Fuel Pressure Mod
After installing an intake, header and exhaust the car will have
a ton more airflow which is good, but it can be bad if you don't have some
extra fuel to balance it out. Many people like to install adjustable
fuel pressure regulators but they're a pain in the ass because they have
to be tuned constantly and the correct way to do it is on a dyno.
Not many of us have a dyno handy all the time and even when there is one
in town, it costs a lot to use. The stock fuel regulator gets its
pressure by vacuum pressure, which is usually constant. If you want
more fuel pressure, unplug the line connecting the fuel regulator with
the intake manifold. Now the regulator can suck in as much air as
it wants as it's no longer limited to the vacuum tube pressure. So find
the line that goes from the regulator to the manifold and remove it.
Cap off the opening from the manifold where the vacuum line went.
However, DO NOT cap off the regulator! If you cap off the regulator
it defeats the whole purpose cuz you will be stopping all airflow to the
regulator. I saw someone put a K&N breather on the regulator..
this is pointless. Nothing is going to fly into the 1/16" hole.
Your idle may change a little due to the change in vacuum pressure, but
that's something you'll have to get used to. Several people have
done this and been very pleased, and I have had some excellent results
as well on many cars.
Stock 95 Civic DX(Automatic)
With airbox removed - 17.4@80mph
With airbox removed and fpr mod - 17.0@80.5mph
Stock 95 Del Sol Si(SOHC VTEC, 125hp)
Airbox removed, timing advanced, adjusted tire pressure - 16.0@87mph
Airbox removed, timing advanced, tire pressure, fpr mod - 15.8@88mph
Ignition Timing Advance
Advancing your ignition timing is a trick that has been around for years
and it's been proven to work on every car that has a distributor.
Advancing ignition timing gives you better low end power, that's all there
is to it.
Step 1 - Find the distributor. Look in the picture and see
where the distributor attatches to the cylinder head. You will need
to make a mark that shows the stock timing setting(look in the purple square
that says "Without timing mark"). Take a Sharpie marker, a screwdriver,
a razort blade, whatever, and make a mark that goes across the distributor
onto the cylinder head so when you move the distributor, the mark seperates
and you can measure the amount of movement from the distributor.
Now that you have the mark made, it should look like the red outlined section,
marked "With timing mark". Now to see how it works, look at the blue
outlined section. You can see how the black mark on the right shows
the stock setting and the mark on the left shows you how far you have advanced
the timing.
Step 2 - Fill your car with 90-93(whatever they have in your area) octane
gas. You should not advance your timing with low octane fuel because
it will ping and that's bad.
Step 3 - Loosen the 3, 12mm bolts that hold the distributor in place.
Don't remove them, just loosen them so you can rotate the distributor.
Now, turn the distributor all the way towards the firewall, which is full
advance. Tighten the 3 bolts and start the car. Drive the car
down the street and make a full throttle pass(in any gear, doesn't matter
what rpm or speed, just be at full throttle). If the car pings, immediately
back off the throttle and pull the car over. When testing this, I always
keep the tools in the car so I can adjust the timing without having to
drive to the garage a zillion times. Now turn the distributor back
towards the front of the car 1mm(1mm=~1degree). Tighten the bolts and do
another full throttle pass. If the car pings, stop and move the distributor
back another 1mm. Keep turning back the distributor 1mm at a time
until the car stops pinging(doing a full throttle pass after each adjustment).
Once the car stops pinging, you're done! You should be able to advance
your timing 3-4 degrees(3-4mm) at least withouth having to worry about
the car pinging.
Coolant Bypass Mod
Just about every stock car has a feature called the cold start valve.
The cold start valve is located on the bottom of the throttle body and
it has two lines that run into it, one in and one out. The lines
transfer coolant which in a cold start situation, helps warm up the engine
faster by warming up the air in the throttle body via-coolant. In
a cold climate(one that has regular temps below freezing) it has a purpose,
but in summer months or a climate that doesn't have a winter of freezing
temps, the cold start valve hurts hp because hot air is bad air.
So you have two lines to modify:
1. The coolant line coming out of the block into the cold start valve,
and
2. The coolant line coming out of the cold start valve and back into
the block.
The mod is simple: Bypass the valve by running line #1 where line
#2 connects back into the block. Now you have coolant going out of
the block and back into the block, which is essentially what it did before,
but it doesn't go through the throttle body which drstically reduces air
temps in the intake manifold. This whole cold start valve is just
for warming up a very cold car, but it's not needed in a hot climate.
V8 guys have been doing this for years in F-Bodies and Mustangs with all
kinds of success. The idle may change, but again, that's life. People
have reported up to 8hp at the wheels with this mod alone.
Injector Mod
A while back when I first got my car, I was fiddling around trying to
find all the stock parts I could modify for little or no money. I
took out my injectors to see if there was a way to modify them and indeed
there was. I was looking for something internal, but I found something
a little easier. There is a small filter located in the top of the
injector that's supposed to filter out any last little particles that could
get inside the engine. Well I wanted an extra edge so I removed the
filters to get a few extra cc's of fuel. The filter is an orange
cylinder with three "sides", each side having a small screen which acts
as a filter. So take the cylinder filter out of the injector(just
lifts out) and get a razor and cut out the small screens. It sounds
complicated, but once you remove the injector you will see how it works
and what the screen looks like. But isn't this a stupid idea?? Sure,
it sounds like one. However, I removed the injectors when my car
has 65,000 miles and there were NO particles or any kind of debris in the
injector filters. I figured that I will take the chance because the
car went so long and the filters were still brand new and if something
did happen(the worst thing that can happen is a small particle getting
into the injector and partially clogging the flow, if that. gasoline will
dissapate just about anything), I could use it as an excuse to get the
injectors blueprinted. Well I drove the car for another 50,000 miles
with no problems at all. I ran a bottle of injector cleaner through
the tank every few months which might have helped, but it was more of a
superstitious thing. I then sent the injectors out to RC Engineering to
get blueprinted and they said the injectors were clean as a whistle.
So if you want some extra fuel, remove the injector filters. I did
it and had no problems whatsoever. To remove the injectors you will
have to remove the 3, 10mm nuts holding down the fuel rail. Lift
up the fuel rail and you'll see the injectors and the orange filters located
on top of them. The filters lift out and you can begin modification.
As it turns out, several of the major Honda tuners in the Phoenix area
have been doing this mod with turbocharged cars to get extra fuel flow.
I know of 4-5 cars that have done this and no problems have been reported.
Crankcase Filter Mod
From the factory there is a tube that connects the valve cover to the
intake manifold. Again, hot air is bad air. Remove the
line connecting the pipe to the valve cover. You have to put a filter
on the valve cover side, as shown in the picture. As for the intake
side, you can either put a filter on it or cap it off.
Dustshield Mod
1. Remove your front wheels.
2. Remove the front calipers and rotors.
3. There are a few phillips head screws holding the dust shields
on, take out these screws. Now however you can(might take a dremel
or a hacksaw), cut the dustshield so you can remove it.
4. Take the dustshields and throw them in the trash can.
With the wheel on, the dustshield not only shields dust away, but it
also blocks off all the airflow to the brakes from inside the wheel and
wheel well. Yes, it might be a good thing if you drive through sand(even
most Pro Rally cars have the dustshields removed!) all day, dustshields
are worthless. Get more are to those brakes, remove those dustshields!
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