mods for an rs

[StrtFury]

i have many questions that i hope will be answered!!
i have a 97 rs and am looking to get a turbo for it. Is it better to buy a full turbo kit for it or go to ebay and buy everything seperate? cheaper or not? what is the fastest time that i will be able to achieve without any mods to the internals? im looking to spend between 3000-4000$ just over the winter then do internals next summer. what is it that i need for the engine for the turbo to work correctly? i dont want to hurt the engine in any way! i just got tired of pulling up next to mustangs and seeing them laugh because they think they are faster than me. i have had enough of that, its time to upgrade. what would be the best setup for my car? best turbo? any answers would be helpful!!!

Ride hard, Ride fast

 

[green95hrcgs]

Hahn Race Craft makes a good kit. Star Performance and NER also have kits available. Buy the full kit. You never know what you are gonna get off e-bay and it may take a while to even get parts to do a complete kit. If you don't know already, none of the parts from a GSX or GS-T will work on your car.

Quarter mile times depend on you and your driving skills. Either way if you buy one of the above kits, you are going to be MUCH faster than you are now. Just make sure that you get a S-AFC and good boost controller, and necessary guages. You won't be disappointed.

 

[talonESi20]

If you turbo first then rebuild, just be careful. I've heard good and bad (unfortunately more bad than good) about running turbo on stock internals. You may want to think about rebuild first (just to be safe ya' know). Good luck either way.

 

[StrtFury]

what is it that i would have to get for the internals of my car? what is the price range that i am looking at? i have seen the turbos kits at hahn and ner. im not sure of which to go with. i would like to have the stage 2 kit and then later a stage 3. what are your opinions on this? thanks for the help!!

 

[docta doom]

howell has a rebuild kit http://howell.mountain.net/sdc/howell/ProductAvail.asp?Product_ID=471 that runs about a $1g. i think the hahn stage 1 is like $2g's. it is very very wise to rebuild before boost. as for the staging, i'm not sure about NER but hahn has it set out well, though it would be cheaper to get another intercooler(starion) than the hahn ic because it seems to run a little expensive from what i hear. but yes, staging is a good idea.

 

[Chris_FL]

Originally posted by talonESi20
If you turbo first then rebuild, just be careful. I've heard good and bad (unfortunately more bad than good) about running turbo on stock internals. You may want to think about rebuild first (just to be safe ya' know). Good luck either way.

I've heard just the opposite. Way more good than bad. Of course a rebuild is the safest route to go before turbo. But our stock internals can easily handle up to 250HP. A stage 2 kit is well below that. What matters the most is the condition of your engine. Not necessarily the amout of mileage. I've seen 100,000 mile cars with immaculate engines and some pretty #@%#@%#@%#@%ed up ones at 30,000 miles. Do a compression check, have all your maintenance up to date and you should be fine.

 

[curtis_rak]

The problem with boosting the 420a is that you have to be cautious because of our compression. I wouldn't go over 10, maybe 12 psi at the most without first lowering the compression.

Sure it can handle 250hp, but all-motor HP and boosted HP are a little different, and the engine reacts differently to them.

My advice would be to lower compression, swap for forged internals, then boost. Then you can almost go nuts, 15psi on street gas, 25 on race.

 

[StrtFury]

thanks a lot everyone for the help!! i think im going to save up either for the hahn stage 2 or just get the stage 3 with internals. not sure yet. im still trying to decide what internals i need to replace. any suggestions? what is the price i am looking at to replace? thanks again

 

[Malenko]

the internals you need to replace come with the Hahn Stage 3 kit

 

[green95hrcgs]

DON'T buy the internals from HRC. They are much more expensive than buying the Howell Automotive bottom-end kit. U can get the internals from HRC for about $1200-$1300 for the pistons, rods, and piston rings. At howell Automotive you can get the bottom end kit that includes the Melling oil pump, gaskets, crank bearings, JE pistons, Eagle forged rods, Total Seal pistons rings, etc for $1099. Seems to be the better bargain for me.

And for those NAY sayers out there that say u have to rebuild the engine first, I have a 1995 Eclipse GS with HRC stage 2. I have had the kit for 3 1/2 yrs and ran it with 8 psi no problems. I have been running 11 psi daily with no problems for almost one year. NO PROBLEMS! I hydrolocked my engine right before I had the turbo installed still runs fine. By the way my car has 109,000 miles and still runs very strong to this day.

Poont is, get the kit, enrich the fuel, S-AFC, turn up the boost and have fun!! Do it right and you will be VERY happy with the setup.

 

[Malenko]

ooops I should be more specific. The internals you need are listed at HRC, I didnt mean to imply that you should buy them from there. Howell has them listed as well and seem to be cheaper then HRC. They are the same thing so buy em from howell or where ever is cheaper! =)

 

[StrtFury]

thanks everyone for the replies!! i think the first thing im going to do now is get the stage 2 turbo kit, put that in see what kind of 1/4 mile time ill then get the internals from howell. here are some more questions for everyone. my car did not come with a tach (which sucks) so should i buy a tach to put in and buy a turbo with shift light or just get the turbo tach? and what should i get with the stage 2 kit? turbo timer? short shifter? S-AFC? do i need to get another computer for it or just leave the stock one? how about a speed chip? any suggestions and answers would be greatly appreciated!! thanks

 

[green95hrcgs]

I would say get a tach. I AM NOT a fan of the monster tachs out there, but if you need one, get one. They ususally come with a shift light too. After u get the kit, I would say get an Air/Fuel guage and an EGT guage. Turbo kits usually come with a boost guage so you should be good there. A turbo timer would be good too tho you don't HAVE to have one, so you will sit in your car for a few minutes while the motor runs. It wold be a good idea to get one, cause sittin in your car gets to be very old very fast. Don't need another computer or chip. S-AFC may be a good idea too.