I am new to this forum, but I own an automatic 2001 2.5rs. Yes I hate automatic but I bought it because it was too hard to find the coupe and hoodscoop models for sale in my area and I intend to change the tranny. To get to the point I wanted to know what you guys think is best price wise: doing a jdm sti engine swap or buying a turbo kit and bolting it on to the existing engine. I figure to bolt on a turbo I would have to change the internals if I wanted over 200 whp, however I am no professional. I need advice.

 

if you have a complete kit, 200 HP is easy to get, dude. AVO kit claims to have gains upto 265 HP and is very reliable kit to put on our RS (thats what I'm saving up for) or I was also looking forward (if i get a good engine) to engine swap (JDM STi) because it has more power gains and more reliable too. but I heard it was expensive to do and time consuming.

 

I personally would go with the engine swap mainly because once you get the turbo kit that's pretty much it. You can get the engine and have a custom piece than even get the turbo kit later down the road to keep it an every evolving project. That's just me though.