Well, as some of you may or may not know (or care), I recently purchased my 2001 PY ITR (approx 1 month ago). The car was bought by the previous owner as a shell (theft recovery), which he built back up to (somewhat) stock specs. New USDM, OEM interior and exterior pieces were put back in/on, a fresh OEM suspension put back in, a fresh coat of phoenix yellow applied, etc.

What was not OEM "stock" is the engine and transmission. For that the previous owner rebuilt a 98 spec JDM B18C using JDM CTR pistons mated to a JDM 98 spec ITR transmission. He also added a Toda flywheel, new full face carbon/kevlar clutch, and added an Injen CAI, 2.5" test pipe, and custom 2.5" exhaust with a JDM DC5 Type R axle back.

The car was then tuned at Import Auto Pros in Westminster, CA on a P28 ECU running the Chrome Pro freeware. The car made 189.x WHP on their dyno, which was acceptable for me, however, this is where the problems lay as well.

As it turns out the car was pinging all sorts at anything past half throttle on the drive back home from LA to San Diego after my purchase of the vehicle. With the tank near empty, I put in a full tank of premium, which fixed most of the pinging, although I was still getting quite a bit of it between 3K and 4K RPM. I figured the previous owner either put in something other than 91 premium fuel, or got a bad batch. Either way, I still had issues with pinging.

My solution? To take the car up to have Shawn Church and his tuning gurus take a look at it on their dyno at Church Automotive in Long Beach, CA.

THE. BEST. 350 DOLLARS. I. HAVE. EVER. SPENT.

Previous dyno done a few days before I purchased the car:




After Shawn Church worked his magic yesterday:




As you can see, with the baseline dyno we got ~198 hp and ~150 tq in all their pinging and lean condition glory.

2 & 1/2 hours later, we ended up with nearly 209 hp and 160 ft-lbs... and this is AFTER pulling 5 degrees of timing, and completely fixing my pinging issue (I was running very lean between 3K and 4K RPM. As Shawn described it, this was at the resonant frequency of my intake, creating a "ram air effect" and adding additional air into the mixture which was not compensated for with the previous tune).

Not only that, but the guys at Church Automotive did a VERY complete job, making sure to tune at partial throttle conditions as well as WOT and at every point along the RPM band (as should be). They also adjusted my VTEC x-over, moving it from 5K RPM to 3900RPM, and fixed the surging idle which is so common with Chrome.

Now, I should state that before taking my car up to Church Automotive, I was fully expecting to loose some power, but gain a safer running car while resolving the pinging.

The actual result?

I GAINED almost 11 hp and 10 ft-lbs of torque... while eliminating my pinging issue, increasing my fuel economy (I tested this on the 2 hour [each way] drive to and from Long Beach), making my car MUCH more drivable, and vastly improving the useable power available throughout the entire RPM range. Hell, the car even SOUNDS better/meaner. Oh, and I now have a rock solid idle!

WIN!

I have to give it to the guys at Church Automotive. Not only did they fully exceed my expectations, they also let me know exactly what they were doing as they were doing it while being so kind as to answer all of my lame *** questions. I was even lucky enough to speak to the regional Hondata rep (who got on my case for running Chrome, heh) who happened to be testing a new Hondata unit for the new model Civics running the base 1.8l engines. The dude had a trunk full of intakes which he was swapping in and out with his dyno tests. Pretty sweet. Plus I got schooled on the Hondata units. He sold me fore sure, I’m putting in an S100 and ditching the Chrome once I put some cams in the R.

At the risk of this sounding like a commercial for Church Automotive, I have to say if you live in Southern California, these are THE guys to go to. I’ve been to Do It Dyno, Bisimoto, and a few other places, and this is hands down the best tuner I've dealt with. Shawn Church is a well known tuner for a VERY good reason.

So, the moral of this story? When you go to get your car professionally tuned, don’t cheap out. It will only hurt you in the long run! I'm just glad I got around to doing this before I burnt up a valve or worse!

Now if you will excuse me, I have a strong desire to waste some gas...

 

I think you mean ~198 baseline. What header are you running? 11/10 gain must feel nice! Church needs to calibrate their dyno too, lol.

 

Very Intresting.

 

Yup, fixed. I was being dyslexic, heh. I have a POS USDM cast ITR header on there right now. And yes, the car pulls harder for sure. I can't think of any 350 dollar mod which would have net me gains as such outside of a used nitrous kit.

 

Congratulations. It sounds like you have a new car now.
A good tune is always well worth it.
3900rpm for VTEC that has to be lowest I have ever seen. I have come across 4100 and 4000 on some cars with ITR cams before.
Care to share why you are going to switch to Hondata from Crome?

 

I've had my cars tuned by Shawn since 2004. I have made the 2 hour journey from San Diego to Church's everythime I retune a car. I will never go anywhere else

 

my car was tuned by Church when the previous owner had it! i am planning on running ITB's and will bring it back to Church for a retune! nothing but the best from them

 

good numbers

 

^Real nice.

 

Good stuff.

