91 civic wagon turbo rt4wd

Well not turbo yet. Basically saw one of these pop up for sale nearby and jumped on it. Planned just going to daily drive it and just have fun but thoughts of turbos sent me down an expensive slippery slope. High oil consumption resulted in a fully built engine replacement with a turbo in mind. Seeing as this is my first dive into heavy motor and tunning work progress has been slow and I thought making a build page would be motivational. The current status is stripped down again to address a low power issue. If I did the leak down correct everything seems kosher and all that was causing the power loss must have been timing. Hopefully soon I will have more fun with it.

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Cool. I used an RT4WD wagovan chassis to build my AWD 1st gen Civic. I put a little IHI turbo on a d15z1 (vtec-e) toward then end of my 10 years of driving it. I kept my AC in tact. I used a stock exhaust manifold and put a u in it, then put the turbo where the battery used to be. I had relocated the battery to the back when I first built it. I ran the down pipe out the passenger fender well and put a side pipe on that side. This would work on your car as well. If you don't care about AC just throw an ebay manifold on it and call it a day. I could safely run 6psi all day long, even with the tiny stock 190cc injectors and stock ecu. Good luck with it. RT's are cool!

In reply to carwhisperer:

Sounds like an old Cartech turbo system.

https://youtu.be/84Um-7TfwNk - for additional motivation.......

any pics of the car?

Thank you for not saying "Wagovan".

more motivation!

I am always on the lookout for a nice (or even drivable) one of these, and a turbo is icing on the cake.

What condition is the body in?

i still have that t25 rebuild kit for you.

Only other photo I have right now. New phone. Hopefully putting it all back together tonight. Triple checking timing.

In reply to ssswitch: body is mint. I think there was a fender bender of some sort because of overspray and motor mount issues as long as I can get an alignment I will be happy.

how strong are the 4wd transmissions on these things? do they handle power pretty well?

Like all honda civic data out there all the good stuff is hidden. The VIP performance one was 300 to the wheels but then vanished with out knowing durability. So many wagons get hacked for their drivetrain only to end up in a half finished project sent to a scrap yard. Drive shaft and rear end are miata beefy but the 90 degree power coupler has got to be the limiting factor. I have two us transmissions and on jdm but it is hydraulic clutch.

bravenrace wrote: In reply to carwhisperer: Sounds like an old Cartech turbo system.

Never heard of that. I built mine myself, doing what made sense for me at the time. Having said that, if I was to do it again I probably wouldn't change much.

I also put a solid driveshaft in mine and put in a shifter to put it in AWD mode. Worked really well I thought.

keithj wrote: Drive shaft and rear end are miata beefy

So not beefy at all, lol miata beefy is like jumbo shrimp

That push bar does strange things to me. I am powerless before the unearthly hold that offroadified unassuming commuter cars have had on me my entire life.

keithj wrote: So many wagons get hacked for their drivetrain only to end up in a half finished project sent to a scrap yard.

By the way, after I converted my civic to AWD with wagovan (oops) stuff, I drove it for 10 years and 189K miles. I wonder if that's a record for a major custom? Maybe a record for a 2WD->AWD conversion? [URL=http://s140.photobucket.com/user/914turboford/media/74Civic4x4003.jpg.html][/URL] [URL=http://s140.photobucket.com/user/914turboford/media/Civic4x4001.jpg.html][/URL] [URL=http://s140.photobucket.com/user/914turboford/media/Civic4x4004.jpg.html][/URL] [URL=http://s140.photobucket.com/user/914turboford/media/CivicTrbNoHood.jpg.html][/URL] [URL=http://s140.photobucket.com/user/914turboford/media/CivicTrbEngBay.jpg.html][/URL] [URL=http://s140.photobucket.com/user/914turboford/media/CivicSidePipe.jpg.html][/URL]

That is awesome carwhisperer! More details in custom fab and fitment?