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It's been years since I've updated this page, and through my
experiences, I've learned significantly more about what it takes to
make more power and improve handling and breaking.
Consider this a more mature version of my old list.
Basic Bolt On upgrades
I'll cover the basics in the section. The first and
foremost important upgrade is a short shifter. It's cost
varies by application. For a Civic, B&M's shifter is around
$80, $200ish for a 240SX and around $135 for a Mitsubishi Evo.
In my opinion, driving with a short shifter makes all the difference
in the world.
The intake/header/exhaust combo is probably one of the more
popular upgrades for non-turbo cars. Sadly, at an investment
of around $1000 for a complete setup, one can only expect to see
around 5-15hp. I must also point out, that it is possible to
lose power with improper selection of hardware. Do your
homework, and find out what works best for your application.
For turbo or supercharged applications, simple bolt on components
can yield excellent power gains, but typically not without proper
tuning.
Beyond the standard intake, header and exhaust, there are several
other upgrades that done individually, will show very little gain.
Installing under-drive pulleys, plugs, wires, and any other misc
thing you can think of, will only work if they are all used
together. It also needs to be realized, that even on a heavily
built engine, under-drive pulleys are still not going to make much
of a difference.
Springs/Shocks/Other suspension hardware
In my honest opinion, a car that handles well is a fun car.
There are several different springs, shocks and other miscellaneous
hardware to choose from. Picking a setup will have to be determined
by what you plan to do. If terrorizing your local streets is what
you indent to do, than a moderate upgrade will be adequate. If you
want to do some serious racing, then a much more elaborate setup is
necessary. As far as a street setup is concerned, a set of Eibach
Sportlines and KYB AGX's will give you very nice ride quality with a
nice improvement in handling and appearance. I always recommend
that you pick up a set up shocks with springs but it isn't necessary
to start out with. If you are short on cash, a moderate set of
springs will work fine on stock shocks for a little while. Over
time, your ride quality will start to decay. Brake dive and body
roll will also get worse.
Some like to compliment their upgraded suspension with sway bars
and tie bars. If your ride doesn't have sway bars to start out
with, see if there is version of your ride that has sway bars. In
this case, you can probably find a used set, with hardware, for a
really good price. If you already have sway bars, you may want to
look into aftermarket pieces. Suspension Techniques offers sway
bars that can be installed by using factory mounts or include
hardware to do a complete install.
One last thing to consider would be tie bars. Honestly, the
best kind of tie bar for the front struts, would be a three point
setup. Something similar to JDM password's 3point bar ties the
shock/strut mounts together, and brace them against the firewall.
Any time you can find a way to tighten up sections of the uni-body,
you will benefit from more precise vehicle control. SPL offers
several pieces for 300zx's and 240sx's to help tie up a soggy
chassis.
Wheels/Tires
The combination of wheels and tires with the right suspension can
really improve handling performance. If you can't do the suspension
a good set of tires can act as a bandage for stock or poor
performance. Either way, the size of wheel or tire may come down to
personal preference, but I think there is a rule of thumb that
should be followed. Most aftermarket wheels have an offset that
pushes the wheels towards the outside of the car. This may improve
the appearance but have drastic effects on handling. For Civics and
Integras, you want to stay as close to a 45mm offset as possible.
Anything less than that may cause serious tire rubbing problems.
The other thing I've noticed with aftermarket wheels is that they
are wider than they need to be. The only disadvantage with that is
the possibility of rubbing problems.
For any civic, upgrading to 15" Integra GS-R wheels retains the
stock offset and has an ideal width of 6". On these wheels, a P205
50 R15 is probably the best size. Again, the size is up to you. I
have friends that have used 17" wheels with great success and others
that have to roll fender lips and pick narrow tires in order to
avoid rubbing.
One thing to note, is that using a larger wheel and proper sized
tire will give you a smaller sidewall. As the sidewall gets
smaller, with increased wheel sizes, breakaway becomes less
predictable. What this means, is that as you go through a turn, a
taller sidewall will gradually lean which in turn gradually lifts
the tread. Instead of breaking loose, due to reaching the limit of
tire adhesion, you slowly reduce the contact patch which will allow
for a much more predictable slides.
As far as tires are concerned, Dunlop, Yokohama, and several
other manufacturers produce some very nice tires. Just talk to the
guys at The Tire Rack and they'll hook you up with tires that best
fit your needs. Most people recommend the Dunlop SP Sport 8000's
for their predictable behavior, excellent grip on dry and wet, and
great price. Another tire to consider, if you are running 16's or
17's is the Yokomaha A520's. I've experienced them on two rides and
I'll have to say that I was very impressed. They exhibited
excellent accuracy and grip.
