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

[LAUST]

<< Ahh, the forced induction misinformation floating around here..

Anyhoo..

96Hp sleeper..

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

Your only viable choices are Nitrous or a turbo. >>



I doubt what I posted is Misinformation, being I've had 3 forced induction vehicles and out of all of them the most lowend Torque came from my current Twin Screw.

 

[Bignate603]

These are big big cylinders, that 4.1 liter is a V6... The V8 for that year was a six liter, the V8 from a like 3 years earlier was 8.0 liters. I don't think anybody makes full liter cylinders anymore, like you said, even the viper engine is a V10 for 8.0 liters. Anyways, it's not forced air, I could probably add a turbo, maybe in a few years drop in the 6.0 liter or see how much I would need to alter to put in the 8.0 V8. I don't know if it's possible to put in but that would make even my car haul... Anyways, anything about the carbs? I know you can do some tweaking and this is more than ready for a tune up, hasn't had one in years.

They used to make caddilacs with V16's and V12's, I think cars like that were the reason for global warming...

 

[OS]

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



Damn straight, especially when you have one thousand of those in an engine :Q

Ok, but this guy's options are pretty much, use nitrous, get a swap, or get another car. There is no cheap way to add power/torque to a civic.

Or you could not bother. I wouldn't. I mean I love Hondas as much as the next guy, I've driven Hondas my whole life. But most of those honda engines are terrible for low end torque.

 

[OS]

BTW, I read that there was speculation about chevy dropping a northstar V8 into their corvette. What became of that?

 

[OS]

huh, nm apparently the caddy northstar v8s are weaker than the vette V8s :Q So much for multivalve tech?

 

[amdskip]

Just throw a 350 chevy in it, like my Z28 and hang on!!!!

 

[SuperSix]

<<

<< Ahh, the forced induction misinformation floating around here..

Anyhoo..

96Hp sleeper..

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

Your only viable choices are Nitrous or a turbo. >>



I doubt what I posted is Misinformation, being I've had 3 forced induction vehicles and out of all of them the most lowend Torque came from my current Twin Screw. >>



Laust.. my BOOSTED brother. That was in NO WAY directed at you..

 

[rootaxs]

Okay wise guys

I didn't mean that my car was a sleeper, have to agree it *is* asleep. What i meant was i want to add modifications that actually work yet isn't obvious on the outside.

As for those modifications mentioned, a turbo seems good in my case as from what i heard it doesn't tear down your motor as fast as a supercharger (with the constant boost even below 3000rpm) then again i can't find a turbo made especially for this model nor an installer that will give me a warranty on it *and* the car.

As for changing the engines, that seems to be a nother viable suggestion. I've gotten quotes as high as $8000 for it which doesn't really make sense to me and again my engine isn't that bad (quality-wise).

dman666 mentioned i'm better off just getting a new car. I feel the same way, in fact i've been test driving and really looking at getting the Acura CL Type-S. 260hp may not be much for a somewhat heavy car. The only thing closer to this i can find is the Maxima @ 227hp and is approx. 300 lbs. lighter. (Special Edition). I've driven it before and i can definitely feel the boost more on the Maxima than on the Acura.

And to explain myself on why i got the Civic in the first place. I got it after i started on my first job and given the pay i had that's all i could really afford. I love my Civic but it never hurts to give it a few more ponies and torque.

 

[Lucky]

&quot;sinking $2000 into a base civic &quot;

He doesnt have a base civic. Its an EX. For a 2 year old civic, the base model only has 106 HP if I remember right. He said he has a 127 hp EX. Furthermore, you say that all the models you listed have 50% more HP??? You list models with 130 HP, 140 HP, 150 HP....your math is seriously screwed.

 

[Noriaki]

How do these Turbos produce boost off of idle?

And doesn't that sacrifice the top-end? I was under the impression you can get smaller turbos that up your bottom end but sacrifice the top end.

Both of the Turbo'd cars I've ridden in had a very sharp boost around 3000rpm you could really really feel it when the turbo kicked.
On the other hand there is little turbos like Audi uses in the RS4 that produce a nice broad power curve, but I thought that sacrficed some of the top end.

I'm interested in these other kinds of turbos, please enlighten me. I tend to play with big naturally asperated engines, over little turbo ones, though the turbos work just as well you just can't beat the sound of a 5 and half litre V8 (well unless you get a 7L V8 of yore :cool.
I would take a big V8 over even a dodge V10. The V10 will scream for you, and so will a (especially twin) turbo V6...but the low power rumble of a V8 is unmatchable. And very few such vehicles come with forced air.

So I apologize for my misinfo, and would appreciate some info on these kinds of turbos that can produce low end torque.

 

[rootaxs]

thanks Luckster

btw, every tried being behind the wheel of a MB S600? wooohhoooww! That V12 engine just screams &quot;push me! push me hard!&quot;.

