weaponx1503

hello everyone,

I have 97 civic ex, D16Y8, auto tranny, short ram intake with 3 inch piping, b&m fuel pressure regulator, skunk2 pro intake manifold, high flow exhaust, and aftermarket headers, also car has replaced fuel filter, throttle body and intake manifold gaskets, new spark plugs and spark plug wires.

my questions

1. With these upgrades, I have still not seen any significant power gains. Even though my friends civic is the same year, and he has only exhaust and intake; he has significant gains, more than mine in fact. Why is this happening?

2. When looking at the engine, I noticed that my distributor was all the retarded. Thinking that this was the problem with my performance, I advanced it. In doing so, my car ran horribly. Why would my car need to be all the way retarded in order to run smoothly?

3. Is there any small upgrades that I could do to gain more horsepower without turbo or nitrous?

4. And my final question, WTF would a Turbonator do to my engine? (if anyone knows what a turbonator is? and whether or not it is a gimmick?)

thanks all for your help

phobi9

1. Sometimes with short ram intakes, especially on our y8, it is normal to see a performance DECREASE (due in part to the hotter air of the engine bay). I have headers, cold-air intake, and a lighter flywheel which help accelerate the car a bit more, but you won't see "significant" gains anyway.

2. Its normal to have an engine running a few degrees retarded, but IMO it shouldn't be all teh way retarded (you could have timing issues cause performance decrease).

3. Not really. Your fuel pressure regulator and intake manni won't be used to effect unless you have custom-mapped ecu or stage2+ camshafts. Neither are small upgrades. Instead of gaining more horsepower you can look at loosing weight (both you and your car - seats, carpet, trunk, etc) which will make the car much quicker. Also, don't run with the A/C on.

4. A http://www.turbonator.com/ is a nice concept but does not transfer well to practical application. Their late night infomercials seem convincing, swirling water from one 2L bottle to another; quicker than just letter gravity feed its course. The difference with an internal combustion engine? We're not working with gravity, we're working with vacuum pressure to the order of 14.7 psi (atmosphere pressure at sea level, here in Miami). That fact alone invalidates the demo. The device would work if it wasn't for the design of an intake system. Sure you'll have air swirling through your intake but what do you think it'll do when it hits your throttle plate/buttlerfly? And even if the swirls survived being sliced in half (at WOT) they have a huge chamber (intake manni) to turbulate in, before going down the runners. Some people have seen marginal gains (and some people losses) depending on their cars, etc. If I could get it free I would try it out, otherwise I would save my $50+ for a N2o kit.

>>I think you should get the car professionally timed, or do it at home if you have a timing light and know how to. Do a compression test to make sure the chambers aren't leaking. Check for any exhaust leaks or holes while the cars running, or when the cars off shove a smoke machine in the tailpipe (at your own risk, lol). Simple things can bite your bhp to the point where your mods $$$ become useless. Good luck.

snatch

phobi9 covered everything pretty well;

I'll add though that one of the things holding you back is that auto tranny. The 5spd EX's can be decent with some work.

Hands down though, turbo is your best bet.

weaponx1503

in a short amount of time, i am going to get a cold air intake, with an aem bypass valve

thanks for the timing issue thought, the distributor has always been in that position since i bought the car

i know for certain that i have tranny issues, i plan on swapping transmissions over the summer when i have some off time

a friend told me that a camshaft wouldn't neccessarily help me unless i was running boost

and another thing, my car kinda stalls at a certain rpm when im not racing

snatch

Cold air intake or short ram intake, it doesn't matter man. Don't waste the money.

Camshaft will help your car even without boost. The zex 59300 cam has been very popular. Check out d-series.org, they're all about making the d-series better and there are some pretty smart people over there.

schardbody

you sure your dizzy is retarded and not advanced??? standing at the passenger fender rotating it clockwise retards it, counterclockwise advances it.

Eran

iTrader: (1)

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by schardbody &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">you sure your dizzy is retarded</TD></TR></TABLE>

I will never ever get tired of hearing this.

weaponx1503

i guarantee that it is all the way retarded, which makes no sense

schardbody

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by weaponx1503 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i guarantee that it is all the way retarded, which makes no sense</TD></TR></TABLE>

then the camshaft is advanced 1 tooth, use a timing light, or reset the cam timing then use a timing light to get it perfect. EVERY honda/acura i have owned (11 total) have all ran fine with the dizzy fully advanced.

weaponx1503

alright i will try that thanks bro

tell me if this is bs

this guy claims he has:

aem 1 peice cai(99 Si)
obx header 4-1
obx test pipe
stock teg exhaust and a magnaflow muffler

14.5 @ 93mph

i think this is total bs

i ran 17.95 with i/h/e-----my cousin ran a 14.58 with turbo pushing 12psi

Eran

iTrader: (1)

He's lying.

And your run was sad. I know you have an auto ... but an 18 second run is ... wow. And a 14.6 with 12psi? Wow, that blows.

weaponx1503

i know my run was sad...... thats why i have to figure out wtf is going on with my car

plus that night my cousin was running his horrid dx tranny and dx clutch

schardbody

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by weaponx1503 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">alright i will try that thanks bro

tell me if this is bs

this guy claims he has:

aem 1 peice cai(99 Si)
obx header 4-1
obx test pipe
stock teg exhaust and a magnaflow muffler

14.5 @ 93mph

i think this is total bs

i ran 17.95 with i/h/e-----my cousin ran a 14.58 with turbo pushing 12psi</TD></TR></TABLE>

yeah it takes more than bolt ons to hit 14s, much less mid 14s.

anyhow, your auto tranny is whats killing you. a manual ex tranny will take atleast a second off that time if you can drive and get traction.

12psi on a D series should be in that area though, depending on the setup, a small HMT setup atleast. 12psi on a non vtec d series with a small T3 or 14b will only be around 200whp, which is good for mid 14s on street tires.

Libertariat

No amount of bolt-ons will get a d series below 14's.

Oh wait, a turbo is a bolt on.

Why have you ruled out turbo man? You'll spend $700+ on intake, cam, exhaust, headers, wheels, neons, body kits, hoes, and stickers.

You can get a GOOD start on a turbo setup with that kind of money.

You'll spend ridiculous amounts of money trying to make an N/A D-series fast.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by weaponx1503 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">and another thing, my car kinda stalls at a certain rpm when im not racing</TD></TR></TABLE>

If you're racing on the street, save us some trouble and walk into a random home's family dinner and shoot them all twice.

Street racing is for irresponsible small weinied maggots.

Libertariat

Yeah your buddy need to get rid of the ebay kit and/or get a tune.

and si with full I/H/E can run mid 14's It's not unheard of. Especially as an Si

Lower with a good driver

Generally Any automatic Honda is going to be slow and boring. You're in the wrong hobby to have an automatic.

Jonknee

An automatic swap should be first on your modifications list for sure. Or you can always sell the car and start over with the right platform ( manual)

Libertariat

Yeah, I'd sell it and buy a bone stock 5spd ex.