When I buy pistons for a turbo setup do I wanna get the lowest possible compression ratio or if I go too low will I lose power or break something?
do yourself a favor and consult someone that knows they are doing with turbo hondas. Hybridynamics would probably be a good start, and they probably could get you the best price on a lot of the parts you would need!
depends on the boost you want to push
and how much power you want to make… and if you want to run pump gas or race gas. or beable to run both depending on tune. just talk to the major turbo guys. like hrybrid or any of the big turbo 240 people or who ever. just dont be affraid to ask for help and sit down and figure out everything from cranks-rods-cams-heads-pistons. good luck.
Hybrid Dynamics 724.925.2660
for all your turbo needs haha
Damn not much help on this board just a bunch of advertisements (no offense to those who shop is being advertised though)
To answer your question, for a turbo app most likely you’ll want something from low 9:1 compression to mid 10:1 compression. If you are looking for something to potentially autocross where you don’t really want much lag which I think I saw in one of your many other threads, you’ll most likely want to go on the slightly higher end of compression with a turbo on the smaller size. Likewise, if bigger peak power is your goal, lower compression with a big turbo is your best bet. On a stock sleeved 1.8 liter I would suggest the first combination.
I was simply trying to help him avoid problems and making costly mistakes. He does not have to buy anything from Hybrid, but I bet you he would get better information from the source that has built a few turbo hondas then he would from most of the people here that read about how to turbo hondas
turbo = uber amounts of money specially if you dont know what you are doing. if you know shit about it its better to get someone who knows the the hell they are doing to help or do it yourself. spend money on redoing stuff or do it right the first time.
which do you choose
Agreed
Start with the direction you want to go/street/strip/autox then start asking questions so that we can help put you in the right direction. My two cents
directly from earl benson: Compression has very little to do with lag time. it will only change torque and the amount of boost you can run on a given octane
Going for a street/drag build and right now im thinking im only gonna be able to afford about 7-10 psi…i wanna run pump gas. Im not looking to go for big numbers rite now cuz I cant afford it…
Im a lil confused on what kinda pistons im gonna need becuz im not all that knowledgable…i see all the different pistons for different motors and they are the same size but what am I gonna wanna look at if im doin ls/vtec (B18/B16)? What is the different in pistons for different motors if they are the same size in diameter? (ex: 81mm)
I love feeling like the stupid noob! 
if u r going to run 7-10 psi and on the ls block i believe that the stock bottom end ,pistons rods crank is boost friendly, but if u want to run big boost obviously then stock stuff is not the right combo , u cant go wrong in the high 8 to low 9 compression range for boostin
So in the 8 range isnt too low?
i dont think so the evo is 8.8:1 stock compression but its also a 2.0, if ur looking to run big boost then lower the better but no reason to go any lower than high 8’s or even low 9’s. the cheapest route is stock ls bottom rotating assembly but its got limits as far as boost go’s , bolt on turbo kits 7-10 it will hold it fine if u start getting greedy with the boost start pushing 12-14psi and reving high and its not going to last long . how much power do u want to make ??? u can make an around 270 whp with stock internals 8-10psi
thats about all i want to go rite now at the most 10psi and get around 250 or more if itll do it…i dont have all the money in the world to spend on it rite now…im lookin to build a good solid setup that i can drive around for now
I ran 14-15 psi on a bone stock b20 for 2 years … motor still ran to the day I built mine. Tune it right and you are golden.
if you get rods pistons your good for 350whp all day
Just boost it. learn to tune it blow it up then build it. Dont build it up and run 8 pounds it isnt neccasary. But its your car not mine, good luck and keep asking questions, remember there are no stupid questions…just stupid people.
buy a set of eagle rods, and total seal piston rings. use stock LS pistions, and buy a decent fuel management system. run DSM injectors or something equivalent and you can boost all day. aftermarket pistions are unnecessary for your application. people boost stock type-r’s and rsx type-s’ … if that shit dosent blow up, then obviously the LS pistions will work well. calculate compression here: www.c-speedracing.com