Yeah no kidding.You've gotta love an engine that keeps it's oil level topped off, over the long haul!
Considering Hondata Tuner/Intake/Exhaust for the Wife's Civic 1.5T
- Thread starter john_pifer
- Start date
So, after doing some research, we decided to go with the KTuner. Bought from Two Step Performance for $449, and, for that price, they include a custom tune (normally $79) that should be good for about 219 HP/258 LB-FT in the wife's car. Those numbers are up from the 187 HP/200 LB-FT that Two Step Performance dyno'd a Civic 1.5T 6MT at, before any mods.
The dyno results of the factory, non-modified Civic 1.5T at 187 HP/200 LB-FT indicates something interesting - Honda is quite conservative with the HP/torque ratings of this car, since it's rated by them at 174 HP/167 LB-FT. This was also shown by Motor Trend in their testing back when the Civic 1.5T came out in 2016...
So, about 32 HP and 58 LB/FT increase, at the wheels. Not bad for $449! That's without any other mods. I've decided not to add an intake, exhaust, or any other performance bolt-ons, at this time, since the gains for those items seem to be minimal.
There are lots of tweaks and adjustments you can make with the KTuner, including elimination of rev hang, "quick turbo spool", etc. And you can switch between up to 3 different tunes on-the-fly, using the cruise control buttons.
This mod should make the wife's Civic faster than quite a few hot hatch-class cars out there, including the stock Civic Si, VW GTI, and maybe even the stock WRX, since, I believe this is a lighter car than the WRX. (Honda lists the curb weight of the 2018 Civic Hatchback 1.5T 6MT as 2822 lbs, and Subaru lists the curb weight of the 2020 WRX as being at least 3294 lbs)
Can't wait to get it and plug it in!
I think I'll start running M1-ESP 5W-30 now. Sucks that I'd just changed the oil (been using the VME and M1-AP that I bought over 50 quarts of last year for $2/qt during the AZ clearance). Read here where it's on sale at NAPA now for $6.99/qt when you buy 5 quarts, and then there's a $10 MIR (gift card).
The dyno results of the factory, non-modified Civic 1.5T at 187 HP/200 LB-FT indicates something interesting - Honda is quite conservative with the HP/torque ratings of this car, since it's rated by them at 174 HP/167 LB-FT. This was also shown by Motor Trend in their testing back when the Civic 1.5T came out in 2016...
So, about 32 HP and 58 LB/FT increase, at the wheels. Not bad for $449! That's without any other mods. I've decided not to add an intake, exhaust, or any other performance bolt-ons, at this time, since the gains for those items seem to be minimal.
There are lots of tweaks and adjustments you can make with the KTuner, including elimination of rev hang, "quick turbo spool", etc. And you can switch between up to 3 different tunes on-the-fly, using the cruise control buttons.
This mod should make the wife's Civic faster than quite a few hot hatch-class cars out there, including the stock Civic Si, VW GTI, and maybe even the stock WRX, since, I believe this is a lighter car than the WRX. (Honda lists the curb weight of the 2018 Civic Hatchback 1.5T 6MT as 2822 lbs, and Subaru lists the curb weight of the 2020 WRX as being at least 3294 lbs)
Can't wait to get it and plug it in!
I think I'll start running M1-ESP 5W-30 now. Sucks that I'd just changed the oil (been using the VME and M1-AP that I bought over 50 quarts of last year for $2/qt during the AZ clearance). Read here where it's on sale at NAPA now for $6.99/qt when you buy 5 quarts, and then there's a $10 MIR (gift card).
Unless the GTI also has a flash tune then it will eat your lunch. So much easy power in these turbos. No need to do intake, exhaust or any of that other stuff. Just flash it and enjoy!
Eh, it depends.
The Civic has a weight advantage. Nearly 400 lbs less than a WRX, and over 200 lbs less than the lightest GTI.
But, of course I’m well-aware that those cars can be flash-tuned for more boost just as easily as our Civic. Which is why I said, “stock”.
gathermewool
Site Donor 2023
I’d love to see the curve on that tune. Those gains are huge, but don’t fool yourself into thinking you‘ll be walking the likes of WRXs and SI’s.
2018 manual GTI curb weight 3062, and tunes to 300+ hp depending on company.
2018 civic 6mt sport i believe curb weighs 2871.
With a tune, both cars will be traction challenged, but the GTI would roast.
Civic holds its own considering 1.5 vs 2.0 displacements.
