Mods don't do anything?

[01CivicEX]

I'm looking for some clarity on this problem that I am experiencing. I was thinking about purchasing an AEM cold air intake for my 2001 Civic EX, but was not sure about modding my car. So I talked with the guy at my local Honda Service center and asked him what he thought. Coming into the conversation I initially thought that he would look down on the upgrade just because there would still be and air restriction in the exhaust. He said it was a bad idea to upgrade my car with a cold air intake so I asked him if I bought headers and and exhaust system would my car be free of air restriction and become more powerful. He said that it wouldn't because when more air and more fuel are able to come through the engine, the computer in the Civic will stop it from bringing in more air and fuel because of the way it is set up. Pretty much all cars now are fuel-injected, so they don't have carburetors. But carburetors could be adjusted to bring more power into the car. He said that the only way to make your car faster would be to ADD a turbocharger, supercharger, or nitrous. Natural aspiration would not work.

"There's no replacement for displacement." He even claimed that if a stock Civic and another Civic of the same year, weight, and only had I/H/E upgrades, the stock Civic would win in a race. The cold air intake doesn't even work as well as the stock intake, because it runs up right next to a HOT engine. The cooler air is already being taken in and is insulated with the stock intake. Would the only way to get ANY performance out of your naturally aspirated moter with I/H/E would be to get an ECU chip upgrade? Because the Civic computer just takes away all of the power.

So I wondered, seeing all these people with JUST an intake, headers, and exhuast and NO chip upgrade, What have these modifications done to enhance the performance of your car?

[Ricochet]

When I had my stock DX engine, I dyno'ed a whopping 98whp. After i/h/e I peaked 117whp. Nuff said.

[T-Racer]

well said

[i_a_n112784]

The honda guy is right to a point. You're looking at a good amount of money for not alot of power. While i/h/e DOES add some, the only way to get a good amount is by turbo/super/nitrous. The engineers that make the components of the car do a good job of designing the stock parts while keeping it cheap. If they didn't have to try and keep the car's cost down, then that 98hp motor would get 117hp out of the factory, but it adds to the sticker, which people don't like.

[01CivicEX]

Yea, your 20 hp boost seemed logical to me because I figured that would be the amount of power gained from I/H/E. But it still doesn't answer the question: Do you need an ECU upgrade to bring out the full power of natural aspiration?

[B1SiR6A]

...No...

[CivicRacerX]

Originally Posted by 01CivicEX

Yea, your 20 hp boost seemed logical to me because I figured that would be the amount of power gained from I/H/E. But it still doesn't answer the question: Do you need an ECU upgrade to bring out the full power of natural aspiration?

It depends on what kinds of mods you are getting into. If you're doing serious work on the head/injectors/bottom end/CR etc.. then yes, you're probably going to be best served by a programmable ECU. If you're just talking bolt-ons like I/H/E, your stock ECU should serve you just fine. Truth be told, a truly custom map would probably milk a tiny bit more power, but cost/hp would be very high, so you're better off spending the cash on something else, unless you're doing a serious build-up later.

[NewKid 98Civic]

I totally rebuild my friends supra
-twin turbos
-nitrous 150 shot
etc.etc.all after market internals cold air new ecu
now hes pushin 894whp

[Beastiek2]

Supra...nuff said...old thread..no more needed to be said...