87 Turbo Accord

[Coopstar124]

Alright, recently I've been looking into putting a turbo system in my car and I'm not sure what the best route is. I've read up a lot on how everything works. Originally I thought I would just find a kit or something along those lines but as you all know its hard to find those kind of things for the 87's. Whats the best way to go to put in turbo and what else should I do? As of now all I've done is installed a short ram intake so my performance hasn't been boosted too much. Other than that my car is stock and I don't want to kill it by making a mistake giving it turbo so I wan't to know the dangers before I get myself in too deep. Thanks.

[irondragon013]

How many miles, and transmission type will help us answer your questions. You will probly need a rebuild. Also how much power or psi are you looking for?

steven

[Coopstar124]

My car has around 180k miles. It has a A20A3 Engine. 5 spd also. My goal is to get it up to 200 hp but I would settle for less considering my cars age. I was hoping to avoid an engine swap. I don't need an ungodly powerful turbo just enough to make my car fairly impressive. I pretty much decided to try and attempt this since there are no 87 accord in my area that are any good. I wanna show that an old accord can still kick ass. I just don't know if its possible without a massive overhaul.

[irondragon013]

I think you need to rebuild before you turbo. I will let someone else give you more info. But I would say you have too many miles for turbo with out a rebuild.

Steven

[Coopstar124]

Thats kinda what I was afraid of. Most importantly I don't want to end up killing my car and end up spending even more money after the turbo.

[MessyHonda]

i know some one here that has a manifold and downpipe for a turbo...but you will need a way to control the timing and fuel.


if you turbo plan to spend at least 1200 bucks

[Coopstar124]

Well I know its gonna be pretty expensive to put in turbo but I know that if I can get it to work it would be well worth the time and money. I also was wondering if I could strip a turbo out of another car and install that with some modification. The whole point of this post was to find out if anyone had put a turbo in an 87 accord and see how difficult it is going to be to get the parts and install them.

[labeledsk8r]

yes people have turboed a20a3's. its not cheep either, you need to not only make your exhaust flanges and charge pipes, but you need to swap to obd1 or a stand alone so you can controle that turbo. i "MIGHT" be able to run like 6psi if your car has good compresion, i would sugest testing your cylinders and seeing were you stand, but a stock rebuild allways helps but i dont think i would put more then 10psi onto a stock engine becuse weak points will show there teath. theres really no easy way around it if you want a fast turbo car and want it to last you have to bild the engine

[snoopyloopy]

dump a good 2g into rebuilding a stock block with some quality forged parts (most of which will probably end up being custom). maybe sleeve the block. then boost it. i think you could run at least a good 20-25 psi on a well-built specimen of these engines. they have an iron block, just address the weak rods/pistons and you're in business. and lower compression a bit. dsm engines use 7.8:1 compression on the old 4g63t and still push out 200 hp. so lowering our compression to say even 8.5:1 should push some life into it. and if you're really adventurous, for engine management, convert to dsm ecu and run dsmlink. if ppl trust that program to run their dsms at 30+ psi, i'll trust my 15 psi a20a3 to it too. probably wouldn't be THAT much harder than obd-1 swap unless they use different voltage readings for the sensors.

[2oodoor]

Hey, Irondragon13, whaz up... havent seen you on in a while,

Coopstar///That mileage is ok, probably just right if you ask me. You just need to reseal everything a little. If you read up here in the technical section, there is a practically infinite knowledge base to answere any question you may have..

[Coopstar124]

Well thanks for the help everyone. It looks like I'm going to have to do a rebuild of the engine. Which is probably a good thing to do anyway. Looks like the turbo might be on hold for a while. Thank god I love my car enough to actually want to put this kinda work into it. Where is there info on how to do a whole rebuild? I don't even know where to get started on that. Most of my experience working on my car has been minor engine work and electrical work so any instructions of tips out there would really help.

[snoopyloopy]

haynes manual ftw. go pick one up and add it to your library asap.

[guaynabo89]

Well... The part that holds back the a20 as far as management is the fact it doesnt have a crank angle sensor. Thats why you either switch to obd1 to be able to use the distributor with a crank sensor in it or mount a crank trigger wheel on the crankshaft pulley. Which leads me to the most important part.



Before you buy any turbo parts, rebuild, (if you want) etc, You need to figure out what you will be using to manage this turbo motor. The bottom line is fmu, btm will not get you what you need and for the price of those parts you could get an obd1 ecu and have it chipped and dyno tuned. You need to figure out what shops are around you and what systems they use to tune to see if any of those will fit your needs.

Unfortunately just to have some way to properly control the engine is going to run you at least 3-400 plus. Depending on your fab and wiring skills that price could sky rocket if you need to have someone make mount crank sensors and wire things up.


In all honesty depending how much you really want to spend it would be easire starting with a obd1 honda or just any other platform that will allow you to tune easily due to aftermarket parts.


If you budget and dont rebuild, and your motor is still healthy I would figure around 1800 on turbo parts and some way to control it. That is of course if you do all the work yourself. Someone that can tune fairly well should be able to get you set up righ on a stock motor with a smaller turbo like one off an evo or something.



