How to turbocharge your 90-94 DSM (2.0l non-turbo specified)

[TbTalon94]

Ok this is going to be a quick list over of what you will need and a little more info on how to do it. I will provide links to sources and things like that. excuse me if i spell anything wrong....


First is first. Check your engine for normal wear. Do a compression test, check the plugs, wires, replace gaskets that you think would be bad. Do a leak down test. Hell the best is to rebuild the engine. If your motor has 150k on it and it kinda burns a little bit of oil or doesnt run perfect then do NOT attempt to do this and not have to tear it down for a rebuild shortly after. Make sure your engine is running top notch and everything is going to be ok in terms of handling boost. There is a few different options with things so i will try to get them out. There is the basic bolt on factory parts and make it turbo while retaining stock non-turbo 9.0:1 weak pistons, swap pistons/rods then bolt on turbo parts and basically have a stock turbo DSM, and last but not least swap the motor.


Now is the time to gather your parts. Here is a basic list:
1) Turbo along with oil feed/drain, water feed/drain and wastegate actuator
2) Turbo manifold and Turbo 02 housing
3) FWD Turbo downpipe
4) 90-94 turbo ecu (preferably your year of vehicle but any will work)
5) 90-94 Knock sensor
6) Turbo Maf (can use 90-99 just has to be wired accordingly)
7) Manual Turbo injectors atleast (450cc)
8) Injector resistor pack, (turbo injectors are low impendence compared to NT's high impendence injectors) it looks like a little silver box on the firewall
9) FWD turbo oil pan for oil return line (or customize yours)
10) Stronger clutch (if retaining stock manual transmission)
11) Stock Turbo side mount intercooler (or larger)
12) Stock Turbo intercooler piping with 1g BOV (blow off valve)
13) Stock Turbo fuel pressure regulator with fuel control silenoid (optional)
14) Stock Turbo intake pipe with boost control silenoid (optional)
15) Stock Turbo camshafts (only intake needed if manual transmission)
16) Stock Turbo fuel pump atleast (Walbro 190lph or 255lph are some other options)
17) All gaskets and hardware
18) Fuel controller is highly recommended but optional (S-AFC I or II works well)
19) A datalogger is very highly recommended and will be your best investment yet. It is extremely important to monitor knock
20) An oil cooler is highly advised because that turbo will be heatin up that oil very nicely and your motor will be running harder
21) finally a BOOST gauge and any other gauge you feel necessary
--excuse me if i forgot anything i will continue to look it over--

Now these are basic parts to turn your currently non-turbo DSM into a boosted machine. If you retain the stock pistons some say that they cannot handle boost above around 10psi because they have smaller ring lands compared to turbo pistons and they will crack. Now with the raised compression and running about 8psi you will be pushing or a little more power then a factory turbocharged DSM.

Now that that is said you can make your car even better if you take the conversion in a bit deeper.
-If you decide to rebuild the engine then here is the time to make it shine. Swap those non-turbo pistons for something stronger. Forged pistons will do very well but if your on a budget you can get stock 1g turbo pistons (7.8:1 compression) or go ahead and get stock 2g pistons (8.5:1 compression). Depending on the year the rods will have to be adapted to fit each piston. 90-92.5 motors with the 6 bolt cranks will need to have their rods machined to take the 2g pistons and if you have a 7bolt then...just go with the 2g pistons because they fit right on and will handle some power. If you swap pistons then you practically have a factory turbo motor because the rods are the same as well as crank.
-If you swap out pistons then you can practically just start modifying your car as if it was a factory turbocharged DSM. One thing that is sceptical is that non-turbo motors do not have oil squirters. Well there is a theory that the 2g design of the oil suirters may cause crankwalk (destroying the motor) because theystarve the crank bearings of oil. If you are worried about them then the engine swap is for you.
- If you want to swap motors then you will obviously need the turbo motor to swap in along with the parts listed above if they are not included with the motor. You can again retain your tranny as long as you are swapping in the same year of motor as yours was. I would advise just getting a turbo tranny because clutches are easier to get and will hold more power.

