Reliability? Turbo 420a vs My 4g63

[SikRacing97GST]

Ok here's the deal. I own a 97 GST with 97k miles and i am getting ready to put in a 14b m, but umm I keep running into great deals and im not sure what i want to do. This guy is selling his 99 GS w/ 16g turbo, you know the whole 9 yrds its got it all, but 2 oil leaks, one from the back of the block and one from the pan w/ 84k miles. Wouldnt my 4g63 be more reliable than a car that wasnt supposed to be turbo in the first place? I've heard some horror stories about the life of civics and stuff being turbo and not being able to last very long. I'm going to college and i need reliability, but i want faster than my 14b GST. I mean im sure his car a crazy fast and all, but i really dont want to have to miss a class or too because im sitting at the apartment trying to fix the car, if this makes any since to any of you, please let me know whether or not i should just keep my decent running stock gst, thanks again--Tony

 

[CodeMonkey]

Keep your car. If you want more power, buying an NT car (even one with an aftermarket turbo) is a really bad idea.

Read the tuning guide, you can get a lot of power out of your GST for a reasonable ammount of money (and keep it pretty reliable with regular maintenence).

 

[SikRacing97GST]

Keep your car. If you want more power, buying an NT car (even one with an aftermarket turbo) is a really bad idea.

Read the tuning guide, you can get a lot of power out of your GST for a reasonable ammount of money (and keep it pretty reliable with regular maintenence).

Your right, but see i was at the point where i'm wanting moderatly fast and reliable. That's why I bought my car. But the only reason i even considered this fully built up 420a is because its gorgeous on the outside and everything under the hood has less than 2k miles.
here's the car:
http://www.dsmtuners.com/classifieds/showproduct.php?product=4346&sort=1&cat=4&page=1

Its alot nicer than my stock gst, but like i said i would rather have something to get me around all the time and still be decent quick. But i think im only going to spend about 1k more in mods and thats gonna be the end of it for me before i go to college (thats what they all say.)

 

[xinfiniter]

I had a turbo'd neon (chrysler version of the 420a) with the hrc stage 2 kit before I got my dsm and it was fun and fast. Ran a 13.1 @ 110. But it was also the most unreliable car ever. There was something constantly wrong with it from boost leaks, burning exhaust manifold gaskets, to blowning the head gasket. A friend of mine also has a rs/turbo and he is having the same problems after 6 months of the turbo install. Thats why I bought a dsm and will never turbocharge a non-turboed factory car if I want reliability.

 

[midnght]

For that price you can get a FWD 4g63 with alot already done to it.

It does look nice, but looking for reliablity with an engine that was NEVER meant to have a forced induction system strapped to it is not my idea of "reliable". The 4G63T is one of if not the best I4 engines made for us in the US market.

A stock 4G63T is pretty damn reliable if left alone or even throwing a 14b on it.



But overall, you can do a nice search to see the difference of a 16G equiped 4G63 and a HRC equiped 420a.

 

[SikRacing97GST]

Thanks guys for helping me again. I was pretty sure it wasnt "as" reliable as the 4g63, you guys summed it up for me 14b at 15psi should be all im going to do when im at the track, even though i can get a ported 16g for $250 from a friend, but im looking for a daily driver and decent gas mileage so 14b is my choice, it was only $50 bucks. Thanks again-Tony

 

[midnght]

Depending on what version of the 16G that your friend is selling, I would get both and sell one or the other for a profit.

The 14b COULD be bought from you for $200 from a Honda owner.

 

[saw wave analog]

hehe just read a bit deeper into his ad..

he is basicly in the same position you are, and it sounds like he is selling it because he is sick of fixing it..


"tired of messing with this car constantly even tho I love it to death" = its always breaking stuff. i believe that for the most part the only reason dsms have such a bad reputation as far as reliability is concerned is because they are high strung turbocharged cars that demand constant maintence. combine that with their relatively cheap price and the low cost of making them fast and you realize that a lot of the people bitching about it always breaking are the ones running 16g's on a stock motor that has 130k miles on it with no fuel control, a heavy ass clutch, and worn everything else. shit yeah its going to break a lot. get a decent 4g63 that you believe has had a good life and a logger and just keep your eye on it. much better off than a downgrade to an afterthought turbo system strapped onto an engine that sucks to begin with.


all imo of course