removed my A/C fan without telling me, and that was.. adequate.. but took away some of the cooling capacity at idle. I replaced both of my fans with these bad boys. At $30 a fan, they do a damn good job, and they definitely push (rather, pull) more air than the stock fan did.. I think.. I just had to use some ingenuity to mount them without sticking zip ties through the radiator core and still be able to mount the radiator overflow bottle. I haven't had stock fans in a LOOONNNGGG time, but I remember them being thick as hell. Something to the tune of 3-4" thick? The fans I have installed (linked above) are probably about 1.5" thick. Saves a lot of room.

Sean Kempt

with the turbo kit you gave the people to put into your car, what did the kit come with...and how much did they charge you to install it and how long did it take for them to finish it ?

xRiCe_BoYx

I did most of the install myself (with a friend). I gave it to them to make sure it was all installed correctly, plumbing-wise, and for a tune. They couldn't figure out the filter setup, so they hooked me up with a filter that worked and cut the included intake filter piping to mesh well with the one they gave me, but otherwise, was installed correctly.. ish.. I didn't know how to hook up the BOV at the time, and they overlooked it, so I had some turbo backspool until I figured it out (sounded much like the dog from Duck Hunt laughing at me every time I shifted). I got charged something like $500 for fuel management wiring (because my friend and I f***ed it up and the car wouldn't start), for the shop to give the install a once-over, and dyno tune. They had my car for about a week, but I think they had the work done in a couple days. I asked if I could leave it there for a few days because of military duties (I was active duty Navy at the time, the time frame they finished it coincided with some work in the ship-board power plant I worked in, and that restricted me from physically leaving the ship)

As far as what was included with the kit I bought:
-Internally wastegated turbo with manifold and downpipe connection
-FMIC
-All the plumbing for it and aforementioned filter
-blow off valve
-oil line and fitting (used the oil pressure sensor line to feed the turbo, and the fitting allowed the use of both the turbo oil line and the OEM oil pressure sensor)
-vacuum tubing for the wastegate/BOV.
-narrowband AFR gauge

What I added:
-Boost controller (GReddy Profec B Spec 2)
-RSX-S injectors
-Turbo timer (Buddy Club SECU-timer)
-Drilled a hole in the intake piping and added grommet to fit the AIT sensor
-GReddy oil catch can and all fittings and lines to route it properly from the crankcase breather to the catch can, and into the turbo intake
-Golden Eagle vacuum manifold
-AEM UEGO wideband afr gauge/sensor
-Boost gauge
-ACT streetlight flywheel/Exedy organic stage 1 clutch
-Synapse missing link (MAP sensor check valve)

There's probably some other crap I added, but that's all I can remember off the top of my head.

Needless to say, once it was all done and over with, I was pushing ~150whp @ 2psi (wastegate actuator problem, limited boost to 2 psi) from a stock ~110whp that a stock EX MT has been dyno'd at