i know the article was a lil rough, but i was writing it while writing a chem paper
moving om.
with a turbo setup, nitrous \or even a high power na setup, it is recommended to upgrade your plugs. you have a few options here depending on what you want to spend and how much power you want to put out. i run NGK BKR7E's and gap them to about .28. this is a very safe running combination used by both SOHC turbo guys and DOHC turbo guys ranging from 180-350 hp region. there are people who still use these same plugs past that point which is ok as long as you know they can handle the stress. Certain companies also make plugs such as Zex and Denso. BOth are nice plugs, but, are not readily available at auto parts stores and come at a hefty price. Iridium plugs are certainly over kill for most peoples applications. i can understand using an iridium plu for say a srag car, or a tleast a car that sees a lot of drag racing and or high boost levels, but they are certainly not necessary.
motor oil-
there are three basic types of motor oil- straight motor oil, synthetic blend and full synthetic. regular motor oil isnt as common as say a synthetic blend, atleast not since the last time i purchased motor oil and is relatively inexpensive. synthetic blend is a typical motor oil used everyday by all sorts of manufacturers. full synthetic is motor oil that is more durable, i guess you would say, then the otehr too. it can survive many heat cycles and perfom longer then the other two, allowing for oil changes to be made at intervals up too 10k before an oil change is required. for a turbo vehicle, oil is more important then you would think. when oil gets hot, it can loose its viscosity and being that oil is being pumped throug hyour turbo, it is being heat soaked and can loose its ability to properly lubricate. wit hthat being said, it is a smarter i dea to run a thicker, full synthetic blend oil for a turbo engine, rather then runnign one of the other two. now, im nto sayign that u have to use synthetic, but u will have to change your oil more frequently unless u hate your motor and want it to die.
prob numero uno when it coems to oil and turbos: coking can occur. coking is when the oil inside the turbo is extremely hot and when it cools it can turn to sludge. now, this happens quicker with conventional motor oil in comparison to synthetic, but it still happens. there are two ways to avoid this and an alterior way to help it not happen. one is bu ya turbo timer. the engine will run for on average 1 to 2 minuted allowing the oil to run through the turbo and the engine letting it cool and flush out any gunk they may have built up. another is to sit in your car with it running for 1-2 minutes, while it runs, wishing you had a turbo timer (like me). now, there are liquid and oil cooled turbos. if it is liquid cooled, it will aid in keeping your oil temperature a little more stable while lubricating the turbo, but it will not eliminate you havign to wait for the car to run for a period of time.
exhaust: mandrel bent vs. crush bent
mandrel bent is simply pipe bent in a way that does not distort the metal in any way, shape or form. you keep a constant diameter through out the bend. almost all after market exhausts are mandrel bent. crush bent is usually what comes on your car factory or what a typical hillbilly exhaust shop uses. this procedure involves putting the pipe on a bender and a dye is press d into it to give it a correct baend. it is an easy way to bend pipe and is fine for stock cars, but it does impeded air flow. air flows on the outside of a bend, so you wantthe diameter to stay the same through out the bend. when its crushed, the air flow no longer runs in a smooth motion trough out the bend, and it becomes turbulent.
i persoanlly have a crush bent exhaust, sad to say, but there are ways to make up for this such as upping the diameter of the pip. i have a 3 inch dp, custom made with out being crushed, and a 2.75 exhaust which is crush bent. by upping the size of the pipe will make up for the crush in the bend.
noise: turbos drastically cut down the amount of noise your exhaust produces, unless your running an open downpipe. people whom live in california or any place where e-checks are required may also need to be under a certain dB level which i think is 90, but i could be wrong. if your looking for a quiet exhaust that is aftermarket, then i would recommend an apexi world sport exhaust or an rsr emag. both very nice, quiet exhaust systems. if your having one custom made, you can have a resonator put in and also a muffler. if u want a quiet muffler, i went with a chrome magnaflow. its very quiet and i can easily hear the turbo spool over the exhaust note. if u want obnoxious, go for an ebay spoecial. there like 30 bux shipped and will work the same as an apexi n1 muffler.
as i said, here are some links to sites that sell turbo parts or has general info and als oa few links to other forums that can help you get on your way.
http://www.beesandgoats.com/ go to far top left and clic kon turbo guide
http://www.cse.uconn.edu/~yelevich/turbo/turbo.html lots of good info here and easy to follow
http://www.importreview.com/main.html amazing people whom have built some insanely fast cars and have done TONS of testing with pistons to find out what are best WISECO
http://www.dh-racing.com/ this is for the guy with lots of money and too lazy to not build his or her own engine, but, they are very nice engines
http://www.tunertoys.com/ http://www.stealthmodeperformance.com/ http://www.kteller.com/store/ http://www.honda-performance.com/ http://www.lsdmotorsports.com/ http://www.johnnyracecar.com/ http://www.speedpartsrus.com/ all of these sites are excellent resources for DIYer's. i bought many of my turbo parts through these guys. one thing i will point out is KMS makes upgraded oil pumps for even d series engines. read up on there stuff, its nice.
http://store.yahoo.com/cheapturbo/hobtukit.html http://www.full-race.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=34
http://www.atpturbo.com/
these three are basically the bling bling of turbop parts. full race makes incredible kits and they are incredibly expensive.
http://www.homemadeturbo.com/forum/
http://www.honda-tech.com/
http://www.sohchonda.com/home.shtml
a few forums with lots of info
now, there are hundreds if not thousands of sites dedicated to solely honda/aucra performance so these sites i listed above is just a chip off the block of the masses of information available and the massive amount of distributers selling parts from gaskets to complete engine builds. i would highly recommend reading some sort of honda performance books and engine building guides. i personally have read more books about it then i would like ot think of right now, and im still learning.
another thing, if people would like me too, i will write out all the forumlas by hand and scan them so they can learn how to read compressor maps and how much hp is available from upping compressions and i als ohave a couple of others for fuel injectors sizesa and there efficency and also how to rater a clutch. if there are any questions, post them in this thread so everyone can see them and learn. remember, knowledge is power and its for the whole world to have