CHILD'S *EK* ... finally i have an EK

young_

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You're getting another tune before the intake manifold?
 

CHILD

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You're getting another tune before the intake manifold?
Yup. Each change makes a pretty significant difference. I want to document the pros and cons to the upgrades.

I hopped on the dynojet this Saturday to see the change so far, but I'm more focused on having a more equal test between intake setups. Anyway, Saturday the car was beyond hot, untuned, and with a short ram intake pulling in heat from the backside of the radiator, no vstack or filter. The car made 217whp (down from 220whp) but two things stood out: power carried on longer than before and vtec crossover was nowhere near a smooth increase in power, there is now a 30whp increase at vtec (5500rpm) from 160whp to 190whp in 100rpm! So there is a definite benefit to the larger throttle body and port on the manifold despite the negative talk in the K series community.

Now that my 3.5" intake is done, I can have a fair upgrade comparison. Dyno time is at the same time as my initial tune, and both setups are port matched to the throttle body with ano equally sized intake with velocity stack. The midrange gain is obvious once that dip is tuned out, and we'll see about peak power. If I start getting close to 230whp for a peak, that'll s**t on all the people who claim a tsx head can't flow well in stock form especially with this small exhaust still in place.

Damn I text fast, that got long real quick lol
 


young_

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I got ya! Just an expensive route to take.. But I should have known better :lol:

Did you ever decide on an intake manifold setup?

Nice numbers
 

CHILD

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I got ya! Just an expensive route to take.. But I should have known better :lol:

Did you ever decide on an intake manifold setup?

Nice numbers
I'm only so interested in all the testing because there is just a ton of "talk" on the internet and almost nobody with actual facts about these mods and changes.

Haven't decided on a manifold just yet. I know the available options out there, but I keep hoping to get ahold of the new stuff when I'm ready to buy.
 


young_

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I'm only so interested in all the testing because there is just a ton of "talk" on the internet and almost nobody with actual facts about these mods and changes.



Haven't decided on a manifold just yet. I know the available options out there, but I keep hoping to get ahold of the new stuff when I'm ready to buy.

I can understand that. Someone has to do it to disprove all the bs. You're like a k swap pioneer :D
 

CHILD

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I can understand that. Someone has to do it to disprove all the bs. You're like a k swap pioneer :D
Yeah, trying to be something like that. I've always heard and read this and that, with some info to back up certain things, but there were always big variables. I don't really care if i make huge changes or not, I just want true info on what did what. If I pick up more more horsepower, the people who thought my exhaust and header setup is really holding me back won't have much to say without sounding ridiculous. A bunch have said I could get like 15 more whp with a 3" exhaust and even more with a "better" header. That would start putting my close a bolt on k24 making 240+whp which would be unheard of on pump gas.

So far I've shown that a stock tsx head can make power past 7600-7800rpm, I peaked at 8100rpm and just brought redline back down to be extra safe. Others also say the head doesn't flow well enough to make power that a K20 head would. A K20 head definitely flows better, but the gap between the two isn't as dramatic as people make it seem (stock vs stock).

I know Mayweather can't read this, so here's the little dyno vid I put together from last saturday. Pretty fun day and surprisingly for Houston, a lot of mellow toned cars.

[YOUTUBE="JTran's Dyno's and Donuts"]8-BGer-XFRM[/YOUTUBE]
 

96romaCX

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I'm glad to see your still moving forward with your build! I'd love to squeeze 200whp out of mine n/a but it's really hard. Most people get to the low 190's with really good tunes but we will see.
 

CHILD

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I'm glad to see your still moving forward with your build! I'd love to squeeze 200whp out of mine n/a but it's really hard. Most people get to the low 190's with really good tunes but we will see.
11 hours until dyno time.

Im hoping I can 225+ for peak power to make people second guess just how much the exhaust is actually holding the car back. It's a known fact that it is simply because of the non straight through muffler design, but I don't believe it's holding back nearly as much as people claim
 

CHILD

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Good luck on the dyno
Thanks T! Got my wish afterall.

At precisely 9:34 AM, I pulled in and parked


The little motor that shouldn't do what it does according to the internet


Just random snaps as i stood around between passes




The latest mods in question, the K-tuned 80mm throttle body and 3.5" cold air intake with velocity stack. I've heard that throttle bodies larger than 80mm will lose power with a stock motor, and of course the tsx has the worst flowing head, coupled with my ram header that shouldn't work, and the champion of restriction apexi ws2 catback exhaust.


