The cylinder head, a K20A2 piece from a '04 RSX Type-S, was chosen for its robust casting and excellent flow characteristics. But to flow enough air for Pacman's lofty horsepower goal, PortFlow Design was hired to work its magic on the ports, bowls and combustion chambers. To complete the head package Pacman then turned to Tony at Skunk2 for valvetrain upgrades that include Stage 2 camshafts, an exhaust cam gear, 1mm oversized valves, valve springs and retainers.
With a bulletproof engine ready to handle some serious boost, Pacman needed an equally serious turbo system, and for that he turned to the king of the twin-scroll manifold: Geoff at Full-Race. In fact, Full-Race played a major roll in the overall build of Pacman's next-level Civic, fabricating a custom rollcage to go along with a custom front-mount intercooler setup, custom intake manifold, pro-series traction bars and, of course, a dual-wastegate, twin-scroll manifold along with a Garrett GT42rs snail and 4-inch downpipe. In a brilliant move designed to keep chargepipe length to a minimum for quicker spool up, Geoff swapped the throttle body and intake manifold inlet to the passenger side. In fact, Full-Race has further refined its K-series intake manifold design and will soon be releasing a new version that'll allow you to mount the throttle body on either the passenger or driver side of the enlarged plenum.
When Pacman got the car back from Full-Race in late 2004, he took it to Chinky at Brightside Performance. It was here that the full mock-up of the oil and electrical systems took place, including custom oil feed lines and a Milspec engine harness. It was also completely stripped down at this point so the bare shell could be sent to Cali Style for a fresh coat of paint. A year later, in late 2005, Pacman's VX was back at Brightside for final assembly.
From 2006 to 2009 the car slowly came together with all the custom bits and pieces required for a build aiming for 1,000 hp. This not only included putting together the custom fuel system, including RC engineering 1800cc injectors and a Weldon 2025a fuel pump, but also a drivetrain that could handle the power. For this Pacman turned to Frank at The Driveshaft Shop and John at Frana Vehicles. DSS 5.9 axles and hubs help put the power to the ground, while the custom dog box gearset from Frana Vehicles provides the durability and holding capacity needed to transmit the mountain of turbocharged torque from the engine to the DSS axles.
With all the details in place, Pacman's journey of perseverance and determination finally paid off with a recent dyno tuning and engine break-in session by Bubba on the Do It Dyno. With the Hondata K-Pro set to limit boost to "just" 32 psi for this initial dyno session, Pacman's potent K24/K20 mill pumped out an amazing 771 whp at 9700 rpm. With 50+ psi and 11,000 rpm as the targeted operating limits, 1000 hp certainly seems to be well within reach.
According to Pacman, "Now that my project is more or less complete, I plan to reach its full potential of 1,000 hp and the 8-second mark in the quarter-mile." Regardless of whether or not he reaches these goals, there's no question that Pacman's monster EG will inspire countless Honda owners to take their own build to the next level.