- Now the big issue that people come accross is if the N/T tranny can hold the power. Well if your tranny is going to crap and grinds in gears and is very notchy then dont expect it to last...turbo or non-turbo. If you beat the crap out of your car and dont know how to drive correctly then dont expect it to last. There has been only one person i know of that has broken his tranny and he still doesnt know if it was just from boost, but he was running 23 psi on an EVO 3 16g with all supporting mods at the top of 3rd gear when it let go. Another issue is about the pistons. Like i said before they are weaker then turbo pistons and will fail if you turn up the boost and dont tune out the knock. Now some people have run 17psi on stock N/T pistons and had no problems...but who knows if that engine is still alive and well. Keep the boost below 10 and dont beat the living daylights out of it and you will be fine.

Here are some links that will help you along in the process or with any questions:
- http://www.pocketlogger.com/
- http://vfaq.com/index-main.html (take a look around you will find loads of helpfull information)
- http://www.dsmtuners.com
- http://www.ebay.com/ (for the hard to find or just plain cheap parts)
- http://importperformanceparts.net/ (they have rebuilt kits along with factor parts at good prices)

That is about all there is to it on a very shortened level. If you have any questions or concerns just post them or PM me and i will be more then happy to help you out.

[TbTalon94]

On a side note there are a lot more in depth things to do such as run new wires to the turbo ecu and things like that so this does not cover everything and is just a general basis of starting the conversion. I do not know anything about the automatic transmission so i can't take responsibility of handing out information concerning it and the turbo conversion.

[4Banger]

Are there any sensors needed for this as well?


You might want to make a note that this is similar to a turbo conversion for a 2.4 galant as well, some minor differences.

Also, any other car with this motor, like the hyndai sonata 89-91

[TbTalon94]

The sensors are Knock sensor(#5), Maf Sensor (#6),fuel pressure silenoid (#13), and boost control silenoid (#14) :bigthumb: The conversion should be about the same as long as the sensors are the same and the transmissions will align.

[4Banger]

The sensors are Knock sensor
Necessary. BUY A NEW ONE along with a new o2 sensor

(#5), Maf Sensor (#6)
1g MAF will work and can modded, 2g maf is better. GM translator aka MAF-T is also an option and you won't need an s-afc since you can tune with the translator, that'll actually save a little money if you are determined to have some sort of fuel management.

fuel pressure silenoid (#13)
I don't have one on my car

boost control silenoid (#14)
Don't have one of those either

:)

[ZacFields]

Trevor.....AWESOME post! This is by far the most useful post ever posted on CR:U.

Thanks a lot!

This is exactly what I wanted from my tekkkies. This sort of thing places us higher on search engine rankings and gives our site more credibility.

Zac

[rysbrnr]

just curiuos TBtalon, how much did it all cost? just for the parts, no labor.

[TbTalon94]

13) Stock Turbo fuel pressure regulator with fuel control silenoid (optional)
14) Stock Turbo intake pipe with boost control silenoid (optional)

--Notice how that says optional :yawinkle: meaning you dont have to use them but if you want it to be like a factory turbocharged vehicle then go ahead and put those in....
--Yes a new knock sensor would be highly advised but once again if you are on a budget you can use a used one as long as the gooy stuff in the back isnt running out or not even there.
--I said some sort of fuel control and an saf-c 1 or 2 will work well. If you use a GM Maf with a translator you will have to wire it like a turbo car (one more maf wire to ecu) anyways so no mater what that step has to be done. Now the GM maf would do wonders for spool up time as well as tuning and MAY keep the cost down if you cant find an s-afc for a good price along with a MAF.
--Most of these parts are just to keep the cost down for someone to simply turbocharge their car and have it be reliable.

anything else 4Banger??? just kiddin man keep em comin...i knew i would leave out details.

[TbTalon94]

Well since i went ahead and went all out and used 2g turbo pistons, FMIC, HKS BOV, Aeromotive FPR, 255, S-AFC II, Cap Clutches 300lb torque clutch kit, 550's, 2.5" exhaust turbo back, 2.5" IC piping, 2g Maf, Hard intake pipe, and probably some more stuff as well as all the basic parts to turbocharge it....i would say i havent spent more then 2000 and that is being on the high side. Granted i got a lot of good deals. If you find the deals and stick with stock parts then you can keep it under a thousand bucks. Some people have gotten all the parts, besides a clutch, while retaining their N/T pistons and spending roughly 400 bucks. Granted this is mostly used parts but it gets the job done. Yea yea you can probably go out and get a Tsi or GST-X but hey we might like our cars. There is always a chance of getting a tsi,gst-x and it will break,blow-up, run like crap or what have you. Some people may just want to keep their car and go through the experience of turbocharging it.

