Turbo Acura Integra vs. Stock WS-6 TransAm

[Vrbas]

My friend recently purchased a 98 integra and was hoping to soon put a turbo on it. He says that when he puts a turbo on his 150 hp acura that he could probably beat my 99 WS-6 345 hp Trans Am. Is this true that a turbo could add THAT much power? If not, how much would he be pushing with a quality turbo?

[BlkCamaroSS]

Doubt it, I've raced a turbo CRX and owned it. It'll probably put him in the low 14, high 13 range. As long as you're a competant drive, i.e. don't choke on the launch, I don't see why you shouldn't win. Would be a fun race though...

[cndctrdj]

ive got a video of a turbo civic and a sc'd integra getting stomped by a stock ls1 camaro

[Robs71Nova]

Well traditionally, a good turbo charger will up the horsepower your already producing by 35-45% depending on the turbo. So basically if he has 150 to start with and puts a turbo on it, his Hp will increase by around 40% to around 235.. According to Nada a 98 integra weighs in the neighborhood ot 2600 pounds, while the Ws6 weighs somewhere in the neighborhood or 3500 pounds. The question is will you car's 100 HP and massive torque advantage make up for being roughly 1000 pounds heavier.. I think so. I would still race him though, just for the hell of it.. I hope this helps.

Rob

[chickenkicker]

I have a bone stock 97 T/A and last week I ran it aginst a turbo civic and owned it. I don't think the integra stands a chance.

[BiggyD]

I think this kind of applies to me too. I have a stock '97 TA WS6 w/auto tranny. One of my friends has a '96 or so Eclipse GSX. He has blown 2 motors and burned through 2 clutches. With his 3rd motor he is going all out, putting all the high proformance parts on that he can, including a huge turbo I guess. I don't think he's goin to use nitrous tho. As much as I hate fukin rice grinders, I know his car is going to be fast as hell. What do you think I should do to give me enough edge to win?

[Robs71Nova]

Wait for the third motor to blow up, the offer to race him??? Im jokin... It all depends on how "High Performance" he is going. There isnt really anyway to tell how much you would need to beat him without knowing what he has done. One thing I would consider doing, if you know how to control yourself, is putting a lt1 nitrous kit on your car.. (assuming you have the Lt-1) I have seen a few good Lt-1 NOS kits for very reasonable (300-400 dollar range), and unless hes making his eclipse a full blown drag car, Im pretty confident youd beat him with even a small shot of nitrous. It all depends on just how much he does to his car. Sorry i can't give a definite answer, but i hope this helps.

Rob

[BiggyD]

I'm not sure what all he's doing for sure, I just know he's spending about 6-7 grand on parts. What about the LT1 to LT4 conversion kit? I don't know much about it but it says it produces a proven 425+ hp. I also want a hypertech programmer. Would this help quite a bit?

[DVS LT1]

I used to be all gung-ho about the LT4 conversion. Its really not that crazy. The heads are where the most HP is gained. I dunno - I thought about getting new LT4 castings for so long then eventually decided to just pick up a set of ported LT1 heads. These ported heads flow just under 258 cfm @.500 lift and 271 cfm @ .600 lift with the stock 1.94" intake/1.50" exhaust valves. LT4 upgrade heads have larger 2.00" intake/1.55" exhaust valves and flow 250 cfm @ .500 lift and only 243 cfm @ .600 lift. Of course you can go ahead and port LT4 heads to flow even more air, but you're spending anywhere from $1000-$3000 on top of the price you paid for the castings themselves.

I found it cheaper to work with the LT1 castings. I could go ahead and easily drop another $1000+ on them to have a competition 5-angle valve job done, have the valve seats replaced and larger 2.02-2.05" intake/1.60 exhaust valves installed. Would probably be good for another 10-15 cfm of air flow. But for what I plan to do they're fine.

I personally like the hot cam (.525 max lift with 1.6 rocker). I've been running it now for over 2 years. I'm probably going to replace it soon with the GM cam ending in #847 (.575 max lift with 1.6 rocker) just to take advantage of the ported heads higher flow numbers. I think for someone upgrading a stock motor the hot cam is great - very streetable and not too crazy. Gives you a really nice 'n lumpy idle.