Other Bolt-Ons
This includes pulleys, spark plugs, throttle body, etc. Most of
these mods will not show much of a gain, if any alone. I was
skeptical about pulleys until we finally tired out a set. On my
brother's Integra, the only difference was noticed after 6000 rpms.
After 6K the engine races to redline with authority. The same holds
true for Erik's Prelude. An aftermarket ignition is really
unnecessary unless you are running a turbo, supercharger, or NOS.
Upgrading the plugs, wires and ignition can provide better throttle
response and better economy. An aftermarket throttle body will
increase mid to high end response. Pick and choose as you see fit.
Crazy Mods
Here's where the fun begins. This includes cams, headwork,
turbos, supercharges....you get the point. Anyway, you need to
decide what you plan to do in the long run. Do you want to go all
motor? a nice street performing supercharger? a balls out turbo?
easy to install and cheap nitrous kit? Each takes a tremendous
amount of thought and research. It may be much more expensive to
build and "all motor" car in that it entails serious head work,
bottom end work, and cams.
All Motor
Building an all motor car can be very, very difficult. I've been
involved in many conversations dealing with trying to build a street
able 200 wheel horsepower Honda B block engine. To achieve 200
wheel horsepower, it comes down to very critical head work, high
compression pistons, aggressive camshafts, reprogrammed, or
programmable ECU, and extensive tuning. Another drawback, aside
from cost, would be the potential for an engine that needs to spin
extremely fast in order to make any power. Super high RPMS are
particularly destructive even on well build engines. The need for
properly balanced crankshafts, pistons and rods is very critical.
Most would agree, given the maximum potential, that it is not worth
the effort and money to build an all-motor car. There is a prestige
associated with an all motor car but sometimes, you just to go on to
other options such as....
Turbocharging
Conceptually, using a turbo to make big horsepower is a no
brainer. Most of the time, massive gains can be realized without
any internal engine modifications. A typical turbo kit will cost a
fraction of a well built NA motor and require a minimal effort to
install and tune. As with the all motor setup, if huge gains are to
be realized, some engine work will be necessary. Block
reinforcement may be necessary as well as lower compression pistons,
new valves, cams, etc. Tuning or a means to tune is a very critical
issue. Honda computers cannot deal with boost. That being the
case, one of many things can be done. A simple system would be to
create a bypass for the MAP sensor and install a massive fuel pump
to provide more fuel. A better approach would be to install a
piggy-back device that electronically bypasses the MAP signal when
boost I present. The piggy back system feeds the stock ECU what it
wants to see and then adjusts the amount of fuel delivered
electronically. The only drawback to this system, is compatibility
issues between the ECU and the piggy back device. Lastly, the most
effective method for proper fuel control would be to have the stock
ECU reprogrammed with information to handle boost. In this
situation, there is only one device that handles all of the
functions. Reprogramming the ECU allows an individual to build a
turbocharged car that runs like it had originally been built as a
turbo.
One major benefit of turbo vs all motor is that the engine can
spin at lower rpms and make generous horsepower. Revving the engine
to redline is not necessary as it may be for an all motor car. In
the long run a turbo could be more reliable.
Supercharger
I'm not the biggest fan of superchargers. The two main types
would be the Eaton roots type blower and the centrifugal "vortec"
style blower. The roots type blower is a positive displacement
blower that generates the same amount of boost regardless of rpms.
The centrifugal type works more like a turbo. More rpms equals more
boost. Using a Vortec blower on a small engine may not result in
the most useful power curve. Since the centrifugal type blower
needs higher rpms to build boost, there will be no gains realized at
lower rpms which is where a smaller engine really needs the help.
An Eaton roots type blower is a positive displacement blower that
generates the same amount of boost at any rpm. This characteristic
usually leads to very significant gains in torque at lower rpms.
Back to the thoughts on small engines, this is a major improvement.
The roots type blower usually doesn't increase high end power as
substantially as it does at lower rpms. A properly designed
supercharger can provide impressive gains, but may never be able to
reach to potential of a properly built turbo engine.
Final note:
Bottom line, you need to plan out what you intend
to do to your ride. I hope you can make better decisions with what
I've outlined here. If you have any questions, drop me a line and
I'll do my best to help you out.
Have Fun!
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