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-   -   Turbocharged R18 Honda Civic. EDIT: Upgraded Turbo, 0-100 in 7.1 seconds (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-drives-initial-ownership-reports/121414-turbocharged-r18-honda-civic-edit-upgraded-turbo-0-100-7-1-seconds-7.html)

Hey folks,

Sorry for the lull, I was busy and also wanted the car to get fully sorted before posting again. As you all know, at sea-level altitudes I was facing the issue of the car jerking akin to the fuel supply being cutoff in gears 2,3,4 at 3.5k+ RPM. I took the car to Feroze's workshop in Chennai, and the two of us drove it around a fair bit on the Poonamalle bypass and we tried making the AFR rich at those particular RPM's. Problem seemed to be temporarily sorted but the next day on my home-office commute which is right by the sea, the jerking was back, so clearly it was not because of the AFR being lean.

I messaged Kayaan, the head tuner of RRP, and he told me that he will be coming to Chennai on the 22nd/23rd weekend for a rally being held near the MMST race track, and that he would be glad to have a look at the car and fix it. Sunday afternoon around 1:30 PM I head there. He hooks up a wideband O2 sensor to the exhaust pipe and fixes it to a AFR meter inside, via the rear window. Laptop connected to the ECU, with haltech ECU manager running, and off we go out onto the highway. The car usually behaves normally at places far away from the sea (MMST is around 35km inland), so we were not getting jerks, but what Kayaan realized is that the car was crossing the set boost of 7.5psi. What had happened is in Bangalore they had installed a spacer in the wastegate as boost at low RPM's was building a little slowly. At sea level this was causing an issue as the boost after 3000RPM was crossing 9.5psi and almost touching 10psi, and here the ECU was going bonkers as the boost was too high and cutting the fuel supply. We go back and removed the spacer and headed out again. Things seemed much better and Kayaan more or less created a new map, reset the ECU and loaded it. The car was running rich earlier because of the changes Feroze and I had made, so Kayaan fixed all that. Should see an FE improvement also, I was getting 8.5-9Km/l in the city earlier.

Obviously I could feel the difference in boost from earlier, the surge is lesser by 5% or so, but a 7psi boost is much safer in the long term as the Civic is a high compression engine, and earlier I frankly was always a bit afraid of gunning it, as I never knew when the car would jerk all of a sudden. At the current reduced boost levels also it is a really fast car and something I am really happy with. All the other engine checks seemed fine and I finally seem to have got all the major issues sorted.

So, around 2.2K RPM - 3.2K RPM boost is at around 5.5 PSI and post that it runs at full 7psi boost. Drove the car around a fair bit and in scenarios where the car would jerk earlier it was accelerating smoothly. clap:

Also got a new gear knob, and my Greddy Turbo timer has arrived but I have not had the time to install it yet. The old gear knob looked beat and was not very sporty. This one fits nicely in ones palm and makes shifting even more fun. It does get hot if parked under the sun for long though!! Took a few pics with my digital camera, so please do have a look and let me know your thoughts. Thanks for reading! :)

1.) Front View


2.) Front 3/4 (or close to that)


3.) Rear 3/4


4.) Alloy + Tyre


5.) Type R style titanium burned metal finish gear knob


6.) Interior Shot


7.) Intercooler + mesh


8.) Side View


9.) Rear 3/4

Your Civic looks awesome Bhuvan, that looks classy and sporty at the same time. It's a proper sleeper that is sure to surprise a few innocent high-end sports sedans on road. Keep us posted on the turbo's performance over time!

Thank you!! :) It has been over 2500Km's so far and the car has been doing well, except for the jerking at high RPM's which also got sorted out. Takes a little longer to start up, am guessing because of the length of the intercooler pipes etc. Bikers and pedestrians do get shocked when the blow off valve lets out the compressed air lol:

Your thread reminds me of the old days (2005/2006) in team bhp when there was a huge interest and tons of discussions on turbocharging and NOS modifications. :)

Your project seems to have progressed very well. Your car looks so subtle and calm. Must be hard to wipe that grip off your face when you blow past other "fast" cars.

Congrats on the mod's and enjoy the car.

Drive safe. Happy miles to you. :thumbs up

Just read the whole thread from the first page! What an incredible journey for you and your car! I wonder if you can upload a video with the BOV! Would love to hear what it sounds like on a civic!

I had a few questions about the car... Do you get any significant torque steer during hard acceleration? Also, have you noticed any overheating in the engine, considering Chennai in the summer can be a bit... warm :D

Thanks a lot. Did whoosh past a black Cruze today, and the guy had no clue what hit him, and from this Red Civic came. :D

I definitely can, and will upload a Video with the BOV sound.

Coming to your questions, with the old stock size tyres there was wheel-spin in 1rst gear from 3-5000RPM and a hint of torque-steer, but with the 225/50 R16 Michelin PS3's this has absolutely disappeared, and one can accelerate hard with total control.

Temperature has never crossed the halfway mark(which is the usual in a stock Civic), it warms up as fast as a stock Civic engine, and remains there. The reliability, drive-ability so far has been very good.

Hello Folks,

Been a while since I updated this thread. Car has been running without any glitch, and other than filling petrol and air, no other maintenance cost has been incurred during this period. (touchwood).

