| Rev Hard Bolt-On Turbo Kit - Honda Civic EP3
These days everyone is getting soft. They want the best of both worlds-horsepower and comfort. What happened to the days when you would easily sacrifice air conditioning to feel the spool of a turbo? It seems that nowadays all people talk about is not wanting to install a turbo kit on their car for fear it won't be "streetable." Since when do we care about that? Isn't it all about sheer power? I say hogwash you wimps!
Unfortunately I don't rule the world so Rev Hard ignored my pleas for old-school inconvenient turbo kits and instead listened to the masses and brought out the ever-so-civilized EP3 bolt-on turbo kit. This kit is so streetable that you can drive your grandma around without her knowing that a monster lies in wait under the hood; that is, unless you are throttle-happy or have a sadistic propensity to snap peoples necks with the g-force of your acceleration. sorry Grams.
The EP3 Civic Si is a great car but greatly underpowered. The 160-horsepower engine is a far cry from the fun and free-spirited driving the Si was designed to accomplish. Feeling a need for more power, Rev Hard utilized its years of experience building turbo kits to design and fabricate a bolt-on system for the EP3. Myles Bautista of Rev Hard, a founding father of the import scene, remembers the hot days in Palmdale back in the day without air conditioning and wanted a kit that delivered it all: thrust, a/c and a dose of civility.
The heart of the turbo kit is a T4/T3 Rev Hard turbocharger mated to a cast-iron Rev Hard manifold. Air filtration to the turbocharger is provided by a low-restriction cone filter. A 2.5-inch downpipe expedites spent gases from the turbocharger. The kit does require fabricating a downpipe to mate to the factory catalytic converter. Wastegate control is handle by a TiAL 35mm external wastegate regulated to seven psi of boost.
Compressed air from the turbocharger is routed through 2.5-inch aluminized mandrel-bent piping and into a front-mount intercooler (27x6.5x3). EP3 owners will be happy to know that the front-mount intercooler fits perfectly behind the factory mesh grille and does not require any trimming. Before making its way to the throttle plate, a Vortech blow-off valve keeps the compressor from surging between shifts.
The hardest part of the install by far was removing the factory oil pan to attach the drain tube. This requires removing the suspension cradle to gain access to all the bolts to remove the oil pan.
Since the factory injectors are too small to sustain boosted duty the factory injectors were swapped out for larger 550cc injectors from RC Engineering that also come with the kit. You do however have to cut and resolder new injector clips to accommodate the new injectors.
Fuel and ignition duty is handled by a "flash-tuned" ECU that Rev Hard supplies with the kit but we opted to go with an AEM EMS unit instead. The EMS allows complete control of fuel and ignition tuning of the K20 engine. Since the factory map sensor is capable of reading up to 10 psi of boost we did not need to swap out any sensors. This will also give us the option to raise boost pressure down the line if we choose to.
On the dyno the stock EP3 equipped with an intake and exhaust generated 152.9 horsepower and 127.6 lb-ft of torque to the wheels. With the Rev Hard turbo kit installed Greg Nakano of AEM twiddled his fingers on the laptop to a tune of 234.0 horsepower and 203.0 lb-ft of torque at 6.5 psi, an increase of nearly a 80 horsepower over the bolt-ons and nearly a 100 horsepower over a stock EP3.
We spoke to Myles and he says there is plenty of juice left in the turbocharger and it really starts to sing around 10 to 12 psi. He also added that when they design any Rev Hard turbo kit there is always room left to grow for more power. From our guess the turbocharger supplied in the kit is capable of producing enough airflow for 400 horsepower. The only question is if you or your engine is ready to handle the power.
Besides the ease of installation, which took us about eight hours to perform, what amazed us most about the kit was the drivability of the vehicle. The EP3 performed like a stock car in traffic and once the road opened up and the hammer was dropped the Honda pulled furiously to redline. We realized full boost at roughly 4400 rpm due to the turbo sizing but car was still manageable with the close-ratio tranny. We opted to raise the rev limit to 7700 rpm.
We feel the AEM EMS system and the Rev Hard turbo kit are a perfect match to the perfect daily driver. If we told 100 unsuspecting buyers that the Civic came turbocharged from the factory we would be willing to bet at least 99 of them would believe it. If Honda decided to build a turbocharged Civic we feel this Civilized Civic would be how it would be or damn close to it.
In the owner's wordsThe Rev Hard turbo kit and the AEM EMS made a world of a difference. Before the turbo kit I had basic bolt-ons such as intake, header and exhaust. The combo trio from Comptech made an additional 14 horsepower over the stock parts.
The power increase was noticeable but after a few weeks with the increased output I was bored and started searching the Internet on other types of modifications I could do to the Civic.
Although I knew there was the choice of adding a nitrous kit I didn't want to keep on filling the bottle each time it got empty. I also knew there were a couple of Civic turbo kits out on the market but I was still skeptical about whether the system had been proven to be safe to use on my daily driver.
After talking it over with some of my car buddies I decided to go forward with getting the kit. The only problem was which one to chose. After searching the Internet and reading reviews on some of the kits in Honda forums I finally went with the Rev Hard turbo system for my EP3.
The main reason I went with the Rev Hard system was because the company has been around for a while and they had already built their name in the industry for providing quality turbo systems for Hondas.
Some of the other kits on the market were released by companies that had just started up and I did not want to risk my car to a possible fly-by-night company.
Wanting more performance is a no brainer for me but keeping my engine safe is equally as important. That is why I went with the AEM EMS system. I wanted complete control over the engine tuning so nothing can go wrong except for bad tuning.
I feel the AEM was the difference in making my car safe and fun to drive without having to worry about detonation and lack of fuel. I also went with the AEM UEGO meter for proper air/fuel readings at all times. The great thing about the EMS system is that is a complete plug-and-play system so I didn't need to wire in any sensors or cut and splice my engine harness to make the system work.
Also, if I plan on increasing the boost or change anything on my engine I could have the AEM system retuned and knowing me I will be changing parts. I guess the key to any engine management is having the right tuner to tune the system.
I made good gains just on the bolt-on parts but the Rev Hard turbo kit made nearly ten times more. The car drives as if it came turbo'd from factory. Once that boost hits you start to feel the pull and it feels awesome.
The tuned AEM EMS is the main reason for a totally safe streetable daily civic. Only boosting 6.5 psi and making that much power is addicting. I don't hit full boost until a little later in the rpms than expected but I am still running a really restrictive stock cat.
Once that boost hits you start to feel the pull and you are pushed to the back on the seat. I've got the itch to bump up the boost and I don't know how long I can hold myself back. I think I've become a "boost junkie."