Rep Power: 424

$2,726.18 later, with another $673.92 remaining, I'm sick of surprises, this, thats and the other things. All this crap requires more crap, which needs to be altered again... its getting old. Buy the turbo, it comes with a waste gate, but you can't use the waste gate. Need another wastegate, and a new bracket. Poof, there goes 115 bucks. Turbo has no hose flanges, comes with no oil drain, water fittings, etc (this one I knew about), poof, another 200 bucks. $1000 turbo.
TSX injectors.... ooops, can't let em sit and dry out. Its best to clean them first, sonic cleaning and rebuilding, $50.
Can't tune e-manage on boost without the map sensor. Whelp, there goes another 140ish bucks.
Thankfully now, the last little bit is the 2 things that can't possibly surprise me. Pipes, hoses and a boost gauge. I'm glad the bad part is over (I think). I'm sure I'll discover last minute I'm missing something else, I just hope its not expensive.
Someone doublecheck me before I lose my sanity:
Fully assembled (now) GT28R, all water and oil fittings, and inlet/outlet flanges + new 7 psi WG and bracket
Manifold, jet-hotted, studs and nuts to mount the turbo to it and the gasket
4 TSX injectors, waiting to be sent for cleaning
E-manage+PNP+3 bar MAP + press. harness (borrowing the stupid CD)
911 turbo DV
Intercooler
all sorts of hose couplers and clamps, most nuts and bolts
a bunch of vac line
AEM UEGO
Just reusing my Injen filter, nothing wrong with it

I'm still need (think this is a complete list)
Misc. 2.5", 2" and 2.25" tubing for charge and exhaust pipe routing
A flex coupling
a boost gauge
-6 lines and **** for water
some fittings for oil feed (already have the lines)
A vac manifold (the GE one)+ line T and vacuum barbs
more vac. line
exhaust manifold gasket and new nuts from honda
a catch can

Somehow I thought it could be built for cheaper than the kit. Nope. I guess I got a little bit better of a turbo (feature wise) than you do with the kit, but its nearing the kit price, with a bigger, yet still fun, headache.

[/end rant]

 
Rep Power: 362

welcome to the world of fi/na.

I suppose you don't want to know how much I spent on my swap.

 
Rep Power: 0

Yup. That's how it is.

I can help with almost all of that stuff if you need help.

I will help ya with your tubing, flex, boost gauge and clamps and couplers if you need.

 
Rep Power: 424

Nope, I'm sure it was more than you originally thought too.
I knew I was going to have a few things slip in there.... but I either severely under calculated the original numbers, or I don't know what.... I just had a lot of things add up on me all at once I guess.
Bad stuff is behind. I'll feel much better and prolly forget all about it once the car is boosted

Thanks. The overwhelming majority of that crap is under control. I've got a growing pile at summit racing for plumbing and I found a place with good prices on SS tubes.
the last sticking point is the boost gauge. I should just get the one that plugs into the Defi Link, but its so expensive I'm not sure i care about the fact that it can record and remember the peak boost.

 
Rep Power: 296

mmmm, sounds about right, its the nickel and dime stuff that gets you every time. Its depressing and discouraging but once its tuned and you can rip it around the neighborhood you'll remember why you did it. I dont even wanna total up my parts list, especially after this spring, lol OMG why...why! Im like a crack addict or something.

 
Rep Power: 327

yup, if it was just a turbo, manifold, and FMIC than it would be real cheap It's all worth it in the end! BTW, got any pictures of the manifold after the coating ?

 
Rep Power: 285

do you want a boost guage?

I will send you my black autometer one. It has a loose stud on the back and has a dent, but works great. You dont even use a stud when installing it in a pillar.

 
Rep Power: 360

hey i cant speak from experience, but hang in there. Anything I have ever modded has cost almost twice what I initially expected. But in the end when you spend the big money, even though its tough to afford it, its worth it. Its happened with computers, my civic, and tons of other stuff. Just get it done RIGHT! Dont cut corners.
You are a smart person, i can tell from your posts. Just complain a bit to us, we'll listen. Get it out. Then go and make sure you do this thing right. Its already too much time and money to cut corners.

Good luck, friend. I hope this all works out in the end.

 
Rep Power: 584

welcome to our world

 
Rep Power: 311

i feel your pain. i got a kit then blew headgasket. so i thought i could just run 0 boost till i got new injectors and emanage. well then my oil line broke then the studs holding the turbo on broke then exhaust craks then today the clutch actuating rod breaks compleatly off the block im again at zero money till i get paid fri. i have only actually boosted for 2 weeks if that and the kit has been on the car almost a month. welcome to fi. i knew there would be little things but come on murphy leave me a lone for a while now dammit
end rant
sorry

 
Rep Power: 360

dam that sucks!!well good luck....that is why i sold my crap..not worth my time and money...id rather buy a faster car then dump a **** load and run into problems.better off just take your money and lighting it on fire.

 
Rep Power: 0

This is the only thing keeping me from f/i. its bad enough that I have no dyno to turn to for tuning but everything I'll need will have to be shipped and not many places ship to my location.

