Break It Down
Cost B16A and hydraulic transmission swap-$2,400; HASport mount kit-$399; HASport clutch, MC adapter and MC-$199; HASport wiring $199; HASport shift linkage-$149; HASport axles-$349.

The home stretch is finally upon us as Bisimoto has begun assembly of our F22A for the Castrol Syntec Top Shop Challenge. We're expecting to have one of the most durable and reliable engines out of the entire group, in addition to making serious all-motor power. Here's where we're at with our build:

Last month we announced a big engine build-off between ourselves and some select Source Interlink titles as part of Castrol Syntec's Top Shop Challenge, where each magazine gets to pick an engine and engine builder of choice to see which one will make the most power and maintain its longevity while on an engine dyno. We said that this would be a David versus Goliath match, so we're proud to announce our entry: the Honda Accord F22A engine, to go up against the likes of the RB26, SR20 and 4G63 monoliths. Think we're outpowered? Well, we are, but that doesn't mean we're not going to put up the good fight. Bisi Ezerioha is a champion when it comes to tuning these engines, and other single cam Honda powerplants. His expertise has won him numerous drag racing challenges and long lasting engine configurations. This month he drops knowledge on the basic outline and battle plan for our engine in the months to come.

Break It Down
Cost Enkei RPF1: $271 per wheel; Falken Azenis RT-615: starting at $144 per tire; fender rolling: varies on application.

If we could give you the solution to detonation and overheating, and actually increase boost in your ride, would that be something you'd be interested in? Normally, high boost combined with the extreme running temperatures of today's cars spell a short lifespan for your engine. Enter "water injection" and its benefits. This miracle invention (circa 1940) is used to increase compression, allow advanced timing and cool the intake charge in one shot. That said, just dumping water and/or methanol into your intake isn't going to do anything but hydro lock your engine. What's needed is a precise metering and atomizing of the liquid into your combustion chambers. This allows the miracle to happen. Once the mixture is atomized with the fuel, it becomes more dense (kind of like Jonny). The first benefit to happen is that the "dense" mixture raises the compression slightly because water is heavier than air. Second, the alcohol raises your octane level, which will aid in combustion while reducing detonation. Third, the water's natural properties of heat dissipation help get the heat off the piston head, cooling the intake charge.

A common upgrade for the S13 and Zenki S14 (non-SE) 240SX is the five-lug conversion. Besides offering improved torque transfer to the wheels, it opens up your wheel selection like YouPorn does, well, porn. Instead of being limited to 4x114 rims and offsets, you can go as wide as your wallet or wheel well's content. So when it came time to get serious with our budget track S13, we contacted Ichiba for its five-lug kit that comes with the bearings already pressed, an advantageous time-saving factor to consider.

If we could give you the solution to detonation and overheating, and actually increase boost in your ride, would that be something you'd be interested in? Normally, high boost combined with the extreme running temperatures of today's cars spell a short lifespan for your engine. Enter "water injection" and its benefits. This miracle invention (circa 1940) is used to increase compression, allow advanced timing and cool the intake charge in one shot. That said, just dumping water and/or methanol into your intake isn't going to do anything but hydro lock your engine. What's needed is a precise metering and atomizing of the liquid into your combustion chambers. This allows the miracle to happen. Once the mixture is atomized with the fuel, it becomes more dense (kind of like Jonny). The first benefit to happen is that the "dense" mixture raises the compression slightly because water is heavier than air. Second, the alcohol raises your octane level, which will aid in combustion while reducing detonation. Third, the water's natural properties of heat dissipation help get the heat off the piston head, cooling the intake charge.

Honda's Civic Si is a solid performer right out of the box, but as we all know, there's always room for improvement. We can go and slap on a turbo and a random set of springs, but that may void this new car's warranty, and as you likely recall, our goal for this car is to keep it street legal and keep its warranty intact. Our friends at Penske Honda offer a host of Honda-approved go-fast goodies that will improve our Civic's performance while keeping those disapproving looks from Honda's service department at bay. Of course, not all dealers will stock these parts, nor will all dealers honor your warranty if you install these parts on your ride, so be sure to talk with your Honda dealer before installing anything on your car. Follow along as we install a HFP suspension kit, Fujita F5 intake and Velox wheels on to our Civic.

So you want to be a track superstar? Live large-big house, five cars? The track superstar part we might be able to help you with, but for the big house and five cars bit you'll have to talk to Project Car's editor in chief, Ricky Chu. We've received endless questions about our Time Attack event and what it takes to compete, so we decided to take on a little project this year to give you guys a little more info on what you'll need to make your car a star on the track.

