Dropping a turbo in the 1.8 will be interesting to see. I wish you the best but, it will be an uphill battle that I learned a lesson about back in my younger days.
My first Eclipse was a RS trim that came with the 420a motor, this is a mopar(dodge) motor that is common in many mid 90s neons. Many people turbo'd this motor with the idea to beat the Turbo Eclipse model that was fitted with the 4G63. Not saying it was impossible but, you have to be truly commited to trial and error, expect MANY things to break, and not have any sort of budget limits. After my 420a blew up, for the second time, I finally broke down and bought a 90 FWD Talon with the 4g63. Overall it was eye opening and made me realize the amount of money I wasted trying to even bring my 420a on par with the 4G63.
Keep real expectations for a car that is a daily driver. I don't aggree with dumping money for a turbo in a 1.8, I also don't ever expect my 1.4 to run a 13s quarter mile. Not saying these are impossible to reach but, before you buy a car you should label your needs/wants. As much as we all want to squeeze the most out of our cars when it comes to performance I think at a certain point we have keep our expectations limited and really question putting $10,000+ in mods for a car that we bought for under $20,000.
Lastly, as stated many times before by numerous people. Modding a car is a hobby that cost money and most of the time makes little logical sense so whatever fuels your want to make your own personal "race car" by all means go for it.
-Daniel
