Project Civic ~ All Motor & Fully Loaded

In my 5 years of ownership of this little sedan, she has had her fair share of adventures in the quest for more power; from a simple B16A transplant just a day after getting her keys (she was originally a single-cam non-VTEC), picking up basic bolt-on upgrades along the way, to a loaded & extensively modified NA machine she is today.
It has taken 3 dyno sessions to get the settings & tuning dialled in, with progressive improvements. Essentially, she's still retains her 1.6 litre naturally aspirated heart, with extensive work done on the engine head, the engine block receiving some beefing up to handle the power, & a transmission swap to the rare & highly coveted 98' ITR gearbox with LSD & a 4.785 final drive to exploit the increased capacity of the powerband.

From Rides

The final output on the dyno reads 168.12whp & 147nm, which translates to 205.5bhp & 179.3nm at the crank (considering 18% transmission loss, which is typical for B-series engines). A stock B16A is rated to make 170bhp at the crank, & typically 120+ to 130whp. While the figures may not be much to shout about, if you put it in the same league with high performance cars like EVOs, STis or 350Zs; to put things into perspective, 168.12whp from a 1.6 litre NA engine ~ that's already an output of more than 100 wheel-horsepower per litre! 105.1 whp per litre to be exact, achieved without resorting to turbocharging or supercharging. Admittedly, that's a consolation for me, for not breaching 200whp mark which I earlier thought was easily achievable (not unless I stroke it to 2 litres *will discuss about it another time*).
Power figures aside, it's the driving impression that will matter most, at the end of the day. In terms of response & power delivery, it's very swift, extremely smooth & linear all the way to the redline (as evidenced in the last dyno chart); to the extent that the 'VTEC kick' typically felt during the VTEC transition could no longer be felt or heard as distinctly. Such is the characteristics of the most aggressive camshaft design from Skunk2, the Pro Series Stage 3 bumpsticks. *It takes a little used to (without the VTEC signature loud bark), to start appreciating how much faster it is from point to point*. To sum it up, the car pulls much harder now, with significant gains & useable power throughout the rev range, especially from mid range all the way to the redline. The real fun starts from 7,300rpm onwards ~ watch the needle sweep across to the limit in one fluid motion =D
The torque band feels pretty broad & easily accesible from as low as past 2,300rpm, making hard launches prone to wheelspin, but the forward motion & traction is effectively remedied by the LSD & the thicker profile rubbers in using.
0 - 100km/h? With this setup, I reckon it should be in the mid, to low 6 secs *if i don't get sucky on my shifting
Quarter mile? Yet to try, I'd be very happy to be able to run 14 second-ish passes
It just takes a spirited drive out in the open roads to put a grin on my face. Quoted "there isn't much out there that will beat the thrill of a high strung, naturally aspirated engine, angrily & furiously screaming its way up to 9,000rpm" ~ I can't agree more... =)
It feels much faster in the open roads, pulling easily across at century speeds (80km/h - 160km/h), and acceleration is ample even at high gears (got to love the close-ratio gears & high final drive). Though it may not be a blistering straight line performer (by tuned car's standard), I believe it's got enough to hold its own against higher spec-ced performance cars out on the open roads ~ "may not be able to beat, but won't go down easily either".
Though, she still needs a little more upgrade in the handling department. Now, I'm fairly contented with the new found power she's making, still getting accustomed to driving her effectively to exploit the finer points of her potential =)

From Rides

Here's a bio profile on Project Civic:

Engine 1.6L NA JDM B16A2

Engine Upgrades Skunk2 Pro+3 camshafts, Skunk2 Pro-series valve springs, Skunk2 hi-comp forged valves, Skunk2 Pro-series titanium retainers, Toda Racing adjustable cam gears, head port & polish, Power Enterprise Kevlar timing belt, lightened crank pulley, B16B (PCT) hi-comp pistons, aluminium engine block guard, ACL main & rod race bearings, Walbro 255lph fuel pump, B18CR fuel injectors, NGK Iriway 8 spark plugs, Ultra power cables, Arospeed voltage stabilizer, Skunk2 Pro-series 68mm throttle body, Skunk2 Pro-series intake manifold, Top Fuel air ram + K&N open pod intake, Skunk2 Black Series billet oil cap, custom tuned-lenght 4-1 header + 2.5” stainless steel piping system, and Skunk2 Mega Power (60mm) universal muffler + silencer

