Hey everyone. New to the Honda universe. I have a 96 Honda civic with a d16 and a 5 speed I use for racing at the local oval track. I’m currently stuck with large tires and revving it out to 7,000rpm in second gear to get any speed or horsepower. I tried running smaller tires and 3rd gear. Running third gear The car is around 4,000 rpm at the slowest part of the track and struggles to gain rpm. I’m thinking I just need more torque/horsepower. What are some things you guys are doing to gain some power out of these. I would love to use the small tires due to handling purposes.

 

what modifications are you limited to by the rule book?

what trim level? DX, LX, EX?

 

I was told it was an EX. I’m limited by what I can do engine wise for sure. I’m allowed to do anything besides open engine up. That being said half the cars have small cams and modded transmissions. Tuning is allowed. I come from the Jbody world using ecotec primarily. So sorry if my Honda knowledge is crap.

 

Are you allowed to swap engines as long as the engine remains stock? Can you change cams as long as you don't mess with the bottom end?

EX I believe is the D16Y8 so you already have the highest HP/Torque stock engine of that generation civic (excluding the SiR B16). If you can't swap the cam and intake setup with a tune, then there isn't much more you can do besides custom super close ratio transmission gearing.

 

The rules say transmission modding is allowed, then you go all out on that area, OS giken, custom gears lol.

You mention its an EX, it has a sunroof? Did you check the transmission code? It says "B000" on it?

 

I can swap engines. Has to come from a civic. I was told go b20 by some other Honda guys at the track. I also seen you can lock VTEC. Which I understand I would loose some low end power but if I could get some more power around 4500 rpm it would be worth it. That way it would technically be stock. But again without a dyno I would have to go by lap times and butt dyno to notice any improvement.

 

it does have a sun roof. I’ll have to look for the trans code.

 

Sunroof is EX. Second set of three characters in the VIN should be EJ8.

B20 doesn't come from a Civic, it's from a CRV. May be a grey area with your rules, you may not make friends in the paddock if you ask for information and bring it to the series' attention.

Any restrictions on what year Civic it must come from? If year/generation is unrestricted, I'd vote for a 2003-2005 Civic Si K20A3. 2.0L, 160hp (+12 to + 34 over a B20), reliable, and being that it's a less desirable K20 configuration, fairly cheap.

 

honestly if it says Honda on the engine they won’t even know. Most racers there don’t care what you do to your car as long as you race them clean. Very small track of about 10 4 bangers. I’ll look into the k20 tho. That would dominate honestly. As for the VIN. Yea no vin on the car.

 

I figured, but you did specify it had to be a Civic engine.

 

If you aren't restricted in years, or restrictions allow up to 2012, Then you could spend the cash on the 06-11 Civic Si motor. 197 bhp K20Z1 motor with 6 speed trans. 8500 rpm screamer. Tuned you can get 205 whp. If there is no year restrictions at all, then you could shoot at trying to put the modern civic turbo 1.5L in your car but not sure if mounts and such have ever been made.