New to Hondas - Questions.....

CivicEXCoupe

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All, First off, this is my first front wheel drive car and my first Honda. I have build many Mopar muscle cars in the past, so I am not new to building, especially if it is custom. Anyways, I picked up a 1994 Honda civic EX coupe, D16 VTEC,, 5-speed. And after replacing MANY bushings, axles, etc.....I finally decided to get on it some and noticed the rev limiter kicks in at 5500rpm? Is that normal? I was expecting around 6k or 6500. The kid I bought it off of did a few things to it, a cold air intake, header and I just put on a Toucan Ractive oval exhaust on it yesterday. Which sounds really nice, a little deeper than stock, but not noisier, no fart sounds from that can. I plan on going with a Comp Cam pretty soon and go with a BLOX intake to open things up a little more.....later down the road I plan on a ProCharger for a little more juice.
 

jason_guy_yeah

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It's not normal to have the rev limiter at 5500 rpms. Do you have any cels (check engine light)? But, I would suggest researching turbo builds on d-series. Depending on your hp goal and budget, you could do 250 bhp stock or with sleeving, forged internals, tunnig, ect... You'll spend more money doing a NA build vs. forced induction but, everybody has there preference and pro's and con's.
 


flat_line

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i would agree with doing a turbo set up but if you are going to do a n/a motor i would go with a h22 or a b18. but thats just me
 


CivicEXCoupe

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OK, h22, b18 are kinda Greek to me, like I said, I am new at the Honda thing. H22 is a 2.2liter, but will it fit in the civic? With what tranny? I wouldn't mind building a motor on the stand to do an engine swap, but I have no idea what to look for in the different motors. IE, which blocks are stronger, etc. My next motor will be forced induction.

No engine codes, other than an ABS light on....so I need to clear that first.
 

stealthy

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read and search....you have a lot of learning to do....unless you have alot of money to blow first.
 

CivicEXCoupe

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read and search....you have a lot of learning to do....unless you have alot of money to blow first.

Well, I guess that is why I joined this forum, to learn and ask questions without blowing alot of money. So what engine swaps are best for forced induction in the civics? I hear alot about the B18 swap, but if I was wanting a bullet proof bottom end, which has that? Are there forged cranks available? Are there such things as splayed caps for Hondas?
 

stealthy

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search around here alot of your questions have been answered an go into detail. if you have more questions that are unanswered, then post about it. any motor can be made bullet proof with the right amount of money. give me a budget and a hp goal and i can probably steer you in the right direction but you should still learn everything yourself and not just what i (or anyone else here) tells you to use. as for cranks, not really needed. and ive never heard of splayed caps.
 

\\ Forgiven //

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Well, I guess that is why I joined this forum, to learn and ask questions without blowing alot of money. So what engine swaps are best for forced induction in the civics? I hear alot about the B18 swap, but if I was wanting a bullet proof bottom end, which has that? Are there forged cranks available? Are there such things as splayed caps for Hondas?
Like Stealthy said, the stock crank can hold up to a lot. I also have no clue what a splayed cap is. As for a bulletproof bottom end, ALL honda motors have their limits, none are very bulletproof stock but all of them can be built fairly easily.
 

CivicEXCoupe

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Splayed caps are the main caps that hold the crank , bearings, etc. They have four bolts each, two that go straight down through the cap on each side and two more on the outer edge that are angled. Having splayed main caps provides a stronger bottom end with less likely to have bearing or crank failure. No "Stock" engine blocks come that way, it is an add-on to have machined, but well worth it. There were a few motors that came with 4-bolt mains, which of course were stronger than 2-bolt, but having 4-bolt splayed caps were proven to reduce crank failure.

The only reasons I am asking these questions is that I am NEW to Hondas, so I was looking for some insight. Like Dodges, Plymouths, etc, all of which had better years than others for blocks, heads, etc. Some were stronger than others, designated by casting numbers.

Forged cranks, rods and pistons to me are a must in a motor that spins over 7k, forced induction and a wet shot. But also, all I have ever worked on are V8s. I am not looking to "steal" someones "secret" setup or copy Joe-Blow, just asking a few questions.

