1995 Acura LS Special Edition. Wanting speed.

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mR_sEtH

mR_sEtH

New Member
I have an automatic 1995 Acura Integra Special Edition with around 98,000 miles. The engine is in nice shape. It has a few thing done to it from the previous owner...

Chip
Magna Flow Exhaust system
Light Suspension
Carbon Fiber Hood
Body kit with side air holes
Stock spoiler
Low Profile Tires
Racing rims
Chrome Radiator
I believe it has headers

As you probably know, it being stock was at 142 hp. He said it should be around 155 to 160. I want do the conversion and add Vtec too it. Adding Vtec should bring me up to what? Adding Vtec, a manifold, cooler intake, catalytic converter, what should that bring me to what? And after all that, and anything else anyone has ideas on to get it going, with adding a small turbo, where should I be around? I like to go fast and like to race pplz and stuff but also this car is my daily driver so I want what would be best for it and good gas mileage.


Thanks for reading and hope you can reply back.
 
first things first either ditch the auto tranny or sell the car and buy a 5 speed teg.
 
Blanco said:
^^^That'll be the most important thing to being fast with anything that doesn't have an old school V8 in it.

Aside from that, your engine might be hitting 150bhp with the basic mods and generic "chip". Speaking of which, you should take that generic chip out before you blow your engine.
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Werd I really really doubt you are at 150 or 160 with those mods I had a LS with a built head and was only at 146whp tuned with Hondata by Bubba, who is really good at what he does, I agree with Blanco as usual take that chip out immediately.
On to the next thing I have a LS/VTEC stock well I/H/E (Intake, Header, Exhaust) and I put down 152whp so look for around that if you go LS/VTEC.
Oh and don't race on the street genius.
 
couple things....
the chip is supposed to help out your engine even if you don't race. the next, I knew sum1 would say that I should get a manutal tranny but I like automatic and I think manual is annoying and it's only a little faster, no big deal. There are some fast cars out using automatics. About the Vtec I heard that it should give the engine more power with around 40hp or so.
 
You think manual's are annoying? Just see how annoyed you will get when your car is still slow after alot of work and money, and then it breaks because they are notoriously weak. I have heard that they are only good to 200whp MAX!
 
mR_sEtH said:
couple things....
the chip is supposed to help out your engine even if you don't race. the next, I knew sum1 would say that I should get a manutal tranny but I like automatic and I think manual is annoying and it's only a little faster, no big deal. There are some fast cars out using automatics. About the Vtec I heard that it should give the engine more power with around 40hp or so.
Click to expand...

Uh...NO!!

It's not a simple question of "well yeah the manual is a little bit faster but I prefer driving an automatic yo!" The reason these guys are telling you to swap to a manual is because the majority of Honda automatic trannies will break once you start applying a good amount of horsepower and torque to them.

Honda auto trannies are built for efficiency; they don't have the planetary carriers or gear-sets found on typical automatic transmissions. This is good as far as limiting power loss from the engine to the wheels but it also limits the amount of space available for clutch packs and limits the size of the gears themselves. Thin gears + small clutch packs = transmission that will only hold up under the conditions that it was meant to operate in. If you build your motor and apply boost YOUR TRANSMISSION WILL BREAK!!!

And all this is aside from the FACT that yes, your automatic will always be slower than a manual transmission Integra with the same motor setup. If we were talking about a V8 motor, then yes, automatics can actually be made faster; for a high-revving, front-wheel-drive, 4-cylinder-equipped Honda however, manual is the way to go if you want to be fast!!

Also, your particular transmission sucks anyway. The LS tranny is built for fuel economy, not speed. The gears are fairly long, which is not ideal for quick acceleration.

Let's see...what else...

The chip is garbage. All those chips do is increase your ignition timing, inject more fuel then is necessary, and eliminate or raise your rev limiter to some ridiculous amount. None of that is necessary on an essentially stock motor like yours. You're asking for trouble. What you should do is take your car to a shop and have it dyno-tested and tuned by a professional tuner.

