Realize the full Performance/Economy Potential of a Honda Civic VX

[suspendedhatch]

Feels like I found a new home among the Honda outcasts.

Thanks for reminding me to get a subframe brace. I thought about getting the Megan brace but I wouldn't trust it w/out seeing it in person first. Also it hangs low and looks too JDM'y for my taste. Although not many people should be peeking down there. Then money got tight so I never got around to it.

I looked for a short time for a factory brace and then forgot about it. Is there a big difference in weight and effectiveness of the factory brace vs an aftermarket? Do all the DC's have it?

I had a Skunk2 rear brace but sold it with the DX (this was before I decided to NEVER have anything Skunk2 or JDM on my car). As far as making a difference, with it installed I could park unevenly on a steep driveway and still be able to close my hatch window. Try this out and you'll see what I'm saying. Parked that way with my suspension and swaybars, the car teeters on 3 wheels! I would teeter the car by hand to get a big reaction from my 11 year old. I wasn't sure if the Autopower 4pt made the Skunk2 irrelevant or not, and I had planned to someday get some bars added to it if I could find a respectable offroad shop that didn't look down on Hondas and mistake me for a dumb ricer.

I play with the idea of having Motiva do a stealth turbo for me like they do on the Tundras. They take a brand new Tundra and turbo it w/out any drilling or cutting. Pop the hood and you don't see a thing! You can remove it w/out any trace so the dealership doesn't void your warranty. The turbo is mounted back by the muffler! Yeah I know it would be impossible to run the charge piping on a Honda. But I can dream!

[thisisntjared]

with the turbo back by the muffler the throttle response must be super laggy and i bet the turbo must spool pretty late.

as far as i know, all dcs have the subframe brace since i got mine off of a totalled 94 ls. it mounts on top of the subframe, NOT where the control arms are. your subframe should have two holes on each side of the top of your subframe with the appropriate nuts already tack welded on the inside. i bet the oem peice weighed 2lbs tops, but more like 1lb. anyway, i wouldnt get anything that connected where the front lcas are just because they would have to dip bellow the exhaust and thats just flat out too low and could really ruin the subframe.

[suspendedhatch]

Yeah, being so far downstream the turbo doesn't have the advantage of all the heat that you get when it's mounted right on the exhaust manifold. On a Civic it wouldn't work so well. But it works great on the Tundra.

I just liked the idea of a stealth turbo. I'm going to stay N/A. Since my goal is less than 200hp there's no need for a turbo.

[suspendedhatch]

I got the Integra subframe brace on there today at your request. Took 5 minutes to install. 50% off Wednesdays! It was raining but I found an Integra with no engine so I was sheltered under the hood. I got a bunch of other Random parts including a spare IACV. I got a 94+ fuel filter bracket. The cute Mexican chick didn't know what she was doing and she just charged me $13 for everything!

I don't know why but I have so much more fun bolting Acura parts onto my Civic. I like the sleeper aspect. I feel like I'm installing dealer options that the original owner didn't opt for. OEM parts are higher quality and much cheaper to find used than aftermarket. So far my baby Integra has Integra front seats, an Integra GSR fuel pump, Integra complete suspension and brakes front and rear, an Integra proportioning valve, Integra brake fluid resevoir (91 Civic Si 15/16 brake master cylinder), 96+ Integra charcoal canister, a front GSR swaybar, the Integra front lower brace, and an Integra trunk light. All of this is transparent to most people except enthusiasts with a sharp eye.

I also have a "VTEC-E" valve cover on the way.

My buddy sent me his AEM twin fire, so I'll be doing a nice little write up with pics on how to convert to coil-on-plug ignition using CBR coils and an AEM EMS.

How-To: Convert to Distributor-less Ignition

[suspendedhatch]

I want to see if there's a way I could slice an OEM intake down the center and wrap it around my cold air intake. And then gut the airbox and put it in the stock location as a dummy. But the intake would have to be large diameter and I don't know if maybe there's an Integra intake that will fit or maybe like a CRV intake pipe...

Also I want to get some mounting tabs welded onto my DC header so I could bolt up the factory exhaust manifold heat shield.

This combined with the VTEC-E valve cover and my plan to run multiple resonators should complete the sleeper effect. It's all about the hustle.

[thisisntjared]

did you put the brace on yet? feel a difference on turn-in?

[Danronian]

The OEM VX airbox has a large opening on it, so you could use the larger diameter EX intake arm, and it would fit onto the VX airbox. I'm sure you could fit pipe inside the EX intake arm. I've actually seen a sleeper feature in a magazine already where someone with a civic hid the turbo charge pipe and BOV inside the OEM airbox parts and the turbo under a factory exhaust manifold heat shield.

[suspendedhatch]

I barely just installed the brace today and haven't had cause to put it hard into a corner yet. My tires are **** anyway. But I'm going back to CA in a couple days to get my Integra with the good wheels/tires on it as well as the rest of my tools. Unfortunately I will be renting a car one-way and the VX is going to sit this one out.

