Help needed, would be appreciated

[Tom 89]

Hi I own a 1999 5 door civic 1.4 sport and I was wondering if u could give me any tips to make it faster?

[Finch]

Do you want the long or short?
 

Long; Do the basics, IECR - Intake, Exhaust, Cams Remap; Depending on Year and ECU you might need to get a different ECU from H-Tune,

 

Get a chipped P28/P06 and Crome if thats the case. If not you can get your ECU chipped (depending on ECU). Remapping can be done at quite a few places, I think PJ Motorsports can still do D's (I had a D16z6 Turbo mapped there about 4-5 years back) but you're looking around £150-200 total, can make all kinds of power depending on the age, spec, upgrades etc

 

Cam wise, the D14Z4 is abit limited, you can get someone like Kent or Piper to regrind your cam to say a 243 profile, get an adjustable cam gear and run 1-2* of advance. If you're going to pull cam out you might as well set the lash on the valves to around 0.001-0.002" to get the clearances back to near factory. Other than that a D15ZC cam is quite agressive compared to the other non-vtec D-series, but nothing that is going to give you issues. ZC cam can make upto 10hp with right map, regrinds can make around 15-20 depending on timing, profile and map.

 

Intake ditch the f**king aweful polymer intake manifold and look for a D15ZC, D16z6 or Y8 factory/OE one they're much much better. You can also port-polish the runners with a dremmel to increase a bit of flow though these IM's make around 3-4hp more. Accompanied by port-polish on the head if you're stripping it off will make a few more hp across the range.. Head over the Bilston, goto BMS opposite subway ask for Raj and order either an S2000 standard filter from an AP1, or a Pipecross panel; They do a huge range of silicone hoses in stock too. Tell him Jack said to speak to him and he'll keep you sweet!.

 

Exhaust wise; Toyosports are your best bet, they have stainless manifolds, they're cheap, decent quality and ship fast (only come from Brum so not exactly far!) Ditch the cat and run a test-pipe or goto K'ford and get them to weld you a cat-delete pipe in or if you have about 200-250 to spend a full cat-back setup including cat delete to match to your toyosports 4-1/4-2-1 manifold. You will need O2 sensor holes fitted for the lambda sensor(s) 

 

Flywheel is your next point of call freeing up power across the band as the engine can rev faster and more freely, accompanied with the IECR you'll have more power accessed faster.

On top of all these depending on how much you're willing to spend there are two options; Head work including skim by someone like Willenhall engine center and gas-flowwed port-polish by someone like Andy @ cylinder head developments or turbo, the D14z4 isn't exactly receptive to a turbo, as far as I know they can't handle more than a few psi before ringlands start failing (especially on an engine with high milage) but each one of these will require remap unless you want sh***y fuel economy 

 

Short; Do an engine swap; H22, K20/K24 (about 2.5k - 4k depending on budget and spec of build. I was doing one until I needed to save some cash), D16z6 and ECU, B16, B18 will all work but will require work. The B or D (You have a D14z4) will be the easiest, D/B use same mounts, so only difference you would require if you were to fit a B would be shafts, gearbox, engine, loom, ecu but these could be picked up out of a B18C4 out of a VTI/VTI-S
 

Tom, I'm going to send you a PM!

Edited September 26, 2016 by Finch

[kern]

cheapest, quickest and easiest way would be to sell it and buy an MB6! 

[Finch]

There are going to be 3 things to factor in, pick 2 because you can't have all 3

- Cheap

- Fast

- Reliable