And one last thing...I think you're confused as to how much power your mods are adding. It's possible that a VTEC head could add 40 horse to your engine, but if you put it on a dyno you're not going to see a 40 horsepower gain. By the time the power is transferred through the transmission and actually hits the pavement via your wheels you've lost a good deal of it. Like integraslut87 said, his LS/VTEC makes 150-ish horsepower at the wheels, so that's probably around what you should expect.

If you stick with that LS slushbox transmission however, your car still isn't going to be much faster, even with the VTEC head added on. It seems like a lot of noobs operate under the impression that they should just throw tons of parts at their motor, without considering the fact that their transmission's gear ratios could be a major impediment as far as allowing the power being made by the engine to actually be useful.

Alright, I'm done.

[/unrealistic noob expectation smack-down session]

Edit: Oh, and how can you not know whether your car has an after market-header or not?? Why don't you try LOOKING AT IT!! If it's anything but a rusty cast-iron manifold with a heat-shield over it then yes, you have "headers." I'm not even going to touch the "headers" comment right now...
 
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Ok. I understand what your saying. I have talked about doing this before... putting in a Type-R engine and keepin' the auto tranny. Will that be decent and then work on the engine from there? My friend with a Stang has a neighbor with an Integra that's automatic and it's fixed up and it dips he says. I have heard about the dyno tunning and that dyno tunning will be just as good as having a manual tranny, if not better, since the gears click in automatically and you don't have to worry about skipping a gear or w/e. So, let's say I do an engine swap for a Type-R engine, keep the automatic tranny, do dyno tunning, and add the other mods I want to add and a turbo, that would be a nice setup, right?
 
and also, just read some more about LS/Vtec being about 174-185 range stock. LS VTEC - HondaForums.com
But about that Type-R automatic, I would like to know about what people think about that. My friend I mentioned said that would be nice. We discuss on what to do about each other's cars alot, so ya.
 
No, I have not. Can GSR go with an automatic tranny?
 
mR_sEtH said:
and also, just read some more about LS/Vtec being about 174-185 range stock. LS VTEC - HondaForums.com
But about that Type-R automatic, I would like to know about what people think about that. My friend I mentioned said that would be nice. We discuss on what to do about each other's cars alot, so ya.
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Did you even read anything I said???

What don't you get here??? THE TRANSMISSION THAT YOU HAVE SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!! I'm not talking about the fact that it's an automatic, I'm saying that the LS transmission WILL SLOW YOU DOWN BECAUSE IT'S NOT BUILT FOR FAST ACCELERATION!!!

The LS transmission is built for fuel economy, not for going fast. Yes, you can hook it up to a badass built turbo GSR motor and it's going to 1. sap the power out of your built motor, and then 2.) BREAK!

Obviously you didn't read what I wrote, because I explained this quite thoroughly. Like I said, you can't just throw a ton of parts at your motor and then expect your car to be fast without even considering the gear ratios in the transmission, especially on a high-revving 4-cylinder car!!

Do you understand this, or do I need to explain it a third time???

And about the LS/VTEC being around the 175-185 range, once again, DID YOU NOT READ??? I already explained this!! The engine might make 180ish horsepower, but you're not going to put all that to the ground, more like 150ish wheel horsepower maybe.

The guy on HondaForums who stated you could easily make 180ish wheel horse with a stock LS/V is mistaken. Still though, if you can make 150-160 wheel horse, that's not bad for small cars like ours. If you were to say, PAIR THAT MOTOR WITH THE RIGHT TRANSMISSION, you could have yourself a decently quick street car.

One more thing, you were talking in your first post about wanting a cold air intake and a turbo. You need to research and make a decision about whether you want to go turbo or not before you buy any parts. If you are going to go turbo then you don't need stuff like a header or a cold air intake. You'll need an exhaust manifold and an intake specific to the turbo setup you choose.

Just wanted to make you aware of that before you start spending money on parts. And if you insist on being stubborn and keeping the automatic, then I would suggest looking for an automatic GSR or B16 transmission to swap in. Those trannies were never released in the US, but they can be found through engine importers. They would still be liable to break under boost, but at least they would give you better acceleration than your stock LS slushbox.
 
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