Buying a turbo EK4


_JT

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I'm eyeballing a turbo EK4. I've driven the car in the passenger seat and it seemed to run very well besides being very fast (obviously). It's powered by XSPower parts on stock internals, uprated injectors + fuel pump and a custom tune on a chipped P28. I've been searching and found that their 1st gen parts weren't really all that well but later gen are supposed to be reasonable reliable. The things I've heard and seen:
- The mani has ruptured on one spot, it has been welded. I know that these ramhorn mani's from cheaper brands sometimes do that. Might swap for a cast iron log one if it gives me a lot of problems.
- The two front most bolts keeping the turbo to the manifold tend to come loose after some time the owner told me. Is this normal or to be expected and not a big problem at all?
- It uses around 1l every 5k km/3k miles when using the power available. Sounds like reasonable for a turbo VTEC build, what do you guys think?
- I saw that the oil temperaturegauge seemed to hover around the 95 degrees celsius / 203 degrees fahrenheit. Not sure how reliable that gauge is though. Suppose that is normal for a turbo'd Civic as everything under the hood was never designed for a turbo? Or am I wrong?

Anything else to check?
 
Cracks are common on cheaper manifolds, turbos are heavy!
You can upgrade the hardware to stop the turbo bolts coming loose - I have locking washers, bolts etc to stop this :)
That is high oil consumption IMO - I use next to none and what I do use is only heavy track work, the fact its turbo'd shouldnt really mean it uses more oil really.
Also think thats high temp - I dont really see above 70-75 on the road with normal driving/cruising, sometimes creeps to 85 on a hot day but only ever above that on track. Think a few people on here do see more than me though, mine runs fairly cool.
 
Wow, that's really cool :eek: Cooler I think than my previous D16z6, B16A and B18C have ever ran :eek:

I've had a B16A and B18C which used about half of that, half a liter every 5000km if revving it hard (when warmed up obviously) so I thought it being a VTEC engine with added pressure in the cilinder that the oil usage wasn't that bad. But that might be wishfull thinking as I loved the way it went. I'm interested in more opinions on this.
 
95 is totally fine. You want be at 80-90 as an ideal target, but never exceeding 120 or dipping below 70 across different driving conditions is essential.

Oil use is a bit high but nothing crazy. I used to have an xspower ic on my skyline. It was fine, but I would only ever use a branded turbo (garrett, borg warner, holsett, etc...)
 
Oil temp on mine is 120 degrees whilst on track, running 10w50 millers. Never exceeds 120, although I'm not running an oil cooler.
 
Oil consumption can vary a lot depending on brand and grade of oil, so you may find another oil more suitable and consume much less.
 
I'm also seeing around 90-100 degrees oil temp on the road with 10w50 millers, no oil cooler fitted at the moment.
 
1 litre of oil every 3k miles when booting it? that sounds ok. I wouldn't expect it to drink that much if hoonigan mode is off though.
As Nicole says use locking/split washers on the turbo, that's what I used and never once had a nut come slack.
The oil temps are more than ok, I would struggle to get mine that high on the road with a 13row oil cooler, on track they would peak at 115/120 degrees C.

Normally turbo motors will drink abit more oil, the ring gaps etc have to be abit wider to allow for the increased heat.
 
Ok. It's also got a 6puck F1 clutch, I'll see how long that lasts.

Is there anyone that, based on the information that I supplied, think's it's not a wise idea to buy this car?
 
It's always a gamble buying modified second hand cars, it could of been put together by someone who knows what they are doing and are very particular with how they go about putting their cars together or you get people who do it on the cheap and just cobble it together.

You just have to give it a proper check over and if you feel it's ok and and meets your standards/expectations. Go with your instinct, if it doesn't look right or feel right it won't be.
 
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