I'd be drooling over that sleeper turbo setup. If you remember where you saw it let me know.

Scottie gets paid good money to hide N2O setups. I toy with the idea of having a modest shot of Nitrous tucked away into a fender. Blasting a swapped ricer or a high displacement domestic driver with an inconspicuous single cam would be priceless (at the drag strip of course).

I'm pretty sure my VX intake went into the recycle bin. The LS Integra OEM intake looks to be about the right diameter. But I think that if it was a good fit to the D-series engine you'd see a lot of people running it.

I don't think I ever mentioned that I got the larger Integra Charcoal Canister since I had to convert to the OBD2 style. It slides right into the Civic bracket. The purge control is activated by the AEM EMS.

[GasSavers_topher]

Originally Posted by suspendedhatch

I also have a "VTEC-E" valve cover on the way.

My buddy sent me his AEM twin fire, so I'll be doing a nice little write up with pics on how to convert to coil-on-plug ignition using CBR coils and an AEM EMS.

Looking forward to it the write-up man sounds awsome. I have my vtec-e valve cover but can't decide how I wan't to paint it. I was thinking something oldschool 40's 50's style but, yet tasteful.

Let me know if you find any advantages of the pencil coils that would be awsome I have thought about them myself but, that would realistically be down the road. Right now in my build I'm just trying to learn and have fun. I see my build almost as a mini-me and obd1 conversion.

As far as the tuning aspect I am doing nothing more than swapping to a p28 that has already has a y5 basemap. Running a wire for vtec and moving a couple of wires for the IACV. Right there is my mini-me and my obd1 conversion in a nut-shell. If you think of anything I missed please inform me.

Also is there any advantage to having a bigger Charcoal canister other than it's size.

If you wan't to hide you N20 set-up you could always put the bottle in the glove box. Or if your frisky and don't use it to often you could put it right where the evaporator for the AC goes if your not using it. The only problem with that is that it's a ***** to get to. If you had a cold air intake running through the stock air box down behing the bumper. You could Easily hide the lines and tuck the into the CAI right in the airbox itsself assuming you using a dry shot.

If you would like me to move my post to my thread and un-clutter yours that's fine.

Glad to see you have some good plans for the vx :TU:

[suspendedhatch]

Nah you're not cluttering up my post. I look at it as a contribution.

If I was going to get the valve cover painted, I'd probably send it to that guy on ebay that does valve cover powder coating. I wonder if he can make it look like the oem crinkle paint.

Let me know if that P28/Y5 base map works. I have a feeling that you're going to have problems. I've looked at Crome and some others and I didn't see anywhere that you could change certain settings like IACV settings for instance. So if you can't change it then I wonder what does it default to? Most likely the original P28 code. And what about VTEC-E? It lets you change the RPM but not the load and tps%, right? So is it going to stay with the original VTEC load and tps? I really don't know that much about it so I'm eager to see what you find out.

I'm not using AEM's pencil coils I'm using the Honda CBR motorcycle coils. AEM didn't release the pencil coils until recently but I've had this conversion for a while now. The only problem is that the MSD box took a dump so I'm borrowing Scottie's Twin Fire. Before this I was using a pair of rotary coils and some custom magnecor wires on my Toyota.

But if you want a recommendation on the pencil coils just ask Bisi.

Advantages of Converting to Distributor-less Ignition
1) get rid of the unreliable distributor 2) less moving/maintenance parts 3) less ignition noise 4) more precise control of ignition timing 5) more complete burn of the fuel mixture 6) allows you to run higher compression, higher boost, and higher RPM

Basically with a distributor, your maintenance parts (cap, rotor, wires) work fine when they're brand new. But every mile you put on them they degrade in performance. Coil on plug ignition is better than brand new distributor ignition and never wears out.

Benefit of CDI Module
Also the use of a CDI not only doubles the volts at the spark plug, but they fire multiple sparks across 20 degrees of crank rotation.

Instead of having a single coil confined to the space inside the distributor, having to fire each cylinder with very little time between ignition events to allow it to charge, you have four individual coils that each fire twice per cylinder and have twice as much time to charge.

The AEM 30-1000 has only two ignition outputs so you have to configure it for waste spark. That means the coils also fire on the exhaust stroke. Any unburned fuel in the mixture gets a second chance. So that should improve emissions. AEM later released the 30-1040 which has 4 ignition outputs allowing a true direct-fire setup. This gives you 4x more charge time per coil than stock, and 2x more charge time per coil than waste-spark.

I don't know if there's any advantage to a larger charcoal canister but I assume it can hold a larger volume.

I was just joking about the N20 idea. But if I wanted to do that then I could take it to the stealth N20 expert. I'd probably use an Edelbrock manifold.