HCF Project Section - Apostle's R18 Turbo Charged 08' Civic LX

Hey Guys,

Well I was stupid and put my exhaust on robbing me of low end hp and tq. What's the solution? Go ahead and put the turbo on! So, I'm ordering my TSI Kit and will be installing when I get it. I hope it works properly. I have a tuner lined up and hopefully I won't get the problems that others have. Any tips suggestions you have will be appreciated.

Okay. Turbo Kit is officially ordered! Yikes, $3,300. It better be worth it. But I know it will. So if I get in this week, I will be installing over the holiday weekend.

Also I ordered this boost gauge. 0-23 PSI with a memory funciton.
http://egauges.com/images/Cyberdyne/Large_d/A214E331Y.jpg

you might want to get some more gauges like oil temp, pressure, look into them they can be very helpful when problems occur, and gl with the build, you going for a sleeper look with no rims?

you might want to get some more gauges like oil temp, pressure, look into them they can be very helpful when problems occur, and gl with the build, you going for a sleeper look with no rims?

Not by choice lol. I'll get better rims later. I just don't want to spend the money on them right now. I'de rather upgrade performance. But that will probably the first thing I do in the spring(and after I pay off the turbo kit). Plus I still haven't found rims I really like and that are lighter. Plus it will be winter soon anyway. I might as well wait till the next nice driving season.

maybe a wideband, definitely some gauges, boost, EGT, oil pressure, and wideband are all helpful. Make sure to not cheap on the tune, i'm sure the '08 engine is in good condition, i say go for it and don't go all out til she's tuned and theres no leaks in any piping or hoses

I have heard nothing but bad stuff about that kit. Let us know how it works out

It seems like they solved all the problems with the kit. And the procivic guys were pretty cool. They called me up after I ordered to talk about the kit and installation. And they will help me out. The only real problem is the base map possible. But I think I will be able to manage and I am not chincing out on the tune. I've got a good guy in chicago lined up. I'll let you guys know when I get the kit next week. It should be in on labor day weekend and then I'll make a video and post it on youtube for all to see.

are you installing yourself? and how far away from the tuner do you live? and do you have another car? All things to think about if your doing it yourself because you might run into some serious problems

I have 4 days to work on it. I live like 30 minutes form the tuner. My girlfriend has a civic too, (unmodded) We basically live together and we're in school together. So I'll be fine if I have to let the car sit for another week or more. So I think I should be okay. And I'm just crossing my fingers that when I start it the first time, it runs half way decent. Maybe I'll get lucky and it will work real well.

A guy on 8th civic got his to work real well without the tune. And he was in Ohio which is slightly higher elevation than where I am in Illinois. So I'm hoping the similar atmospheric conditions will also allow me to use the base map decently. I'll post pics and vids during the process.

get a wideband if your running on basemap, keep those a/f's under 15 to be safe... i turbod my car bud, its been down for four months... get ready for some punishment. you shoulda got a kit from somewhere else, procivic is pricey as heck.

get me a link to that kit, i want to check it out

The kit is this....
http://www.procivic.com/pages-product_car_part_info/category-70_88/product-963/index.html

I have a boost gauge and a narrow band a/f. What is the difference between narrow and wide?

narrow is a glow stick basically, wide band will actually tell you your a/f properly... you need to pick up a bosch wide band o2 sensor and a wideband a/f gauge

Why a wide band 02 sensor? stock sensor won't work with a wide band gauge?

I didnt have any problems really..other than a few oil pressure problems. :D Way to go didder, goof

Way to go didder, goof

I dont know what that means...

What kind of oil pressure problems did you have? and how did you solve them?

