cheesy9999

Please don't kill me for asking this...

I've got my automatic, stock, 2002 EX Coupe (VTEC, but you probably knew that).

I don't want to actually race, as in street race or go to the drag strip or whatnot, but once in awhile I'm pulled up next to a friend at a stoplight and I wanna burn him. I want to know the fastest way to accelerate and get the hell out of there. Sometimes I try putting it in D3, that helps a little. D2 seems really slow. So basically I'm asking which "gear" should I be in (it's an automatic but I think you know what I mean), what pressure should put on the gas (floor it?) when should I shift, etc.

Thanks for the help.

cheesy9999

BTW, two more questions which don't really deserve their own thread...

1) I have a very basic understanding of how VTEC works, but what does it mean in terms or real work performance? Does it improve gas mileage? Acceleration? What?

2) I heard NO2 works better (or more efficiently?) on automatics. Is this true? If so, why?

power091999

all i can tell you is the lower the gear the more tourque you will have
I drive a standard... if you want to "get the hell out of there" your best bet is to do
what we all have to do... red line it... good luck doing it with an automatic though

power091999

Not sure why nitros works better in auto's but im guessing cos the car shifts at the proper RPM... <=== just a guess... as for V-TEC It usually only kicks in at higher RPM's but it just basically improve torque. If anything it will drink your gas up . Do a seach for VTEC on the site.. you should find a very detailed explaination of what VTEC is and what it does. I am no expert.

Blingin01Civic

You can drop your car into 2nd, 3rd when you think your car is gonna shift, but your gonna burn ur tranny in the meantime with those high rpms, autos arent made for those high numbers

cheesy9999

So...put it in D2, slam on the gas and just go?!

cheesy9999

or...


D2
slam on gas
D3 when its about to shift
Drive when it's about to shift again

???

How bad is this for the car? It can't possibly be as bad as burning out (neutral drops...). Don't worry...I finished that phase with my last car (it was a p.o.s.)

liquidblue

my gosh, this is such a lame thread. ok, the vtec in the ex here is all about fuel econemy. if you really want to take them if you think you can, just break torque in d3 until about 3000 rpms and then go. putting it in 2 keeps the car in second gear, doesn't even use first gear. you won't get any take off if you use that. it doesn't do that much to your tranny to pop it from d3 to d4 when driving, just don't redline it in d3 before pushing the shifter into d4. and n2o isn't going to do a whole lot for you seeing as you can only use about a 50 shot max on a stock engine.

edit: and for god sakes, please don't rev all high in neutral and then drop it into d4, you'll just burn out your tranny and spin your tires till he's through the intersection, trust me, i used to have a 94 lx and i did that all the time.

enzymes

Alright, this is what you do, press the brake with your left foot, push your transmission into neutral, rev it a little, the pedal will sink, adding more brake power, now push it into D, rev the engine and hold it at 2000 rpm, lower wont give you as great of a launch, and on stock tires you'll just spin at a higher rpm. Let go of the brake and floor it, you get a decent response time as well as added torque since your foot is already part way to the floor. Don't mess with shifting gears on the AT stick since when you floor it, the enging shifts at 100rpm below redline, thats 6650rpm if you havent noticed, unless you want to go over the red line and have the fuel supply get cut off. As for nitrogen dioxide, I don't think that will do anything for your engine, however dinitrogen oxide, n2o, (commonlly reffered to as nitrous oxide) will work better on automatics because "clutch" is only pushed for a portion of the time it take the human body to shift, thus more horsepower to the road, less to neutral. That's the best I can tell you from my experimentation.

