Tomda

Hello Honda Tech Forum,

I am here today because I am needing a little guidance (pointing in the right direction) of what to purchase when it comes to improving my 2012 Honda Civic EX.
I purchased the Civic in 2014 second hand and ever since I’ve been really happy with the purchase. Civics are just built to perfection, apart from miner issues you get with all motors she has kept running like a dream to this day. I’ve now got a little extra cash in my back pocket and I want to spend it on my Civic I have been out a bought some new rims that look awesome, touched up some paint work that needed a little love and tinted the windows now I just need to tune up the Engine.

This is where I’m hoping you guys can help me out but please bear with me because I’m not a mechanic but I will do my best to explain. I want my Civic not to just sound better but perform better also. I understand that you can get an air filter like one of these Air Intake for sale | Only 2 left at -75% that will improve performance slightly but is there anything else to go with it or will it just fit straight on? I have heard my friends mention Dump valves? But as far as I know this simply creates a beastly sound but don’t actually improve performance.

This is just a start that I have in mind and see where is goes from here. If there is any other information that you guys need please let me know and I will get back to you.

Thanks

priceisalright

The easiest first upgrade for you will probably be a short ram intake (SRI) or a cold air intake (CAI). You can find some information regard the differences between the two here: https://www.civicforums.com/forums/1...am-intake.html You likely won't see a performance increase with either of these, but it will make the engine sound deeper and more throaty (which I think sounds nicer).

Another sound and performance option would be an aftermarket exhaust. I really wouldn't recommend a dump pipe exhaust, I personally don't think it would sound too good and without a catalytic converter in your exhaust system you'll never pass an emissions test. My area doesn't do emissions testing anymore, but I'm fairly certain it's still against the law to not have a catalytic converter in your exhaust system. It is best not to cheap out on this as cheaper catback exhausts for the 1.8L motor tend to sound buzzy and whiny. You won't see any appreciable power gains without replacing the whole exhaust system (and possibly replacing the header as well), but you can have some fun and change the sound by just going to a catback exhaust in the meantime. Take a look around youtube for videos of how different exhausts sound. It can vary quite a bit with intake and exhaust combos.

So I know this isn't as fun as other mods, but the single best purchase you can make for increasing performance on your Civic is to get a Hondata Flashpro and get an after market tune on the car. Depending on how much you intend on modding the car you will eventually NEED the Flashpro for altering things like fuel tables. It's possible to add a big 3" exhaust and an easy flowing cold air intake and end up having your car running dangerously lean, and without having something like the Flashpro to tell the engine to squirt more gas into the cylinder you can end up hurting your engine in the long run. This is a bit of an extreme case, but I can't emphasize enough how good of an idea it is to get a piece of ECU tuning hardware like the Flashpro.

foumer

Is it manual? Be aware that short ram intakes kill your lower end torque.

Tomda

Thanks for the replies guys I will google everything above and do a little research to see what I can come up with. My Civic is a manual so I will take this into consideration when researching the upgrades above