Just thought I'de throw a picture up of my engine bay for starters. Man I can't wait till this kit comes. I've read the instructions a million times now :)

http://i482.photobucket.com/albums/rr183/apostle77/summer2008214.jpg

he meant way to go because i havent had a car for 4 months lol... but i also did a motor swap, pulled my tranny apart, and did just about every mod to a car you can imagine :( bad idea!

the narrow band that comes on your car does not work for crap when the car starts running to rich or to lean, which is how its going to be running when you are turbod, if your running a 16 on your narrow band and really your at like 18 because of inaccuracy... the wideband is CRITICAL when keeping tabs on the health of the engine..

to lean and your going to be feeling like its running great, have more power than ever, but you will also be looking for a new motor pretty quickly

Can you recommend a decent but not super expensive wide band?

narrowband gets a reading by splicing into your o2 sensor's wires, a wideband gets it's reading from it's own o2 sensors. Wide = accurate, narrow = jumps around and doesn't actually tell you anything useful

What are you using flip? Does the new o2 sensor go where the original first o2 sensor goes? Or does it nee ddanother plug, or can the car use this o2 sensor as well?

i use an aem uego, its $200+, i went for cheapest but best i could find...

the wideband sensor comes with a threaded plug, you will have to drill a hole and weld on the plug on your downpipe around 2 feet down tjhe pipe from the turbo.. the wideband will screw right into there, then you run the wire from the o2 sensor into your car and into the wideband

EASY AS PIE... :)

Can't you just adapt the secondary o2 sensor to take the widebane?

nope :)

flips using an AEM wideband i believe. Anyway, yea didder is a bum and apparently the high oil pressure was due to there being air pockets in the gauge line givin inaccurate readigns

Meaning you can use narrow band? And Wide would just be a heck of a lot better?

narrow bands are worthless. /story.

Yeah, I've accepted that now ;) So I have the AEM UEGO on the way :)

Update!

Turbo Kit is waiting for me to pick it up tonight. I have my one step colder plugs, and boost gauge ready. The wideband should be here tomorrow. If not, I'll go ahead with the install anyway. I'll snap some pics of the kit tonight.

get an oil pressure gauge also, at the very least

Yeah, i'm planning on just picking up a crappy autozone one since i dont' have much time to order it online, and i'll need it right away to check whether or not I need to put a pressure restrictor in the oil line for the turbo.

Where do you have your oil pressure gauge measuring from?

who says im boosted?

Assumed the car in your sig is yours. Either way, you should probably be able to tell me where many people get their pressure reading :)

haha yea it is boosted. I bought an oil filter sandwhich adapter (GReddy) and then it comes with ports in it that you can use to screw the oil pressure lines into

Where did you get a sandwhich adapter? what is that? Is it just an extentsion that goes between the block and the oil filter?

yea pretty much. and just search for it online. Im not sure what support is there for your car though

So let's see some pics of everything!

Here are some quick picks. Haven't really unpacked anything. But here are a quick few to wet your lips. hopefully I'll get my UEGO early tomorrow, so I can take the downpipe to get the lug welded on. And I'll make many pics and vids during the install on saturday!

http://i482.photobucket.com/albums/rr183/apostle77/DSCN1687.jpg
http://i482.photobucket.com/albums/rr183/apostle77/DSCN1690.jpg
http://i482.photobucket.com/albums/rr183/apostle77/DSCN1694.jpg
http://i482.photobucket.com/albums/rr183/apostle77/DSCN1693.jpg
http://i482.photobucket.com/albums/rr183/apostle77/DSCN1692.jpg

looks solid! That brand new turbo look pretty :D

i recommend the oil sandwich as well if you can find it. Makes it a lot easier than dealing with the stock oil pressure sender and whatnot.

Man, this is taking longer than expected. But that is to be expected :)

Tapping the oil pan right now. That will be done soon. Everything else is off the car. Intake etc. So soon we will bolt the pan back on. And tap the oil sender thing(couldn't find a sandwhich).

Then tapping the cooling lines will be no prob. Mounting the intercooler should not be a problem either.

Doing the fuel injectors will take some time. But it should be done tonight. Maybe even fire her up :) I've got lots of pictures, but I dont' have time to post them now. And I'll make a vid of the engine running with it on.

lol done yet?
Don't do anything too crazy ("fire her up") til you get her tuned.

Almost done. Replacing the fuel injectors now.

And of course i'm going to fire it up. Can't tune it unless it's on. Hopefully the base map will run well. But she is definitely going to be running at least for a tiny bit.

I wasn't saying don't fire it up/turn it on. I was just saying don't go crazy with it or hit boost until it's tuned

No install pics?

I have lots of pics, but I can't get them on the internet from here sorry.

Pictures!!!!!!!!!!

^^^ or ban

^^+1
Let's see 'em!

