1994 Honda Civic - Bumpstick Snobbery

You’re a cam snob, aint’cha? Oh c’mon, admit it. You know you are. Most of us are, to some extent. “More cams, more power,” goes the conventional wisdom. Cars with just one simply can’t get the job done, right? Camshafts are damned sexy, even if we don’t know what the hell they are or why. No DOHC head, no VTEC, no power (or at least less potential for any power), and all of the cache of your dad’s Lawn-Boy riding mower. It’s an easy psychological rut to fall into, and one perpetuated by us media types. Bigger. More. Faster. Better. Right?

There are those who would argue vigorously with this assessment, and their arguments are convincing ones. Single-cam mills often pump more torque out of a given engine, or at least they do it at lower, more street-friendly revs. The simplicity of a single-cam engine, without so much of the attendant electronic foofaraw to futz with while trying to crank out power, borders on the quaint. There’s also the point that Civics like the ‘94 you see here didn’t actually come with DOHC engines out of the factory. Does that discount the tweakability of an entire generation of Civics? Fat chance. Still think single-cammers can’t crank out the grunt? Nelson Terra will change your mind in 12 seconds flat.

As an EMT trauma tech, Nelson is well aware of what it takes to get a heart pumping—whether in the back of an ambulance or under the hood of his Civic. Tracheotomy? Turbo plumbing? Making holes and patching them up—quickly—are what he does best. Seconds count when saving someone’s life, and he applied the same speed when building his Civic, two months from start to these photos. Nelson knows full well that his choice is an unconventional one, but his reasons are fairly straightforward: “I was running a ’94 last season, and I just started building on that. It was a money issue at first—make power with what you have. We were considering a del Sol 1.6 DOHC at one time, but I’ve been happy with this engine. It runs great; it’s got plenty of power. Now, in California, everyone and his mom has a DOHC conversion. Here in Massachusetts, it’s a popular swap, but it’s just not readily available. We don’t have the skilled technicians out here who are familiar with that conversion.”

To that end, Nelson did a large chunk of the conversion work himself and with his buddies. “A lot of guys out here will send their stuff to California. We do everything here. We did the whole turbo kit in my garage, all the piping…I did send the turbo out, though; it’s from an ’85 Saab; it was in great shape, so TEC upgraded it and totally rebuilt it. It kicks in at a nice low 2,300 rpm or so, and max boost is at 4 grand. The turbine housing is an AR48—a tight housing for a car pushing this much boost. The limit for the stock ECM is 550cc injectors and a 30-pound boost cap, and I’m running 26 pounds now, though the turbo itself is good for 35 pounds. I’m hoping for 11.8s once it’s dialed in. And I’m not using any of the color-coded Honda bearings; I use Clevite 77s everywhere. People think we’re going to seize it, that we have to go with Honda stuff…but it’s worked real good so far. It’s also all stock valvetrain, and the rods are deburred Acura Integra LS rods. We took .020 off the big end and also floated and locked the pins. It’s been solid.

“Next I’m going to mount a boost gauge on the downpipe; if the boost readings from the intake manifold and downpipe equal out, it’ll be time for a new housing.” Until then, the T3-T04E is it…though greater plans are unfolding as we speak. “This winter I want to convert this turbo to a full ball-bearing unit. Friends with Buick Grand Nationals say that they’re fantastic.”

Nelson believes in the the-best-dyno-is-the-track philosophy, but admits that a chassis dyno helped him out once. “I’ve dyno’d the thing once, and I got 380 hp at 8,000 rpm. But I was only going low 13s, and we couldn’t figure out why. Turns out that we needed to turn the sensitivity down on the J&S Safeguard; it was retarding ignition by about 20 degrees all the way down the track. We gained 100 hp from simply tuning the knock sensor.”

And once he’s at the track? “I launch at 7 grand and just drop it; my redline is at 8,500 rpm, and I shift maybe 200 rpm below that. My best 60-foot with stock suspension is a 1.65 60-foot. Last season, I was timid and careful since it was a real street car; I’d always bring extra axles. They’re kind of a pain in the ass to change in the heat of the moment. But now I’ve stripped a lot of weight out, and it’s less of a strain on the components.” Next stop: 11s. And just one camshaft. Believe it, bumpstick snobs.