I got a 95 civic lx. My current line up of mods are an AEM CAI, new HGK wires, Mugen grounding system, DC headers, and skunk2 manifold. I got a new short shift, but I can't put it in untill this 2 feet of snow and 0 degree temperatures kinda back away. I ebayed it all and it was roughly 650$ for everything. I've been riding with that for a while, then I thought hmm. Maybe I should turbo it. Then I was lookin at these forums and I saw a lot about swapping. Then I thought hmm. Maybe a B16 would be nice. But then reality hit me again, and I realized I already had a chunk of change already in my D engine. So would it be practical to get that engine? Or should I just follow through and turbo charge it?

 

It depends on what your goals are and that's different for everyone.

Why are you doing this? (race, experience, tinkering hobby, just because, show, girls-haha,......)

 

Mostly experience, I love knowelage like this, the same reason I got into car audio, which I have been for about 3 years. Also to race my friends, nothin serrious, just goin to open track night at the speedbowl. Fun times. And for the last thing, I think a car should looks as nice as it possibly could inside and out.

 

The CAI and header would be useless with the turbo install, so you might as well swap if you want more power.

 

It's a short ram, so I could just use it on the turbo air in right? But if I swapped, everything would go to waste right? Or would my 92-95 spec parts work on a different engine?

 

If you have room under the hood for it. But yeah, all your parts except for the grounding wires, would be useless.

 

Yea. I really don't know that's whats stopping me from continuing with this project. What do you think? If I turbo, I could keep almost everything but the header. I would have my brother's friend who works in a shop in Groton CT help me probably. How hard is the install on a turbo? I've done everything from CV's to clutches, and I pick things up quickly, and I'd have a mechanic helping me here and there.

If I swap, I could do all the labor my self, it's just hoisting the sucker in there that's stopping me, and I'd be out of about 600$ in parts on top of a 80$ lift rental and a 3000$ engine. Descisions descisions.. Anywhoo, give what imput ya got.

 

turbo turbo turbo. i had 1.8T before honda and a turbo car is definetly alot more fun to drive then just engine(na) .

 

I know the components for turbo, how to install, what the parts do. I'm not familliar with the best companies for which part. And what to do after the install. And I wouldn't go for broke like I would with an engine, just dropin 3k$ at once.

 

It will be a money pit whether or not you dump it all at once. The difference is an engine swap would give you about the same power with complete reliability and no surprises. Whereas, a turbo, will suck your money right out of your wallet with tuning, downtime, unexpected parts, etc. I am not trying to talk you out of it but I just want you to be sure you are willing to take what a turbo can throw at you (financially).