QuestionQUESTION: i have a 97 civic EX with the d16 series engine.
i have an intake and straight 2.25 piping from the cat and back, and i took off the resonator i think it was.
but my question is, is there anyway to get more torque without doing a swap? its also lowered a bit with SSR III's and low profile tires. kohmo i think.
but any advice would be great. thank you
ANSWER: I have never really been a fan of large bore exhausts, the dynamics of balancing horsepower along with adequate torque can be a tricky thing especially with smaller engines. Don't let the louder sound of the exhaust fool you into thinking that you're going faster.
The first thing you lose most of the time with such a conversion is torque, sure you have a better breathing engine but you need some of that backflow resistance to maintain torque. It also helps to know the intricacies of each engine type knowing its power band, torque curve etc.
The question is, where do you want more torque? In the low end, the mid or the highend level? And no, you cannot have all of them due to the limitations of physics and air flow.
Since you have already installed the mentioned exhaust system, your only option at this point is to check out various headers from DC and the likes. Changing from the stock 4 to 1 to a 4 to 2 to 1 will shift your torque band to different range.
After you have answered the question of where you want your torque band to be then you can go out and choose the appropriate headers to add to your current set-up.
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QUESTION: thanks. um, also, if i wanted low end torque, and got a new head for that, would u recommend putting a turbo in it? i have seen a few turbos in the d16s.
AnswerTurbos are tricky as well. A lot of folks get turbos but do not know enough about the quirks that come along with them, not to mention the cost.
Anytime you take a stock engine not designed for turbos, you have to change out both the top and bottom gaskets in order for them to take the increase in pressure produced by the turbo. What normally happens is, someone adds a turbo but does not do the proper upgrades along with it and their car ends up leaking like a sieve because the standard gaskets could not take the pressure increase.
Not to mention the usual decrease in gas mileage and the turbo lag that occurs with such add on. Turbos are hard on oil and I recommend upgrading to synthetic oil when you perform the install.
I am more a fan of Superchargers vs. Turbochargers.
