It's all about horespower, but i want torque!

[shabby]

If you want instant torque from a stand still then a supercharger is your only option, but your axels will take a beating and have a chance of snapping. If i were you i'd get a turbo.... with some lag. You really want lag, unless your running some fat mickey thompson slicks up front you will never get any traction in the first 2-3 gears.
Go to the track and see what every fwd import has in common from a start, spinning tires and no traction.
Unlike my car, its got awd and puts every single pony to the ground

 

[Czar]

<< STICKERS BABY!!

They'll fix ANYTHING!

>>



LOL, thanks LordMaul, I needed that

 

[Linh]

supercharge that bitch

 

[Zach]

Trade for my V6 Corsica.

 

[Moonbeam]

Want torque, get a wrench.

 

[Mr.IncrediblyBored]

<< Unlike my car, its got awd and puts every single pony to the ground >>


Actually, isn't there a 20% loss in horsepower/torque when using an AWD system?

 

[Noriaki]

AWD does cost some horse power, but it's more effective at getting it to the ground.

Take the Mazda 323GT vs GTX (FWD vs AWD) for example.

The GT is a tad faster on smooth roads in a straight line. But rougher road, or cornering the GTX will slaughter it.

It's hard to say...depends on the road and conditions to. AWD can be faster or slower. It does cost some HP, but is more effective at getting the horses it has to the ground.


Really a 1.6L is never going to give you any torque...
A supercharger usually helps in low end, but on an engine that small the blower would pull too much power off the crank and kill your low end.

For the record:
Supercharger (aka blower) is a belt driven forced air unit, and thus pulls a little power off the crank.
Turbocharger is an exhuast driven forced air unit, and thus doesn't pull any HP off the crank, but needs some RPM to give any boost.

The top end of a Turbocharger is higher, but a Supercharger starts giving boost at 1RPM. So you give up your high end for better low end.

The problem is, a 1.6L engine has so little power to begin with at the low end that you'd need a TINY blower or it would suck all your power. And a blower that small just wouldn't help much.

Those tiny engines need to rev way out to get power (which is why they work very nicely turboed). It's really really hard to get low end power from them.

Also, add to the fact that it's a FWD car, when you launch your moment intertia pulls back and you lose traction on the front wheels.

It's very hard to get low end power from a small engine, and it's very hard to get a good launch out of a FWD car. Neither are &quot;impossible&quot; but quite difficult.


Some better gearing should help, but it's not going to make it huge.

 

[BuckMaster]

Try changeing the gears in the rear end.

 

[Soybomb]

<< Try changeing the gears in the rear end >>

Lol best answer ever

 

[Noriaki]

ROFL soybomb...I missed that one Nice eye

 

[LAUST]

WTF?

For starters a Turbo won't give you low-end Torque like a supercharger can, there are 3 types, 1 Centrifical will not give you low end as it has to Spool up. The other 2, Twin Screw and Roots will do EXACTLY that as they produce boost off idle.

Now if your on a naturally asperated vehicle Backpressure is going to help with lowend, So don't Gut your CAT's or drop your muffler, but you can get better ones then the stock crap. Intake like a Gen 2 K&amp;N can also help.

The biggest thing for Low-end is just have the base motor for it with the right CAM for it. Those people who bag on OHV engines are out of date, Sorry you can only get the CURVE going on with that &quot;OLD&quot; Technology.

 

[SuperSix]

Ahh, the forced induction misinformation floating around here..

Anyhoo..

96Hp sleeper..

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Your only viable choices are Nitrous or a turbo.

 

[RaoulDuke]

ugh roots. booo.

 

[tontod]

What kind of places would install a turbo on a car like a civic? I'm guessing places like Pep Boys are probably not going to be doing this kind of job. Are there specialty shops that do aftermarket installs like this? Maybe Autozone?

 

[AmdEmAll]

Hmmm oviously someone just saw Fast And The Furious. Hehe i'm the same way, that movie made me want one of those cars so bad!

 

[dman]

Trade it in on something in the same class with a bigger engine. No replacement for displacement. With all the 4th of july deals going on you could get a new car loan with 0.9% for 5yrs and pay less for more. You've got at least 2K for uprgades, + trade in, worth considering that route before you spend a lot on your car.

