Should I Turbo or go NA? (Auto daily driver)
 

My wife and I purchased a 2002 ES a couple of months ago and we love it. It's so much better than our other car, a POS 95 Civic DX coupe. I started modding my Civic, but that has so many mechanical problems, and it's too slow to begin with, so we decided to focus our attention onto our Lancer. I've lurked around here for a while, doing research, but I wanted some experienced opinions.

Our car is automatic, a daily driver. We don't have a warranty on it, so it's fair play to mod. I would like to increase the horsepower/torque significantly, not to the point of making 13 second quarter miles or anything, but something decent that would give me 160-220 hp. Now, reliability is one of my top concerns...I don't mind paying extra for something just as long as it has long term reliability.

Could I get a stage 1 turbo kit, run it at no more than 5 psi using stock internals and have decent reliability with it? Since it is an auto, would the tuning be very difficult?

Or should I go NA and get I/H/E with throttle body, intake manifold, chip, yadda yadda yadda?

I know a turbo is the best bang for the buck, but should I be ok if I run it at low psi?

Also, what can you guys tell me about the US Lancer and the 4g94 engine? My experience is more with Hondas (although I'm converting to the Mitsubishi religion :) ) so I'm not too familiar with the pros/cons of Lancers. Does the engine respond well to mods? Is it a good engine to turbo? I heard the transmission is excellent and can withstand lots of abuse, true? Also, what are some negatives about these cars?

Thanks.

i don't know the answers to any of your questions, but welcome! you've come to the right place for lancer knowlege.

Well your not ganna hurt your reliability at all with intake and exhaust for sure and as long as the chip is programed for your type of car (not something made for the EVO) then It wont do any dammage either. Any turbo you get will slightly reduce the lifespan of an engine however at low psi like your talking about it shouldn't cause too many problems if any, but if reliability and lifespan are absolute most important I would just stick with N/A because the ES model was made primarly for an economy car.

My recomendation is if you are going to put a turbo in it, keep it low psi and set it at moderate RPM levels so that it doesn't kick in unless you are driving more agressively.