If you are married you'll understand why the budget...now, i'm having evil thoughts of a 88 dx civic sedan with ~20psi pulling the car around and becoming a track queen

Already Have:

Will most likely get:

I will need advise on:

Any other advise would be great...harry's already given me food for thought

Have evil thoughts about:
Crower 2.2 liter stroker kit...but ~$2400! plus engine work, (bore to 84mm and resleeve block) etc.

 

Frankly I'd focus on the bottom end and worry about the top end stuff later, even though you have a head in front of you that I'm sure you'd like to play with. Personally, I wouldn't trust 20 psi to any block guard... aftermarket sleeves definately. Since you have a head you can poke around for a b18 or b20 bottom end in any condition, send it in to GE or whoever, get back a fresh clean block.

 

i figured the bottom end was the most critical part of boosting a stock honda block...but i've never completely rebuilt a head before so i'm just doing this out of curiosity and education

 

From my expereince with the LS engine, I'd throw rods/pistons(forged) at the bottom end, give the head a nice port job and call it a day. Use boost for the rest of the power. With mid sized t3/t4 to provide the positive pressure, you'd be sitting pretty. A good forged rebuild will give you the reliablity you're looking for, just don't scrimp on the tuning aspect. Stock LS engine's are notoriously reliable under boost, even under large amounts. I'd go with something in the 9:1(stock) compression range to maintain the "peppiness" of the engine out of boost. Plus thats a good static ratio to make good power under boost without having to provide lots of it.

As far as your parts list, doesn't look like you've got much of a budget to me. If you're gonna go with a COMPLETE head rebuild you'll be dropping some $$,most of it unwarrented. Lemme nit pick a bit, i'd ditch the cam gears/ss valves/guides/ect. If you're not going to go full all out race, its not neccesary. Unless you're going to rev over ther stock red-line(no point without cams), the valve springs won't be doing much for you. I've got the 500whp mark right in my sights on my engine, and aside from a little port work/crower top-end(cams/springs) my head is stock Honda parts. A nice port match and maybe a 3/5 angle valve job on the stock stuff is just fine. The LS head isn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be, it's biggest downfall IMO are the cams. Just food for thought and some ease on your wallet.

The SRP/Crower combo is ok, I'd go with Eagle rods just becase they are nearly 1/2 the price for the same performance and they come with ARP rod bolts. If the SRP's are your thing make sure you get thier "Turbo" pistons as opposed to the "N/A forged" pistons. Those are "supposedly" not much better than stock honda cast pistons. The head studs are an excellent purchase, no gripes there.

 

i'll take this into mind...i don't get to work much on my cars as of late (job, wife & kid)

 

20 psi is an assload and a half of boost on a Honda.

How much power are you trying to make here? Also when you're trying to make big power numbers turbo selection comes into play. Is this just going to be a drag car or do you want a wider powerband and a more responsive turbo that will be useable on a road course?

 

road course of course...occasional drag racing to test acceleration

 

Why the magic number of 20psi? Only reason I ask is because 20psi on a t3/t4 is over 300whp at least. That amount of power is very controllable in a FWD road course car....unless you've got a killer suspension and an LSD equipped transmission. If you're looking to road course the car, a smaller turbo is prolly going to be better suited to you. You'll get better responsiveness and less lag, but the trade off will be less power potential.

 

Personally I'd skip the T3/T4 stuff and go with a Garrett GT28RS with a 0.64 A/R turbine housing. I'm pretty sure it uses a T3 flange for the manifold, but it's internally wastegated so if you use a manifold set up for an external wastegate you'd have to plug the hole. Much more responsive and produces a wider powerband than any T3/T4 variant, even those with ball bearings. It ain't cheap though.

The "remain reliable enough as a third car" part of your original post is what has me a little befuddled though. You'd have to run an electronic boost controller with high and low boost settings because I wouldn't want to be running 20 psi of boost on the trip to Taco Bell or whatever.

 

How come?

The garret GT series are nice and do produce a wide, useable powerband.....but of course they don't come cheap.