Also after some searches last night, I think I found the motor I want to build, a B18C5, just due to the amount of aftermarket parts available and the ease of a swap into my civic. I did see some interesting numbers for the D16Z6, which is what my car has in it right now. To be honest I was thinking about trying to get ~500whp without nitrous on pump gas.
 
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HybridKyle

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The B18C is a great platform for someone that is NEW to Honda's to start on. I hope that by saying you are wanting 500 hp without spray on the pump you mean forced induction...if so then thats do'able. The main thing is to make sure you have someone in your area that knows what they are doing when it comes to tuning a Honda. Tuning is the single most important thing, IMO, don't skimp on the tune. There is tons of info on the WWW to read, but there are also publications that may be found at a good library...Honda Builders Handbook, I think is one of them.

Go turbo...no sense in using power to make power!! Besides I cannot remember the last time I saw a supercharged Honda making that kind of power.
 

CivicEXCoupe

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Thanks Kyle - Yes I was talking on forced induction, also after the research I am thinking turbo instead of supercharger. With the new wastegates, blow-offs that are now available, it looks like the way to go. I already have some Honda books on order, just waiting on snail-mail.

As for the tune, I was told about a good "tuner" in Tennessee, my buddy took his Scion there and got it up too 387whp......although, the bottom end couldn't handle it and he scattered the bottom end on the freeway while eating a Mustang GT.......funny but not.
 

CivicEXCoupe

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I have another question, I was checking out the AEM EMS Engine management system and noticed it comes with or without Wide Band UEGO? WTF is that?
 

neoc03

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AEM EMS is baller status $$$$. Allot of people just run chipped OBD1 and have it tuned a whole lot cheaper. If your going forced induction I would definitely go with a B series. If you sleeve it and built block/head 500hp will be no problem with the right turbo combo. Welcome to the world of Hondas BTW its like crack one hit and your addicted. I'm finishing my build now (built the motor already just piecing together home-made turbo kit) and I'm probably doing 400hp DD (I do have a backup car though lol).
 

CivicEXCoupe

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My Honda lingo needs some work I think......Neoc03 - when you say 400hp DD, are you saying D engine and D tranny? OBD1? Is that like Obi Wan Knobi? Just kidding, who has an acronym list? hahahahaha
 

neoc03

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DD is daily driven. OBD1 is a generation of ECU that is easily programmable by tuners. A tune on an OBD1 can make a world of difference, and like I said its a whole lot cheaper than AEM EMS which means you could spend that money on Dyno time. Yeah the lingo takes a second or two to learn, but it will be second nature before you even realize it. BTW if you want to see my build just click on View/Rate My Garage under my name.
 

CivicEXCoupe

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what model did the OBD1 come in? it is VTEC I assume? I also assume that when you say easily programmed, it can be plugged into a laptop with software to tune?

BTW, nice coupe you have there....I like the electric blue on it.
 

jason_guy_yeah

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obdd1 came on the 5th gen or (92-95 years) of civics. What he means easily program is that, there's a variety of software out there (hondata, crome, uberdata) that allows you to change the fuel and timming tables, remove fuel cutt off, enable ignition cut off, blah blah... When obd2 and obd2a ect... came out, they're considered the "anti-tune", or non-reprogramable with expceptions like K-pro. But, not sure if there's some obd2 ecu's that are tunable. But, there's a TON of info to cover. There's alot of reading and research mostly covered.
 

\\ Forgiven //

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what model did the OBD1 come in? it is VTEC I assume? I also assume that when you say easily programmed, it can be plugged into a laptop with software to tune?

BTW, nice coupe you have there....I like the electric blue on it.
OBD-1 is a generation like Neo said. It applies to ALL cars, not just Honda's. It stands for On Board Diagnostics. Your car is OBD-1 since it's a 5th gen, they switched to OBD2 in 1996.

Basically, OBD1 ECU's are easy to tune. There is a very large aftermarket of tuning software available for them. Luckily for you, you already have an OBD1 ECU in your car. Also, you already have vtec, so your ECU is already setup to run Vtec. Because of this, all you have to do is get your current stock ECU chipped and tuned to run a B18c.
 


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