Hopefully dezods new kit would just be an easy plug and play kit. then I can just street tune it.

 
Rep Power: 350

Walbro in tank fuel pump isn't a bad idea. 255lph, in-tank. You're also going to end up needing a new clutch before long. Ball bearing turbos aren't cheap, either, I see you've noticed that.

Thing is, to bolt a kit on and go, it's cheap. To build a setup correctly to make reliable power, it's not so cheap. Those are two big differences.

 
Rep Power: 374

Wow its adding up fast. Im just saving my dough for a factory blown car next year; I wanted to build a kit but I think the time and money to piece it together like you are is to much hassle, plus I dont have the free time t maintain it like it needs.

 
Rep Power: 360

 
Rep Power: 424

Yeah, I know about the clutch. I'm hoping I can make it a month or 2 before it gives out. I'll save that one for track season.
I have the wastegate actuator rigged to the compressor outlet rather than the manifold, trying to purposely keep the boost down. My guess is 5-5.5 lbs will actually hit the manifold, which is fine for now. the TSX injectors should be able to support that returnlessly.
Oh and colder plugs, I know about that one too..... thats $30 though

 
Rep Power: 280

Boiler, you've probably read my rant about stock clutch holding 6psi on t25 fine, started to slip at 8psi. With your 5psi on t28 you should be ok for more then 1 mnth.
p.s. I as far as I remember sone have said that stock clutch was ok to 200 tq???

 
Rep Power: 331

hey boiler, let me send out my injectors to get cleaned too! lol, mine are dirty. and hang in there, i just bought what i hope was the last of my odds and ends. I feel like I spent more on misc. piping, couplers, fittings, more fittings, and **** than i did on anything else. blah.

 
Rep Power: 424

I'm not worried about the torque killing it, I'm worried about the track killing it with heat and constantly yanking on it as hard as I can. The clutch and the head gasket are the 2 reasons that I didn't go for more right off the bat. Before going nuts, some other stuff will have to get built, until then, conservative is the name of the game. 15 minutes straight under full boost is far more time than most of you regularly do. I took the low number from experience of a friend of mine who popped a few d16s with too much boost for too long. staying in the 5-7 range tends to not do that.

 
Rep Power: 413

Think of how much it would have costed at a shop if you didn't gather it all yourself... retail retail retail....

 
Rep Power: 327

People always confuse trouble, with obstacles. Some people like myself enjoy the build as much or more than the final product.

 
Rep Power: 272

If that's the case, then I'm going to have a walbro up for sale pretty soon. That is unless I can put it in place of the stocker and keep the stock fpr until i'm ready too boost higher than 6psi later on down the line.

 
Rep Power: 280

"Its funny, because its true"
Hommer J. Simson

 
Rep Power: 267

all I could think of when I was reading down that list was it should have ended with

"... and - a - par - tridge - in - a - pear - treeee ..."

sorry man, sounds like a complete pain in the ***, I think I would have gone completely insane by now

 
Rep Power: 0

Yup........the endless costs of more power. Never ending.


Edit: I was just thinking, you just spent $27xx dollars, and for an extra $300 and you could have our Core kit and had the option of almost 300whp with the right tuning, fuel and such.

 
Rep Power: 295

Not to mention, good tech support and customer service

 
Rep Power: 285

I have used just about every brand of plug on my car when it was turbod.

My favorite was my iridium IK20's. But $45 for plugs is outragous.

Thats when i started testing plugs. And i came to the conclusion that the Autolite AR3924 (1 step colder), AR3923 (2 steps colder), AR3934 (3 steps), and AR3932 (4 steps) were awesome plugs. Make sure you get the AR ones. They are the racing plug with the cut-back ground strap. They ran me $11 for a pack of 4 that i ordered from autozone.

I personally have never had a problem with those plugs. They worked great all the way up to 15 psi on the street, and 18 psi with lots of alcohol.


Also, i know you are a big time DIY guy. So why dont you make a vaccum manifold? Save yourself the $30 or whatever they cost. If you have a drill and a 1/8" NPT tap, you can easily do it yourself. Just get a section of square aluminum extrusion and go from there. If you get a little piece (shorter than a foot), most metal suppliers will just give you the piece. Then you cut it with a hack saw and drill/tap away. That way, you can have however many ports you want.

 
Rep Power: 424

When I graduated, I lost my access to a machine shop.
Mcmaster sells them, but no cheaper than the GE one. and if I used an extrusion, I'd have to weld ends on, and I don't have a TIG

 
Rep Power: 285

ahh.... i see.

I thought i found some on mcmaster for about $12.....

ill see if i cant find them

 
Rep Power: 0

I was more than halfway done building my kit when my tranny broke and that was after paying to have a new HG w/ arp head studs put in along with a new ACT clutch kit. I gave up after the tranny broke because the overall cost of everything involved became too high to be a good investment IMO. you cant even boost that much on the stock bottom end of a D17 without rebuilding it. Just cut your losses and go buy something thats already turboed...that would be your best bet if you wanna be turboed. Much more reliable too.