im completely new to this home made turbo idea.
i have a 1997 civic LX and one of my friends got me thinking about adding a turbo system. anyways... i just had a few questions. i hope you guys can help me out a little...

1. i was looking at my car and it looks like there is plenty of room to install a turbo without removing the AC condenser. why does the FAQ say that i HAVE to remove AC. i live in southern california and removing the AC will be KILLER during the summers.

2. what can i do in terms of charge piping? i dont really know how to like custom make anything on my own. ive heard that getting some JCW mandrel bent is the best way to do it.

3. i got a deal on an STD manifold with a rebuilt 14b turbo for 220.00 shipped. is that a good deal?

thanx in advance. please dont flame. im totally new to all of this FI stuff.

im starting to put the pieces together for this setup and if there are any of you guys in SOCAL and have some experience workin on CIVICs lemme know cuz i could SURE use your help...

 

OK alot of people will flame me for this but in your situation, I recommend buying a kit. The Greddy and Apexi are both very good and allow you to keep your AC. both of their kits say they are for a 92-95 civic but they will fit all D series engines which is what you have, so do i 99 DX. Thats the easy part. the hard part is managing your fuel/spark. I am going to be using an AFC and 450cc injectors. this seems to be a good setup and much smoother than the Rising rate regulator and Greddy's blue box. I am near Ontario in So cal and will be installing my kit sometime soon....maybe we can get together and help each other out (I used to have the Greddy kit on my 97 civic DX and used to be the owner of a mitsu GSX and did %90 of the work on both of them. )Late

 

ohh mang
that sounds tight. im about ten minutes from pasadena so we're about 30 mins away i think...maybe 40... ontario isnt that close. thanx for the reply.

yah i would LOVE to get a premade kit but they are SO EXPENSIVE.

what do you think about the questions i posted? any suggestions on those?

 

$220 for the manifold and rebuilt 14b is a good deal but it's hard to tell if the turbo really is rebuilt until after you buy it and can see for yourself. You can go that route and buy piping online but you also need someone to weld it all up and you need oil/coolant lines....don't stop short and only run oil, run coolant too! I recently came into some money from an accident that i was in (not my fault) and will be getting the Apexi ball bearing kit. It is a beautiful kit with a healthy sized (for my application) turbo and blue powdercoated piping. I have a source on the kit for $1199 shipped if you are interesed. add on the GT intercooler (skyline sized) for another $640 shipped. you could build your own kit for around $1000 including all fuel controllers and intercooler but you are getting used parts....not neccesarily bad but be aware the parts may go at any time. late

 

yah anything over 1000 is just way too much. but i heard the APEXi is FREAKIN AWESOME. the guy that inspired me to do the turbo has the apexi kit. thanx so much for all your help.

 

Hey whats up guys... good to see some Southern Cali Locals in here... Im from OC... Im finally going to put my kit together this weekend... i was goig to do it last weekend... but i had to modify my intercooler... but this is what I used for charge pipes

From Home Depot: 2in Steel Electrical Coonduit Pipe

From Lowes (plumbing section) : 2in 90* Rubber EL's with clamps, used about 4 of them.. and 2 2in rubber EL's Connectors. there pretty cheap like 3 bucks each. and the pipe was 9$ for 10 feet.... all in all it came out to be like 35$ for chargepipes... and they look pretty good..

heres a link to pics of my setup

https://www.homemadeturbo.com/forum/...;threadid=3617

 

wow looks good. i guess my main concern is AC. i really cannot survive during the socal summers without AC. i need to figure out a way so that i can have AC as well as a turbo.

good job with that turbo. looks like its workin pretty well. i was doing some research and if i were to get a turbo i dont think i would be boosting more thant 6-7 psi so i was thinking about just getting some radiator hosing and clamping it all together. my stock internals would die if i boosted anything over 7psi. what do you think about just using a radiator hosing as charge pipes? i mean my car isnt for show and i dont really care what it looks like under the hood. my engine is pretty gross as is.

also how did you connect the BOV to the charge pipes? i was always under the impression that BOVs needed to be welded to a charge pipe. is that true?

 

BOV's are no problem. I welded (JBWELD works too) a fitting onto my chargepipe, and used a small radiator hose to clamp down and around this 2nd gen DSM BOV.

 

ARGHHHHHHHHH!!! im sorry i just needed to vent a little... i am getting so frustrated because it seems like no DIY turbo setups can have AC as well. everyone that ive asked seems to say that if you are gonna use a DIY turbo setup then the trade off is the AC system. i was talking to one of my friends aobut this and he says that the main issue is the manifold. he says the HF and STD manifolds are too big and push the turbo too forward. (if that makes any sense) he says the pre made kits have a really small or low manifold so the turbo sits closer to the block and away from the AC condenser. this allows you to have both the AC and the turbo. so my question is...how the heck do i get a "lower" or smaller manifold so that i can keep my AC?

ARGH!!!

 

Look on ebay... you could fork out 200 + for a manifold that will allow AC. I've seen them up there before. They push it off to the left and allow you to keep AC. It's not impossible