As for the fancy red LT4 intake manifold, the powder coat job is probably the biggest advantage over an ordinary LT1 manifold. Its a waste of money IMO. Powder coat your stock LT1 manifold and its practically the same thing.

Whatever route your choose, your engine will indeed be capable of making 425 HP with a .525 lift cam and heads that flow approx. 250-260 cfm at max lift. The biggest factor as to how much more or less HP it makes will be how well its tuned. I would recommend against using a Power Programmer. To really get the most HP and safety out of this setup you should get a pro shop or experienced programmer to tune the car. High flowing heads and a larger cam need a lot more gas to burn. Most shops at the very least will tell you to install a fuel pressure regulator (replace the fuel pump too if its old), and in some cases bigger fuel injectors may be required. Getting the air/fuel mixture just right is whats going to make the most power.

[BiggyD]

So can I just have my heads ported and use the stock rockers and stuff? Or do I need to buy new ported heads with the works? Your right though, just porting LT1 heads makes a lot of sense. If I have to buy them where can I find them, and whats a ball park figure?

[hqdrummer]

i just raced a older gsx (turbo all wheel drive) twice with a brand new turbo and large front mount and he took me by about a car off the line, even thought i was catching up after that the all wheel drive is a very large advantage, and he beat me both times. i have a stock 97 six speed firebird formula

[Ace$nyper]

i think unless hes pushing ass load of boost and gets good launch you'll have him. those WS-6 are spooky fast. It'll take a ton of work for him to take you but it could be done. Tell us how it goes and good luck!

[DVS LT1]

Regardless if you port your heads or not, if you got the hot cam (or any other really) you'd upgrade your stock stamped steel 1.5 rocker arms for aluminum(or stronger steel) 1.6 roller rockers. Its not absolutely necessary but the 1.6 roller rockers last longer and give you more lift out of any cam. You would also have to replace the valve springs with ones specific to the type of cam you got.

The LT4 conversion kit consists of the LT4 heads, LT4 intake manifold, GM hot cam, hot cam valves springs, and 1.6 roller rockers (and other little gaskets & shit).

As for head porting you can send your stock heads to a machine shop and have them proted by hand or CNC'd. You can also have the intake runners and/or combustion chambers polished, you can keep the stock valves or replace them with same sized but stronger/lighter valves (which would let your engine rev higher). The real expensive shit is when you start adding bigger valves - that requires larger valve seats to be inserted and you get into your 3 or 5 angle competition valve jobs (lots of hours in labour). Like I said you can easily drop a few grand into your heads.

Prices for head porting vary all over the place. Here's a few links:
http://www.thunderracing.com/catalog...vid=4&pcid=114
http://www.lt1f-body.racenet.net/valvetrain.php

At the end of last summer I was about to get my stock LT1 heads ported by a local shop. The "Stage III LT1" job was going to cost me $3,300 Canadian (about $2,500 US) to get them hand ported, have larger/stronger/lighter 2.00" & 1.56" valves installed with titanium retainers, and the heads were guaranteed to flow 260 cfm at .525 lift.

The ported heads I picked up over the winter cost me about $800 US complete with the stock valves, retainers, and valve springs good for .600 lift. Although I'd like to invest more in them they should do the same if not more than what I was going to have done to my original castings (and I still have those to sell or port). You just gotta look around online and inquire at some local shops. (Hell, you can take a dremel and try porting your heads yourself! I might just practice on my stock set in the future )

[HotBoys09]

Well, I think he would win under one condition...if he's going as far as to put a turbo on his car - ls (more common due to the lower compression) or gsr then he would naturally (hopefully) install more parts, for more air in/out, fuel, ignition...and deff. deppending on the turbo system itself. But if it's just a simple low end (cheaper) turbo system, then I'd still think you would win. I hope you would too... But if you know he's going all out on his integra, it won't be over night...so just make up for his very expensive upgrades by just getting simple bolt-on's. Headers, etc. etc. Then it would be no prob, unless hooking up if your problem...