1.5L

Civilized Pipelines: Intercooler Piping R&D, Part 1: Design Plans

February 28, 2017

Honda Civic Intercooler Pipes, 2016+

# turbo, tune, intercooler pipes, intercooler, hot side, hondata, honda, cold side, civic, boost fwd, 1.5L

Turbocharger compressors like denser air, which is why us car enthusiasts joke about how, although the winter is the motorsports off-season, it's peak "boost" season. Cars with forced induction love the colder, denser climates because by driving in colder weather, the turbocharger or supercharger gets fed a bit more air than in warmer weather. That's why you might feel a harder punch from the gas pedal in the middle of a freezing Chicago December compared to a Daytona Beach July.

Since we don't all boost happily in the Siberian Tundra, the way to replicate this effect is by finding a way to supply more air to your method of forced induction. One way to do so is by making your intercooler piping or charge pipes larger. Larger pipes allow more airflow, which translates to more power. Our lead engineer for this entire intercooler project is very familiar with this idea, before creating larger pipes, we must first evaluate the stock pipes - hot side and cold side - to know exactly what we are

Bring a Jacket: Intercooler R&D, Part 1: The Stock System

February 27, 2017

Honda Civic Intercooler, 2016+

# R&D, power, intercooler, hondata, honda civic turbo, earthdreams, civic, boost, bar and plate, 1.5L turbo, 1.5L

I've been labeled a Nissan guy for a long time now. My 1995 Nissan 240SX has served me well during the six years I've owned it, sticking with me through the second half of college, nine states on the east coast and more drift events than I can honestly count. Being a Nissan guy (specifically a 240 guy) has really been the one thing I could easily identify with, other than usually being able to see over crowds and get the "Did you play college ball?" question. While I'm familiar with what is known as the S-Chassis, I'm a car guy through and through, and I can appreciate the builds and the individual styles that come from all sorts of different personalities and backgrounds. This is exactly why when I saw this new 2016 Honda Civic 1.5L Turbo Hatchback pull into our parking lot last week, I got excited.

The Sport package has an aggressive body style

Even though it isn't a rough-around-the-edges mid "90's drift car, I can appreciate something that is this good looking. These new 2017 Civic

The Civic Has Boost! - Intake R&D, Part 3: Dyno Results

May 02, 2016

Honda Civic Intake 2016+

# turbo, intake, INDUCTION, hondata, honda, FWD, featured, dynojet, cold air intake, civic, boost, 1.5L

Here we have another update for our 2016 Civic intake project. This Civic has finally been put on our dyno to see how our intake performs - and we have some results to share with our Civic community! This car was tricky to dyno properly because of the continuously variable transmission (CVT), but no corners were cut during our testing. Let's jump right in!

2016 Honda Civic parts dyno testing

The CVT

2016 Honda Civic parts dyno testing

Dyno testing a car with an automatic transmission is always a bit more complex than testing a manual transmission. The ability to shift the gears manually makes it a bit easier to set up a manual transmission on the dyno. With automatic shifting, however, finding an appropriate final gear ratio is not a simple task.

A continuously variable transmission (CVT), has a continuous range of effective gear ratios. The gear changes are more seamless than in a conventional mechanical transmission, which has a limited number of gear ratios. With a CVT design, the angular

The Civic Has Boost! - Intake R&D, Part 2: Prototype Development

April 15, 2016

Honda Civic Intake 2016+

# turbo, team mishi, spoon, SPOol, mishimoto, intake, INDUCTION, honda, featured, ex-t, civic, boost, 2016, 1.5L

We are moving along with the intake project! Last time, we talked about the stock system and our goals for this project. Now, we will show you our process for assembling a prototype that we can test and analyze results from. Let's jump right in!

Once our engineers finalize a design, the proposed idea gets modeled in 3D modeling software. The next step is to make the idea a physical reality. We have an awesome machine called a waterjet that can cut almost anything with pinpoint accuracy using a mixture of high pressure water and abrasive material. We upload our design to the waterjet through computer software, "telling" it exactly what we want to cut. The machine takes care of the rest! We just sit back and watch as our prototype gets crafted out of a big sheet of any metal we place inside the machine - in this case, steel.

Prototype 2016 Honda Civic parts ready for the waterjet process

Prototype 2016 Honda Civic parts in the waterjet process

Once the parts are ready, we pull them out of

Prototype Fitment - Catch Can R&D, Part 2

April 07, 2016

Honda Civic Catch Can 2016+

# vtec, turbo, team mishi, spoon, oil catch can, OCC, mishimoto, honda, featured, boost, 2016, 1.5L

We are moving fast with this project! We have now talked about the differences and significance between two types of fuel injection, evaluated the stock system and began designing a bracket with our neat waterjet. We have also dived into the specifics of how our catch can works. Now, we have a working prototype that we have mounted onto our loaner Civic.

We decided to go ahead and use the open space right behind passenger side of the motor that would conveniently place our catch can around the PCV ports. This will lighten any complexities in the hose routing.

Area where we will place prototype Civic catch can

The bracket has been fabricated so all we needed to do was give it a little bit of paint to match the color of our can.

2016 Honda Civic parts

Our prototype design will have the bracket attach directly behind the pictured bracket that is holding an oil line. Check it out installed below!

Prototype 2016 Honda Civic parts installed

Design and Fabrication - Catch Can R&D, Part 1

March 31, 2016

Honda Civic Catch Can 2016+

# vtec, turbocharge, turbo, oil catch can, oil, intake, honda, featured, civic, catch can, boost, 1.5L

We have been searching long and hard to get our hands on the new Honda Civic, and the search is now over! A brand new 2016+ Honda Civic equipped with the 1.5L Turbo engine has finally reached our R&D facility, thanks to a very generous owner. One of our first targeted projects is an oil catch can. There are many benefits to equipping a vehicle with a catch can. Modern fuel injection is accomplished by either port or direct injection, the latter used by this Civic. Let's briefly talk about the differences between the two.

Port vs. Direct Injection

With port injection, the fuel injectors are situated right inside the intake manifold, producing a fuel stream to mix with the air. That air/fuel mixture is shot straight into the combustion chamber through a valve. As the fuel passes through the valve area, much of the debris gets cleaned off - because as we all know, gasoline is an excellent solvent.

Direct injection, however, is the more common approach for new engines. This system places the