D16y8 Boosted or Swapped to achieve 350hp Daily driven

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Demack57

New Member
Hi, Iam new to the honda world...I own a 2000 honda civic ex coupe...Its daily driven and has 100,000 miles...I want to be able to achieve 350hp atleast...Also i would like to drive this car daily...Ive been reading alot of threads but still have confusion about boosting and reliability... So i was wondering should i jus mess with my internals on my d16y8 and boost it to achieve my goal or should i swap it and boost it? Please help...
 
Whatever's cheapest...obviously stick with your y8 and overhaul it along with forged internals and it'll be cheaper. A boosted set-up is a boosted set-up, what makes it reliable is the quality of parts and tuning.
 
Overhaul: complete tear-down and rebuild the engine with thourough cleaning, everything inspected like gaps, clearances, etc., see what shape everything is in and replace bad parts, get everything within spec of the factory service manual everything inside and outside the engine. While you're overhauling it'd be a great idea to put in aftermarket parts especially ARP parts since you'll have it all apart anyway.

Forged Internals: heat-treated stronger internals, you can machine pistons from a Suzuki Vitara to fit your block along with Eagle/Tunertoys connecting rods and have them heat-treated for more strength

I think you need to do a LOT of research before starting your turbo project.
 
Iam sorry...You prolly laugh at me for asking but what does overhaul and forged internals mean?

If you don't know what forged internals are then you're not ready for a 350 horsepower engine build. And honestly, 350 wheel horse on a Honda that you're going to daily drive is a waste anyway. Once you start making that much power on a FWD economy car it's going to require a good deal of maintenance other upgrades, and it probably won't be a very comfortable daily driver anymore...
 
no joke. 350 hp for a daily driver??? 350+ horsepower is a car that stops being a daily driver and starts being a race car.
 
Ok i understand....So what would be a suitable amount of horsepower for my daily driven honda?
 
250 wheel horse would be nice, and not to hard to achieve with a boosted D-series or boosted LS.
 
True. I am with Brutal 250 horses is acheivable on stock internals with the d-series motor you have. However even there are somethings you will wanna replace to make sure your in good shape in the future. Cover your ass now, save money later type of thing. First of all I would say go do a lot of research on turbos, and which is the top of the line out there now. I'm guessing a garrett t3/t4 turbo would suit you well. Replace the head gasket, get a thicker head gasket to lower compression (better boost setup), and head studs, go with ARP head studs...top of the line studs. $140-$200 but well worth the money. I have them in my non-boosted d16y8 just helps me sleep at night. at 100,000 miles you are still pretty safe on your original pistons at least for another 30,000 to 50,000 miles. When you get up around 150,000 miles even if the motor is still good I would suggest redoing the internals. Then at that point you can throw some forged pistons, and eagle rods in there and turn the boost up even more.
 
I'd say the best thing to do since you're interested in 350 hp is overhaul the engine, get some strong internals, prep it up for 350whp, get a boost controller, then go ahead and tune for 350whp and save the setting. Then fine tune it for say...220-250whp for daily driving and save that basemap so you can switch in and out. That way you can put less stress on the engine for daily driving then when you want to have real fun just switch over to another setting and turn up the boost and BAM instant horsepower!
 
I'd say the best thing to do since you're interested in 350 hp is overhaul the engine, get some strong internals, prep it up for 350whp, get a boost controller, then go ahead and tune for 350whp and save the setting. Then fine tune it for say...220-250whp for daily driving and save that basemap so you can switch in and out. That way you can put less stress on the engine for daily driving then when you want to have real fun just switch over to another setting and turn up the boost and BAM instant horsepower!


Damn dats mad sweet....Sounds like an good idea... so the first thing is to do sum research on turbo's and overhaul my engine?
 
I'd say first thing do a ton of research on turbocharging, turbo parts and brands, what's best, how it works, ecu's and tuning software/dyno and street tuning, then buy all your parts. THEN start all at once after you're done researching and have all your parts, do the overhaul and internals so it's fresh and ready for that boost.
 
I'd say first thing do a ton of research on turbocharging, turbo parts and brands, what's best, how it works, ecu's and tuning software/dyno and street tuning, then buy all your parts. THEN start all at once after you're done researching and have all your parts, do the overhaul and internals so it's fresh and ready for that boost.

Thank you kindly...Ive read the forum on here that breaks down turbochargers as in the compression formula...Is it more to it than jus that?
 
if you go D Turbo, you should find a local tuner that is good with ECtune. chrome has alot of problems with higher boost turbo D's.. just rebuild the D, throw some low compression pistons, stock rods, and put a mild cam in it, and have it tuned. it wouldnt be outragesly expensive, and you will put out decent power, but i dont think you will hit 350 hp. at that point you MAY have to sleeve it or something, just depending on your Turbo Size ect. you could run 10psi from a T25, but you get completely Different power when you run 10psi from a T4 or bigger.. do your research. you will learn alot of this very quickly.

and you will have fun with it. you wont have a problem with reliability. a car only runs as good as it was built. if you cheap out, it wont turn out good. get quality stuff. stay away from ebay trash on your important things.
 
I'd say the best thing to do since you're interested in 350 hp is overhaul the engine, get some strong internals, prep it up for 350whp, get a boost controller, then go ahead and tune for 350whp and save the setting. Then fine tune it for say...220-250whp for daily driving and save that basemap so you can switch in and out. That way you can put less stress on the engine for daily driving then when you want to have real fun just switch over to another setting and turn up the boost and BAM instant horsepower!

That's a very good idea. That's what a lot of these guys that you see featured in the magazines do. The mags advertise the cars with stuff like "600 WHP Daily-Driven Civic!", but the truth is the cars usually have at least two different tunes: an all-out maximum boost one for the track, and then a more conservative one for daily driving.

Damn dats mad sweet....Sounds like an good idea... so the first thing is to do sum research on turbo's and overhaul my engine?

Do a shit ton of research before you do anything to your motor at all. What if you rebuild it now, then do a bunch of research and figure out you should have used different parts? I'd figure out exactly how much power you want to make first, then figure out what kind of an engine build will get you there before you even touch the motor.
 
and you could boost that engine with 100k with no problems. just do a leakdown test and and compression test. if its good boost it. ive seen hondas get boosted over 200k miles.. they still to this day run awsome. just depends on its condition..
 
Hell yea ebay turbos are glued together is what I hear. Anyway, here's a good thread I put up a couple weeks ago might help. https://hondaswap.com/forced-induction/maximum-boost-106917/

The second link I have in that thread is a straight list of people's boosted D's which includes how much boost, how much hp, their set-up, engine build and management, parts, problems, etc. it's really great stuff.
 
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Thanks for everybodys support....I jus read the garretts tutorials on their site...I will be doing some more research...
 
if you go D Turbo, you should find a local tuner that is good with ECtune. chrome has alot of problems with higher boost turbo D's.. just rebuild the D, throw some low compression pistons, stock rods, and put a mild cam in it, and have it tuned. it wouldnt be outragesly expensive, and you will put out decent power, but i dont think you will hit 350 hp. at that point you MAY have to sleeve it or something, just depending on your Turbo Size ect. you could run 10psi from a T25, but you get completely Different power when you run 10psi from a T4 or bigger.. do your research. you will learn alot of this very quickly.

:shrug2:
 
Ok i did some more researching....i like the idea that u can have tow diffrent boost settings...one for the track and one for dail driven...To accommodate both settings, i was wondering if all i needed is the low compression pistons and the thicker head gasket?
 
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