1st thing 1st -> Get a 5spd/manual-- makes a HUGE difference in this class. There are lots of cars w/ 4bangers that have 130-150lb/tq at low RPM's. Here's some I looked at on www.kbb.com

Chevy Cavalier Z24 2749lbs 150hp 155torque ~$16k
Dodge Neon RT 2559lbs / 150hp 132Torque ~$16K
Ford Focus Zx3 2551lbs / 130hp 135torque ~>$13.5k
Hyundai Tiburon 2633lbs / 140hp 133torque ~$14k
Honda Civic SI (Did they discontinue this model???)
Mazda Protege Mp3 2725lbs / 140hp 142torque $17.3k
Nissan Sentra 2713lbs / 145hp 136torque
Subaru Impreza 2730lbs / 142hp / 149torque $16k

and some More @ Edmunds (comparison link)

 

[RaoulDuke]

those cars are barely a step up from the civic. They're meant to be economical. I would suggest if you want to go fast, find a used car with a bigger engine, or else you're gunna spend more to bring that 4cyl up to speed. Or buy something like an eclipse gsx/gs-t with lower miles and throw a thousand or two into it...

 

[OS]

hehe, torque is more or less caused by pushing more/bigger pistons. Of which, civics have neither

 

[formulav8]

I don't understand why you ricer boys buy a honda and want power??? Why not just buy a car made with power from the beginning and go up from there. You are not going to get torque out of a import. They are made to spin above 6000rpms or more. Get you a nice V8 car and that will give you the starting point for screaming from light to light. You do have the right idea for the street. Torque rules on the street for light to light racing. You need a engine that can produce it though. Those honda's just wasn't made for torque or racing for that matter. I have a seen a couple quick ricers at the track though.


Jason

 

[geno]

<< hehe, torque is more or less caused by pushing more/bigger pistons. Of which, civics have neither >>


I'll add a small correction - Low end torque is more significant in these kinds of engines. Torque peaks can be anywhere in the rev range depending on the engine setup.

 

[dman]

My reasoning: for $2000 and 2yr old trade any of those models would buy about 30-50% more torque + 50% more HP than the civic AND you get a new warranty for 3/36 minimum AND your insurance doesn't skyrocket AND you don't have to worry about what torture the previous owner did to their Mitsu GS* for the last few years before you drove it away.

In the end, it all comes down to $$$. There's a ton of ways to spend it, but, sinking $2000 into a base civic wouldn't be on my option list.

 

[Noriaki]

<< hehe, torque is more or less caused by pushing more/bigger pistons. Of which, civics have neither >>

Hey hey hey! There's nothing wrong with pencil sized pistons

 

[Bignate603]

what about a 4.1 liter engine? My old caddilac is sluggish pulling away from a stop, you would think with a large engine like that I could spin tires but nothing comes close. Any carberator tweaks to get some more power? I don't think anybody has tuned that thing in years. Right now I'm doing body work, sanding out rust, cutting out one part, time for bondo and fiberglass... Still want to tweak the engine though, it's got 20k on it so this car ain't dying soon.

 

[Noriaki]

4.1L isn't *that* big.

3.0 or 3.2L V6 with Turbo is pretty damn good (stealth for example).

But a 4.1L naturally asperated isn't that powerful, especially for a car as heavy as a Caddy. If you put a Turbo or a Blower on it, you'll get some nice power

Unless the Caddy is already forced air...I don't know much about them, but I thought they were natural. If it is forced you should get some pretty good performance out of that guy.

Even the Mustang's 4.6L V8 isn't all that great.
Chev's 5.7L V8 is much better, as is Ford's 5.4L V8 (truck engine, they don't use it in cars, but as the F150 SVT Lightning shows it's a good engine).

Or the Dodge 8L V10. You need to get big big cylinders to get good low end torque, especially from heavy cars.

 

[Freejack2]

If you can wait a little over a year I hear they are going to put the Si out again in 2003. Their lack of an Si keeps me from even considering a Honda Civic. If your on the cheap and want a 5speed the Saturn Sx2's are have a lot of torque and are pretty fun to drive. They have a dohc 125hp engine, sport tuned suspension, and variable speed power steering. Too bad they don't make the Saturn L300's in a 5speed, the torque on the automatic alone is great, with a 5 speed in that thing it wouldn't suprise me if it could take on the base v6 models of the Mustang and Camaro. I hear the reason they haven't put out a 5speed V6 is because the torque tears up the manual transmission.
If you don't want to switch car makers wait till late 2002 for the 2003 Si.
Otherwise your probably looking at expensive high maintenance mods.