^^+1
Let's see 'em!
I think its a guy....:)

Okay pics up in abit. I had to leave the car near chicago. And drive back down here to UofI for school. Gotta finish law school. :) But I did drive it a bit. I'll post pics in a sec, and a more in depth description of the current status.

Up on the stands
http://i482.photobucket.com/albums/rr183/apostle77/Turbo/DSCN1725.jpg

Intercooler kinda mounted. Man I guess I didn't get as many pics as I wanted.
http://i482.photobucket.com/albums/rr183/apostle77/Turbo/DSCN1730.jpg

coolant pipes tapped
http://i482.photobucket.com/albums/rr183/apostle77/Turbo/DSCN1729.jpg

Soldering new Fuel Injector clips on
http://i482.photobucket.com/albums/rr183/apostle77/Turbo/DSCN1740.jpg

Oil pan back on with the new oil return fitting installed.
http://i482.photobucket.com/albums/rr183/apostle77/Turbo/DSCN1723.jpg

Turbo installed
http://i482.photobucket.com/albums/rr183/apostle77/Turbo/DSCN1759.jpg

Fully Installed
http://i482.photobucket.com/albums/rr183/apostle77/Turbo/DSCN1768.jpg
http://i482.photobucket.com/albums/rr183/apostle77/Turbo/DSCN1757.jpg

Here is one vid. It sux bad. Doesn't really show anything and the sound sucks. Sorry

YouTube - Another Short Drive (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPVn-0na4os)

This one is a little better, still not much though.

YouTube - Small drive R18 Civic Turbo Apostle (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JphvMfwFdAE)

looks good. Im sry, but what did you say you were using for tuning?

Aem fic

The car is not running well, but if feel hella fast. I never went over 4000 rpm or 1/3 throttle. And it pulled like crazy. I was worried I would not have the low end hp because I have a 3" exhaust. But the turbo gives plenty of back pressure to give me the low end back. And I can only imagine how much high end hp I'm going to have. I'm thinking 210 hp and 190ish ftlbs of tq. We'll see when I get it dynoed next week.

Oh I meant those number at 7 or 8 psi.

nice looks pretty clean. that's kinda strange how they have the intake mounted for that kit. you'd think all it would do is suck hot air from the engine bay. about how long would you say it took to install the whole kit?

theoretically, you should be able to do it in a weekend. It took me longer with problems and having to work.

nice looks pretty clean. that's kinda strange how they have the intake mounted for that kit. you'd think all it would do is suck hot air from the engine bay. about how long would you say it took to install the whole kit?

I need to move some things around and shorten some hoses to tidy things up. But I'm pretty happy with it. You have to do the intake like that because there is no room for the filter by the intake on the compressor. The water cooling hoses and intercooler piping are in teh way. Plus the MAP sensor has to go to the intake tube.

It took me 3 days. I worked all day saturday(7:30 am to like 10 pm) then 7:00 am on sunday till like 1 am. then it was basically done by 3 pm on monday. Then I rechanged teh oil and put teh bumper and stuff back on. I need to wash it bad, it's super dirty. I still have to hook up and mount my gauges. The wires are all in the car, but they aren't powered yet and not mounted yet. I'll figure it out this week.

Did you buy a kit greddy or did you buy individual parts?

Apostle bought the TSI kit. Me however, i bought individual parts and just happen to have a GReddy turbo

I would also point on top of that, Greddy had many more options due to the year of his car. Me on the other hand, there is basically no support for the 8th gen yet. The r18 is just too new still and gets overlooked do to the k20. But in the future it will be more easy to piece a kit together for the 8th gen.

What gen is yours greddy?

6th, and like you said, it is still pretty new with not a lot of aftermarket support. You should also note that your warranty is probably voided

Lol, yeah. Kinda sad I no longer have a warranty at only 9000 miles. But who cares? The way I see it, it is a honda and I wouldn't have used the warranty anyway if I had left it stock. Plus I can do the maintenance and repairs myself. And this time next year I'll have lots of money so it won't really matter. I'll be buying a more expensive car to mess with. :)

Yea surprisingly i dont see problems with the r18s. I work at honda and see problems iwth the k20 trannys and the hybrid motors, electrical and combustion

That's good to know :) I can breath a sigh of relief. But have you seen any boosted r18's come in? Hopefully i dont' kill the engine.

jus went thru all the pages. congrats on the install. can't wait to see ur numbers after the tune.