Inspite of how big, heavy and bulky this baby is it can give even the M3 or the AMG a run for it's money - speedwise (then again, they're totally different price-ranges hehehhe)

 

[rootaxs]

btw, about those pulleys. i've heard mixed reactions about it. on a stock engine like mine a pulley doesn't do good.. need to build up my engine to take advantage of it (or i risk damaging my engine)

 

[PG]

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


Sorry, but that IS a V8, not a V6.
Here are some places that sell them rebuilt, and they all say it's a V8:
http://www.actionsalvage.com/enginescadillac.asp
http://www.unitedengine.net/store/cadillacorders.htm
http://remanufactured-engines.com/page11.htm

That 4.1L engine was a big steaming pile of crap. In 1988 GM increased the displacement to 4.5L and the power shot up 20% to... hold your hat.... 155 HP. (Numbers came from GM.)
If you do the math, it means that the 4.1L must have put out somewhere around 125 HP. It just didn't put out enough power or torque to move those big cars very well.
If you want power in a Caddy, look for one with the good old 5.7L 350 V8 minimum. The 350 made some decent power and could be tweaked for much more. The 8.2L 502 was the largest Caddy motor in modern times and a real monster. It made 400 HP and 550 lb ft of torque for 1970.

 

[Lucky]

&quot;The 8.2L 502 was the largest Caddy motor in modern times and a real monster. It made 400 HP and 550 lb ft of torque for 1970&quot;

heh, imagine the gas milage on that sucker. haha!

 

[ratkil]

Rootaxs if I was you I would take the $2000 and look around for a different older car. Not neccassarily a muscle car if you don't like those, but look for an older (80's) sports car. You live in Texas so rust shouldn't be a problem, you could probably get a car like that with just a ton of miles on it really cheap. You could then start messing with it and doing mod's to it as your finances allowed. The big advantages would be the fact you would still have a daily driver so you could have all the time you wanted to do mod's on the other car without having to worry about it getting you to work the next day or on Monday. being an older cheap car you wouldn't have to carry massive insurance on it, so that shouldnt' be to bad. And, the big plus would be you still have the Honda for fanstastic gas mileage. ;-)

 

[bigd480]

Cmon man... let's get serious... a civic is about the most torqueless car you can buy without leaving the country... not only are the hp #s low but honda's notorious for torqueless engines (S2000- 240hp, 153 torque)

One good thing about a civic is that it retains its value well... trade it in on another car... not even necessarily one you would mod... it would take a lot of money to get a civic into the realm of &quot;fast&quot; cars (no integras aren't fast save for type R)...

Another thing you have going for you is that ANY car will be an improvement... I would suggest american if you care more about torque than handling/luxury/mileage... fbodies will be out of here soon so they'll probably make some sweet special editions...

 

[rootaxs]

ratkil, not a bad idea at all. but i'm not really into the hobby of just modifying cars. i just want to get by on the one i have now without having to spend too much yet at least make it run a tad bit faster from stop. though i love revving the engine all the way to redline it's not very &quot;friendly&quot; when i do it in day-to-day traffic. But again you do have a good idea there.

bigd480, i know and agree with you and everyone who said the same thing. Unfortunately when i bought it couple years ago that's all i could afford and i didn't even know about Honda's &quot;torque&quot; shortcomings. Since i have it already then might as well just make do right?

speaking of value, ur right. i still owe around $15,100 on this car and when i checked the bluebook and a local dealer the current market price for this one (excellent condition) is - $15,300. Two hundred dollars more than what i still owe hehehe. I could probably sell this right now and even get $200 back

 

[tontod]

That may be so, but I seriously doubt you'll be able to get blue book value. Thats the most you can expect to get.

 

[bigd480]

did u check out the link on the torque converters? i think they're only $500 for a honda...

also check out some of the &quot;ricer&quot; forums like clubsi.com... they would probably have more insight/experience than us...

 

[BuckMaster]

 

[Soybomb]

<< How do these Turbos produce boost off of idle? >>


It all depends on the size of the turbo, the engine itself, if youv'e got a turbo thats VNT style or with a conventional wastegate, how you actuate the wastegate etc. I've got 2 turbo cars in my driveway. One has a small turbo and is setup to develop 15 psi by about 2300 rpms. If there is turbo lag, I can't feel it, I touch the pedal the boost needle rockets to the pressure side of the guage. I've got another one with a larger turbo charger on it, its harder to build boost on, but I could turn it up higher for more total boost. So with it I might have more lag, but greater potential for more power once I get it spooled up. Then you've got variable nozzle turbos where the turbo acts like its changing sizes, they start out small and then the blades move and it acts like a larger turbo for a larger top end without the added lag. There are many variables that go into figuring lag, max boost, etc

 

[PG]

One has a small turbo and is setup to develop 15 psi by about 2300 rpms. If there is turbo lag, I can't feel it, I touch the pedal the boost needle rockets to the pressure side of the guage.

How much boost did you say it makes at idle?

 

[rootaxs]

bigd, yep am checking it out. sent them an e-mail about it. if they don't respond by today i'll call them up before 5. thanks for that link by the way!

tontod, actually that price i quoted was the price the dealer was willing to &quot;buy-back&quot; my car for

 

[Soybomb]

<< How much boost did you say it makes at idle? >>

hey It sucks 16 inches of mercury at idle Now if Ihappen to hit the throttle though....

 

[tontod]

Ahh, thats good. Thats a good thing about Honda Civics and a lot of Japanese cars - they hold their value well. Good thing for the seller.