alright guys ill be doing some serious work to this pile of crap here in the next 2 weeks, going to take it from bucket to purring like a kitten.

this build is for a long time friend and customer, who recently purchased it from some guy who knew crap about maintaining a car, it has 105,000mi on the odo.

the first issue to be taken care of was about a month ago i had to replace a plugged cat, i used the magnaflow direct fit cat. upon finishing and taking it for a test drive i realized that this things problems ran far deeper than a plugged cat. it was still gutless as hell and pretty much wouldnt rev past 3000 rpm.

after a little investigation i found the timing belt had slipped about 2 teeth, im supprised that the car was still running, so we ordered all the parts to do the job and while waiting for them he sold another car he had sitting around and decided to put that cash into the audi.

build list:
timing belt kit, i belive that was from ecs tuning
powersteering pump
rp k04 kkk turbo upgrade kit, comes with new gaskets and studs
est open air intake kit
Evolution race werks turbo inlet pipe
he also purchased a cheap 2 3/8" cat back stainlees exhaust kit for it, not sure what brand or what kind of muffler is on it, but if he dosent like the sound ill cut that muffler off and find one more to his liking.

the goals for this build are pretty simple, he wants the car to beat my 95 civic ex, have a mellow exhaust note, and a little bit of a blow off sound to it. he also wants the car to meet CA emissions testing. if needed to pass emissions and bost power to where this thing can outrun my civic it may get the ecu tuned. my civic only runs a 14.1 1/4 mi, so im not thinking its going to need the ecu tuned. but if any one knows a tuner in southern CA around the inland empire let me know.

ill be getting pics up monday night around midnight, ill have pics for all parts along with descriptions and quality assesments.

 

It'll need the ECU tuned plus the mods you listed as well as a better intercooler, good tires, skill at the wheel, and probably more than that to beat a 14.1 - honestly I don't know if it'll run that ET on a K04. The hardcore 1.8T guys can answer that.

Add to the must-do list a new snub mount (stock for $7 or urethane for ~$40) and an upgraded diverter valve and you might as well do the valve cover gasket since they always are problematic. Read the new owner guide sticky post up top and that'll give you a lot of info on upgrades. That car would be lucky to run a mid 16 in the quarter stock, so your work is cut out for you.

 

wow, ive heard that making power from the 1.8t was expensive but front mount intercooler and all needed to take 2 secs off? thats insane, it only took a head port, intake, header, custom exhaust, ecu tuning and some suspension work to hit 14.1 in my slow civic. all said and done my cost was less than 1800. hes already 1800 in parts in, not including labor or tuning. looks like im set to make more money down the road then, and i guess this thread is going to be a long one.

 

Remember the 1.8T was intended as the entry-level A4 back when it was released, and the 30v was the performance model. The 1.8T is a turbo engine, but one built with the European idea of economy - a small, efficient engine with a turbo so it wouldn't get rear-ended by electric wheelchairs. The aftermarket has changed that a lot. Your Civic is made to rev, and Hondas are fantastic starting points for building fast cars. So is the 1.8T but the Eco-related OEM turbo parts need to be tossed for performance-oriented parts.

 

any one know if larger valves and slightly higher c/r forged pistons are available for the 1.8t? if thats what it takes to make this thing decently quick i guess i need to start looking into it, ill most likely add the front mount intercooler and find a good tuner after this part of the build. but if that isint enough then i guess the motor needs to come out and be re-worked. maybe a port job with .5mm larger valves and a 3 angle valve job, a custom cam grind with my a-symetrical cam lobe designs to help the turbo spool faster, larger tb, a set of forged pistons with a nice balance on the bottom end, and c/r set around 9.5-9.7/1 if i can find the pistons for it. is there any free tuning software out there to tweak fuel and igniton maps or adjust for map sensor changes for these things?

 

the car is here and all the parts are in. i havent had a chance yet to tear into it, and wont until thursday, but here are the parts pics.
the exhaust looks to be decent quality, not the best, but passable. i like the different clamps they included.

new halo style headlights, im not a big fan, but its not my car...

new RP ko4 turbo, this should replace the frozen ko3 thats on there nicley.

the timing belt kit ( you can see the boxes on the left) is freaking awesome, comes with every nut, bolt, and washer that you need to take off, plus belts and tstat, even the tstat housing, along with tensioner and idler pulleys for the t belt and all the accessory drive belts too.

here are the before pics, ill try to get a video of the test drive in before i rip it all apart so you can see how slow this thing is before, and what kind of improvement there is after.

 

i forgot the turbo inlet pipe and intake pic.

the quality on the intake is ok, the polish could be a little higher, but all the clamps and stuff that came with it are nice. the turbo inletpipe was just slightly disapointing, the inside is stipped with welds that im sure are going to screw with the air flow chariteristics. i guess we will see how it works and sounds when i get the car done.

 

jebus... got yourself a project that im pretty sure all of us are waiting to see come together

 

You shouldn't need to go that far but you're gonna need more than a K04 to be legitimately fast. If think a 2871r elim setup would do just fine. It's a bolt-on setup requiring no internal mods and I read earlier today about an elim car running 12.3 in the quarter. A stage 3 car with an elim or GTRS turbo will make 300+hp easily and would be enough to waste the 14.1 target of your Civic (as you mentioned the goal to be up above).

 

if it needs to go farther than this to beat my civic for reliability sake i will need to sell the guy a botom end build, if not he will be back in 6 months going rampant about a smoked ring or something. and i will most likely use a turbonetics t3 ceramic ball bearing turbo with the magnaflow weld on cat as its a 2.5 inch cat instead of a 2.25 to 2 inch. hoping it wont come to that.