[bhuvan_prasad]

Originally Posted by arvi86

Wow Bhuvan, those are some serious stuff waiting to get into your Civic's engine bay. I am sure you have planned tire/wheel upgrades as well as suspension upgrades to match the extra horses that the i-VTec might end up producing. More than you, I can't wait to see the end results.
That's brilliant, make sure that there is absolutely no lag from the turbo. The reason I am stating is that this lag, combined with the Civic's perennial low-end response problem, could make your life tougher in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

The main reason that the tuning is going to happen with me driving on normal roads, is to eradicate turbo lag and make the car behave like stock below 1700RPM. And my civic prior to this, because of the FFE wasn't that much of a pain in bumper to bumper traffic.

Originally Posted by suhaas307

I would rather not. It's much to expensive and for regular city / highway usage will not warrant anything beyond Koni FSDs, unless you plan on tracking it? H&R springs are also worth a look. What about RRP's suspension package? They have TEIN bits right? You've got more than a few options that will save you quite a lot.

My 2 cents.




I believe this is a good upgrade as well.



And what's the word on the Haltech ECU?

RRP's suspension package itself is the TEIN super street suspension, which is tailor made for the Civic. Around 90k. And the dampers can be used for a lifetime apparently. Thoughts? http://www.redroosterperformance.com...&carmodel_id=1

I do not plan on tracking the car. Koni FSD's i'm not keen on as IIRC manan had them on his Civic and they started leaking after 10k Kms itself.

Yes, strut braces at around 100$. seem good VFM.

The Haltech Sprint 500 ECU will reach blr from the US on wednesday. RRP's tuner Kayaan, will carry it and come on Friday. We will wire it on Sat and tune the car over the rest of the weekend

[suhaas307]

Originally Posted by arvi86

That's brilliant, make sure that there is absolutely no lag from the turbo. The reason I am stating is that this lag, combined with the Civic's perennial low-end response problem, could make your life tougher in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

The exhaust mods should be able to take care of some of that lack in bottom-end. The new ECU in the right state of tune (I'd go with city drivability) should help too.

Originally Posted by bhuvan_prasad

RRP's suspension package itself is the TEIN super street suspension, which is tailor made for the Civic. Around 90k. And the dampers can be used for a lifetime apparently. Thoughts?

Well, they do have a 2-year warranty so, that's comforting.

Is there an option to upgrade to the basic setup and then go for the super-street at a later stage?

[bhuvan_prasad]

Originally Posted by suhaas307

The exhaust mods should be able to take care of some of that lack in bottom-end. The new ECU in the right state of tune (I'd go with city drivability) should help too.



Well, they do have a 2-year warranty so, that's comforting.

Is there an option to upgrade to the basic setup and then go for the super-street at a later stage?

Will ask them if a basic setup is possible, but i think might as well go for the full blown setup. It's infinitely adjustable so should suit a myriad of driving situations.

More than the suspension the tyre choice is baffling me as I don't know if should just upgrade to 205's on my current 15's or go the distance and get 225's on 17's.

[F150]

Bhuvan,

Could we have the updates ? Eagerly waiting !

What did you finalize about the tyres ?

[bhuvan_prasad]

Originally Posted by F150

Bhuvan,

Could we have the updates ? Eagerly waiting !

What did you finalize about the tyres ?

Hey,

Because of Diwali, there was a gap in the whole install. I would have definitely updated the thread if something significant has happened, but sadly that is not the case.

While the exhaust arrived and the whole kit more or less has been installed on the car, the Haltech ECU is stuck in customs apparently. I hear Leela Sir is looking into so hopefully this should be sorted any by end of next week the tuning should happen then.

Tyres I still am in two minds. I know i have to upgrade from stock, but 15",16",17" is not clear yet.

I have finalized on the Hawk HPS brake pads. These will come from the US in December.

Two pics meanwhile:

1.) The exhaust system that arrived from RRP, Bangalore



2.) Car propped up during the install

[bhuvan_prasad]

Hey folks,
Sorry for the lull, as I got busy plus the RRP team and my installer in Chennai-Feroze, were off at the Budhh circuit for the JK national finals. Incidentally Feroze won the Touring car championship in the juniors category. So Yayy!!

Getting back to the car now. Installation of all the parts is done. They have negated the need for the FPR and have installed higher capacity 320CC injectors instead. ECU wiring is all done.

After 2 days of wiring and various tests the car began running and was taken on the road for tuning, and setting up the various maps. I did not drive the car, but was sitting at the back during one of the test runs. The car is very smooth and revs freely. Feroze was at the wheel and gunned it in 1rst and 2nd gears. I just shut my eyes. The way with which the car gained pace was mind boggling. 4 people in the car, the AC compressor was on, and still the car just took off. By around 2.5k RPM you start getting good amounts of boost, and i think by around 4k RPM it is on full boost. And this is without the car being fully tuned. !!!! I know this is a very short impression, but I still have not driven the car, and in 2-3 days I will drive it and post an extensive review of the power, torque, driveability etc.

Anyway, the car still has 2 issues.
1.) The boost which is set at 7.5 psi, is crossing over to 8.5 psi when one upshifts at high RPM's, this is due to the electronic throttle.
2.) 2nd and 3rd gears at one or two points in the rev range, there are a few jerks.

Manans(m4ugr8) ex-civic was also there, and i went on a drive in that too, and i dont mean to offend anyone, but it did not seem as fast as mine. Felt much more solid though, because of the teins and 17". Plus the sound of the BOV was different. My BOV sounded more like a traditional BOV sound- going by the sounds i've heard in Gran Turismo 5, and boy, was it a good sound.

