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Hello, I own an ALL stock 2001 Honda Civic LX 4 door sedan Automatic w/ spoiler. I recently just rebuilt the transmission and it runs smooth! However when I carry people with me I have a tough time getting onto the freeway.
0-60 is sh*t basically.
Is there any mods I can either do myself or my mechanic can easily do that will give me a little bit more ummmff so that my car isn't so darn slow? I do not want to ricky race car my honda and be some ricer but I would like to fine tune it so I can get up to speed when I NEED to. I really don't want to effect my 30 mpg that much either so please keep that in mind.

Thanks a bunch!
-Austin.

PS- My dad has his own ASE certified mechanic shop and I will ask my mechanic anything you all suggest to try and determine what is my best route.

 
Rep Power: 174

You want to keep your stock engine?
You can do a head and ecu swap with an EX model to get VTEC, which will net you another 10 or so hp. After that you can put in a Crower stage 1 camshaft for an additional 10hp or so.
Or... you can turbo, which will increase the horsepower relative to however much time and money you're willing to spend.
Or... you can upgrade your intake, header and exhaust so you SOUND faster (and maybe get a couple of hp gain)
Or... you can do all three!

 
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Appreciate the quick feedback I'll run it passed my mechanic and see what he thinks I should do! Thanks! If anyone else has any other input please feel free to let me know where I can get some of these^^^ mentioned and which are most reliable

 
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Appreciate the quick feedback I'll run it passed my mechanic and see what he thinks I should do! Thanks! If anyone else has any other input please feel free to let me know where I can get some of these^^^ mentioned and which are most reliable

 
Rep Power: 518

Enjoy the gas mileage and accept the fact that it doesn't like to accelerate rapidly while hauling around extra weight. Leave yourself plenty of time and room when accelerating and merging.... Accelerate early, use the entire lane.

Cheapest and easiest way to gain performance is to remove weight.

If there's no seats in the car, people will think twice about riding with you LOL

 
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Sounds like your Dad would be able to help you work on your car. You'll learn a lot by undertaking mods and performing maintenance and repairs on your car. You won't be able to do much to make yours faster in a way that most people would consider easy or cheap.
Before you put a bunch of money & effort into your 1.7, maybe consider a B18 or B20 engine transplant. I see people listing old Civics with those engines for really low money on Craigslist. Buy one cheap and put it in your car.

 
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Make the air intake and exhaust less restrictive, this will probably make the most difference for the least $. There are some really cheap poor boy mods that can be made, also after market intake and exhaust parts that vary in price. Run it close to red line getting on the hwy, 4 cylinder engines power band is at higher RPMs than 6 and 8 cylinders.

 
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Mine's a 5sp and it isn't fast but once in 3rd she picks up speed pretty good. Traffic is so bad that I never have trouble keeping pace. I try to stay below 3K RPMs to get good mileage...

 
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Yes when I'm by myself I have no issues but for my job I drive people to other places to pick up other vehicles so having a full car of 150+lb people doesn't help lol

 
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I have thought of getting a B series engine but the issue my mechanic told me is that the transmission in my car can barely handle the power coming from my current D series. So I would have to also get a transmissions, brakes, etc. Too costly for my taste and I would like to keep it as stock as possible in case I need to sell it in the future to help my chances.

 
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How can I go about the air intake and exhaust? I have considered these options even though it's a slight increase but might just be enough to tug these old guys around when I need to lol

 
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buy them and bolt them on.

Forewarning, though.. They don't necessarily give you horsepower, per se, they really just shift the power band. You'll often lose some mid-range power, but you'll gain high end power. Usually by 1-3HP both ways.

edit: Awesome MS Paint drawing for visual illustration

 
Rep Power: 518

OOoooh that reminds me of posting a dyno chart






in this thread (LOL)

https://www.civicforums.com/forums/202-forced-induction-swaps/357808-gf-performance-chip.html

 
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Serious response.

If you want an intake. Ebay pipe mated with a quality filter (e.g. AEM Dryflow - NO OIL NECESSARY!) will do.
Exhaust, no larger than 2.5" piping with a stock engine. I'd say 2.25-2.36" piping will do you just fine. Why 2.36 you ask? The metric system, that's why. 60mm = 2.36"

Even if you do go with an exhaust system, it'll still bottleneck at the exhaust mani/cat apparatus, since you have an LX. Only way to get anything out of it would be to swap to an EX setup with a high flow cat/downpipe or removing the cat altogether, but you won't pass emissions with the latter option. You'll also need an O2 simulator so the ECU doesn't flip out on you and throw a P0420 CEL on you. The former option bolts right up, but you'll have to extend O2 sensor wires and whatnot.

edit: quick and easy "HP gain" - ex head, cam it, don't forget to at least toss in a piggyback unit to control VTEC. Intake, ex exhaust setup. Get all that tuned afterward while using that aforementioned piggyback.

more extreme: turbo that bish. the dx/lx motor is better equipped at handling boost due to lower compression. It is a rather expensive process though.

even more extreme: ditch the D17 and drop in a K20 (2.0L i-VTEC from a Civic Si, RSX) with a Hondata K-pro. Even more expensive, but more reliable than the "more extreme" option. Chances are, you'll save fuel economy a bit, too.

Even extremer: k-swap it with a K24 block (2.4L i-VTEC from a TSX, CRV) with a K20 head. There was a dude putting 232 hp to the wheels with a properly tuned franken k20/24 swap. 218 before tuning.

extremest: Supercharged/turbo'd k-swap.

 
Rep Power: 174

Extremest-er: do an HF120 swap with a HondaJet engine...


...for something like this:


For serials though, +1 to RiceBoy's Dryflow recommendation. They're awesome.

 
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sell car, buy a faster one.

 
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hey guys, my head is no good on my 2003 EX, engine light said its the solenoid but i changed it 3 times and also the ecu and the harness is good, so the head is no good,..
can i use an LX head with a vtech block better so i wont get the solenoid engine light, also would it work if i put an LX head on my vtech block, let me know anyone, thanks

 
Rep Power: 244

Why are you bumping old threads!?!

Did you even search for your questions? There is info out there on Ex to Lx head swaps.