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garage built rsx turbo setup (lots of pics)

30K views 62 replies 27 participants last post by  alexiseayy 
#1 ·
Getting straight to the point here, Ive been an rsx owner for a year. shortly after being an rsx owner i went with a JRSC supercharger. i melted a piston with it likely from exceeding the efficiency range of the charger so the idea came up LETS GO TURBO. and instead of buying a kit, i built one. 100% in my garage. and here is a build thread to document that.

you are welcome to ask away with any questions or speak up with ideas or recommendations!

goal: run mid 11's with anywhere from 500 to 600whp

strategy: fabricate till it makes the goal



first the engine needed some good parts. it had a melted piston so i put in an order for everything i would need (valvetrain components, pistons, rods, gaskets, head studs, oil pump, etc) and then dropped it off to golden eagle for a torque plate hone and step deck machining. the engine came out great and was broken in with 2,000 miles of abuse on the street.






Next, Billet engine mounts!



Next, a big boy fuel system! using a return setup, Ktuned FPR, grams 320LPH pump, and 20 micron filter. with all -6 AN lines




Time to fab the turbo hot parts. starting with the manifold









Now for the downpipe! decided to do a pie cut with this setup.





Need to get the intercooler stuff out of the way.






 
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#33 · (Edited)
big updates are in town. the block finally got assembled! this was a big fight of parts shipment, availability, and incorrect parts showing up. really began thinking this build was really going against me at this point. but keep plugging away and you will have success!


here are the .250" upgraded wrist pins from wiseco. the standard wiseco wrist pin is on the left (small one obviously)


next is the package going in. manley turbo tuff rods, king race bearings, ARP rod bolts, wiseco piston, and the oversized pin.




getting the piston rings perfectly dialed in.



now fully assembled shortblock



the T3 flange took a beating and couldnt be repaired. so i threw it back on the jig for a new flange.




head got ferrea competition plus valves, ferrea guides, 4piston valve locks, supertech dual springs, and oem retainers. machining consisted of a competition valve job (3 angle intake valve seat cut and radius exhaust seat cut) with new guides install/ream, pressure test, seat pressure test, and surface with a PVD cutter. top quality work from arlington machine in riverside, ca.





now some professional photos before she goes in




now she goes in. next i re-did the intercooler piping. its much shorter, smoother, and has much more space as the battery is getting relocated and im using much smaller boost lines. thanks to the small radiator and fan combo, i can run the piping straight through the core support. next i will flush the fuel lines and fuel tank, add some fresh tires, add fluids, turn the key and off to the dyno. btw, were still on stock suspension/sways/bushings!! these are the next things getting a much needed look over. stay tuned. more coming soon!


 
#34 ·
Coming up on a birthday with no updates. Did it scatter? Still running? Or back burner? Curious to see how the css block guard worked out for you.
 
#35 · (Edited)
Pardon my lack of posting. This thread never seemed to get much love so I gave up posting. But for those of you who are wondering what happened to the car, where it is now, grab some popcorn because the fab NEVER stops!! I will ALWAYS be the owner of this car, and I will NEVER be done with it. She is still very active in the socal streets. And again, bigger plans are in the works!


edit: CSS is holding great! the engine is still the same as the previous post. it has gone through zero changes since the initial CSS and i-beam rod build with the new head.
 
#36 · (Edited)
so, the car has been running great. but it was time for a change. with the existing sidewinder turbo design, my minimum boost level was 17psi (with a 8psi wastegate spring). basically, that type of erratic boost control makes everything more difficult. the traction control had to make MASSIVE changes to attempt to gain traction and removing and adding so much timing so quickly could be the cause of the last blown head gasket. large timing changes over short durations in repeated action is death to a head gasket and all other components. fighting for traction becomes irritating, over-boosting becomes all too easy, and i could probably think of 5 other negative effects that this boost creep is causing. after speaking with my tuner, we drew up a new turbo setup design on a napkin (not joking) and i went home and tore the whole car apart to hopefully come up with a far more efficient design. a lot of time, design, and thoughts went into this new system. so read along, and you will be educated on everything that went down.

first i had to make a new manifold and this changed the turbo placement, wastegate system, oil feed, oil drain, downpipe, you get the idea. ultimately this design is FAR more efficient at controlling boost. bare with me here.