Mex

iTrader: (5)

no2 works better for automatics because you don't need to release the gas to shift.. it's constantly flowing.

if you wanna race an automatic.. just hold down that gas pedal. it'll work just as good as you manually changing the gears. if you WANT to change them manually, start in D3, then drop down to 2 at redline, then go to D3 at redline, and then on to D. hope you have at least a few engine mods

Blingin01Civic

Well if I was gonna do this I would
a.) start in D, floor it
b.) when its about to redline put it into 2nd
c.) repeat step two only putting it into 3rd
d.) put it in D when you are done racing/redlining
e.) say goodbye to your transmission

Thats pretty fuuny, Chemistry at its best

zelman

the transmission doesn't try to upshift in d3 until 4000+, whereas in d4 it tries ASAP (about 3000). So you should use d3 to get higher torque (therefore better accelleration) at the higher RPMs in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, then when you want the car to go into 4th, move to d4. The car won't shift gears while you have it presseddown really far, so when you want to shift, ease off about 3/4" and then press it back when you hear the shift.

If you absolutely floor it in d4, it will do the same thing anyway, but seems less responsive (because it's not expecting it?).

also you will get a little extra takeoff (only use it on roads with GREAT traction only) by braking and gassing at the same time as said earlier. The engine goes at 2000 rpm from a stop in the time it takes to let go of the break, instead of the time it takes to get the engine to 2000 rpm properly.


VTEC fscks with your engine timing, you should feel a little extra boost at 4500 rpm. All car companies have an equivalent. For example BMW has a VTEC type system, but instead of two timing settings based on RPM, the engine's timing changes gradually throughout the RPM levels. However the endpoints are not as far apart as the difference between VTEC on and off.

hope you can burn some friends

cheesy9999

Ok, well first of all I feel I must defend myself...

I thought it was N2O but then I asked my friend and he said it was NO2. At least I didn't call it NOS...

I wasn't even thinking of putting N2O in my Civic, I was just curious.

And like I said, I have passed the neutral/tranny drop phase, I don't do that any more, and never did on the new Civic, only the old Ford...


Thanks for all the tips. I'll have to try to figure it all out.

cheesy9999

I'm confused... Start in D3, go down to D2, then back up to D3?! (then D)

And no...no engine mods...daddy won't let me since he owns it...

(I would have gotten manual if it weren't for my sister...I have to share it with her when she turns 16...at least I convinced my parents not to get a Jetta)

sadboy916

no dont drop it into 2 it will blow your bottom end of your engine , i know my best friends brother did it in his 96 lx sedan and killed his engine and tranny , but its your car

BlueFlame

Alright, I don't know much about racing, but lemme tell you what's worked (sort of) for me. First, the easiest way to do it is when you're at the light, put the car into neutral. Next, push the gas pedal down enough so you have about 2500 RPM or so, play with it to see what RPM works best. Just be careful because too much power will most likely fu©k up your transmission. Even this probably isn't good, but anyhow. Now, when the light goes green, drop from Neutral into D and just go. If you want you can drop into 2nd and then shift up to D3, but I don't know what that does to your tranny. Maybe I'm just a big pu$$y, who knows. Anyways, tyhat usually works for me. And with a V-TEC, you're gonna get more power in the higher RPM's, like over 4000, so keep that in mind as well.
Anyways, this may be totally wrong but it's worked for me so .. I hope it helps.

IronFist

iTrader: (3)

How does it kill your engine?

Anyway, cheesy9999, the reason he said start in D3, go to 2, and then back to D3, is because it works like this.

D3 is gears 1, 2 and 3.

2 (it's not D2, it's just 2) is only second gear.

D (or D4) is 1, 2, 3 and 4.

So if you start in 2, you will be starting from a stop in 2nd gear, which will make you start off much slower than starting in 1st gear.

So, starting in D3 will start your car in 1st gear. Floor it, redline in D3 will automatically shift to 2nd, or I guess you can do it yourself by dropping it into 2 (altho sadboy says this is bad for your transmission, I would like an explination why). Once in 2nd gear, if your in manual second gear at redline shift it into D3, if you're in 2nd gear in D3 just keep the gas down and it will shift automatically.