Preparation and proper tools are the key to any successful install; whether it is something as complicated as a motor swap, a simple exhaust upgrade, or getting the cute girl you just met to go home with you for the night (you figure out what to install in that scenario), knowing what needs to be done and having the proper tools to do it are key.

The first installment of our street-legal Si is the perfect companion for those of you who've just recently sprung for a new car purchase and are curious how to go about modifying it, without voiding the warranty. It's simple: most dealers offer Honda's Factory Performance line (like Penske Honda, who sold us ours) as one of their accessory options. This means these are parts you can add to your car easily, without worrying about your warranty one bit because you are guaranteed Honda quality. Although most of the parts offered are cosmetic, Honda does produce performance-related accessories, like lowering springs and exhausts. But for the four-door Si, you're limited to a mild aero kit, fog lights and, from what we're told, lowering springs have just been approved for release (we're awaiting confirmation). Follow along as we give our Project Si the first of its modifications, starting with the HFP aero add-ons, upsized wheels and foglights.

A word of warning - this could get ugly, people. This story started out as a typical Super Street tech assignment, with Nads asking me to find a couple of pros to summarize the four most popular power adders in the sport compact market. But then, he added a twist: We'll let these guys talk up their power maker of choice, as long as they talk trash about their competition. Tell us why the other guy's junk isn't fly. That should be far more entertaining than the usual press release fodder, and it just might make it easier for the readers to figure out who's being straight with us and who's full of it.

No one likes dirty lube. It's dark, clumpy, makes it hard for your pistons to pump... it's all kinds of messy nastiness. Enter the oil change; a must-perform maintenance that's as easy as it gets, yet for some reason very easy to neglect. Example: Our SRT4. Follow along as we have Will from DME change our overdue Project Neon's lube with some help from Amsoil synthetic and their action-packed Mechanics Lube kit. Lube of the booty-sort sold separately.

When you start getting really deep into modifications on your motor, you need to know the vitals. Keeping the oil pressure, oil and water temperature, and so on in check is crucial to prolonging the life of your engine. You can't rely on the factory gauges to give you the information you need because they're not the most accurate and usually only display low, middle and red. (Once you hit the red, you're screwed anyway.) The problem with cars lately, though, is that they don't have a lot of room to mount gauges, unless you're down to fabricate some mounting plates or drill holes all over your dash. However, the Defi-Link Display allows users to get all the crucial engine info through a digital display the size of a garage door remote. The install is made even simpler with the Control Unit II, which is the mastermind behind the whole ordeal. You just run all the sensors through it, then to the display and all your wire clutter is hidden away.

We can't count how many times we've told you that if you have a turbocharged car, it's absolutely essential that you let the turbo cool down before you turn the engine off; just a minute of chill will add years to the lifetime of your turbo. The turbo timer is an ingenious invention, allowing a person to leave the car running for a set period of time and then automatically shutting it off. But if you're poor like us and can't even afford an inexpensive turbo timer, we've come up with a few ideas to kill about a minute or so of time while you're sitting in your car.

We first showed you the Rotora big brake kit that we planned to use on the NSX back in our March '07 issue. Not that we were trying to lag, but the car underwent some major body upgrades at PJ Bonifacio's body shop with a Down Force kit. To make up for it, we've used an after picture of the car as a little teaser before we give you a full update on the body mods.

When it comes to boost, it seems like you can never get enough. Well, we can't at least. Whether it's a car that comes stock with a turbo or one you've slapped an aftermarket kit on, you will never be able to kill that urge for boost. Like a yuppie fiending for his daily triple-shot mocha espresso, you too, yearn for the pressurized air spooling from your turbo-so in comes the boost controller. There are about a thousand out there, from a simple knob to full-on electronic units that could probably double as a spare brain for a NASA space shuttle. But with all of these quality parts, we don't want any complications, either. If a gadget has an instruction manual thicker than a business law textbook and takes longer to program than a graphing calculator, it gets the boot. The AEM TRU-BOOST falls right smack dab in the middle. It does its job as a fully functional boost controller with 29psi available (75 with a special boost sensor), it's simple to use and it looks dope. What's even better is that it doubles as a boost gauge so you don't end up with too many meters all over your dash. Face it, you're not in a fighter plane.