[rysbrnr]

2 grand is not bad actually... considering you'd be paying well over that amount for a "bolt-on" Honda turbo kit... and you'd still be running stock compression and be slower than a stock FWD DSM. 2 grand is a deal and a half.

Did you ever look into just throwing in a regular turbo 4g63? I know there's less of a challenge to doin that, but for the dollar and simplicity's sake you know, would you go that route if you had to do it all over again? The reason I ask is there's a few people on the forum who want to turbo their N/T 1g's... I have all the shit here to do it and they want it. But since you've already done it... what's your opinion?

for example:
I bought a complete Talon Tsi AWD 5-speed car that was wrecked in the rear for $600. I still have all the OEM drivetrain from the firewall on foward sitting in my garage. foxracing4eva's underhood could be looking identical to a bone-stock OEM FWD turbo DSM in a weekend.

[4Banger]

You left out the fact that insurance will be cheaper too ;)

[TbTalon94]

If i had to do it all over again i would still go the route i did. Mainly because i completly rebuilt my motor like 20k before i did the conversion. Now if you were able to get your hands on a complete turbocharged car like you did for that cheap then it would probably be easier,cheaper and less time consuming to do the swap. If i was him and had a spare motor i would turbocharged my N/T with the stock pistons and see what it could handle....because you have a spare motor if anything goes wrong! yes insurance is very much cheaper! The only lacking part is AWD DAMMIT!

PS...by the way if FoxRacing wants to do that and you guys need some help just ask me.

[Drifte]

I still don't know why you didnt take a turbo 46g63 and build it on the side. They arent that hard to come by. I know it would have saved a lot of time. And with you being fwd, prolly would have taken about a day to do the swap since you already had injectors, and ecu wired in. as well as your gauges and s-afc. The only part of my rebuild i enjoyed was the actual buiding of the engine, so if you want to build another one..w/out BS(balanceshafts) let me know. i love it.

[TbTalon94]

because colton i would have to FIND a turbo 4g63 and then have the money to buy the engine...then all the parts to build it up. Remember i rebuilt my engine like 20k ago with EVERYTHING new so i did NOT want to redo all that stuff i already did. THen you have to worry about your tranny bolting to the turbo block. Now if you could get your hands on a crashed turbo 4g63 with the tranny and motor then that would be ideal. But if you have a few parts and your motor is in good shape then go ahead and save A LOT of time and money and turbo your N/T.

[Drifte]

i still disagree, i c not even totaled turbo awd/fwd's for sale in the $500 range, there have been several on here. i know you rebuilt your n/a engine, but then you replaced everything so i dont see the big deal.

[TbTalon94]

The big deal was that i was still deciding if i wanted to turbo my car or not so i rebuilt the motor. When i finally decided that i wanted to turbo it i had already spent time and money on rebuilding it so i went with this way so i wouldnt have to rebuild the motor from the donor DSM.

[96-eclipse-gst]

Good deals huh? I remember them as being ABSOLUTELY AWESOME deals... its all good. Least the hard part is over. (those long hours of sitting there watching are tiresome.) I would have helped out more if my god damn parents weren't gay. Dont worry this summer will be much better. Considering i will work everyday and go where i want.

[TbTalon94]

rrrrright. No one helped me with my turbo conversion! Your dad helped me weld one thing and taught me how to hone the cylinders. That was about it. Sorry did it all myself with a bunch of people sitting there watching me enjoying themselves. It was fun having 7 people sitting in lawnchairs with the garage open and me tearing into my car. Good times good Times.

[96-eclipse-gst]

I'd say we all enjoyed watching you lol. Those were really some good times. Back when I didnt have any speeding tickets...back when i still looked forward to getting my 17th license...damn cops/bastards..

[Ricky]

I miss the old school days of forums. Facebook has killed the forums. :(

[slow ride]

Yes it has, and all the good info for searches, etc.