i have an 90 honda civic si-engine d16a6, it has 215,000mi on it.
i am spendingmoney on intake, headers, etc and am thinking that the engine could **** the bed. so should i keepbeefing up the engine? i mean what if its stops working? maybe boost it down the road, what money would i waste?what could i do now to it to get extra power and not waste money?the engine seems ok but a lot of mi. i do plan on keeping this car an long time, and i plan on racing it. but working on it slowly its not an daily car i have one for that, its for fun.i was reading about half swap with just the head maybe thats the way to go!thanks for your help guys. sorry if (?) not clear.

 

You're not going to get any power for free, so i guess it depends on your idea of "wasting money". Personally, if I blow up my motor on my test drive after I install my turbo, it'll still have been well worth the money I spent. But it really depends on your budget. If you can afford an engine swap, I'd say go for it. That way, you'll have an engine that has less miles, wear and tear, etc. to work with. If you can't afford a swap, I say do a compression test and if everything checks out okay, boost it.

Oh, and the half swap you're referring to is called a "mini-me" swap and is usually good for 20-something ish horsepower.