Hi everyone, i have had my civic for a while and decided to register here.
I have purchased the car with a D15 SOHC non vtec engine with a 5 speed swap... It was originally a 1.6L as you all know. I love the car and an awesome MPG it delivers but i just want a little more power from it. That 100hp just doesnt satisfy me.

My plan is to modify an engine a little while still having the same MPG. I would like to gain around 30hp or so

Without doing an engine swap and leaving stock manifolds on, is it possible to gain roughly 30 hp with that 1.5 liter? Im not planning to race it, just make it a more fun daily driver. It does 0-60 in a terribly slow 11 seconds and all the maintenance is up to date i would at least like to bring it down to maybe 8 or so with stock manifolds and air intake. Engine spins at about 1500 rpms at 60 mph in 5th gear and has gone 105 mph in 3rd gear at about 5500 rpm or so (weird if you ask me) but wont pull more after that...

Ive heard about "mini me" swap, and was thinking of doing something similar with a better setup... swap out heads and cam...

here are a few pix of it, right now its bone stock performance wise, not even an intake:





any help is appreciated

 

sounds like you have a longer geared tranny

a mini-me swap and an ex/si tranny will definitely make a difference in get-up

 

If you go with new cams, my best bet is ur gas mileage will change a good amount and i would say go with a ex or si transmission but that will drastically change your gas mileage if you commute on the highway a lot. Gaining 30hp from pretty much any honda motor is going to cost you a good couple of hundred dollars. My best bet would be to forget the minime swap and just get the d16z6 or the si motor, it will be about 30 more horses than your current motor and if you keep your current transmission your gas mileage will still look pretty great.

 

thanx for the inputt guys, i had no idea that to change gearing i would have to swap the tranny out... By the way, will it still help if i upgrade the engine with the current tranny?

 

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You can use the same transmission to change gearing but will have to open it up and swap the gears inside. What do you mean by upgrading the engine? Performance wise, your engine will not really benefit too much with bolt-ons such as a new intake system, exhaust system, or intake/exhaust manifolds (headers). Your best way to extract power for the bang for the buck would be to go boost (turbocharge or supercharge). To be honest performance cost $$$ and your gas mileage will suffer. Go get a motor swap to the d16z6 or boost.

 

i have a jdm d-15b (very similar to the z6) and its mated to a y8 tranny. (96-2000 ex)
i still get excellent gas milage about 40 highway if i dont go over 70.
without changing the headers, intake and exhaust its pretty doubtful to get 30 hp. but is a good upgrade to help a lot. the APEXi WS2 exhaust is what i have..almost as quiet as factory with a factory design so u dont ride around with a fart can getting pulled over.
hope this helps any good luck

 

cam, intake and exhaust will get you close to 30hp, and the mpg will not be any different.

This is a minimal amount of work and cost is also pretty reasonable

 

proof.... if you stay n/a you would need to raise the compression to make 30 more horsepower.

 

boost it! :D

 

swap the head or the motor.

an si tranny wont give you more power but will be a bit quicker.

 

Do intake headers and maybe cam then tune. The tune will help a bit but all this is a little pointless on the d15 so like everyone says swap it for a z6

 

so will the car benefit from a turbo while staying stock??
im actually considering of buying a complete kit right now

 

i'd go turbo, max i would do is 10 lbs on stock motor though, depending on turbo size

 

turbo would be your best bet but at the same time your gonna need a clutch fuel pump and injectors and a tune but it will be worth it

 

I wouldn't turbo a d15. With the wide variety of motors that make more power than the d15 and the relative ease of swapping into that platform it just doesnt seem practical to me to boost it. Especially if all you want is 30hp.

 

yes there is alot of motors and other routes to go to get more power. but if he wants to keep the d15, he can turbo it and lets say push 10 lbs. he will be safe and reliable with a good tune and he will most likely get more then 30hp. and he can probably get the turbo stuff cheaper then a b series swap.

 

Since you want to have good MPG, don't turbo it, you are going to end up running premium gas on it after that. Get a SOHC vtec engine like the JDM d15b (if you don't live in california) or the USDM D16z6, D16y8, they still run on regular gas. Or get A B18B1, I believe its about 140hp stock, runs on regular gas, dohc, and is relatively cheap compared to running a turbo setup on the d15b.

 

Boost it! You'll probably get like 80 hp and, with a good tune, your gas mileage won't suffer that much at all (I still get like 27 MPG with a boosted B18). It will probably be a tad more expensive than swapping in a D16, but cheaper than doing a crap-ton of n/a stuff to your motor with bolt-ons, but SO much more fun to drive. Intake/headers/exhaust will probably only get you like 6 hp.

Edit:
Don't forget to use head studs when boosting a car.