I've heard that this may be a nice upgrade to help in performance. There is a place here
in southern California called Churches that does the entire upgrade. Has anyone done this and if so, what does it encompass? Also, what is the cost and did it indeed help with
all around performance. This would be for a 08 SI.

Thanks,

 

08 SI would probably be only a reflash from hondata right now. It will help if you have some mods such as an Intake, header, and exhaust... but on a stock SI, i think it will hurt performance and cause your mpg to drop... so i'd only consider it if you have done some type of engine modification...

and church automotive is a good place if you need to dynotune your car

 

I believe you need at a minimum a race header OR a cold air intake to use the reflash. Having both won't hurt either.

Check it out on hondata.com, they'll tell you everything you'll need to know. From what I've gathered it seems like a very well engineered upgrade that you'll love.

 

yea im also considering it as well. be nice to drop the vtec to a lower rpm to give our car a lil more take off. and would be nice to get some more power out of it.

 

You can't just lower the vtec point on these cars to make more power sooner. If it was as simple as that Honda would've done this.

If you make the car get on the radical lobe(vtec) of the camshafts at too low of an rpm there will not be enough air to support this action that's why hondata says you will lose power until you have the benefits of the cold air intake and or the header.

 

I just read the Hondata site and it is very imformative. It seems like this would be a great upgrade, but you need other bolt ons to make it worth it. They have some impressive dyno runs with the reflash and various combinations of upgrades. It explains the whole change with v-tech etc.

 

i really dont see the diff in 4500 and 4250. mathamaticlly its 250 rpms but i dont see how it makes a difference. either way your "turboed". it wouldnt matter if it kicked in a 6000 or 5800 or not at all really.

OP. get your self a RH, exhaust and an intake and then get the reflash. you'll love it. im going to order the reflash in the spring time.

 

hey is the race header really worth it? how does it change the exhaust tone if it even does cause when i put a header on my tc i got real bad header rasp i figured the si had to at least do it some. and also how is the header with the reflash?

 

^A header is the minimum per Hondata, so I'd say it's worth it if you're going to couple the two in a single purchase.

Haha

Did a mod come by here and clean up some of the posts, because this thread was more entertaining than its current state.

 

Is a RH worth it?
Again, it's all part of a system. If you're looking for performance, it's going to happen eventually. However, I think it can be the best bang for the buck add-on if you can find an used DCRH. There's a lot of talk about quality this and performance that, but until we can optimize our tune, I see no reason to spend the extra money on the more expensive header if you're looking for cost and performance. I've seen "cheap" DCRH pull numbers just as impressive as the more expensive and "better" BC and Vibrants headers. Just to point something out: Of the 3 brands that were mentioned, the vibrant is the only true 2.5" header [at the collector] versus the smaller (2") DCRH and the (~2.25") BCRH yet they all performed equally well for a basic N/A bolt-on setup. Don't get me wrong, if you want the name and higher quality build, BCRH and VRH are great but in terms of cost/performance efficiency, DCRHs are the way to go if you can find them.

How will it affects exhaust tone? "Rasp" sound, anyone?
You will hear the increase in exhaust flow from the larger diameter and header design but that is to be expected. The "rasp" sound you're referring to could possibly be associated with your exhaust system as I've seen a lot of cars with "raspy" exhaust tone because of cheap or poorly made exhaust system (ie: w/o resonators).

Members here and at 8thcivic.com have stated that their cars started sounding raspy after prolong use of their RH with their stock exhaust. It appeared that the stock system was not meant to handle the increase in heat and exhaust flow from the RH and eventually would wear out and thus produce the raspy sound. People assert the need for an after-market catback to remedy the raspy sound and argue that you're going to need a bigger diameter exhaust system anyways (the latter of which is true).

Now, I personally had a DCRH with my stock exhaust for a few months before I upgraded to a custom cat-back and had no "raspy" tone but then it was because I didn't drive my car as much. Whether it's true or not, I can't say. I've never had any issue with my old integra sounding raspy with a header + stock exhaust. The advice to take from this post is to get a full cat-back system with resonator and proper welds that would suit your style (aka: decibel) requirement.

*I have no knowledge on Strup headers but I've heard that they were better made than DC and equally as impressive.