Vtec with a turbo?

Hey I always wondered if its possible to put in a turbo compressor into a lets say a Prelude or a GSR which has a Vtec engine? I always thought that the vtec would flood the compressor.. I'm a newbie so cut me some slack :icesangel

It is completely possible to turbocharge a Vtec motor, and I am sure it has been done many times. I don't know how well it would work though. When the Vtec actually kicks in, the valvetrain switches to a more aggressive profile, which may actually be detrimental to the overall performance of a turbo motor. The profile of the Vtec portion of the cam was designed for a naturally aspirated engine, and under turbo circumstances, may hurt performance. The overlap of the Vtec cam might be too aggressive for a turbo motor, and could actually be counter productive in a turbo motor.

so i guess it would be a waste of money to do so, am i right? im thinking of buying a 99-00 Prelude 2.2 vtec.. and i wanted to improve proformence .. any suggestion? i have about 20k with what im guessing 15-16k going twords the car it self.. i also wanted to know how much would it cost to get the door handles shaved off? please comment..

Greedy offers a turbo and Jackson Raceing has a supercharger, both bolt on for 5th gen Preludes.

I am not saying that turbocharging your car would be a waste, it will still give you a nice power increase. I was simply saying that the Vtec profile may not be ideal for turbocharging. Although the profile isn't ideal, you will still experience a hefty hp increase (although maybe not as much as with a better cam). Don't interpret what I said as telling you not to do it. I didn't mean to say that you would loose hp from the vtec cam, just that you might not gain as much. By all means turbo it, I am a huge turbo fan. Just look into it a bit, I haven't ever turbocharged a Vtec so I might be wrong.

how much would you think it would cost the compressor plus labor? and anyone know anything about the door handles?

Anywhere from 2 to 6 thousand, depending on which turbo kit you buy and what your shops rates are. The turbo kit will probably be quite a bit more expensive than the labor.

Originally posted by r0bert
so i guess it would be a waste of money to do so, am i right? im thinking of buying a 99-00 Prelude 2.2 vtec.. and i wanted to improve proformence .. any suggestion? i have about 20k with what im guessing 15-16k going twords the car it self.. i also wanted to know how much would it cost to get the door handles shaved off? please comment..

You could buy a 4th gen for 4 - 5k and have 15 or 16k to throw at mods. :icon16: I'd supercharge it. Jackson Racing has a good warranty I hear.

i like the 5th gen lights.. damn 6g's? what elses can i do to it to imporve proformence...? something not as expensive.. what about the shaved off doorhandles... any one know?

Originally posted by Prelewd


You could buy a 4th gen for 4 - 5k and have 15 or 16k to throw at mods. :icon16: I'd supercharge it. Jackson Racing has a good warranty I hear.

im pretty positive that they didn't make a supercharger for the 4th gens...only turbo...

could be wrong tho, 4th gen is 92-96 right? cuz if so...they didn't make a s/c.

btw guys...turbo on a vtec motor works very nicely...the high compression makes for great gains. read up a bit more an search the boards...too lazy to type out the entire explaination of why they're great for turbo.

I wasn't saying that the engine its self was poor for a turbo, just the cam profile. The Vtec cam's "hot" profile is engineered for an NA, but is pretty poor for turbo applications.

But lets face it, turbos are almost always a good thing.

Originally posted by KrNxRaCer00


im pretty positive that they didn't make a supercharger for the 4th gens...only turbo...

could be wrong tho, 4th gen is 92-96 right? cuz if so...they didn't make a s/c.

btw guys...turbo on a vtec motor works very nicely...the high compression makes for great gains. read up a bit more an search the boards...too lazy to type out the entire explaination of why they're great for turbo.

Damn hangovers... I should have spaced that a little better... I was suggesting he buy a supercharger for the 5gen.

The 4gen doesn't have a supercharger application for it yet because of firewall clearance problems. Or so I've heard.

These people are sayin a lot but haven't done it. Ta make it simple, yeah it's easy ta do, i know because i did it. Good luck with it you'll enjoy it:thefinger

Your right, I havent turboed a prelude, but I have turboed quite a few other cars...and I wouldn't say it's "easy". It isn't the most difficult but it is time consuming, and requires a comprehensive understanding of how engines work.

Anyways, you just repeated what we already said, it is possible to do.