Thanks! I can't wait either. It's killing me being 160 miles from my car right now. But Monday will be here in no time. Then I will be tearing up the place. I'm thinking the next mod will coil-over spring/shocks. The car lifts up with just a little throttle. I need to tighten it down and lower or I will be all over the place.

definatly lower it. are you gonna keep the stock wheels for the sleeper look? You should try and set up a race and get vid, bettween you and an 08' SI and not tell em' its boosted then enjoy the look on they're face as they get walked by an lx. lol or is yours an ex?

if you get any wheels, get the 8th gen EX wheels, look pretty sweet IMO, and yes, there was a guy on here with the tsi kit that had a lot of problems with tuning

I'm going to keep stock wheels for now. I'de rather upgrade some other things when I get the money, like suspension. Also I'de like to ge the NST pulley kit. Pllus the sleeper factors is pretty cool. Granted my headlights and tail lights aren't stock, and you can see the intercooler in the grill. But you can't see all that from the side I suppose.

I don't think I'll have problems tuning it. They got all those probs fixed on the first few people that did the kit. There are lot of them on 8thcivic.com that are running great now. It had to do with teh version of the AEM FIC software they were running. Now there is newer better software. And they couldn't even get them running on the base maps. Mine runs, just not that great. So i'm optimistic I will be running great on Monday.

hell yea. I cant wait for some vids. what kind of numbers will that kit support?

Well, I could go as high as 10 PSI safely. I'm going to get it tuned at 8 psi.

I'm thinking I will be around 200 whp and 190 ft*lbs of torque. So it should rather fast. At 10 PSI and a new intake I can probably get 230 whp and 200 ftlbs. But I am going to go safe for awhile. Plus I dont' know if the clutch can handle that much. I am already going to wear it out in like 10k miles. So I'll try and go more power once I get a new racing clutch and resurface the flywheel.

Looks great man!

so what's the progress

Had hangups. I think I broke the car's MAP sensor by blowing coolant through the intake. Had BOV on wrong line. So it's at the tuner right now. They are backed up. Gotta replace the throttle body, which I would do myself, but hte car is 2 hours from me right now. So i'm at their mercy. They said they should be able to get to it this week. So hopefully I can pick it up this weekend. We'll see. I'll let you know.

Does any of it have to do with you tearing around with it right after you installed it without tuning?

Nope. And I didn't tear around with it. If I did, I would have better videos :) I went up the block and back never going over 4000 rpm. It was from my first start up where like I said, the vacuum line for the BOV was onthe wrong line. It allowed coolant to blow through the BOV and back into the intake and over teh cars MAP sensor. Which I think broke it. So it needs to be replaced.

That sucks

Yeah, it does. Mostly because I dont' have it up and running. But it will only be like 230 for the part, and whatever they charge me to put it on, since i can't do it myself right now(with it at their shop). So I'll just suck it up. If that gets it going. Then it's not bad for my first turbo install. Valuable lesson learned though.

what car are you driving right now

I have no car right now :) But I'm at law school in champaign illinois. They have really good public bus transportation, plus my girlfriend lives here and she has an 01 civic that she drives me places, or I drive it. So I'm okay right now without my car. I just want it back more than a need it back.

I'm learning patience :)

????????

What? more problems?

nope, same ol. still waiting

Alright, talked to the shop today. I am finally off the back burner. They have someone working on it today. And I'm really thinking I'll the car back and running next week.

They don't think it's the MAP sensor or a wiring harness issue. So, they don't know what it is, but they should be able to figure it out soon. Either way, whatever the issue is, it should be resolved early next week.

I'll post when I know what the issue is or have it back or something.

Great news! The car is running good. On the base map. The ridiculous thing is that all it boils down to is that the intake pipe wasn't completely on the turbo intake, it had come off. Which essentially causes the MAF to get bad readings and the car to run like poo. So now it is running good. They are going to weld up my cut exhaust pipe. Then I am going to have them tweak tune it at 8 or 9 psi. I don't think I want to go to 10 right away. Should I?

I will be picking it up Friday! Then I will surely take some videos. And Saturday I will put some time into mounting my gauges well. (they are just hanging around in the passenger compartment right now.

