Q I know many a thing about cars, and well, one thing still stumps me. I understand that the ECU takes over the older, more outdated carburetors, and is much more efficient. Now, I always hear about people playing with their ECUs, but what for? Fuel efficiency and horsepower? Oh, and if I were to get a turbocharger or ported and polished my head, would I need to swap my ECU for something that could handle the added power? And if I do need to swap out the ECU, what are the consequences of not doing so? Thanks for your help, Super Street, I appreciate it.
John Steel
Via the Internet
A Think of the ECU as the brain of your car because that's pretty much what it is. It controls everything, from the fuel timing all the way down to your air conditioner. It's not as simple to play with an ECU as it sounds. You can't just crack it open and start fiddling with your timing. You actually have to get a chip or re-flash from a company that has the ability to do that. When you add on a turbo or do other engine work, it's ideal to tweak the fuel and timing to extract the most amount of horsepower out of your setup, not to mention the need to keep your car running at a safe level. As an alternative, you can use a fuel controller to do the same deed just as well.
Q I have a '97 Civic CX hatch and I hit a pole with it last May. At the moment it's sitting in my brother's garage looking all depressed and busted with its Type R carbon fiber wing and 17-inch Kosei K1 wheels. It's getting fixed this spring. Right now it has the same D16 it came with. It sucks. I have no intention of spending $1,500 on fixing the car so I can have a 16-second Civic again. It makes my head hurt with all the different motors that I can get for the car and all the ups and downs to each motor. I thought I wanted a B16 but then I heard that they're not all that great, so I'm thinking I should get a B18 'cause Integras are fast, right? All I want is a motor I can supercharge and pull mid- to low-13s in the quarter-mile, with a lot of other parts of course. Do you think I should go with the B18 or B16? If I go with the B18, which is the best. I think there's 200 different ones, right? Is the one that came in the US-spec GSR good and worth getting, or should I get whatever the J-spec one is? I'm pretty sure I don't want a H22. Yeah, they're cheap and fast but won't they screw up the handling on my car with all the added weight in the front of my car? The car will see some drag strip duty but that's not what I'm building it for. I really don't have any idea and, like I said, my head hurts with all this and yours probably will too after reading this. Anthony Ilax Iowa
A We get Honda-engine-swap inquiries left and right. There are so many various combinations of the motors out there that it's hard for us to tell you exactly which one to get. Any of the B-series engines with the proper bolt-ons would get your task done, especially if you're planning on throwing a supercharger on it. The CX is a pretty light car and even a B16 swapped in with intake, headers and exhaust would probably get you into the mid- to low-14s. Throw on some sticky tires and put a good driver behind the wheel and you'll be closer to your goal than you think. Once you get that supercharger installed, you should be knocking in low-13s in a very street-capable car. Our only concern is the body damage. If the chassis isn't straight anymore, you're going to have issues going down the track, not to mention the awkward handling from any tweaks there might be to your suspension.
Q First off, I'm not going to start with a bunch of you-are-the-best-magazine-I-love-you because you already know that and people have already told you that before, so I'm just going to get straight to the point. I've been reading a lot about tuning lately, and I know that it's pretty simple to tune the fuel curve with a wide-band 02 that shows me the fuel ratio on a display. So my question is, what can be done about the ignition? I want to be able to tune on the street without having to spend the extra cash on dyno time, so what is a way of street-tuning the ignition safely and without a lot of really expensive equipment. From what I've heard, you can do this with a tool that reads exhaust gas temperatures by knowing that EGT's drop as detonation begins, but how accurate is this method and how easy would it be for a just-starting-out newb like me? Is there any other relatively cheap and simple way of street-tuning the ignition that you guys know of? I'm eventually planning on running a mildly-boosted B18b with around 9 or 10 psi once I get a car to drop it in, so tuning and getting the most power I can with stock internals will be important. Thanks for any help, and keep up the good work!
David
Boise, ID
A First off, we don't suggest tuning your car on the street. As far as reading the timing, that's also based off the numbers you get from the wide-band O2 sensor. The air/fuel mixture readings tell more than what you think. Sometimes your car might be running too rich or lean because the timing isn't set properly so rather than adding or pulling away fuel, you need to advance or retard the timing. The EGT is somewhat accurate when used in tuning mainly because when your car is running lean, the gas temperatures are generally higher. But it's not always a sure thing since prolonged driving and different scenarios can increase the exhaust temps as well. On a stock internal B18 motor you should be able to drop some decent power on 9 or 10 lb-ft of boost with just a fuel pump and regulator. Thinking back, what exactly are you going to tune your fuel and timing with anyway? Do you have an aftermarket controller or engine management system, because that would be ideal. If not, are you just going to play with the timing from the distributor? Whatever the case might be, do it safely and don't try to push the motor beyond its limits just to get a couple more horsepower out of it.