The first-gen RSX (2002-2004) hasn't proven to be the most popular platform for forced induction. Comptech and Jackson Racing both offer blower kits for the K20, and only a handful of companies, including GReddy, HKS, RevHard and Cybernation, offer off-the-shelf kits for the DC5. The engine's orientation doesn't help matters much, forcing wrenchers and fabricators to squeeze turbos and manifolds into a small space between the firewall and the back of the block.
Some think of it as Honda's way to discourage the boost-addicted. The thinking goes that Honda engineers designed the K-series engine to hit its peak as a high-compression, naturally aspirated screamer, a platform intended for road racing, if it was to be raced at all.
But where those well-intending engineers failed to address the urges of many an RSX owner who just wants to strip compound from their tires in quarter-mile tests, the aftermarket and tuning shops alike have responded.
Tai Ha, of Atlantic City, N.J., is one of those compound-shredding enthusiasts that Honda didn't plan for. Ha received the '02 Type-S as a gift from his Pops for getting his ass through high school. He admits he was "still young and didn't know much about modifying cars" when he started throwing some bolt-ons at the K20. He started with a plan to build a high-horsepower N/A motor and began by opening up the breathing passages.
An AEM intake, HP Racing header and Borla exhaust yielded gains, "but nothing spectacular," Ha says. Still looking for more, he installed a Hondata ECU module and noticed immediate gains. Moving VTEC engagement to 5200 rpm and the redline to 8600 "had really given the car some balls."
Balls being a relative word in import performance, Ha notes he was still only running 14-second/100-mph quarter-mile passes. It was good enough to school a couple of WRXs and Mustangs and lulled Ha into a false sense of confidence that was quickly shattered.
"Being as cocky as I was, I lined up to a debadged, supercharged 2003 Cobra, and it ripped me a new a**hole running a 13.2."
Ha asked himself how an all-motor four-cylinder was supposed to keep up with a supercharged V8. The answer was simple. "Fight fire with fire," he says.
The all-motor plan went out the window and instead Ha took the Type-S to CK Auto in Philadelphia with forced induction on the brain. CK built Ha a turbo setup based around a Turbonetics 60-1, custom manifold and custom piping. But within two hours of getting the car back, the motor checked out, "oil and smoke everywhere," Ha recalls. He cites "unknown reasons" for the damage.
"I had been racing a lot on the all-motor setup, and had a misshift now and then. I think the rods just weakened."
We suspect one of those reasons is because someone's foot got the better of his brain, a forgivable enthusiast offense as long as no one gets hurt. And the only thing hurt in this transaction was Ha's wallet, which he cracked open for a replacement K20 with 10,000 miles, sourced for $2,500 from a wrecked '03 RSX.
Back to CK Auto with a thicker head gasket to lower compression, the turbocharged DC5 underwent the same treatment as before, using the same Type R throttle body and intake manifold from his previous motor for inhalation, while the engine blows out through a 3-inch test pipe from Unforgettable that dumps into a 3-inch Thermal exhaust.
To this day, Ha says the RSX runs strong and healthy. "I pull on STi's and EVOs all day long."
His pulling power will increase once he takes delivery of Hondata's K-Pro ECU. He'll push it even further when he installs an in-car computer from Xenarc Technologies with touch-screen interface, and has real-time tuning parameters available from the driver's seat. For now, boost is regulated by GReddy's Profec B controller.
Dyno sessions at Performance Specialties in nearby Pottstown, Pa., showed untuned results of 320 hp to the wheels. Later runs down Atco Raceways dragstrip put him right at the numbers by which he was stomped by that Cobra long before: 13.25 seconds at 109 mph.