I'll keep you all posted.

good luck with it. i've been keeping an eye on this one for a while just cuz it's a brand new civic so i thought it wouldn't have that much support yet. what kind of power are you looking for?

It depends on how high I set the turbo. If I go with 7 psi, I will be hoping for like 210 hp and 190 tq. I'm thinking of doing 10 psi. So like 230 hp and 205 tq. We shall see though

sorry you prolly already answered that and this next one too. what kit did you go with from procivic?

TSI kit form procivic for the R18 motor.

Sweet! Vids soon so I can +1 ya. lol Good luck

..................wow

it's always recommended to have an intercooler no matter what your boost level

If you go over 7psi u need intercooler right?


thats why his name is eclipsefan and he drives a honda :(

Man I'm sick of this tuner. They don't do anything fast. They were going to weld up my exhaust (1 cut pipe that needs to be welded together) That would take 10 minutes to get it up on a lift and weld it. It has been 2 days and they didn't get that done. So now I don't think I'm going to be able to get it tomorrow. But, since it is running, I think i'm going to just go get it anyway and get it welded somewhere else and tuned somewhere else. Thsi place is ridiculously lazy and slow.

Turbo is running great! It drives awesome. I don't know what the deal is though, on my way home, I got my boost gauge working and it has read as high as like 13.6 psi. I don't think that can be right. I'm going to plug my computer into the FIC tomorrow and see what that map sensor is seeing. And then turn the turbo down if it is in fact set that high. I will also make some videos and stuff tomorrow.

13.6 psi thats crazy on a civic

13.6 psi thats crazy on a civic

how is it crazy?, ur hella dumb man sorry but you obviously dont kno **** about what your talking about

13.6 psi is crazy on a civic? wow, a fire, go play in one kid. And apostle, you cant just go turning down the boost, it can and most likely will screw with your AFRs. Also, is it 13.6 psi constant or what

13.6 psi thats crazy on a civic

...no, THIS is crazy on a Civic:
http://www.hondacivicforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4648

eclipsefan, can you either A: post useful stuff or B:drop off the face of the earth because EVERYTHING you post has absolutely 0 contributions to anything people post. Go die

Well, turbo doesn't go from 0-13 psi instantly. But if I do a quick acceleration from 0 it won't get to 13, but If I keep going to say 100-110 mph it will. If I keep the throttle down it will just keep spooling up to 13 psi. So I need to adjust the wastegate so that when it gets that high the spring is loose enough that it releases the air so the turbo doesn't spool up any higher. right now I just let off the gas a bit and the blow off relesases the boost and it drops too say 5 psi and starts spooling agin. This way I keep it under 10 psi. But I dont' want to keep doing that. I want the wastegate to stop it from spooling over 10 psi.

Also....I'm quite frustrated to learn that my car has a governor that won't let me go over 126 mph. I hit that so fast...Anyone know how to get my car go faster than that?

Also here is a video...it still sux but promise ill get better ones later. This was getting ona high way So I got stuck behind some cars then passed them when I had room to merge.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_-RSKmmpog

new video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dB9i1mmc6L0

An on ramp to a highway

dude, your tires areNOT rated to go that high

Speed wise? No probably not. They get a little wobbly at that speed when i brake. That's one of my next things. New rims and wheels. But I'll probably wait till spring(and try to resist going fast)

racing and going fast is all about accelerating....thats what makes it fun lol, so just smash thru the gears and then lay off once you get to 80

Here are some new pics guys...

http://i482.photobucket.com/albums/rr183/apostle77/Complete%20Turbo%20Pics/DSCN1825.jpg
http://i482.photobucket.com/albums/rr183/apostle77/Complete%20Turbo%20Pics/DSCN1826.jpg
http://i482.photobucket.com/albums/rr183/apostle77/Complete%20Turbo%20Pics/DSCN1835.jpg
http://i482.photobucket.com/albums/rr183/apostle77/Complete%20Turbo%20Pics/DSCN1833.jpg
http://i482.photobucket.com/albums/rr183/apostle77/Complete%20Turbo%20Pics/DSCN1847.jpg
http://i482.photobucket.com/albums/rr183/apostle77/Complete%20Turbo%20Pics/DSCN1849.jpg
http://i482.photobucket.com/albums/rr183/apostle77/Complete%20Turbo%20Pics/DSCN1852.jpg
http://i482.photobucket.com/albums/rr183/apostle77/Complete%20Turbo%20Pics/DSCN1843.jpg

paint it black!