Oh and this is my setup.






Just on the turbo parts alone I've spent 3,500+.

Not to mention my motor was already built so I didnt have to rebuild to do this. So realisticly you need to sit down and read up on what exactly you want to do and how exactly are you going to do it. Then figure out how much money its going to cost you. After all that youll know how you want to procede. Either continue with the projectcause you like the car or start with something else that will be cheaper.

[2oodoor]

when I see your engine I get a big case of shut the hell up
very nice

[bobafett]

yeah i don't think that 180k necessarily means a rebuild, but it is not a bad idea to reinforce things if you are planning on boosting.

also consider that the cost of a stock rebuild is just a tiny fraction of what you will spend to properly turbo the car. You might even start off by buying a spare block and head from a junkyard to perform the rebuild on.

I would reccomend at least getting forged rods and pistons, and ARP head studs. Get your entire bottom end balanced, and replace the bearings with GOOD bearings. Use OEM honda, or acl/clevite/king tri-metal bearings. at this point you haven't spent a ton, but you have done a lot to ensure the longevity of your motor. Do it right the first time and you will save a lot of $$$ in the long run.

As for tuning, I think at the moment, the obd1 + <tuning program of choice> is the best choice for most people. And due to the popularity of that platform, there will be lots of people (not on this forum necessarily) to help you out.

200 hp should be very very very easy to achieve on a stock rebuilt a20, even if you save the 1k and go with stock pistons/rods. Just get an actual good plan for a good engine management solution, and don't skimp on the fuel.

Sounds like you are pretty realistic about the project which is always a good thing going into it. Let us know when you come up with questions....

and check out my build http://www.a20turbo.com/features/chris/

[Coopstar124]

Well one thing I do need to know is where to get parts for this project. I'd like to keep costs down if at all possible. But I don't want to put anything into my car that is going to cause problems in the future.

[bobafett]

then dont turbo it. turboing non turbo vehicles is a pita for the most part, and you will run into weird hurdles, and lots of strange problems. as far as i know, most of the guys on here who have turbo setups have either blown a motor or two, or are still in the process of getting stuff going and fighting it along the way.

seriously if you arent prepared for the headaches I would say quit now while you are ahead!

if you want help finding specific parts we can certainly help, but what exactly are you thinking you will have trouble finding? about the only thing that doesnt exist is head parts and NEW cams. most of the important bits are doable.

so what are you looking for?

[Coopstar124]

I just need to know if there is anywhere that is known to sell low quality parts so I can avoid that. Also should I avoid buying a turbocharger on ebay?

[guaynabo89]

How about this.

Used or really cheap parts used (cheap price not quality) with not rebuilding your engine set yourself a budget of 1800 dollars including tuning if you can get the management issue worked out cheap.


If you cant affor 1800 then you might want to think twice about going turbo. Well if you want it to last anyway. It can be done for really cheap (under a grand) but of course that will probably mean you will have to cut corners which might cause blown engines.

[Coopstar124]

well the plan was to acquire all the parts I need over about year, probably mostly over the summer since thats when I'll be working the most again. So money shouldn't be too much of a problem. For everyone who has actually taken on a turbo project where did you get parts?

[guaynabo89]

For everyone who has actually taken on a turbo project where did you get parts?

Custom LOL







Just keep an eye out for sales and what not. Sometimes you can even get a name brand good quality parts off ebay.

[bobafett]

i got parts from all over. misc stores online, ebay, other car forums, machine shop finding me stuff, and custom stuff from 3geez members.

first you need to decide WHAT you want to buy, then worry about finding it. if you aren't going to build a motor you aren't going to need custom pistons, rods, etc. if you aren't going to do headwork and intake manifold stuff that simplifies things more too.

try and make a parts list and we can help point you in the right direction. since so little is made specifically for the 3g accord, you end up improvising. walbro fuel pumo for 86-89 accord, hell no, but we all use civic pumps. no worries at all...

stay away from cheap ebay turbos. unless its used, you get what you pay for. there is nothing wrong with buying a used turbo though. if possible local purchases are nice, since you can verify shaft play before you drop a few hundred bucks.

you name the parts you are after and we can probably help you find them, but honestly its all easy to find. but you DO need to know what you are looking for....

heres a quick list, figure out specifically what you want for these items:

bov
fuel pump
fuel injectors
wastegate (or internally gated turbo)
fmic
turbo manifold
turbo
charge pipes
obd1 ecu and tuning software
wideband o2
colder plugs
etc etc

lots to think about.

[lgoldtop]

that gave me a very large boner lol lol lol very nice. you should feel good because you just inspired a 17 year old to turbo his 88 lxi

[mushroom_toy]

Free parts for my build. Yum. Everything ive gotten so far including my good turbo, intercooler, brand new turbo oil line flange, blow off valve, boost guage, etc etc, ive gotten for free. you just have to have good friends and know people who will help you ou. im still far form turboing my accord, because im nearing 400,000 miles and am waiting the engine to go until I rebuild, but its great doing a budget build.

[Civic Accord Honda]

.

is that my xmas gift?





..
id bulid the engine up B-4 slaping a turbo on