By Horgon (24.77.176.186) on Saturday, June 23, 2001 - 04:26 pm:

After careful consideration, i have dropped plans to buy a chevy, and keep my 79 accord. Anyway, over at someone's garage i noticed an airesearch turbo just sitting there, apparently one can get them for ridiculously cheap prices used. So i think it might be neat to turbo the honda, however i once read that first gen honda-anythings should not have them..I have EL 1.6. Will it work without blowint the thing up?

By Tim Harding (Timh) (63.161.30.235) on Saturday, June 23, 2001 - 07:57 pm:

Old Honda engines can be turbocharged, you just have to do it right. I'm sure a lot of people will try to talk you out of it, but I think it would be pretty cool. Do you know much about turbocharging? There are a lot of good books on the market that might give you some insite. Books like "Turbochargers" (or is it "turbocharging"??) and "Maximum Boost" can be bought at amazon.com.
Just be aware that good a turbo setup is going to take a lot of time and money. I personaly would not do a turbo setup without fuel injection, so we're not talking junkyard prices here.
But in all honesty, look into it. If nothing else you will learn a lot while researching the topic.

By Horgon (24.77.176.186) on Saturday, June 23, 2001 - 09:45 pm:

so ahhh..turboing a honda isnt as cheap and easy as a smallblock chevy then? Because i know people who do it to those with no problem and for a very cheap price...20$ for a garrett out of a buick lesabre and some other parts. Why is it so expensive to do it in a honda?

By Travis (24.4.254.156) on Saturday, June 23, 2001 - 09:51 pm:

low boost aplicatios on V8's are not a big problem... but when you get into high reving higher boosted engines there is a lot more percations to take.. for everything to work right. Expecially on an older "well used" 70's engine... But it is all do-able.

Travis

By Horgon (24.77.176.186) on Sunday, June 24, 2001 - 11:50 am:

See...the thing is, i do not understand what good paying 3000$ for a brand new turbo is when i could
go and pick one up for cheap. Are there other things you'd have to get to make it work? I mean, all i want is 10lbs of boost, nothing fancy. Whats the big deal? the motor already has ridiculously low compression, so all you gotta do is put the thing in there, right? Also, i was thinking of putting a 2 litre from an accord EX-I in there, but i dont know if it would fit right.

By Charles (137.219.16.107) on Sunday, June 24, 2001 - 03:37 pm:

Fit the 2.0L and turbo that. Anything will fit in as long as you are willing to really work.

It is not the turbo cost alone that is prohibitive (you can get a cheap one). More the cost of engineering the motor to take more than twice the original horsepower. EFI is a must and you can again get second hand units. Ie we have a MOTEC efi unit and all wiring that is set up to suit early honda turbos for $500US. There are heaps around if you look.

Basically you will need to at least rebuild and when rebuilding think carefully about forged pistons, at very least new factory rod bolts or ARP. Head studs are brilliant in stopping the headgasket problems you will get by using old single use spiral shank bolts.

You also need a turbo manifold made up.

One good way of doing it is to find another factory motor that puts out the sort of hp you are chasing and the motor will be able to take.

Lets say you use the EK 1800 block then a saturn or Eclipse 2.0 turbo motor would be a good donor.

Grab the turbo, injectors, fuel rail, throttle body and fuel pressure regulator, fuel pump etc.

Make up custom intake and exhaust manifolds and slap all these on your already prepared motor. Tune with a programmaqble DFI, motec, autronic etc.

You may be able to do the whole thing for around $3000US and it will be an animal.

Another option (which a few people are taking) is to rebuild the EK for turbo and then fit the factory Honda city turbo manifolds on it with a bigger spec turbo and throttle body (or dual throttle bodies). Using bigger injectors the standard Honda ECU can be used and this give a reliable car when finally sorted.

Charles

By krummenp (12.145.208.11) on Thursday, June 28, 2001 - 03:10 pm:

charles,

where would suggest I look for good sturdy studs for the EK1?

I'm starting on the rebuild of my '79 EK1 and once I get the canadian head, the DCOE carb and header on it, I'm hoping to make a reasonable amount of power. I have the head bolts that have the long spiral down the middle of the shaft.

is this something that could be found at a good engine rebuilding place, or something special?

thanks
Paul

By Charles (137.219.16.107) on Thursday, June 28, 2001 - 05:47 pm:

ARP is the only place I would go for any bolts/studs etc. Measure the underhead length of the the bolts and then add an appropriate amount for washer and nut. Buy the nuts from ARP as well.

Charles

Tou can torque up studs a little more and the pressure exerted is much more than head bolts as the stud is not stretching and twisting at the same time like bolts do. See the ARP tech blurb for details.