02' Civic Ex Man NA Upgrades

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Apollyon02ex

New Member
I am new to working on cars. However I just purchased my Stock 2002 civic ex sohc vtec and was curious what i can do to get more hp out of this engine. I have been reading a lot about it and it seems a lot of people believe this engine to be a piece of a shit. Most suggest swapping a k-series engine. However i don't have the 10G to spend.

At this time at least, i am not interested in forced induction because I am currently going to college and can't afford to constantly maintain a turbo. I am just curious to know what upgrades i can put into this car to get a more hp. Also i am more interested in Accelleration, more so then top speed. If thats important to know..

Please help, and i know you know a lot more than i do on this subject so please inform me of anything i may or may not know, or that i said incorrectly.

Thanks in advanded,


Jeremy
 
I've been looking into intakes for my car. I found a new V2 intake for 285 price matched at procivic. However i can get it used for 120 on ebay. Just put a new filter on it and it should be fine. However I'm not sure if the V2 is the best for my car. According to The Tire Rack - Your performance experts for tires and wheels (click link for direct to my car info on intakes. It shows that aem's short ram intake will provide an addition 6.6hp and the V2 short ram giving 5.5hp. And it's half as much.

Does anyone have any information on intakes for my particular model, or have any links to people who have tested more then 1 intake on my 02 civic ex with dynos? Any information will be appreciated greatly.

Thankyou,

noob tuner, jeremy
 
not to sound like a dick. but the majority of people don't dyno their cars until they have some major work done. An intake is usually the first step into the tuner life. and as for spending half as much, shelling out that much money is pretty much pointless if you get more horses from another setup even though I have heard in places the V2 is the best intake on the market right now. If you want my advice as far as intake wise I would say go to pepboys. buy a cone filter and some tubing and do your intake custom. Just watch where you place the filter. You want it as far from the engine as possible, but still protected from water so you don't seize your motor.
 
don't worry about sounding a dick, I have no knowledge on this sort of thing so i appreciate any information. I wouldn't trust myself to make a custom intake so purchasing an intake for my car seems to be my only option.

Firstly, is it true that short ram is the best for the 02 ex d17a2. I would assume that to be true because the V2 was created as a short ram for the 02 ex. Also it would be understandable that the V2 does not provide the best hp for compared to their usualy short ram. Perhaps the "sound waves" don't work as effectly with the d17a2 as the aem short ram does.

However, what do i know
 
making an intake is literally the easiest thing you will ever do on a car. seriously. but I would suggest going with the one that site said produces more horses.
 
Thanks for all the suggestions and info. I just found some a dyno for the 02 civic ex. It shows the dyno for the stock ex, and then with aem standard SRI on it(not the V2 short ram). It shows the hp gain at 6.6 @ @5750rpm. This dyno matches the numbers tirerack.com stated. Therefor i believe there might be dyno results for the V2 and Cai. I will keep looking and post if i find any more info. Heres the link...

AEM DYNO NUMBERS <--- SRI

They also did dynos for the DX/LX but not the EX yet on the Aem Cai. Is it safe to assume that the hp gain on an ex would be just the same(at least in porportion) to that of the Dx/LX. It shows that the DX/LX had 5.3hp gain @ 4750rpm.

AEM Dyno Numbers <--- CAI

And there is also dyno numbers for the V2

AEM DYNO NUMBERS <-- V2

I don't know if anyone has found these and posted this information before. But im sure it might be a good idea to sticky those dyno url's for those questions about best intake for my car.
 
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Keep in mind that when you're comparing horsepower gains from two intakes, you need to consider the whole dyno chart, not just the greatest gain achieved. One intake may make slightly higher peak power at one point in the RPM band, but the other might make more power more consistently throughout the RPM range. You also have to consider the torque numbers and chart, which isn't shown on that site.

With that being said, those particular dyno charts are actually kind of wierd...it really does look like the short ram outperforms the V2 in that case. Maybe the torque numbers are the difference here.

When you're only talking about a one or two horsepower difference, I'd say spending nearly twice as much on the V2 just isn't worth it in most cases. I'd say definitely go with the regular short ram on this one...
 
you click on the link and open the hp graph. If you scroll down all the way to the 2nd page, there is the torque chart.

I decided to get a 2 piece ebay cai. That way i can go short or cold if i want. Just need to buy a aem dry flow filter. Is dry flow the best, or is K & N resuables best?
 
I would probably say K & N but that is personal preference... if you are still looking for more power when you are done with the intake setup, I would say buy megan headers, a high flow cat, and a megan cat back exhaust. I personally like the Megan brand for the prices they ask for.
 
they are certainly cheaper then DC ones i was looking at. I will have to do some research on which header to get. like i said i ordered my cai pipe, will be getting a filter. After that i will be installing headers, then eliminate the, what i believe is a 1.75" pipe, that is choking my exhaust. After i eliminate that i will look into an exhaust system.

Once the basic I/h/e is taking care of, i will be getting a 11-12lb flywheel, possible stage 1 or 2 N/A cam. I think they are crower cams but still need to research this all out but the I/H/E is a must.
 
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