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I've been thinkin lately that I wanna put a little more kick in my 04 ex, done a couple mods to add better flow and seen small gains in power but I was thinking turbo would be cool to do. I know it aint a great idea in a manual cause you can lose spool right? That's just pressure isn't it? Yes, I'm a little bit of a dit when it comes to lingo. Anyway, I ain't stupid enough to believe off hand that a $500 turbo would be worth a second glance, but I wanted ya'lls opinions on this. This is the specific one I'm talking about http://www.andysautosport.com/honda/...a00002393.html. Also since I just admitted idk about lingo, whats like a d17, and EM2, ES1, EP3, EU1????

 
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Your engine is a D17 engine. D-series 1.7 Liter.
EM2 is a 7thgen civic coupe.
ES1/2 is a 7thgen sedan
and EP3 is the Si hatchback.

I'm not sure I trust a $500 turbo.
Doesn't even come with an intercooler or piping for one.

Turbo kit for D17 should run typically around $1-2K

 
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That's what I was guessing, I mean by the time you get the inter cooler and piping it'd probably be in that price range. Would it really be worth putting one in? Am I really going to see much gain?

 
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Not really.
The time and effort, I would rather be looking into K swaps.
D-series are just not good platforms to work with. (Albeit if you have the time, money, and motivation)

Boost also puts a lot of pressure/stress on your engine block.
I would not look into it if you were just DD'ing the car.

 
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If you are serious about going turbo. Finding a turbo kit is not your first step. You have to start reading, and reading, and reading. Consider it a university course you need to complete before you even grab a wrench. Otherwise, you will fail. The more you know going into it, the less engines your going to blow up. People that have successfully turboed their D17s with any kind of decent numbers have usually gone through 3 or so engines.

 
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i though about this before too, either trying to find a k20z1 but then is it a direct swap (meaning do you have to relocate engine mounts?), and how much boost can stock internals hold out on a stock d17a2 (6-9psi would it hold?)

 
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k20 is not a direct swap. You need to buy special mounts that allow it to bolt up to the civic frame. Stock internals should handle 9psi in a d17. Even then though the power just wouldn't be there.

 
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Now I read a couple posts on k20 swaps and they had to pull parts from like 5 different cars and 3 different years or something? How would you even begin!?! I'm sure there are DIYs in this forums so I will do some research, but just for simplicity, how much is this gonna cost me and what hp gains will I be looking at? Say I am still at the factor 125hp my d17 is supposed to be at.

 
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Hmm... are you talking about a K20 swap or a turbo?

K20 swap can be done for 5000 dollars... Its immediately 200hp. After that even simple bolt ons add power.

Turbo your looking at 3-4000 by the time your done to reach that kind of power. However, the reliability of a stock Honda engine is gone.

 
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For $250 a bull, you could rent a couple cows, tie them up to the front end and make then run. About the same result as $500 turbo and d17.

 
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save yourself alot of wasted time and money,

if you want a car for speed and power then go and buy one, simple,

these are economy cars, made for just that

 
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Hahaha, have about 10 cowpower.

 
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Yeah, I understand, I mean, it's my baby so I am just trying to learn as much about all this as possible. Yes, cows would probably be more helpful. If I ever break down in the middle of no where I can always start a fire in my engine and cook the cows for food, that would be money well spent haha. So say I want a fast well made car on a college kids budget, what car am I looking for?

 
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Most kids would be in a subbie.

 
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You can make these cars fast.. Why is everyone so against that on here. It's cheaper to put 7000 dollars in and make a car that you have no payment on fast than it is to buy a new mercedes... Or Mustang even, for that matter.

Personal preference really. If you can handle the FWD then go for it. Just don't expect to do it for 500 bucks. There is a reason that real fast cars cost over 40k new and your civic costs 23.

 
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Or spend a few grand on a bike and smoke cars that are 6 figures... Just saying.

 
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that is the route i went....in my younger years

boy did i embarrass alot of old dudes....lol

 
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Not with the way people drive around here. I wouldn't dare even get on a bike. It's a pain in the *** here too because you can only ride it for 6-7 months out of the year and you have to pay insurance year round...