Engine Management Hondata S300

Transmission S80 (98’ DC2R) manual gearbox with Helical LSD + 4.785 final drive, Exedy 4-puck Stage 2 racing clutch kit + lightened & balanced flywheel (3.8kg)

Handling / Chassis GAB HA series coilovers with AVCS, EG9 front lower arm & undercarriage assembly

Brakes EG9 front + rear disc brake system conversion, dual layer brake servo, and Improve stainless steel braided brake hose kit

Wheels & Tires Sparco Racing NSII 15”, Bridgestone Potenza RE001 195/55/15 semi-slicks (front), and Toyo Trampio R1R 195/55/15 semi-slicks (rear)

Exterior OEM stock standard, EG9 rear boot lid spoiler, and OEM EK9 rear emblem

Interior EG6 meter cluster panel + dashboard, Nardi Torino 3-spoke steering wheel, Skunk2 billet shift knob, Apexi’ auto-timer, EK4 semi-bucket seats

I try to keep the exterior & visible interior stock, simple & clean coz 'less is more' & to avoid unwanted attention. It's already enough having a bloody loud exhaust system. I had to cap it with a silencer to keep the noise levels within acceptable levels, & so that my neighbors don't hate me, at the expense of a few horses & a bit of fuel consumption due to back pressure from the restrictive silencer outlet -_-"
Measured fuel consumption now is 7.54 kms/litre, down from a fairly efficient 10.9 kms/litre before the extensive upgrade. So Project Civic is now officially a fuel guzzler that takes in premium 97-octane or higher fuel only (high-compression-engine friendly).
You got to be hardcore to be driving Project Civic on a daily basis. With the level of mods, she's a car that begs to be driven hard & fast. More effort & coaxing is required to drive her in a civilized manner (already detuned, with emphasis on favorable daily driving, rather than all-out track days), to blend in with the masses & keep under the radar of the men in blue. Yes, she's definitely a bitch to drive, in heavy traffic... xp
Project Civic ~ that's a true driver's car, for me =)

That familiar blue top ~

From Rides

Came across this photo while browsing through FB ~ a press coverage of the other day's dyno session! My friend's exotic NSX takes the center stage here =)
Looking further on the photos in the upper left ~ that engine bay with blue top looks suspiciously familiar.... Project Civic on its maiden dyno run!
Now i finally recalled, there was a guy with a DSLR taking random shots during the dyno session; must be from the press. Can't quite make out what the text are about coz i'm chinese-character blind ~ it's got to be about Sarawak getting its very 1st dyno facility. The guys at Pro Dyno has got to be happy to be getting these free publicity... =)

Project Civic on the Dyno

Project Civic was put on its maiden dyno run at Pro Dyno in Kuching last Saturday, tested on the very 1st dyno machine brought into Kuching, if not the state which, was only set up & commissioned recently. The availability of these test machines would definitely give a big boost to the local tuning scene; as prior to this, to get a thorough quantitative & qualitative gauge on their engine performance, enthusiasts could either a) take out the engine, pack & ship it to KL, b) ship the whole car to KL, or c) put it on a trailer, or drive it to Brunei ~ just to put it on a dyno test *maybe PUSPAKOM would have one, but they're strictly for inspection only*. For a start, there are rumours that 2 more of the dyno machines are being shipped in ~ that's just a testament of the maturing tuning scene here =)