next i had to create a new downpipe. most noticeable here is this new downpipe does not do a 120 degree turn like the old manifold so obviously that aids in extracting the exhaust better than before. and next most noticeable is now i am recirculating the wastegate dump back into the downpipe. no more external dump screamer. although i love an external dump sound, mine was unbelievably loud and i was now interested in something quieter so i could hear some actual turbo spool. you will also see the old fuel pump laying on the bench. more on that later.



the intercooler got refined as well. i went with a much more compact end tank design, no longer use the diverter plate in the inlet, and doubled the thickness of the tanks. this baby is STRONG and is operating well past its rated horsepower range. no pictures of that, but figured i might add that info.



i began to worry that my radiator was not large enough to support this setup. after the last blown head gasket, i left no stone un-turned. i decided to kick the old radiator/fan setup for this one. this is a radiator for a 02-07 wrx/sti. i cut a few rows off of it, got a SPAL fan for it (night and day better than ebay/china fan), made a new shroud, and made my necessary modifications to make this big boy fit the rsx. mind you, this was done before the turbo setup got re-designed so you will notice in one of these pictures, it is still on a sidewinder manifold. however, its overkill. my coolant issues are a thing of the past.



i got sick of the skunk2 throttle body that i was using. it would constantly stick and hold my car at 2,000rpm when idling, the pedal action felt terrible, and i couldn't do anything about it. i disassembled, modified, and re-assembled that thing about a million times with no success. i decided a ktuned throttle body would best suit me. problem is, there is no adapter that will correctly adapt it to a PRB manifold. in the end, i had to make a custom spacer/adapter to adapt the ktuned throttle body to this skunk2 ultra street intake manifold. with the help of arlington machine (who did my head work) we teamed up and made it happen. he machined the spacer to the specs we discussed, and i welded it straight onto my skunk2 intake manifold. let me tell you, this throttle body is FAR better than the skunk2 counterpart. before you go thinking that they make adapters for this, they dont. i ordered several and rejected them. the o-ring on the ktuned manifold goes right over bolt holes onto all adapters, meaning there will be a leak. a perfectly flat surface is a MUST when using the skunk2 throttle body. so much so that i cant even put it in words. my suggestion is: SKIP THE SKUNK THROTTLE BODY AND GO KTUNED!!




found a good deal at an importer for type-R carpet, floor matts, and door cards. mate that with a new steeringwheel setup, so why not?


quick pause to whip up a 900hp intercooler for a friends car:


battery relocation for obvious reasons. i was attempting to move more weight to the front of the car in hopes for more traction. who knows if it helped, but sure opened up the bay!



i have not fully comitted to a dual pump for this car yet. first wanted to see what i can do on a single pump. so i went and bought the baddest in-tank pump that money can buy. the "hellcat" pump by Ti automotive. will be honest, we made more power with it versus the skunk2 320LPH pump but still not enough. soon i will do a double pump and REALLY lift up the boost.


here is a final product after i re-did the entire setup. you can obviously see it is heavily different than before. notice the new wastegate design and how effectively the exhaust can flow straight out of the manifold and through the wastegate. this bad boy holds 8psi through ALL gears no problem. now i can dial in the boost by gear far better and take some stress off the traction control so it too can do its job easier and more effective. the whole idea here is to maximize the efficiency of every component. the downpipe changed, the intercooler, the piping, the wastegate design, oil feed, oil drain, etc. this was a lot of work but netted unbelievable results.




before the tune date, whip up a new bumper for the daily f-150. this pig has 230,000 miles but simply wont give up. plan on long travel for this thing and a bigger engine down the road.



and lastly, what you're all here for: the results. i have not released a power level for this car to ANYBODY so i will not do so now. but i will show you what it makes on wastegate at 8psi.however, you know we didnt stop there. we ended the dyno session at 27psi and look at that cherry red manifold making power!! i will let it run through your thoughts on what it made at 27psi. you can get a ball-park idea of what a k20 with a 6266 at 27psi makes.




these are phenomenal results from a completely garage built rsx. every aspect of this car was made here in my garage, at home, in socal. nothing special here. just a man and his ambition. i hope my posts can help some of you get out there and learn to turn wrenches and learn to fabricate as you can see what these skills can produce.

wondering whats next? well, i was considering putting this setup into an MR2. but after seeing the prices of a clean MR2 and the required parts to make this happen, i decided not to. i am seeing some AWD rsx's hit the internet and i decided i will do an AWD conversion to this car. i really dont have any type of time frame on when this will happen but as you can see, i am a motivated builder. most importantly, this car needs a cage, so that will be coming in the near future.


you can also follow me on instagram to keep up with the car at a far better rate, but less documented: @ DylanRush
 
#37 ·
Impressive results! Thanks for the update! Its nice to have these build threads documented on forums so you can actually research what other people have done. Unlike people posting just on facebook for likes and making any form of research next to impossible.

