best mods for turbo prelude - Honda Prelude Forum

turbolude98 · 09-29-2008, 08:29 PM

Alright here's the deal. Last week I totalled my 1993 mustang, last year of the foxbody and yep, it had the infamous 5 Liter engine.

Anyways, I picked up a turbo prelude (1998 with 120k) for 3500, f*ckin sweet deal. the seller thought it had a bad head gasket, but the car is fine.

Im gonna be honest, im a v8 guy but had to buy an import because of gas prices. I know nothing about preludes and these engines, but not a complete idiot since im fairly knowledgeable about mustang.

What are some decent mods for the car? I have no idea what kind of turbo or who made the kit, is there anyway to tell? Im lookin for a 13.0-13.5 street car without digging into the motor and beefing up the internals. Is this a realistic goal or am I dreaming? (Again, high 12s with my stang was as easy as bolt ons and H/C/I) Please help me out on this one, I look forward to the responses.

Thanks guys.

petern101 · 09-29-2008, 08:34 PM

Right now, the best mod for you is to educate your brain.

Go to the FI / NA forums and read info there.

It would also help if you just peeked around the engine bay to figure out what you have. You're asking a group of online individuals to help you when you don't even know what you have, how are we supposed to help?

turbolude98 · 09-29-2008, 09:09 PM

Not tryna be an ass, but I have no idea what the car has. The kid I bought it from bought it at an auction. It was stolen and had the audio equipment jacked. It had a viper alarm (not connected right now) so the car wouldn't start. This kid didn't know wat was done to the car. Just from lookin at the car, I see the turbo, intercooler, blowoff valve, intake, greddy exhaust (catback as far as I know). PSI is unknown because they stole the boost gage. Now if there's anything else I can identify let me know. Im the first to admit I have a lot to learn, and I do that by asking questions. Now maybe im jumping the gun and asking very broad questions, but I do want to learn, hance the reason I joined here.

Believe it or not I've been reading a lot online the passed 5 days, starting from the day I was looking at the car.

Thanks for the quick comment, look forward to more from you or anyone else.

lilbill97 · 09-29-2008, 09:29 PM

Sounds like you should bring it to someone that knows imports and can identify what your dealing with. Then take it to the track and see if you get lucky and already have a 13 sec. car.

BUT if you cant get in contact with the person who owned the car while it was turboed then idk if you will know what internal work, if any, that you have.
and read the side of the turbo and see who made it(turbonetics,garret,etc.)

petern101 · 09-29-2008, 10:42 PM

Why would the seller think it had a blown headgasket and the car run fine???

That is a big point to consider the life / status of the engine.

Stolen turbo prelude??? Yeah, this engine is probably toast soon.

I would really think about buying another short block and transfering some stuff over. With unknown history like that, it is a ticking timebomb.

malone_ · 09-30-2008, 02:58 AM

take some pics of the car / engine bay and post them...

1SlicK_LudE · 09-30-2008, 03:39 AM

Get it to an import car tuner and get the car tuned.

turbolude98 · 09-30-2008, 06:39 AM

The kid didn't know too much about cars. The car isn't a ticking timebomb it runs great, I had a leakdown and compression done last night. He thought it had a blown head gasket because of smoke coming out of the exhaust, and it also had an exhaust leak sound at idle and at WOT it was realllll loud. Well after ripping it on the way home, the car runs fine, no sounds, no ticking, no smoke. I had a mechanic take a once over of the car real quick, he thought it was a head gasket too. The same guy, the mechanic, told me he probably babied it too much and the heads needed to be flushed out from the build up.

I'll check out the turbo this morning and see wat it says, will it have the trim on it as well, or should there be a part number I can look up?

Since I don't know what has been done, I actually have scheduled some time for dyno/tune session on monday. Im very intrested to see what it puts down, but id be happy with 225whp.

I'll also post up some pics once I get home from work.

Artifex · 09-30-2008, 12:09 PM

I would seriously consider having it tuned. There's no way to know what state it's in; at an absolute minimum you need to datalog it and see if it's even in the ballpark.

keahistight · 09-30-2008, 04:08 PM

wait ... what?

I am going to reserve comment until I see some pictures later on tonight

1992LudeSi · 09-30-2008, 05:50 PM

i would have the car inspected like they said. i wouldnt wana just go straight to a dyno or a track without it being inspected and making sure it can even handle right now. like you said you dont know to much about it, so go to an import shop around you or something have them take a look at it. if there good they should be able to tell you about the turbo kit and maybe they could take a look at your engine, to see if anything is wrong. once that is all settled out take it to the strip and see what it runs or dyno the thing.

spaceman_spiff · 01-26-2009, 02:00 PM

get a boost gauge, very important

ryan yco · 01-26-2009, 08:16 PM

just out of curiousity what was the compression at...and figure out what its supposed to be at aswell. could help with the internal stuff and also take the valve cover off and look and see how the cams, and valvesprings look, and cleanliness of the head.