It took quite a while to prep the car up for the dyno run & getting machine calibration settings set. The machine is a 2-wheel dyno manufactured by Dynojet. Okay, i'm not going to bore you guys with anymore mundane details, but a couple of amusing dramas did unfold during the session; here are some photos & captions posted by the Pro Dyno guy himself, Clement Chong:

this is a scary car, why!!

kanasaii!! THIS CAR IS SO SCARY UNTIL MY TWO NUTS NEARLY DROP OFF MY PANT.

guess how much the tuner want me to rev the car???
6000rpm... NO!
7000rpm... NO!
8000rpm... NO!
9000r...pm.... this is the max rpm range on the rpm meter....NO!
10000rpm...... you must be insane............NO!
i finally rev the car pass the 9000rpm mark and over the mark which has no more readindg and continue until about the 0rpm mark. walau A!!! i only show this type of engine in japan magazine many year ago and thats a SPOON for honda . scary neh!!! i rev it i think pass 11000rpm, i myself cant believe it, can you???
FB link to ProDyno

He was behind the wheel, while my friend Ricky was busy dialling in the tuning for the Hondata S300 via his laptop in the passenger seat. Though, my dyno session did came to an abrupt end following a bang complemented with a spectacular exhaust flame sprouting antic ~ did my engine blow up after repeated rev runs to stratospheric 11,000rpm?? Fortunately no, *phew!(in relief)* the upgraded valvetrain assemblies & strengthened block held its worth against the abuse. It was actually the stock ignition coils that got toasted on the last dyno run... *now i know why modded hondas run pricey aftermarket ignition coils (MSD)* and that was the only extent of damage...

Here's a clip of one of the dyno runs

& the result which, i wasn't too enthusiastic about:

158.55whp @ 8,800rpm; 137.79 Nm (14.05kgm) @ 5,800rpm

~ which, translates to

193.35bhp & 168.04 Nm (17.14kgm) ~ estimated output at the crank / engine, assuming transmission loss of 18%.

Compared to the stock output of B16A 1.6 liter naturally aspirated engine on papers of 170bhp @ 8,200rpm & 157Nm (16kgm) ~ there are some considerable gains, but still leaves much to be desired as the current setup is supposedly capable of pushing over 200bhp at the crank.
The max torque figure isn't exactly impressive too, although it is quite close to the mark of a 1.8liter B18C GSR. There's an apparent torque dip around 4,400 to 5,200rpm that needs to be remedied with further tweaking. *may be running slightly higher profile tyres of 195/55/15 compared to the standard 195/50/15 does play a bit of reducing factor in the torque output to the ground*
The hp curve towards the higher rpm range is expected to spike higher, but it could be due to my current setup not giving sufficiently high (crazy high like 11.6 or higher) to fully capitalize on the potential gain of the hi-cams... currently in the progress of addressing this compression issue, hopefully it will net more gain to achieve 170whp on the next run.
Since the peak power has been shifted upwards to almost 9,000rpm, the B16A stock, & relatively long gear ratios (compared to aftermarket gear ratios la..) will make it a little tricky to keep up & stay in the powerband when shifting gears. In short, the real sweat-in-pants action only happens beyond the 7,000rpm & it literally it takes ages for the rpm needle to swoop past that magical mark with my current gear ratio!! After all, how much horses your engine makes should take a backseat to how much horses your car can effectively put to the ground... *the gear ratios surely determines how the power gets delivered to the ground, but i'm not sure to what extent it will affect the max hp output as well??
From the low to mid range, the power delivery feels a bit flat (& torque-less too, ~ inherent characteristics of small naturally aspirated engines; the mantra "there is no replacement for displacement" reigns here). Maybe i felt it increasingly so, coz i drove it right after i took Ricky's impressive 211whp & 233Nm FD2R for a spin... xp

Among the other 2 Hondas on dyno that afternoon was Ricky's K20A FD2R (superb output !) & another Steven's NA1 NSX which netted 218whp & a whooping 300Nm!

I just had to settle being the slow-poke for that day.... Until the next dyno run....
=)