But on another note, your starting to make me reconsidering going with a borg warner sxe362 and go with the precision 6266. As for the CSS block guard, looks like its been holding well for you.
 
#38 ·
The precision line up is very hard to beat. The cool thing that not many people know about my car, is I use a journal bearing turbo. The even funnier part is, I spool faster than ball bearing cars with the same engine and turbo setup. That was even true with my sidewinder setup. I can't say EXACTLY why that is, but you can see I am very serious about the quality of my work and how everything works as a package. I've owned probably 20 turbos from different manufacturers and in different sizes and none have been ball bearing. The simple reason for that is the rebuild cost, or replacement I should say. I have a close friend (socalporting.com) who has helped me with turbo rebuilds at unbelievably affordable costs. He is very knowledgeable and we both agreed that I should stay journal bearing. So do not give up on the journal bearing turbos!!
 
#39 ·
Your one of the first people thats making reconsider and going to precision, but i definitely like the sounds a borg makes :drool:. The extended tip in the SXE and reading about the sooner spool times compared to other people setups is another reason why ive been wanting the borg...... Then here is your build on 8psi making mid 400s :squinty:
 
#40 ·
ususally im all about getting a better spool time. but with the ability to have anti-lag these days, spool time is honestly a thing of the past. unless youre on something like a gt45+ sized turbo. although you usually want a better spool time, it doesnt always help. in our cars obviously we drive only two front wheels. the sooner you spool, the sooner you spin those babies; resulting in two things: heating up the tires sooner so you can grab traction in the next gear (assuming you did not heat up the tires already) and simply a total spin fest the whole time. i obtain my first amount of boost around 3850rpm. thats really good for a turbo the size of a 6266 especially being journal bearing. say the boost comes in a little bit later with a higher wheel speed, you may not spin the tires as bad. this is all speculation though. i dont have any data to back this by any means. however, i love the borg warner turbos simply because of the r&d into them and the newer rare metals that they utilize on them. i love new technology and new materials and when they find their ways into our hobbies.
 
#41 ·
I've been looking at the Borg sxe362 or sxe366 with my build. Will primarily be driving it easy with some pulls on i state an occasional roll race. I've been considering a 11.7:1 compression with a sleeved block with the idea of spooling a sxe366 or sxe362 even easier and making more power on less boost. Which my friend had very good luck doing this in his car but will be limited to e85/race gas. I fear 93 is out of the question with this much compression. But with being a road warrior/cruiser the faster spool should make it a fun car to drive on the streets
 
#42 ·
You should be able to run 93 on a 11.7:1 compression ratio. But obviously your power will be far lower than on E85 mostly because you can't turn the boost up as high. I don't know my true compression at the moment but my piston and rod setup is stock spec but the head has been shaved once and the block has been shaved a total of 3 times now, maybe 11.3:1 I would assume. The SXE you're looking at looks like a solid turbo. I've always loved the borg Warner housings. They're beautiful. One thing I would highly recommend and wish I did, is the twin scroll route. It seems to provide better power everywhere in the Rev range from spool time, to the top, there's more power to be had. I highly recommend doing twin scroll, I never have, but always wish I did
 
#46 ·
Better check that statement. HP academy is producing way more power with the same boost using e85. It's like 105 octane so you can turn the boost up with less pre-detonation. Granted you have to pour the fuel in, and go all the way to methanol to really make big power.
 
#55 ·
there was a reason for this at the time. these days though; its no biggie. the car served its purpose and a lot of cars these days are on a whole different level! soon ill be able to focus on it again and im planning on designing a double wishbone suspension system for the front and a push-rod system for the rear to accommodate AWD components. i'm only maybe 20% through the CAD design phase of both of these systems. only issue is i have very little time to give toward the project right now and it requires quite a bit. i will make it happen though!


lastly, on 26psi the car makes 680whp(highest recorded dyno number). ive since set it to 30psi and due to weather factors; its been reaching the 32psi range which is getting dangerously close to the maximum duty cycle of my fuel pump. i can see it leaning out up top around 9,500 even through the injectors are WIDE OPEN. ill remedy this during the AWD setup as it will need a fuel cell to accomplish that.

will report back with updates soon!!
 
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