What is truly the best bang for the buck? I'm sure a variety of smiliar discussions have been made but have they gone into depth with comparsion? I recently been trying to figure out what I want to do with my Eclipse NT. I'm at the point where the basic bolt-ons have been added and tuned onto my car. The only thing to hold me back now is go natural aspired (yes, I know its not as much power as the turbo but how many 420a's do you know that has gone all out on the engine without a turbo?) Or go with a turbo kit and gain tremendous power?

Okay, so that is the big issue, now the new dilemma is what is best turbo for the buck? CI Motorsports, Hahn Racecraft, SlowBoy Racing, or piece it together for myself. All of them are average below $3000 besides the Hahn turbo kit with intercooler option which is a must. I looked into all of them and all are good specs. This is why it is hard. So I'm asking for any opinions or facts of this matter from people who have the kits or know what is best. I dont want some guy whom thinks they know. Obviously, there are ups and downs of these kits. Whatever info would help so that I invest my money into the correct turbo kit.

Originally posted by bradako
What is truly the best bang for the buck? I'm sure a variety of smiliar discussions have been made but have they gone into depth with comparsion? I recently been trying to figure out what I want to do with my Eclipse NT. I'm at the point where the basic bolt-ons have been added and tuned onto my car. The only thing to hold me back now is go natural aspired (yes, I know its not as much power as the turbo but how many 420a's do you know that has gone all out on the engine without a turbo?) Or go with a turbo kit and gain tremendous power? Okay, so that is the big issue, now the new dilemma is what is best turbo for the buck? CI Motorsports, Hahn Racecraft, SlowBoy Racing, or piece it together for myself. All of them are average below $3000 besides the Hahn turbo kit with intercooler option which is a must. I looked into all of them and all are good specs. This is why it is hard. So I'm asking for any opinions or facts of this matter from people who have the kits or know what is best. I dont want some guy whom thinks they know. Obviously, there are ups and downs of these kits. Whatever info would help so that I invest my money into the correct turbo kit.

First off, welcome to 2gnt. The first thing about this site you should know is that it is full of the best info for the 2gnt platform. All of this is at your fingertips with a little click of the search button.

There are many that have gone NA. You won't have the big HP numbers or low 1/4 times the turbo guys have, but there is prestige in going this route, since there had been only one documented time below 14 seconds. Nobody has eclipsed the 200 whp mark, and to get it to 170 whp is a huge task. The big players I can think of right off the top of my head are bullettdsm, DR1665, and VX100, all of which are on this site. Mark currently holds the NA 1/4 mi. record with what I believe is 14.3. Takes a lot of money to go this route, and you have to be dedicated to it, or you won't gain shit.

As most will tell you, turbo is the way to go. But do it right, or you will grenade your motor. There is tons of info in the turbo section of the forum, so get to reading. As for comparing your kits, the Wiki has a good write up (Here!!) that explains and compares the three common ways to turbo, being HRC, star, and DIY.

So again, welcome to 2gnt, show effort in searching and gaining knowledge, and use the new Wiki as well. While it is pretty much brand new, it has tons of info on it already. You'd be surprised at what you can accomplish when you read and search.

I only know of HRC and STAR and I've never seen a HRC kit in person ONCE. The starkit is good, just don't get greedy with the boost and you'll be fine. I don't really know what they come with anymore last I heard is they got a new manifold.

Make sure you engine is pretty healthy, mine went about 15k miles before I cracked a ringland but now that I think about it I beat the crap out of it.

Originally posted by HadesOmega
Make sure you engine is pretty healthy, mine went about 15k miles before I cracked a ringland but now that I think about it I beat the crap out of it.

That's pretty good, mine is a bit over that (about 16k miles) and is doing okay for now aside from my hg leaking, so I am looking into replacing the motor.

You may also want to look into the treadstone turbo kit, it is pretty much a star kit without fabricated pipes (downpipe/intercooler piping) and without a fuel system

Originally posted by bradako
What is truly the best bang for the buck? I'm sure a variety of smiliar discussions have been made but have they gone into depth with comparsion? I recently been trying to figure out what I want to do with my Eclipse NT. I'm at the point where the basic bolt-ons have been added and tuned onto my car. The only thing to hold me back now is go natural aspired (yes, I know its not as much power as the turbo but how many 420a's do you know that has gone all out on the engine without a turbo?) Or go with a turbo kit and gain tremendous power? Okay, so that is the big issue, now the new dilemma is what is best turbo for the buck? CI Motorsports, Hahn Racecraft, SlowBoy Racing, or piece it together for myself. All of them are average below $3000 besides the Hahn turbo kit with intercooler option which is a must. I looked into all of them and all are good specs. This is why it is hard. So I'm asking for any opinions or facts of this matter from people who have the kits or know what is best. I dont want some guy whom thinks they know. Obviously, there are ups and downs of these kits. Whatever info would help so that I invest my money into the correct turbo kit.

I stopped reading after you started babbling about how you tuned bolt on your vehicle.

I would go with TURBO. Stay away from CI, try out Slowboy or treadstone, or piece one together yourself. Not too hard.