 

wow thats some good power!

stock itr cams?

 

I'm an East Coaster, and so haven't used Church's service, but agree that the right tuner makes all the difference

Interesting too to see a pretty much back-to-back dyno comparison of his. 10whp right off the bat, and people say it's not a little "optimistic"...

 

Yeah, the CAT Dynapac is infamous for readig about 7% higher than most Dynojets.

 

Congrats What an improvement! Must feel like a whole new car.

 

Granted, however the baseline and the gains were measured back to back on the same dyno, so this wouldn't matter in that respect... not that I think this was your point anyway.

I was actually taken aback when they told me the what the VTEC x-over point was set to. I was thinking it would be too noisy, Id get too poor mileage, etc.

Boy was I wrong! The car is actually more civil noise wise when driving it. There isn't an abrupt "loudness" like there was when I had it set to 5K RPM. You really have to listen to hear the x-over, and IMO the car sounds a lot better throughout the entire RPM range. It also makes a constant build of power instead of having that little "kick" later on in the RPM range like it used to. This makes for a much more drivable car, with more usable power for daily driving.

On top of that, I measured my mileage to and from my place and Shawn's shop. No traffic either way, averaged 80MPH both ways, (but I can honestly say that i got on it a lot more on the way BACK for obvious reasons). I got ~ 20.5MPG on the way up and ~23.5MPG on the way back.

Oh, and about the Crome VS Hondata deal... Crome is a good ROM editor for the money (e.g. FREE). Dont get me wrong, you get a lot for nothing. However, for a very small amount (~$150) you can go with a Hondata S100 have have all the same stuff but in an error and glitch free modality. There is no idle "surging" like you get with Crome. There is no possibility of there being an error in the code later down the line like with Crome. And best of all, tuning a Hondata is way less of a PITA then with Crome. Point being on this last part? If I had had a Hondata S100/S300 in the car my tune would have cost me $250 instead of $350 due to the time involved. That in and of it self almost makes up for having to pay for the Hondata S100. In fact I think it makes the ~$50 different MORE than worth while.

Then of course if you get the S300 unit (its under $400 I believe. I dont remember the price quoted me but they said it recently went down $100), you get all SORTS of bells and whistles like 3 stage nitrous control, live data logging, and all sorts of features for FI cars and the like.

Indeed. Stock USDM ITR cams and a stock USDM ITR header. Weaksauce to be sure, but it just gives me more hope for when I upgrade the header and cams later down the line! Im thinking a Hytech header and Skunk2 Pro1+ cams.

 

Oh you have no idea Mike. Its ALMOST night and day.

Also, Ive been meaning to say/ask... WTF is up with the furbie getting raped in your signature... and did you used to troll the Si VS All forums on ClubSi back in the day?

 

Nah, just gotta love a rabid looking Furby. A dash mounted Furby will be my first and only mod when I pick up a bone stock ITR

 

Good read!! Congrats on the HP and TQ pickup

 

Thanks!

 

Good numbers... I have a Hytech anti-reversion header for sale ^^

 

I'd go with s300. I have a s200 and my tuner was all for me getting s300 so he could just tune it on the fly rather than reburning the chip over and over again. I was too cheap so he just stuck an extra s300 in and then manually copied the data values over to the s200, lol.

 

haha i make the 6 hour journey from san fran down to church's to get my cars tuned. shawn knows his stuff. he has tuned my fit twice (two different setups) and every time he goes above and beyond my expectations. probably the best tuner on the west coast.

 

Heh, Im cheap. I think Id just go with an S100 and have Church burn the chip. IIRC, there is no tuning rate difference between the S100 and S300, and I'm not going to be boosting/running N20, nor would I likely use the real time data logging... so there is no need for the more expensive Hondata IMO.

PM me some pics and your asking price.

 

I also make that trip from San Diego to Church's. Church's is where i get my boosted baby tuned up, going next month... shooting for 320hp

 

awkorse you will reach over 200hp ..stock itr with a good header will make 200hp on 5900rpm vtec engagment ..NOw with 3900rpm vtec engagment nothing suprising u made 208hp.. Believe me that motor will not last long with that vtec engagment !! been there done that! not safe .. 4800 is some what safe..

Is your dyno reading 208 whp or 208to the flywheel.?

what is your compression has to be 11.1cc? usdm type r 10.6 jdm 11.1

the other day my friend made 201whp narrow header 2.5 n1 exhaust /stock type r intake with kn filter on hondata s200 with 1 1/2 hour tunning vtec engagment 4800rpm took the ac belt and power steering off just to see what gain he will get he made 207whp .. but he put it back cant live without the ac and power steering..

Get narrow b header with good tune will make lots of power and only in 325 shipped..we tested comptech header 4-2-1 spoon 4-1 header on top of narrow and narrow made 3whp more.. i dont about others but different builds different results.

Good numbers good tuner!Good tuner makes a difference! glad to see another R making power..

Hard to find a good tuner on east coast!They all almost suck when it comes to all motor tuning!!!