N/A or FI? B18B1

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ventura

New Member
I have a 1997 Integra RS with the stock B18B1. I am looking to increase my power output but don't know the most economical way to go about it. Before I got my 'teg I was an avid nissan fan.. and know next to nothing about hondas. I have been told that a turbo kit is relatively cheap, but my motor has 164000 kms on it... would a turbo kill it? I was also told that a head spacer is required due to the somewhat higher compression of the B series motor. My other option was the LS-Vtec conversion, which I am told is great, but expensive. Any knowledge I can pick from your brains would be much appreciated. Please bear with me I'm new to the Honda scene.

P.S.. Anyone have a solution for a bad case of the "Honda Hop?"
 
honda hop?

a turbo will be just fine, if the engine is in good shape. if not, then the engine will go out regardless, a turbo will just speed up the process.

how much power are you looking for and what are you going to do with the car? unless you can rebuild an engine, i would stay away from ls/vtec.
 
Well stock is 142. I have an exhaust and cold air intake.. im probably around 155 or something is my guess. Its fun to drive but a little sluggish against the guys I run with. I was planning on doing some mild racing at Mission Speedway, and all around I just want a faster car. I was hoping to find my way into the 220-250 hp range... nothing too crazy.
 
Oh I forgot to reply to the "honda hop." Its the bounce Hondas are notorious for when the front tire or tires begin spinning. A friend of mine has an LS civic with an LSD and his car still hops really bad.
 
Well stock is 142. I have an exhaust and cold air intake.. im probably around 155 or something is my guess. Its fun to drive but a little sluggish against the guys I run with. I was planning on doing some mild racing at Mission Speedway, and all around I just want a faster car. I was hoping to find my way into the 220-250 hp range... nothing too crazy.

you wont get those numbers without FI. i'm glad to see someone actually has intelligent goals. people all too often come in screaming for 300hp not realizing that is a shit ton of power. i would do a compression test and leakdown test. if everything turns out well, you can get a turbo and tune for about $2500 if you shop around and do some of the work yourself. it will put you right at that 220hp to the wheels. maybe a little more.

Oh I forgot to reply to the "honda hop." Its the bounce Hondas are notorious for when the front tire or tires begin spinning. A friend of mine has an LS civic with an LSD and his car still hops really bad.

you are going to need and lsd, some traction bars, better tires, and reduce the air pressure.
 
Thank you. Sorry if this sounds dumb but traction bars aren't the same thing as strut tower braces are they?
 
traction bars are for traction, strut bars are for handling.

ones for drag, ones for turning. lol
 
Is there anything else you can think of that would be a good performance move for my car? I am thinking about taking out my subwoofers and back seat, along with the spare tire and AC.
 
are you drag racing or road track?

taking out the extra weight will help. on the drag strip, people usually estimate that for every 100 pounds you remove, you drop .1 second off your time.

taking out the ac is a waste. you could simply take the belt off if you dont' want to have the power exerted. even if you did take the ac out, you wouldn't notice a difference.

basically, you have a pretty much stock car that you are racing. if you want a race car, you will have to put the money into it and take away from the conveniences that make the integra a good little car.
 
The AC doesn't work anyways. Its around 35 lbs. of unneeded weight, and when combined with the removal of the backseat and spare tire, and the addition of aluminum wheels, the weight loss will be substantial. It would be road track. The occasional street light jump, but for the most part I just cruise back country roads. I just want to do everything that is affordable to make my car faster and better handling. I have strut tower braces, exhaust, and cold air intake, but I guess with the turbo I will have no need for the cold air. I understand LSD's for integras are expensive?
 
you might get 200lbs out of that. if you are road racing, you can just take out the sub, spare tire, and seat each time you are at the track.

i love ac, i would get it charged and keep it working.

you can get an lsd for your teg for $1000. it's worth it if you are racing. if you are on a road track, it will be night and day. that and a good suspension will decrease your lap time more than power will.
 
a decent LSD is going to run you upwards of $500 plus installation if you don't know how to. the only LSD's i would even consider running are either a Quaife, or an MFactory. i personally just picked up an MFactory for my turbo'd b18b1 setup, and i love it. well worth the $$$.

i say cheap turbo setup, and get it tuned. find deals on used parts. youre 1997 so thats an obd2 car, which means youll need to dig up an obd1 ecu and have it chipped and socketed so you can have the car tuned.

the tune is going to be a very crucial part of your build because youre on stock internals. youre also going to want to make sure that you get any and all fluid leaks straightened out before you turbo the car. id change the valve cover gasket, and oil pan gasket as well. check the main seals for any signs of leaks. turbo will create positive crankcase pressure, and will make those small leaks very apparent in a very, very bad way.

id say the best way to go about this (if youre looking to keep it semi-inexpensive) is to pick up a used garrett t3/t4 and a used tial wastegate. check honda-tech for used parts, there are a million partout threads on there as well as FS threads with tons of turbo stuff fs. a cast manifold will get you where you want to go, a decent 2 1/2 exhaust will do for your setup, ebay bov, intercooler, and charge piping, some dsm 450cc injectors, a resistor box from an obd1 honda, walbro 255lph fuel pump.
all that should get you there, and you could have all that together for a grand if you spend carefully.
 
as to the hop you mentioned, i have 3 honda cars. none have the hop. only once did i notice one however. i put the car in the air on the lift and put the car in gear. its an automatic. the front right tire had a slight egg shape rotation so i replaced the tires. apperantly low quality tires...the ones people often buy to save money...have poorly constructed belt designs or poor quality control measures.
 
you'll get hop any time you have more power than traction. it could be a combination of anything, but it can be fixed.
 
Ok well I assume its because the motor doesn't weigh enough to put the power to the ground. It just sucks that instead of roasting the tires like most vehicles, it hops and shudders making you look retarded. I have heard of people having major damage done because they let their car do that off the line too long.
 
yeah, thats why drag racing hondas is lame. they just aren't functionally built for it. you should never steer with your power producing wheels. shit breaks too much.

but if you hop, 90% of the problem is your tires.
 
Ok well I assume its because the motor doesn't weigh enough to put the power to the ground. It just sucks that instead of roasting the tires like most vehicles, it hops and shudders making you look retarded. I have heard of people having major damage done because they let their car do that off the line too long.

what size rims and tires do you have? only time I have hopped is on 17's.

Also if your racing on the street with a gravel top, that will make any underpowered fwd car have wheel hop.

wheel hop will break shit fast like diff's and axles. Ill post pics.
 
at about 300whp b18a running on 17" wheels and kumo supra tires.

launched and started to hop, started to build boost and boom! this happened.

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