[url=https://flic.kr/p/oYeXqv]

[url=https://flic.kr/p/pfH7FN]




So what we have: The baseline pull was with the 80mm throttle body and 3.5" short ram intake untuned netting 217whp. Next up was 80mm throttle body and 3.5" cold air intake with 3.5" velocity stack netting 228.5whp also untuned! A couple of pulls were made in between to try to get more power up top to no avail, 226-228 over and over with that massive dip at vtec crossover still. Then time was spent to smooth that dip out. Lowering vtec and the upper and lower vtec boundaries helped to clean up that mess and resulted in a 34whp gain in the midrange.


massive gain.


A bit more playing around to get the curve smoother and this is what we got. The orange line is what I went home with, 228.75whp and s*** ton more midrange.




I think I've finally reached the max potential with this 2.36" WS2 exhaust. Very close to 230whp and just as quiet as a stock D series civic while driving is just fine with me. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be seeing 10 to 15 more whp with a 3" catback exhaust added to my setup without switching to E85 or something similar (basing that assumption off of all the other 240whp TSX longblock dynos i've seen, most weren't stock engines). Tuning was done in 94* heat and 54% humidity, so it was fairly toasty lol.
 

young_

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Look at you! Congrats my man. She's come a long way. What do the folks on the k swap forums say about all of this?
 

CHILD

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Look at you! Congrats my man. She's come a long way. What do the folks on the k swap forums say about all of this?
I hear a lot less talk now with all i've done with testing. The only thing that has held true is that my exhaust is holding back power, although it clearly is holding back that much. Mostly I hear how I can make more power, by doing all the default upgrades that are known to make power, but no words about what i've proven to be flase. I was also surprised to see an 11whp peak gain from switching to a cold air setup, and I had the dyno pulls done with the intake installed the way i'd drive the car, rather than sticking out the bay in the air with a fan in front of it. Tried to keep things as legit as possible. There's a K20 at the same shop with all bolt ons and a 3" exhaust and cams that makes 246...so it's pretty shocking to see my motor react like it has.

The only guys I see with oem tsx motors making around 240whp are always on E85 or C/Q16 and even open header along with it. Although powerful, those are very loud and more expensive for such a small increase over what i've done.

Im actually surprised at the amount of people who haven't really commented on the big midrange gain. Pulling in all that extra air (into a head that is "supposed" to flow badly) was the best thing i've done so far. I have power everywhere and all the time. I sat in traffic in 6th gear at 20mph and pulled off like normal lol.
 

CHILD

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That's so freaking awesome :rolf:
Some guy on k20a has a full tsx, ported rbc manifold, 70mm throttle body, big 750cc injectors, plm megaphone header, e85 fuel, and open header tuned and made 233 lol. All that crap, loads of noise and only a couple hp extra up top and less midrange. Ridiculous.

Another short video from being on the dyno. I need an external mic to show the sound better, but I think you can get an idea of how quiet the exhaust is, all the sound is from the bay at WOT. The motor really growls now.

[YOUTUBE="ktuned 80mm tb tuned on k24a2"]-CGJmbXA3w8[/YOUTUBE]
 

95coupeWI

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Damn Child, you're on top of the game right now. This s**t is too crazy. I say get the e85 flowin, ditch the ws2 for sure.. 240hp NA is plenty in a civic, lol.
 

CHILD

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Damn Child, you're on top of the game right now. This s*** is too crazy. I say get the e85 flowin, ditch the ws2 for sure.. 240hp NA is plenty in a civic, lol.
No, that's be really dumb for me to do. E85 isn't even nearby me for one, you run through e85 really fast too, I still daily drive this, and I don't want a loud obnoxious car. The exhaust will go big along with turbo. No point in ditching the world sport 2. 240whp isn't s**t really. Prayoonto 4'4's and valvetrain has hit 280whp on a stock block tsx. It's not hard to get more power. I just did teating on the stuff people down talked without actually trying it out.
 

CHILD

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You'll be waiting a long time lol. Doing turbo like I did the swap, gathering everything and then throw it all in at once.
 

203CT

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Wow man. That is great stuff bro. I'm glade to see the results you can get just from small upgrades on a stock long block. This is why I'm to going k series. Huge gains with small changes. Much respect bro.
 


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