Nice comment greddy :)

damn with the new way they make the engines with all that plastic and stuff you can barely tell its turboed, good **** tho man...I like the sleeper look.

Thanks bro :)

why can't I hear the blow off valve? I know the turbo is there, I just like the sound of BOV's, not the super obnoxious ones though.

when you get some new rims/tires, I'm curious to see your 1/4 times if you plan on taking it to a strip. One day I'll get a turbo :), until then I'm :(

I guss the camera doesn't pick it up very well. Just normal camera(not for great sound or video) I'll get one from the outside. Just as soon as I convince my gf to take the video as a drive by. Maybe I'll do it tomorrow.

gauges

http://i482.photobucket.com/albums/rr183/apostle77/DSCN1892.jpg
http://i482.photobucket.com/albums/rr183/apostle77/DSCN1890.jpg

nice lookin gauges, but honestly who cares?

I WANT NUMBERS

good day to you sir!

Who cares that you don't care? Why do people care about numbers? It's just as arbitrary.

I'll post numbers when I have numbers.

your running a horribly crappy emanage type base tune, i wouldnt trust that farther than i could spit :( thats why i want numbers, youll see when the tuner starts playing with your timing among other things that the basemap hadn't touched.

and im curious what those r18s can do... duh? and numbers are not braggery :) you have a clean boosted civic, thats braggery! the numbers are just the insurance that your clean boosted civic is running to its best most efficiant potential.

swapping a motor is HARD, trust me

The tune is better than you think. It runs really well. Maybe could get more performance for sure.

There is an oil burn problem right now though. He won't tune the car until we get it fixed. I talk to others on 8thcivic.com who have the same kit. I installed a catch can setup and that isn't stopping the oil burn. I'm waiting for an oil restrictor for the turbo, because we think oil is seeping through the seals causing oil burn. But the turbo may be damaged too. So I'll be swapping that when TSI sends me a new one after we determine that is the problem. Then it will be tuned. Then I will have numbers.

turbo is burning oil?? hows your return line? sometimes it can not flow out fast enough.

if its a ball bearing turbo then HECK YES, get a restrictor! they call for way less oil than journal bearings, it can seep past the seals with to much oil.

and hows your compression? im sure its fine that new of a car but its just another possibility.

(sorry about my comment, I read your comment as being very sarcastic. I just meant people like to see where you install the gauges)

Yeah, 4 of us with the kit are all burning oil. It is a bearing turbo. And it's supposed to havea restrictor, but it's not restrictive enough for the amount of oil the R18 pumps through my lines. And they keep sending us the wrong parts to fix it. So when I do get the restrictors, and it's still leaking, I will be getting a free new turbo.

I had my tuner to a compression test. All the cylinders were fine.(I was worried I was blowing the engine, but it's fine) Also, I am running a greddy oil catch can system now. But the oil still is burning. Not sure if it's burning in the exhaust or the engine through the intake. Hopefully it will be resolved soon.

email stan@fast-turbo.com and tell him what turbo your running. he will get your the right oil restrictor for cheap, its a KILLER EASY fix, ball bearing turbos need hardly any oil to run properly, stupid tsi should have known this from the beginning.

lol and no worries :P i was being kinda blunt.

I've been talking to TSI, apparently, Garret changed style of restrictor to something different than what they had originally been using. I had sent pictures of what I have to TSI. TSI ordered correct restrictors and are sending me a new one. Hopefully the problem will be solved Then I can get my tune.

But, I did beat a new Mustang GT on the highway to give you some idea of speed. He came flying up behind me when I was going 70, he was probably at 80 already, so I hit the gas and I started wakling him all the way till I got over 120 and then I let off.

lol nice kills those stangs way a ton but are putting down a fair ammount of power. close to 300hp if im not mistaken in the new gt's

get some zr's on those rims and you wont stop at 120 trust me, ive had mine going 145 now just seeing what she had in it, it was still climbing but i ran out of straight road :(
ALL HAIL TURBOS!

good luck on that restrictor, and im still excited to see the numbers.