What's that squeaking noise every time you step on the brakes? That is the wear indicator designed to be extra annoying so you know that it's time to change your brake pads. You don't have to take your car to the local mechanic or get ripped off by some chain store that's going to try and up-sell you once you drive into the parking lot. You can pick up a set of brake pads for fairly cheap and do them yourself at home. Not only do you save money, you can get out of doing any other housework by saying, "Sorry, babe, I'm busy doing a brake job on the car." Damn, do you sound like a professional or what?

If you have a last-generation RX-7 chances are it's got some decent miles on it; you might already be on the second or even third engine. And if you're totally retarded like us, you've been running all-stock stuff. Which means it's time to switch out those crusty parts to lower temps in the engine bay. Why switch it up? The stock intercooler is nothing more than a glorified heat sink, the airbox actually prevents the engine from breathing, and let's not forget the factory air separator tank-basically just a piece of plastic prone to cracking.

Summer's here and that means fellas, light off some fireworks; ladies, it's time to take off your tops and earn some beads at the lake. We hope you got an extension cord for the electric fan in your garage because you'll need it. If last summer's heat wasn't a warning of what's to come, then you're way tougher than we are. Anything over 80 degrees is hot to us and triple digits on the thermometer is damn near torture. Like we said, that electric fan better be cranked up to full blast while your car is on jack stands. To make your life easier (since we love to do that), we'll be sitting around waiting for your help letters to come in. If you have good penmanship, like a prisoner, send your written inquiries into Super Street magazine c/o Technical Support, 6420 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90048. Or if you'd rather get with the times, e-mail us at tech@superstreetonline.com.

If you have a last-generation RX-7 chances are it's got some decent miles on it; you might already be on the second or even third engine. And if you're totally retarded like us, you've been running all-stock stuff. Which means it's time to switch out those crusty parts to lower temps in the engine bay. Why switch it up? The stock intercooler is nothing more than a glorified heat sink, the airbox actually prevents the engine from breathing, and let's not forget the factory air separator tank-basically just a piece of plastic prone to cracking.

Having a tuned motor under the hood is cool. Having a server rack full of electrical gizmos in the cabin to control the tuned motor is cooler than Fonzie on ice. Gadgets are a way to purposefully floss what you got. It's the difference between James Bond using a cellie to control his 7-Series or a plastic-framed Etch-A-Sketch. Both work, but only one can pull the firme heinas quicker than Speedy Gonzales on an iPod loaded with Rock en Espaol. Arriba, arriba! Andale, andale! Andale-ing on, the following is a semi-categorized list of cool shite that either reads your car's parameters, controls stuff, upgrades your ECU or sparks up the ignition. In other words, more fun with electrical pulses than a battery-operated harikata (isn't that technically a vibrator? - RC).

When it comes to boost, it seems like you can never get enough. Well, we can't at least. Whether it's a car that comes stock with a turbo or one you've slapped an aftermarket kit on, you will never be able to kill that urge for boost. Like a yuppie fiending for his daily triple-shot mocha espresso, you too, yearn for the pressurized air spooling from your turbo--so in comes the boost controller. There are about a thousand out there, from a simple knob to full-on electronic units that could probably double as a spare brain for a NASA space shuttle. But with all of these quality parts, we don't want any complications, either. If a gadget has an instruction manual thicker than a business law textbook and takes longer to program than a graphing calculator, it gets the boot. The AEM TRU-BOOST falls right smack dab in the middle. It does its job as a fully functional boost controller with 29psi available (75 with a special boost sensor), it's simple to use and it looks dope. What's even better is that it doubles as a boost gauge so you don't end up with too many meters all over your dash. Face it, you're not in a fighter plane.

Having a tuned motor under the hood is cool. Having a server rack full of electrical gizmos in the cabin to control the tuned motor is cooler than Fonzie on ice. Gadgets are a way to purposefully floss what you got. It's the difference between James Bond using a cellie to control his 7-Series or a plastic-framed Etch-A-Sketch. Both work, but only one can pull the firme heinas quicker than Speedy Gonzales on an iPod loaded with Rock en Espaol. Arriba, arriba! Andale, andale! Andale-ing on, the following is a semi-categorized list of cool shite that either reads your car's parameters, controls stuff, upgrades your ECU or sparks up the ignition. In other words, more fun with electrical pulses than a battery-operated harikata (isn't that technically a vibrator? - RC).

School should be out by now so we can expect 5 percent less traffic when we're driving to the shops to work on our cars. We told you that we're always going to update you on what we do to our project car fleet and we've kept our word for the most part. This month we have three cars getting some love in the garage. Oooh, summer garage love. That sounds good.