IronFist

BlackConvoy

any idea how long the auto box copes with 'manual' shifting before it goes?
cause i do it every once in a while.........

which is worse: manually shifting or 'flooring it'?

vtec02ex

first off let me say that i havent read all the posts in this thread so i might be repeating someone else. I have an automatic and when i wanna go fast this is what i do and it works well. Your stopped in neutral rev it up to 5000, pop it into drive(not d3). when u get going like 45 50 take ur foot up the gas and let the rpms decrease to like 2000-3000. put it in neutral, redline in, pop it back this time in d3. and thats it.

P.s. how long u think my tranny is gonna last?

Tiki

ok im not gonna flame u seeing as i got stuck with an auto lol but this is how it goes concerning shifting an automatic:

1.Start in drive floor it and hope it hits redline
2.when it shifts to second drop it to D2 redline it if u time it right u can shift to d3 right b4 the fule cutoff
3.u should now already b in d3 repeat the same as b4 and u end up in final drive

now the real way to race an automatic is like So:

1.Get stronger engine part
2.Run 50lbs of boost [IMG]i/expressions/laugh2.gif[/IMG]

cheesy9999

How bad is this for my tranny (and engine?)?

SoFlaCivic

To the original poster:

Don't do any of what these guys have suggested you do to your daddy's car. You run a significant risk of doing serious damage.

Yeah, yeah, my buddy does this all the time. Good for your buddy. When you break something on daddy's car, the person that told you to drop it into gear from neutral while applying pressure to the accelerator isn't going to pay for the repair.

Leave it in drive and floor it when you want to take off. Do not take your foot off the go pedal until you are either finished or scared.
PLEASE don't do this where there are other cars/people/traffic. Go to a race track or a road out in the desert.

As for your VTEC question. Let me give you a little camshaft history for dummies (I am a dummy, too).

The camshaft is one of the main determiners the 'operating characteristics' of the engine. For instance:

Lots of low end torque at the expense of high RPM power. Think BIG BLOCK FORD V8.
Little low end torque with plenty of high RPM power. Think little 1.7 liter Honda.

This is due to the design of the camshaft lobes.

The VTEC design has 2 sets of camshaft lobes. One for low RPM torque and another for high RPM power.
While operating at low RPM's, the valves are actuated by one set of camshaft lobes. When a certain RPM is reached,
the 'high rpm' lobes are used to actuate the valves.

The results?

You get a motor that, FOR ITS SIZE, produces decent low rpm torque relative to it's high rpm power potential.

No, this was not a highly technically accurate explanation of camshaft theory or the VTEC system, but it should give those of you who have no idea a clue as to what's going on in your engines!

Happy motoring!

fraga

iTrader: (3)

Let's see, tips for racing and Automatic..................................don't. Well, if you are going to attempt this pointless act, here are some things that work for me for some reason or another. 1. Close all windows. 2. Turn off A/C (for some reason, when I'm accelerating and I shut off the A/C, I can actually feel a little extra power kick in). 3. When you start, don't jam the gas pedal down, slowly apply increasing pressure. 4. When it's about to change gears, I release the gas a little, and if you catch it just right, you can jam down the pedal and it will floor it in the next gear each time. Now I have no clue how badly I'm f.ucking up my car, but who gives a s.hit, I'm leasing this b.itch.

Jandree22

Racing a 7thgen Civic.....
Racing an AUTOMATIC 7thgen Civic......[IMG]i/expressions/laugh2.gif[/IMG]

Goodbye tranny! We'll miss you!

CoupeStylz

iTrader: (4)

Tips for racing an automatic:
1. Don't

CUE2k1

My friend has an Automatic Civic LX. (Non Vtec) and he races other 7thgens on the site. Like everyone else said, use those other D's that you have. D2/D3/D whatever!! It works pretty good for him because he's beaten LX (non-Vtec) and Si's (Ex or Vtec) and most of them were manual. I haven't raced him yet so I don't really know how well he does it. I'll PM you his nick name and you can PM him for his tricks..

You don't have your PM enabled. Oh well, his nick is 1028 on the CanEast Forum.