I got a call from my friend Patrick (trickazn) that Skunk2 was looking for a car with their products to develop FlashPro maps for their cams. I instantly said yes and contacted them. They wanted to test the stage 1 and stage 2 cams on my car since I already had their header and 70mm exhaust.

08 Civic Si Engine Mods:

Hondata Flash-Pro
Injen CAI
Skunk2 Header
Skunk2 70mm

Testing

Skunk2 Stage 1 Cams
Skunk2 Stage 2 Cams (with upgraded valvetrain)

Stock Cams Vs. Stage 1 Cams



Stage 1 Cams vs Stage 2 Cams



When i got my car back and turned the key the first thing that went through my mind was holy **** this thing is bad!!! My car kinda sounds like a subaru when im driving conservitavely and when the cams open up it sounds like a sports bike lol. The power is amazing and the car is smooth. The guys at Skunk2 are very cool people and really nice they worked with me on the cams and made the most power as they could out of stage 1 and stage 2 camshafts.

I would definately recommend these cams for anyone wanting to make the most hp out of there car cause they made awesome power. Not only did they make crazy numbers but they are affordable and not expensive like IPS cams and most camshafts out there. These cams are the best bang for your buck just like the Skunk2 header. I really love their customer service and affordable prices. Thats why i chose these mods.

Thanks to Trickyazn(for the hook up), Skunk2, Tony Shagday (the man who made it happen) , Dr. Charels & Mario (for hard working on my car), vicky (for making me feel at home), Dave (free lunch FTW!!!) Church Automotive, Doug from Hondata, :roject Import:: technology & spirit LA crew, OC crew, limonite crew, and ********

 

Awesome numbers man. Great performance and reliability.

 

always was a fan of S2.

 

Man I really hate to be the rotten apple in the bunch but I have to say that I'm not all that impressed.

Maybe I missed something but from looking at first set of graphs (Stage 1) the horsepower seems to drop off between 4500 and 5800 rpms. And above that the gains are very minimal up until around 8300 rpm where it hits it's peak...but that's already at the end of the car's powerband. Not to mention the torque output drops off a good 10ft./lbs. from 3500 to 4200 rpm before spiking up.

For $650 bucks and the cost of tuning it would seem like the only real benefit is a moderate burst of mid-range torque and a slight jump in top-end power.

Don't get me wrong....I love Skunk2 and think their products are excellent. I have a set of Pro-Cs from them. I guess I just expected a little more out of these tuned cams than I am seeing right now.

I'm not here to start a war so if there's something I am missing then kindly let me know.

 

wait a minute... that tq graph just confused the heck out of me.
wait so the stage 1 cams, only give you a burst of mid-range, but have less tq on top over stock cams?
and the stage 2 only made 4hp and not even 1 more ft/lbs of tq over stage 1??
if thats the case, im just going to get a tsx intake cam and call it a day.

i dont mean to bag on s2, i love their products, and wouldnt get anything else.
and chris hooks it up too! if you ever read this chris, thanks alot!

 

Agreed am CORNFUZED!

 

I hate looking at compressed graphs but here's my interpretation. Over all comparing stock cams with S2 stage 2 the power increase is 15.6 HP / 12.5 TQ. Now, the part that yall are concerned with is the tq drop off at the end between the stock cam and the S2's. From what I see the stock cam starting from 5K is about 158tq - 8.6K is 150tq. looking at the S2 stage 2's starting from 5K is about 162tq - 8.6K is 155tq. in the mid range it shows the stock cam at 3K is 150tq - 5K is 158tq. The S2 stage 2 shows at 3K is 148tq - 5K is 162tq.

these numbers seem like typical gains from tuned cams. I'm not sure what you guys were hoping for....it's not magical instant crazy HP.

EDIT: so to skunk 2...good job...if I was ever to mod my car I'd consider your cams.

 

Hmm. That's what YOU see. I didn't even look at the Stage 2 cams cause it didn't seem like they had much of an improvement to offer over the Stage 1 cams. At least not with the setup the OP was running.

And from what I saw on the Stage 1 cams is a power jump in torque output from 4500 to 5800 rpm.....and a power loss or match at every other rpm range. As far as the horsepower the gap doesn't really begin to get noticeable until about 7600rpm or so. And the only other thing that sticks out is the HP loss between 4500 to 5800 rpm again.

I didn't expect these cams to be leaps and bounds in terms of power increase, but with good tuning software I at least expected a moderate increase in power throughout the powerband. If this is typical of all aftermarket cams then I'll most likely just pass on these. The price and amount of labor involved just seems like too much for what you get in the end.

Maybe they respond better with F/I engines??

 

What is the whp numbers not the flywheel corrected numbers?

You picked up 40 horsepower (flywheel corrected) from bolt ons and an ECU reflash? If so that is damn impressive.

 

compressed graphs are def an eye sore but from what I see the cams flatten out the tourque cure very well (you don't need torque on top) and give you that extra umph when your windin her out. Stage 2's don't offer that much more power but I bet the throttle response is good(with a little extra on top). To me it looks like these would be great on a race track, not a drag strip. If your looking for ultimate power of course there's others out there, but driveabilty and part throttle response is probably non-existent. 250 fwhp in a Civic will suprise a lot of people. Skunk2 actually races so you can't deny that they've been doing their homework.

 

we can go back and forth on this...I see it as an upgrade and you see faults.

and good tuning software is only half the battle. Maybe a different tuner can get better numbers out of these cams. and some head work to go with the stage 2's would help too.

 

Didn't Skunk2 tune these cams themselves for the OP??

 

and what does that mean? they're the best tuners in the entire world? I can name a couple other tuners as good as skunk 2 tuners.

 

I didn't say that. But I would think that if there's anybody that could get the most out of these cams it would be the actual manufacturers.

 

that is true but again...a different tuner MAY be able to get somthing different out of them.

 

It was done at Church Automotive... The best shop for tuning cause they use dyna packs and all they due is tuning http://home.earthlink.net/~spchurch/

 

so they use earthlink as their host?

 

I expected this to come from a noob http://www.hondatuningmagazine.com/t...ing/index.html

 

i just found it strange.. cause their bandwidth should run out pretty quick

 

this has me thinking about the brian crower stage 2 cams now because i was watching this video and wondering how much power the bc stage 2 puts out. it was giving the s/c a run for a few moments

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uTk3hdK9QY

 

It could use a bit of smoothing.

 

From everything I have seen, the IPS-K2(seem to be favored right now) are very strong midrange and decent up top, Skunk2 is decent in the midrange and very strong up top. The IPS will also run you over a grand. Look on 8th and check the "Mother of all camshafts" thread. Lost of solid info there with all the companies posted gains.

Just remember that some of the posted gains were on K20A2 or K20A engines.

 

Those BC stage 2 cams also wernt tuned either and it hung with the s/c.

 

it had a half a$$ tune with the piggyback he was using. but im curious if the s2 stage 2 is on the same level.

 

Someone told me that S2 cams keep blowing motors because the lobes are too aggresive for the tensioner, and ultimately break teeth off or something. Not too farmiliar with cams so IDK.