Hyrbids: From Frakenstein swaps to turbo kits....

My fellow Honda & Ac lovers -

I'm one of the Moderators for this section...Honda/Acura Hybrids. As we all know it involves the swapping of engines that belong with engines that don't...lol...

In all seriousness, a growing craze is becoming known as the Frakenstein Transplant (not to be confused with the Frakenstein Turbo kit), which includes the removal of the current engine with the replacement of the B18 (DOHC/VTEC) engine.

Anywhere from $500 (seriously tired) to the upwards of $4000 (internally worked) these engines can be found and swapped into your ride for an increase in HP potentials starting at 200 rwhp in stock trim.

A great article on engine swaps for Honda/Acura was in Sport Compact Car [Issue #/Month will be posted at a later date, and I will try to scan and post it for you], where it exclusively detailed which engines can be done with minimal effort, and how.

Of course, if "swap and plop" isn't your forte, you could contact Turbo People, (www.TurboPeople.com), Turbonetics (www.turbonetics.com), GReddy (www.greddy.com), HKS (www.hksusa.com), and now Apex'I (www.apexi.com) with Honda/Acura specific turbo kits to truly make a hybrid (T3/T4 Hybrid *get my pun here?!). Most street kits come with the TD40H (15G) or the TD05H (18G), unfortunately, bigger compressor/cartridge kits aren't readily available off-the-shelf, and if they are, they are big money. If you aren't a fan of turbocharging (why wouldn't you be?!), you also have the method of roots/eaton-type superchargers, by Jackson Racing (www.jacksonracing.com), or the centrigual supercharger by Vortech (www.vortechsuperchargers.com).

* A detailed breakdown of benfits and negatives of the different types of turbo/superchargers will be given at a later date. *

So you wanted more HP..you wanted to call your car a Hybrid. The only question left is: which method will you use to do so?

Until next time,
~ Import Tuner