Why Turbo Motors Blow Up
There are alot
of people that put turbo on thier Hondas and blow the
motor within a month or possibly even a couple weeks. This gives Hondas the
reputation that they are not reliable when turbocharged. Why does this happen?
Why did the motor blow up so soon?
I'll tell you why. Say someone
has a Civic EX, GS-R or the new Civic Si. They buy a
turbo from DRAG and install it. That turbo kit is designed to run 8psi. The fuel system that comes with that kit is an inline Bosch fuel
pump and Vortech FMU. That system is good for
the 8psi that the kit is setup to run. The owner of the car is running around
hauling ass, boosting in every gear and loving it. Then they start to think
"if runs this good at 8psi, I wonder how it runs at 9psi". Then they
turn the boost up. The motor doens't blow at this
point, it just makes more power. Then they think "man it runs good and it idn't blow up at 9 psi so let me
turn it up to 10psi". Now keep in mind that all they are doing is turning
up the boost, they aren't doing anything to add more fuel. And no more fuel is
being added because thier setup is maxxed out. The combo of the pump and FMU is not going to
give any more fuel, no matter what. Finally, they turn it to 11psi and it runs
for about one day and then BOOM, blows a piston. I
just read something that a shop published and it said "a motor will be
making the most power the instant before the pistons melts."
Now they start to blame the Honda
motor and DRAG for building a shitty turbo kit that blew thier
motor. The fact is that their motor would probably run fine for 100k miles with
the turbo if they just left it at 8psi as it was designed because it did not
run lean at 8psi.
I have talked to several people
that did EXACTLY as I just described and ended up with a blown motor. Most of
them owned Civic Si's. I even did it and blew a
piston. But there are MANY people that stay within the safe boost limits and
make gobs of power and do not blow the motor. Then there are people that go
through the time and expense to upgrade the fuel system to deliver more fuel
and then they safely turn the boost up to as much as 24psi on some motors. I
have talked to more than one person that has run 28psi on a stock GS-R motor
and runs 18-20psi daily on the same motor. Why? Because he has it tuned
correctly.
Another example is Nelo from
I am currently running 12psi on
my motor. The motor is 100% stock and is holding up okay because I made sure it
was getting enought fuel.
So the point of this little article is to straighten out some common
misconceptions about stock motors that are turbocharged.
IF YOU ADD ENOUGH FUEL, YOU CAN RUN AS MUCH AS 20PSI EVEN ON STOCK
MOTORS!!!!
Please note that the higher boost
levels will wear the motor more and the chance of something going wrong does
increase. But all in all, if you keep everything in working order, 15psi should
be safe even on a stock motor. I am not recommending this because you could
blow it up if something goes wrong. I am just telling you what I was able to
run it at and what other people have been able to run. Please make your
decisions wisely and do not raise the boost just because I said it was okay.
I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT HAPPENS TO YOUR MOTOR IF YOU DECIDE
TO TURN UP THE BOOST!!!!!!!!