Today was a special day, did my first long highway run(after the turbo), from Chennai to Vijayawada. Was a tad nervous, as I've never taken the car out of Chennai, and that too on a non-stop run like this in peak summer.

I am glad to report, the car performed with flying colours. A distance of around 480 Kms was dispensed in 6 hours flat. Got an average of 10.5-11Km/l. Speeds varied, as despite the whole stretch being part of the GQ, 6-laning work is going and so there were a lot of diversions. In the parts where the 6 laning was complete, she effortlessly maintained 120-130Km/h. Engine seemed fine, and was accelerating cleanly throughout the rev range. Didn't feel the need to rev past 3.5k RPM(other than a couple of times), as I was already doing good speeds by then, which thanks to the torque are achieved with minimum fuss and gear changes.

I still cannot get over the braking, it is brilliant, three digit speeds to 60Km/h is so easy and sure-footed. It instills so much confidence in the driver and there is no drama at all when you shed such massive amounts of speed.

Will be heading home(HYD) with the car, first time after the turbo. You can look forward to some photos of the car and the Hyd ORR. :D

Hi Bhuvan,
This is one great thread. I just read it in one go and believe me, I myself could not control the excitement. So, I can very well imagine what it feels like for you.
It is probably too late to ask about this, but do you still have the previous FFE and Air filter lying with you or have you given them off already?

Thanks a lot for your kind words, feels really nice when people like the thread too, and not just the car.
The k&n and ffe are still up for grabs BTW. I tried sending you a PM, but I guess you have turned them off.

Yayyy!clap:I actually 'almost' sold my Civic off in exchange for an XUV5OO. But thanks to your and GTO's threads on the difference FFE & K&N makes to the low-end, I am all excited about the Civic again.

Well, I am still a newbie here and do not have the PM rights active yet. Is there any other way to get in touch with you?

Dear Mods,
Pls advise if it is OK to share email / mobile number details in order to take this ahead.

On an overcast Sunday afternoon, June 9th to be precise, my friend and I took the Civic out to the 160km long Hyderabad Outer ring road(easily India's best piece of tarmac IMHO), and did a small photo-shoot.
The results are there below for all of you to feast your eyes on. The first 5 pics are from my friend's DSLR, and the rest(can be easily made out:D) are from my nexus 4.

Photo Credits : Prashast Pittie



















Did take a video, which will be uploaded and posted soon. So, do check in later.

As promised please find the video of the exhaust and BOV.
Please listen to it on good quality speakers/headphones or else there will just be a lot of hissing. A little wind noise is present, so apologies for that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSEvCXnLhME

Bhuvan , do you have any issues with the idle RPM , when the A/C is switched on ?

Hey, yes there are a few issues with the engine hunting at idle with the AC on.
With the headlights etc off, a small blip on the throttle fixes this and the engine settles down at a 750rpm idle.
With the headlights etc on, it sometimes still keeps hunting between 500-1200rpm and I resort to heel n toeing to keep the engine above 750rpm. Can get a bit irritating in bumper to bumper traffic at night where you have no choice but to use the AC( especially on sultry Chennai weather).

We tried fixing this by increasing the fuel supply, but I think the issue is elsewhere.
Anyway I've kinda gotten used to it .

Hey Folks,

Car is doing fine. Been around 5000Kms and almost 6 months since the turbo job. I changed the engine oil and oil filter. Put in castrol Edge 5W-40. Put in 4 Litres against the civic's capacity of 3.7L as a bit extra for the turbo oil lines. Looking at the dipstick this does not seem necessary, as I'm just above the hash marks, so I will remove 200ml over the weekend. Got a new Honda Emblem for the steering wheel (Pic below). Still have not had the time to install the turbo timer though, luckily since nobody else has driven the car it is not that urgent. Weirdly, the RPM hunting issues seems to have gotten a little worse after the oil change. Will alter the map a bit, or physically fix the throttle a little forward to combat this. If i gradually let the RPM fall to 750RPM it stays there. If i let the throttle go suddenly, and the revs fall, then it keep hunting. I hope you guys get what I mean.

The car also recently completed a Chennai - Vijayawada - Hyderabad(and back) highway trip without a glitch. Mostly driven non-stop, averaged good speeds, got about 11.5-12km/l because of the 6-laning work and diversions.

On the last leg from Vijayawada to Chennai it was sort of like a Top Gear race. Two of my colleagues were also traveling to Chennai from Vijayawada, one by the Chennai Rajdhani, other by 2 Air India flights(via Hyd). Counting overall travel time from the time each of us left the hotel(we left at different times, as different scheduled departures) till the time we reached our destination in Chennai(3 of us were within a 2-3 km's radius), no prizes for guessing which mode of transport won.

In true Jeremy Clarkson style, the Car WON clap:
Details below:

• Car - Left hotel @ 12 noon | Reached @ 6:30PM - total - 6.5 hours
• Train - Left hotel @ 2PM | Reached @ 10PM - total - 8 hours (train got delayed by an hour)
• Flight - Left hotel @ 3:30PM | Reached @ 11 PM - total - 7.5 hours(connecting flight got delayed - Air India lol:)

Disclaimer - At no point was I actually racing on the highway, talking to them. I called up my train counterpart only after reaching Chennai. It is just coincidence that the whole thing worked out this way.

Attaching a few pics below too. Have Fun!