So to iron out all these issues, the car has gone to RRP bangalore today evening, where Kayan will work on it tomorrow and on Monday, using the dyno. On Monday, Feroze and I will go down and drive the car back. Some drive it is going to be.

Regarding other upgrades:
1.) Hawk HPS brake pads - front and rear are on the way and will reach in 5-10 days.
2.) 16" alloys with 215/55R16 or 225/50R16 as soon as i get the car back. 17" cause dampers to leak on the indian roads. I've seen this in civics with stock dampers/koni FSD's and even RRP teins.
3.) HKS Turbo Timer
4.) Getting a pair of spare engine and gearbox mounts, as one never knows when I will need them, due to the extra stress on the engine

After all this, I will drive it for a month and then take a call if i should go for RRP's Tein superstreet package. The Civic does not have a Tein basic package.

1.) The Haltech Sprint 500 ECU



2.) NGK iridium spark plugs - 1 step colder



3.) Engine bay with all the fitments



4.) The exhaust header which feeds the turbo



5.) The Turbo



6.) The Turbo



7.) The pipe feeding the intake manifold. Very nicely done mounting for the sensor



8.) The BOV - what a nice sound it makes. Will upload a video



9.) The BMC DIA - air intake which feeds the turbo



10.) The intercooler

[dinu2506]

Any updates on this, Bhuvan? Eagerly waiting for your driving impression

[bhuvan_prasad]

Originally Posted by dinu2506

Any updates on this, Bhuvan? Eagerly waiting for your driving impression

The drive never happened.
On that Saturday, at around midnight outside Bangalore, my car, while being driven by a tuner from RRP, rear-ended a truck. I was immediately informed and sent pics by Feroze, who has been extremely understanding and helpful in all this. RRP, on the other hand, while they have said they will replace everything on their cost, have been sort of unresponsive. A guy called Praveen is handling this from RRP's end, and conversations with him are quite frustrating as all he says is "work has started, they are ordering parts. it will take 15-20 days" - standard reply to any question i ask.

To see a car which you've pampered for so long, go through this is extremely painful, and I've been totally off colour, dazed for the past few days. The car is currently at Dakshin Honda, Hosur road. Feroze is going there on saturday to check it out. Work has begun. They have to replace the front bumper and grill, bumper guard(bar), windshield, left fender. The left headlight also got a huge scratch so they have ordered another set of angel eye headlamps. The HID xenons are fine.

I don't feel like posting the pics, so I hope you guys understand. If anyone can drop in at that honda service station, and give me some latest update, I'd be very grateful.

[F150]

Oh Man !

This is really sad and frustrating. Indian tuners lack professional approach.

What the hell was he doing with your car in the midnight ?

I can feel for you bro.

I too hate the guys who give standard replies.

Hope to see your car in stock shape soon and may be start turbo work soon.

[bhuvan_prasad]

Originally Posted by F150

Oh Man !

This is really sad and frustrating. Indian tuners lack professional approach.

What the hell was he doing with your car in the midnight ?

I can feel for you bro.

I too hate the guys who give standard replies.

Hope to see your car in stock shape soon and may be start turbo work soon.

They were taking the car from Chennai to RRP, Bangalore to dyno and fine-tune. I had a bad feeling when they set off itself. And then this happened. Frankly speaking, the turbo job was 90% complete, it was just that a dyno was required to iron out the odd jerks.

Sigh. The wait gets longer now. It has been two months since I had dropped the car off for the install.

[dipen]

Originally Posted by bhuvan_prasad

It is the standard RRP turbo kit which m4ugr8 also had. Should give me about 200whp or 225-230bhp at the crank.

Try a quick traffic light drag in safer times with a Stage 1 Laura TSi which probably has ~ 200hp at the crank. If you are able to leave it behind by a car's length, then the quoted figures would hold very much true. Note that the Civic has lighter kerb weight + more quoted power by 10-14 %.

Wish you good luck in getting your car back in its fittest form.

[bhuvan_prasad]

Originally Posted by dipen

Try a quick traffic light drag in safer times with a Stage 1 Laura TSi which probably has ~ 200hp at the crank. If you are able to leave it behind by a car's length, then the quoted figures would hold very much true. Note that the Civic has lighter kerb weight + more quoted power by 10-14 %.

Wish you good luck in getting your car back in its fittest form.

Thanks, will try it out. The car is going to by dyno'ed extensively, so this will anyway give me the figures. Though going by what i see, RRP's hub dyno churns out lower figures than the roller dyno in mumbai.

In other updates the car and all body parts are at RRP's garage as Honda quoted a total charge of 1.9Lakhs. I spoke to Leelakrishnan yesterday and he told me everything will be done in 10days. Let us wait and watch now.

[F150]

Originally Posted by bhuvan_prasad

In other updates the car and all body parts are at RRP's garage as Honda quoted a total charge of 1.9Lakhs. I spoke to Leelakrishnan yesterday and he told me everything will be done in 10days. Let us wait and watch now.

Who will do the repair work ? HASS or Mr Leela's workshop ?

[bhuvan_prasad]

Originally Posted by F150

Who will do the repair work ? HASS or Mr Leela's workshop ?

It will be done at Mr. LeelaKrishnans workshop itself.

[F150]

Originally Posted by bhuvan_prasad

It will be done at Mr. LeelaKrishnans workshop itself.

I am not sure how comfortable you are, but I hope they use genuine parts and don't cut corners and come up with some jugaad work with constant niggles.

Fingers crossed. Good luck bro, keep us posted. I think you should have some friend in BLR to constantly check the progress. I know you are in MAA.