2018 civic 6mt sport i believe curb weighs 2871.
With a tune, both cars will be traction challenged, but the GTI would roast.
Civic holds its own considering 1.5 vs 2.0 displacements.
Power to weight wont matter vs the WRX cause you can launch it hard. 250ft lb front wheel drives are quite hard to get off the line clean.
Here are the curves for the tune we’ll have, on a car identical to ours. This is @ 23 psi. Stock is 16.5 max.
Stock Civic Si, yes, they’ll be destroyed. Stock WRX, like I said, I have a nearly 400 lb weight advantage, and will be putting down more power.
Attachments
Weights:
2018 Civic Hatch 1.5T 6MT: 2822 lbs (Honda’s #)
2018 GTI: 3062 lbs (Edmunds)
2018 WRX: 3272 lbs (Edmunds)
So, our Civic is 240 lbs less than a GTI and 450 lbs less than a WRX!
The ability to launch, I don’t care about, because we won’t be dragging anybody. Roll-ons on the Highway, maybe.
I think I’d kill a stock Si or GTI. Stock WRX has a little more HP (around 250 at the wheels if you estimate a 20-HP loss from crank to wheels, since it’s rated at 268), but less torque than I’ll have.
I used to own a 2016 WRX, so, it’ll be interesting to measure this tuned Civic with my butt dyno.
Turbo cars do show some really nice gains with a proper tune. Enjoy!
Keep in mind that you may be throwing the factory warranty out the window.
Okay, so in ideal situations where your traction disadvantage does not apply and the AWD weight+losses on the WRX do apply you could pull away.
You would be competitive with a stock GTI. If you can find one. Everyone throws on a tune pretty much.
My previous GSW wasn't that fun because it was too powerful for FWD. It was 274 hp 308 tq and close to 3000lbs. 1st gear useless, 2nd gear might hook up, and this was the long ratio 5 speed box. 3rd gear 40-80 was a riot. But the car was slow to get going without risking wheel spin and possible wheel hop. Power you can't easily put down was disappointing to me.
"Out the window"
I love the dramaticism, man!
There's this notion that changing anything from the stock nature will immediately result in any warranty claim being denied, which isn't the case. Now, if there was damage as the direct result of the tune, then I wouldn't expect Honda to cover that, as it would obviously be outside the scope of the warranty, which promises to cover the components in their stock form.
But, if something else breaks that's not related to the tune, that doesn't mean any and all warranty claims would be automatically denied just due to the tune.
I guess there's the risk that something could break due to the tune, but I'm not concerned. We weighed the risks and accepted them before we ordered the KTuner.
We're not trying to take an economy car and turn it into a race car. Just make it a bit more fun, and get rid of the factory tune, which honestly sucks (especially rev hang).
My feeling is that this powertrain has plenty of headroom to accept an extra 30 HP and 50 lb-ft without problems.
Dude, you must be a drag racer. You keep talking about launching and not being able to put power down.
In all the online discussions I've read about tuning hot hatches, you're the first person I've run into with that opinion. It sounds like a hoot to me!
Again, as I said, we're not interested in stoplight drag races. Most of our driving is freeway, and on the weekends, we like to get out of the city and drive out to the mountains and find crooked roads. And, in the kind of driving we do, this will be a blast.
The icing on the cake is that we'll have a GTI-beating hot-hatch for over $9000 less than what those GTI owners paid (the wife paid $28G).
Not a drag racer but drive mostly on 40-55 mph stop lighted streets. I would have kept my old wagon if i was on the freeway a lot as it did well in those environments. I also have a lot of stops, hills, ect. Turning right onto a road at a red light, i'd make sure to leave plenty of space because i had to start out at normal speed and not be able to really hit it until 2nd gear. I had 235 wide summer tires too, still wanted a lot more grip.
The upgrade to an alltrack was well worth it for me. Power to the ground is a luxury indeed. I have a unitronic tune in hand ready to go but i want to put a few more miles on before i nuke the warranty. This one i will leave stock turbo, will be "242hp / 273lbft" or so they say. On paper it should be slower than my old one being 10% heavier and 10% less power but it will feel so much faster to me.
The upgrade to an alltrack was well worth it for me. Power to the ground is a luxury indeed. I have a unitronic tune in hand ready to go but i want to put a few more miles on before i nuke the warranty. This one i will leave stock turbo, will be "242hp / 273lbft" or so they say. On paper it should be slower than my old one being 10% heavier and 10% less power but it will feel so much faster to me.
