My first ever turbo kit was pieced together from ebay. As long as you buy quailty parts you wont have TOO much of a problem. I bought a genuine tial wastegate, greddy bov, and high grade(high priced $1100) SS sidewinder manifold. The only non name brand parts i bought were an xs power intercooler, ebay bb t3/t4 turbo and universal intercooler pipes. The only problem i ever had out of my ebay piece meal kit was intercooler pipes blowing off. The universal pipes have no lip and at one point i had my t-bolt clamps so tight they were bendng the pipes. But every time i tried to go over 12psi, POP a pipe would seperate. After around a month of blowing off intercooler pipes the ebay turbo went out. But I know for 100% sure that it wouldnt have mattered what kind of turbo i had on there, if you contually blow off pipes your turbo will overspin which will blow any turbo. I ended up having all the pipes welded together as much as possible and a lip added to them were they couldnt be welded. After that and a genuine garrett turbo i never had a problem with it. But then again i only drove it for around 3-5K before my car was stolen. Just food for thought.

 

Me and my buddy put a ebay turbo kit on his ls swapped eg hatch, He ran that car for a longgg time like that and never had any problems, it was a 1k dollar kit that he also bought gauges and a few other little things. It was pretty quick and was good...I would never put one on my car though.

 

I'm running an Ebay turbo now, about 2k miles. I used an oil restrictor on the oil feed to it to keep it from smoking (seals don't hold up to 90 psi of oil pressure), and it's been good at 7 psi. No leaks, smoke, real quick spool up. Full boost at 3600 RPM or so.

Cost: $150 total.

I know I just made a bunch of ppl feel bad about spending 10x that, but I gave it a try, and it worked.

But it's still a knockoff: the 5-bolt pattern on the exhaust downpipe has bad spacing, and I had to redrill a hole on the downpipe flange (about 3/16" off).

 

Kirpich how much power did your car put down and on what management?

 

It only takes one turbine to fail and ruin your engine. If I had a beater I would go ebay turbo, but not on a nice car.

Your choice.

 

Guy at the local Honda dealer has one on his k24, and he says his only gripe is that he has to replace the turbo at least once a year due to the seals starting to leak/burn oil. He says they are cheap chinese-made turbo's, and are like $200 for a new one (rebuilding it is cheaper too, because it a journal bearing). He just replaces it every year.

He does not anticipate having it very long, and did not want to fork out for a nice turbine.

His kit seems OK, but you definitely got to be on your toes more in terms of maintenance (expecting it to break).

JOhn

 

Well I am thinking of possibly going with an Ebay turbo kit minus the turbo itself. Found one that seems to come with most of the things minus fuel management and injectors etc. I emailed him asking how muhc of a discount without the turbo so I could buy an authentic garrett or turbonetics t3/t4 turbo. I think with using an authentic turbo and this kit should work out. Might have to replace a few couplers and stuff like that but being it is a cast manifold should hold up better than some crappy tubular one. Intercoolers as long as they don't leak should always work. Nothing fancy there. I would maybe change out the wastegate as well but everything else should work as long as it fits and all hahha. But for like hopefully $650 or so without a turbo would be a crazy price.


This is the one I am talking about.

Turbo kit.

 

looks like a knock off rev hard to me. replace turbo, wastgate and get injector w/ ems

 

Talked to them some more and they can add this turbo in for an additional $450. Also offer injectors and a fuel pump for $350 more. It is a Walbro 255 pump and precision 440cc injectors. I emailed back about some 650's and the specs on the turbo. With a new turbo and wastegate and injectors/pump and still under like 1800 seems like it could be a pretty sweet deal.
Intercooler piping has beaded edges so with some good clamps should hold fine.
I would plan to get greddy emanage for tuning. Would like ems but I think I will try out emanage for a basic set up. I don't plan to go for more than 350 whp as I have a high mileage s2k and don't want to put tooo much wear on it right now.

 

Got some more info. Comes with a 6 month warranty. Can subtract $65 for no wastetgate from them to buy a Tial or other brand you may like.
So you can get the kit without turbo or wastegate for $660. Seems not bad to me. You get cast manifold, downpipe, fmic with piping, dump tube, oil filter relocation kit, boost controller, bov, couplers. clamps, oil feed and return lines etc. Claims it has all been fitted and fits perfect. Looks to not be a universal intercooler piping which is nice so hopefully would actually fit on.
Also he said that if you want 650cc injectors would be $410 for them with fuel pump.
Anyone know much about that turbo? I am going to research it some. Also if you do know about the turbo which wastegate mates up to it good and would be good for a 350 whp setup. How much room to grow would there be with that turbo?