It took a lot longer than expected.
I have already heat wrapped everything and install the intercooler before.
Heat wrapping took an evening.
Installing the intercooler and cutting the bumper took a few days.
I also have a few other pipes installed before.
Those pipes interfered with my air box, and I don't have a SRI, so I made one using left over pieces of pipe.
Since some parts doesn't fit, I had to hack them up and get them welded.
The original kit has the IAT sensor located before the turbo, which doesn't make sense, so I drilled a hole to put it right before the TB.
I started on 3PM Saturday.
I started by taking off the things I don't need anymore.
Due to space, I had a hard time taking out the heat shield.
Taking off the stock manifold turn out to be not a problem.
None of the bolts holding the manifold to the head are seized.
The only seized bolt during the whole install is the bolt holding the manifold to a support bracket at the bottom, and it just snapped right off.
Some cutting of heat shields happened.
And then I tried to get the turbo behind the engine.
It doesn't fit.
I didn't want to take off the valve cover because it was already 3AM.
Powersteering hose was also in the way.
It was scary how much I can twist the PS hose.
And in the end, I jammed it in with some help.
After finally bolting down the turbo to the manifold and the down pipe to the turbo and test pipe, I had to put on the oil feed and return.
The original kit provided a T fitting to split the stock oil pressure sensor hole into 2 holes. One for the stock oil pressure dummy sensor, the other for oil feed for the turbo.
That had resulted in some people cracking their block.
I don't need the stock oil pressure sensor, because I have a separate oil pressure gauge. The original oil pressure sensor is useless anyway.
I just screwed the oil feed directly into the hole.
No T fitting, no chance of cracked block.
The return line was interesting.
I had no idea how to put it on.
There is a 45 degree male fitting on the turbo's oil outlet and a straight male fitting on the oil pan (which I replaced with a baffled pan, tapped with a oil return).
There is a 45 degree female fitting on one end of the hose, and a straight female fitting on the side of the hose.
It would seem logical to have the straight fitting on the hose screwed to the 45 degree fitting on the turbo, and the 45 degree fitting on the hose on the straight fitting on the oil pan. But doing that caused the oil line to rub against a heat shield, which is quite sharp.
So I had to install it backwards.
Now the oil line rubs against the subframe. At least the subframe isn't sharp.
Then I had to run the vacume lines.
Those I had to rush because it was already 5am.
At that time, I don't need the trouble light anymore. The sun is bright enough.
At 6am, I finally have the car assembled enough to drive it, so I called it for the night.
I rolled the car onto the street, uploaded the Hondata basemap, and the car didn't start.
The car would crank, and die.
It took me 5 minutes to find out I forgot to set the MAP settings.
The drive home was fun.
Wastegate opens at 8.8psi.
All the anti-seize I put on were smoking.
Smoke was coming out of the hood.
The new heat wrap didn't help either.
The next day, I decided that the PS hose was a bit too close to the exhaust side of the turbine, so I made rolled up a flat piece of heat wrap, and tied it to the PS hose.
A few days later, I made some modifications to certain things to make the intercooler fit behind the rebar.
There are some surface rust on the welds and on areas where the impact foam rubs.
I decide to sand those off, and paint it.
Since I will be painting it, I decide to paint it a new color.
I also installed a boost controller, which concluded the whole install.
I had a guy known on ClubRSX for his online street tunes tune my car.
He gave me a good base tune, the car drives really well in low load and daily driving conditions, but knocks a lot at high load and high rev.
After many unsuccessful attempts, he gave up on getting rid of knocks.
My tune reached his comfort zone on ignition timing.
It just happened that there was a dyno day hosted by a local shop, so I went for a dyno run to see how much power I was making at that time.
The best run:
The tune used in this run has 2 extra degrees of ignition from the usual street tune.
After that, I had a local friend took a look at the tune.
He took out 2 degrees of ignition from 3rd gear from the usual street tune (4 degrees less from the above dyno run), and the car stopped knocking.
I have yet to try 4th gear.
I have also redid the boost control settings.
The street tune was boosting to almost 14psi.
Based on the information I found, the turbo was only good to 12psi.
I now have 2nd gear at a smooth 10psi, and 3rd gear at a smooth 12psi.
I don't bother with 1st gear, and just let it run off the waste gate. It is not like I have traction in that gear anyway.
Once I have time, I will be going back to the dyno.
I expect to make less power than the above dyno sheet.
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