Truth.

 

My afi manifold just cracked at the bottom wastegate the first week of having it on.

 

I've got 135k miles on the car right now, I've had the car since it had 55k miles on it, first owner was a girl who literally probably never hit vtec. I have never launched the car nor done any type of clutch dropping. Still on stock clutch and diff etc. etc. of course I'm only N/A but I'm tuned on an AEM EMS already, so the engine management is already accounted for.

I dont think things will really change once I'm boosted, I get on it pretty often, but I still take care of the car like you should. You guys have definitely helped. I understand that no matter what power level I shoot for, more power = more danger,

I guess the question NOW, is how risky am I willing to be?

I do like Justin's idea, just start of slow, but on the right track, go turbo but low power levels on a safe log mani. After I do that, I'll probably start working on saving for strengthening the weak parts of the car like the diff, change up to a different manifold for more power etc.

When I do go down this road, I'll be around friends / family who will give me rides / lend me a car occasionally if something catastrophic happens, but I'd really prefer to stick to one car for where I am in life currently.

Has anyone done this? Regretted "half-assing" it at first? I understand the strong points of saving up, dumping 10-15k in the car and making it bullet proof for the power levels I want immediately, but that isn't really an option right now. How bad of an idea is it to "ease" into the scene?

 

It's a horrible idea. I also support the daily idea. If you can't afford/mess with buying a daily beater, then you can't even begin to think about affording boost. Sure you can buy the name brand parts and get the best of everything. But the fact is you are doubling the horsepower your car was designed for and expecting factory like reliability. A lot of us have been where you are. I know when I started out I thought I could do it for cheap. I bought the revhard mani, Garrett t3 turbo, eBay oil lines, piping, intercooler, greddy bov, tial 38 mm wg and emanage ult. I was one of those i read it on the Internet guys. I bought it all thinking I could put it together in my garage and it would work. Come to find out my tuner doesn't mess with emanage, the oil lines I bought are crap and leak, the Tbolts from the ic kit strip easy, and piping is a pain to cut and get right. So then I'm back online buying a aem, new lines, more Tbolts, and a second set of piping. 4 grand down and 2 weeks of downtime and I'm at the dyno making 318 with vtec set at 7k. That was fun for about a week. Then the more power bug bit and im selling the revhard, injectors, and turbo all at a loss. I want a top mount and enlist the help of a friend to help build it. He tigs together a masterpiece for me after an other 6 weeks of downtime and we are back up and running again. Another 2 weeks go buy and my oil cap decided to make its new home on top of the transmission. Apparently oil does a much better job protecting the cylinders from the inside of the engine instead of all over my engine bay. Lost cylinder #4, $3k for an engine on top of the $2k I just invested(horrible word but well use it) to redo my setup and my job a week earlier(thanks corporate restructuring). So after 6 more months of downtime and more money into stupid crap, I was back up and running making a little over 500 on e85. I couldn't have done it with out my bike and then little civic beater car to get around in.
So for all of you that think boosting is in your future even supercharging(they have problems too), buy top quality parts, and buy a beater. I can promise you that you won't regret either!

 

One more quick story. I have a good friend who has a 8th gen civic. It is his only car. He supercharged and made decent power. It was fun, quick and awesome. But it got boring quick. He maxed it out with a smaller puller, after cooler etc. still not fast enough. Decides he wants to go turbo. We go down and talk to Geoff at fr who we know pretty well. He tells us abouts this new turbo that bw is coming out with called the efr. Mentions that he's looking for cars to test it on. Geoff and my friend come up with deal and my friend gets one of the first efr 7670 turbos on a prototype fr kit. We install the kit and get it tuned. Thing is a beast! Super powerful, awesome spool, and sounds amazing! Drives like stock, idles perfect, amazing setup. One night he's coming home from work. Gets off on his exit and is part throttling it through a neighborhood at about 50. Accelerates just a little bit. All of a sudden he hears a loud metal on metal sound and then a small explosion. His engine blew. We don't know why or what happened. It just threw a rod through the bottom of the block. 100% stock engine, been running smooth as butter for a month. Like I said it was his only car, dad loaned him money for a new engine, and he was dailying his dads truck which was fine for a couple days. But then his dad started getting after him and harassing him to get all the parts he needed and get the car back together. It wasn't fun for anyone

 

An f20/f22 engine is a lot different than a civic engine. It has been proven to handle the power if properly tuned. Many of the guys here has DD their cars over 400hp no with no problems. I however would not attempt that on a stock civic. Like what i said. If you are looking for something just over 400 hp than i think an AFI, full-blown, or Kings motorsports stage 1 kit would be perfect. These kits uses a log manifold that has been proven not to crack and are very reliable. And if your driving an average of 20k per year it would be perfect. No worries about heat as other EL manifold will be extremely hot. If you want more power then you can run E85 and boost more. I believe King's Motorsports is putting out over 600 on there log manifold. Since you already have an AEM, then all you need is ID injectors, fuel pump, clutch, and a good tuner. I put out 470 on a log mani and DD it over a year with no problems until i switch over to a full-race mani. Heat was a big issue with this mani. Thank god ATP makes an awesome heat shield for it. With my vented hood and heat shield i now have no more problems with heat and I DD it. I would say an average of 1K miles a month.

 

Listen to the more experienced of us. Don't boost your S if you depend on it for daily transportation. Something WILL happen, and you'll regret it.

 

Use quality parts, with a quality install and quality tune, at 320-ish you should be fine.

 

You seem to be on the right track but I will have to agree with more experienced FI members here. Try to obtain a daily driver or at least a back up vehicle before taking the road to boost if you can. We all boost our cars knowing full well of the risk that comes with it and if you are ready for it then go for it and the FI community is here to support you.

Good luck with your build and happy boosting.

 

I cannot agree more with 3en