engine swap vs turbo
 

Ok i've come to a crossroads for the future of my civic. Which is a better road to go engine swap(b16 or h22) or a turbo for my sohc vtec?

Personally im planning on turboing my B18b. I figured why spend 2-3k on an engine swap for something like a B18c1 with 180hp when I could throw that money towards a building a turbo kit.

my friend has a sohc vtec with custom turbo kit. It runs 13.6 on streets. On slicks estimated around high 12's. I say turbo the bitch!

Engine swaps are costly and the time that you will be without a car is considerable. However, some people prefer the swap to a more powerful N/A car than using a turbo.

Although with a turbo build, the down time of your car will be days.
Motor swap will be a couple of weeks.

And I assume that you will be having a shop do the work. So figure about $5,000 to $7,000 for a B18C1 long block with everything that is needed. And then maybe around $2,000 for the shop's bill.

For every 1 bar of boost the power gained is equivalent to adding another motor to your car. What this means is if you have a 2.0L motor and run 14.7 psi of boost then it effectively makes the motor act like a 4.0L motor. 29.4 psi is like running a 6.0L motor.

The reason 2.0L turbo 1g DSMs were right on par with 5.0L mustangs back in the day. So you will gain more power from boosting your motor than by increasing displacement a little bit.

I have had my Civic for about 5 months now. I planned on having a Civic back in January in the begining of the year, so I pretty much did nothing but research my car for 7-8 months on what is better and everything. Here is what I summed up:

A lot of people that run NA cars usually run a B18c5 or an LS VTEC....Don't ask me why but those are the best engines. Usually because they have such high compression and High compression + A lot of boost = KABOOOM! so if you want a turbo motor...look below

There is usually no reason to buy a B16 (Si) or B18c1 (GS-R) cause for a pricey tag of usually 3 Grand or more for parts, enigine and labor....You only gain a measly 20 hp with the b16 and only 40hp with B18. Not really a big bang for the buck especially if your on a tight budget.

An H22 has a lot of problem converting into an EJ, EK, EG, car because you must lose the power stearing and AC for it to actually fit. Not to mention get a whole new trans and it never tends to fit. I have actually done a lot of research on these because I wanted one, and although they are cheaper than most engines to put in and has the most hp at 220 (i think) but there is a lot of customization that is needed for this plus the sacrafice of P/S and AC.

That comes to my last point Turboing a d16 does a lot more good than you know. Say you put together a nice turbo kit for $600-$800, and set the thing at 8 PSI, right there you will hit around 200 hp to the wheels and not have to sacrafice a lot of money which means more moeny for other things :mrgreen:. Plus if you ever blow your d16 you can easily pick one up at a junkyard for 300$ tops. When push comes to shove, if you have the money to do the swap then turbo then go for it. If you are on a tight budget then just turbo, plus boost is hella fun man!

Sorry for the long post guys, it's just that I see these questions often on Honda-Tech and Turbod16.com....And the true reason anyone swaps is because they can say they have a B series motor. PM if you want anything more!

not true i have seen ek's with h22 motors with power steering and a/c. you have to run the 4th gen a/c and i believe its the 4th gen power steering as well. you can also run a b-series tranny with a h22. if i was swapping id get a b18c1 because it has more torque than a b16

$7,000 for a gsr swap?!? my friend just sold his entire gsr swap for $2k. this is including engin, tranny, ecu, wiring harness, axles, motor mounts. i got a quote from impo last year on getting a gsr swap and they quoted me for $3700, out the door

This is true but it happens to be a big pain in the ass. I have seen many cars on Honda-tech that have these things done but if you ask any of them if it was worth it, they would all say no. Any swap, IMHO, is not really worth it just cause you dont get the hp for the moeny you put out. If you are rich and have it then why the hell not cause you can have someone do it, but if you want to have an efficient way of boosting power, then do just that....boost it!

EDIT: if you know how to install this **** and you can find the parts for cheap then this is also a very good route, but if you find any performance shop that will do any of these swaps for less that 3-4 grand (incl. everything) it probably won't be the most reliable one.

I disagree on this one. A b18c1 long block will go for around 1700. Do do the swap, most kids wont take it to a shop but rather honda friends. I know kids that swap motor, axles, ecu and have it running in 6 hrs. Now if you ask me 6 hours is nothing, thats like an up-pipe install on a wrx.

I put that in my previous post, if you know the right people a b18c1 swap could cost 1500$ for everything including install...I wish I had the money cause I know I have the Honda friends :mrgreen:

In my opinion I would boost the d-series. Everyone rags on them, "oh they're only SOHC blah blah blah". But a d16 is like a fat chick, everyone knocks ya for it but just wait till they see what she'll do for ya. But if you want to swap then I would recommend building an ls/vtec. Itll give you the combination of more hp plus the torque from the ls. Also price-wise itll probably be the most bang for your buck

Sounds like you have had some experiance with some fattys... :finga: lol

on topic: Trust me SOHC's have been known to see over 300 hp on low boost on a mildly built motor and some have seen over 400 with a GT35RS on a fully built motor!...they maybe ragged on but they can push some nice numbers.

dude come on now ur mom isnt that fat, and yes the disco potato will get ya some nice numbers

You can simply run AC in an H22 powered Civic just by buying a mount. I had an H22 in an EG. I hated it.

Swap= More potential in the end
Turbo D series= Fun seeing peoples face when you beat them with a stock motor.

I also would like to disagree on a swap taking weeks. They can usually be done in a half -to- one day considering you have all the right axles, mounts and shift linkage on hand before starting.

Me personally, I would say either way. What does your budget allow. Not everyone can afford a b18c5, but could afford to get nickel and dimed close to that amount over a period of time...

as Greddy 2000 said, if you kow the "right" people, a swap can be cheap. For me... the "sleep at night" is what would come at a price.

I think Sav at Impo ran his SOHC motor into the 9s.

I dunno about that one man. Ill agree with the power your saying they might make. But a gt35r is way to big for the tiny single cam. That turbo takes alot of motor to just spool it, I dought the 1.6 litre can get it done.

Nitrous can spool it... :)

If you search on Turbod16.com, there is a guy named rota runing in the 10s with a fully built motor and a gt35rs...I think he said he is runing 21 psi and has about 420 hp... :eek: yeah I know i was shocked too man, I didn't realize SOHC's were that powerful!

if your running a 35r,im hoping theres somekind of stand alone involved,and big injectors,in that case you should be able to work out a .63 a/r turbine housing and get full boost at 4200 or so,and thats a estimate,might be lower.Lag is a figure of speach.I mean if you try to lay into it in 4th gear at 2k its gonna lag,but thats why you have the option to down shift.It comes down to how much usuable rpm you have.I mean if boost comes on at 4200...where can you take the car out too,8 8500.Thats gives you around 4000 rpms of usuable power