Supercharged or Turbocharged NSX

[VegasSpeed]

What do people here think in regards to purchasing a used car with a SC or TC kit on it? Does the engine need a good compression test or will that not tell the whole story? Another member here warned me that on a turbocharged car the engine may only last so long. Even with a good compression test he said there is no way to know for sure how well it will work out. This guy had a compression test done on his car with 220 across the board with a 120k mile car. He blew a rod or piston about 10k miles later after installing a nice Turbo kit on it.

 

[DRIFTER]

The key to both is proper tuning / controlling intake temp (heat kills)

 

[NSXGMS]

The key to both is proper tuning / controlling intake temp (heat kills)

I'm not sure the CTSC requires the same amount of attention and tuning than a garden-variety turbo setup. That's a bit misleading. The SC options are more common and more reliable and require nothing more than a basic understanding of NSX tuning or an AEM.

Turbo setups are generally more technical and usually require an advanced level of NSX tuning knowledge to achieve reliability. Turbo blow-up stories are 10 to 1 over SC blow-up stories and that's including the early BBSC.

I would recommend the SC option for any kind of daily driver NSX. More low-end torque, more driveability, nice balance and proven reliability. If big hp is what you're after then turbo might be the best route but I would be very sure of what you're getting into with a turbo.

But don't kid yourself--any FI option will reduce the life of the drivetrain by some degree. A properly designed/tuned system should give you tens of thousands of miles of driving pleasure. There are many CTSC setups with nearly 50K miles on them still running strong.

As far as purchasing a car with FI, find out what kind it is and who installed/tuned it. Post it here. If no one's heard of the unit or the shop I would remove it immediately or look for another car unless the drivetrain is checked out with a fine-toothed comb and cleared by an experienced NSX mechanic and the tuning has been analyzed by someone who knows what they're doing with NSXs.

 

[99 rs]

^^Also to add find out how long the turbo kit was on the car. In this case I think the longer the better (within reason). Most of the bugs are usually in the first couple thousand kilometers I find. After those are worked out it's smooth sailing.