hey guys. lookign for a used supercharger for my 89 civic. i just swapped a b16A in and am looking for some more horsies. anyone know a good place to look?

thanks

 

Honestly, your best results will be with a turbo rather than a supercharger. Superchargers take torque to make torque, while turbos use some of the ~33% of waste energy your engine already produces to make power.

I'd suggest reading the turbo stickies and then piecing together a turbo setup; a bare-bones setup can be had for $2k if you know where to look.

The only true benefit of a supercharger is the ease of installation; a correctly-sized turbo will have little to no turbo lag, and even engines like the viper's V10 would benefit more from a correctly-sized turbo than it would a supercharger.

 

I had been wondering about this as well. I had seen a lot of postings about turbos, and every turbo charged vehicle I've driven was very fun to drive, but I'd never seen supercharged civcs before, much less driven one. Honestly though, I might be willing to take the hit in performance if it comes down to ease of installation and cost. I'll be the first to admit that I don't have the technical know how to properly install a turbo in my car. How much easier and/or cheaper is it to supercharge, and would there be a worth while performance gain?

 

Supercharging will probably be actually more expensive.

 

Well, sounds like I'll be doing this the right way and just save up for a turbo that isn't going to detonate my engine. Something I was concerned with though, my engine's got 171k on it. I was wondering if I should go ahead and swap it out so I'm not trying to turbo a 200k motor, or just replace the engine when it does go out and move the turbo to the new one?

 

Do a compression test to find out the engine's health. If it's good then it'll be fine.

That engine can safely make at least 250WHP on stock internals.

I'm not sure what you mean by getting "turbo that isn't going to detonate my engine."

 

i have a friend who has a d16z6 that is supercharged with the jackson supercharger and is badass. + to supercharger is power is instant - is that takes power to make power
+ turbo runs off exhaust. - is have to wait til turbo spools to get boost

 

a t25 turbo is a great turbo for a stock civic that just needs a little boost
they spool really quick becuase they are small.

 

I was largely referring to saving up for a non-ebay turbo that was going to fail on me and mess up my engine. 250 WHP would be one hell of an improvement if my engine's good for it.

 

Required reading


Basically, pros and cons:

Supercharger - pros
-Less involved install
-Boost at idle

Supercharger - cons
-Price
-Availability
-To up the boost, you need to change a pulley and belt
-Inefficiency; it takes torque to make torque

Turbo - pros
-Price; a bare-bones setup can be had for $2k with used parts
-Efficiency; it uses the waste energy from exhaust gas heat to create boost
-Upping the boost is as easy as turning up a boost controller/changing a wastegate spring and getting a new tune
-Availability of parts; turbo Honda parts can be found all over the place (no, I'm not just talking about egay)

Turbo - cons
-Install is slightly more involved. Personally I'd rather replace an exhaust manifold than screw with an intake manifold.