 
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so your saying after turboing my car and having it run at 9 PSI i wont make power? you either exadurate or make everything seem so dame drastic. why would i wanna spend 5k to do a k20 swap when i can sell my honda and get the rsx type with all the money and not sit there with headaches swapping crap.

 
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^
You could do that.

But we 7thgen people love the bodystyle and looks of our cars, thats why we drop the K in the 7thgen.

You can just upgrade to a RSX if you choose.

 
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Throw on spike ice tires or a track conversion. Year round riding


And Tom, I live in California. Our bad drivers and the ridiculous traffic makes the rest of the world look silly.

Even New Yorkers are like wtf when they come here.

 
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You obviously don't get it...

It's so that you can say look at what I did. I made an econo box grocery getter something race/track worthy.

Not, look I bought a quick car.

 
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Good point. You can buy an RSX but its not going to faster then a k swapped 7th gen.

It's just easier to swallow a 200-300 dollar a month car payment then drop 7k into a car that's not worth that much (but that's not the point). Do you want to go fast for cheap?

Insurance is cheaper too. They don't know it has 200hp, its an 03 civic.

 
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...
anyone that thinks straight line fast is fast... is an engine builder. not driver fast... have enuff guys at work who calls my vic crappy just because it cannot accelerate fast.
when the corner comes, i am poking their asses with a stick, right in the holes. and they ask for thicker sticks. and i do give them. for less gas money. much less.
that said, why did you buy a vic? ... they better cornering, just keep the momentum. keeping the momentum also is the secret to good mileage. sure, my miatas get much better cornering, no can do with the strut vs double wishbone in all corners...
anyway, 500 for the turbo, 1k for the engine management - that should make it work and not having a blown engine every 6 months or less. EMs is way more important than the hardware to push air in.

work on making the power go to the wheels and then to the ground first, then you think on augmenting the power. if you can ever overdrive the stock whinering ponies, that is. I do find out that most cannot control 50WHP, much less the measly 90 whp, especially in a FWD/strut setup.

 
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wheiiigh! *tromp, tromp, tromp*
aiooooo, silveeer!
(hey, why did you drop me?!?)

 
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Well it's like a couple of ya'll said, I could buy a new mustang, but it would be more fun to buy an old one and work on it. That's just where I'm at, as hard as it is to resist the erge to tear the car appart and do more work, maybe I will just wait til I get an old truck or Jeep and cut more mechanic teeth on that. But basically a turbo is pointless in my little eco engine? Too bad.

 
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I do have one last question though, if I am looking for a car I can mod, see results from, it looks good, and doesn't fit one of the stereotypical rice boxes, that isn't a subbie, what should I look for? How do we feel about Preludes?????

http://baltimore.craigslist.org/cto/3702519153.html

I like this one ^^^^^^

 
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Preludes are nice! My dad has a white 99, really fun to drive!!

Prelude, S2000, RSX would all be good buys IMO.

 
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I'm not saying you won't make power... there is just something about the k20 that makes it totally badass. The other advantage of the k20 is you can rebuild it before you put it in. So you have full reliability. Whereas if you just toss a turbo into your car... who knows how long it will last.

Rsx type S would be really nice. However, I like the EM2 a lot more. I'm not tryign to be dramatic. I'm just trying to explain my point of view. It's probably still cheaper to swap to k20 than buy an RSX, especially if your car is paid off. Here in Canada RSX still goes for 10k+.

EM2 is also a little bit lighter than the RSX.

 
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I'm not in canada, I can buy a Beamer for the price of a good turbo, with little work needed, but I'm 18, on mama's insurance so my payment is good now, but as soon as I get an acura or something super sporty, like a s2k, so long nice payment. Sides, I'm still payin on my ex, but I love working on it and I pretty much have it all done up, just a paint job come summer, but then it's done really. I'm going with white, but keeping my hood, spoiler, rims and gas door the black I painted them. thoughts??????