1998 Honda Civic - Better, Stronger & (Hopefully) Faster - Project Civic

In the last installment of Project Civic, I hit the track and encountered a bit of bad luck in the form of a blown head gasket. At that point, I had had enough fun on track that the idea of trying to keep my Civic as a street-friendly car was pretty much an afterthought. All I want to do with this car is track it, because there’s so much more fun to be had that way! Problem is, with racing comes mechanical problems. Alas! I found myself making another long list of things that needed to change on the car, things that will make the overall driving experience easier, safer and more enjoyable, while still being (barely) legal to drive on public roads.

First things first, the Civic was in need of a re-tune after the motor had been apart. My car’s last tune was in Oregon (where the pump gas is 93 octane versus the 91 octane that currently plagues California), and we had reason to believe the motor was pinging and running too lean, problems that are amplified exponentially in a stressful track-driving situation. I headed down to our trusted tuner, Shawn Church of Church Automotive Testing in Long Beach, CA, to give the car a once-over and a fresh map for the Southern California lifestyle my Civic now leads.

The guys at Church Automotive Testing know their way around all sorts of cars. There are Hondas aplenty in the shop, and the whole staff is experienced in tuning many different types of software, including less common applications (such as Chrome, as equipped on Project Civic).

The guys at Church Automotive Testing know their way around all sorts of cars. There are H

Shawn and his guys loaded the car up on their Dynapack for a baseline, and the resulting 209 hp and 154 ft-lbs of torque sounded about right, considering the modifications that have been made since the last dyno session several years ago. After working a bit of magic by adjusting the timing and AFR, the final numbers came in at 221 hp at 7800 rpm and 160 tq at 6100 rpm — not bad for a modestly built 1.8-liter B-series. However, as suspected, the car was leaning out in a pretty severe way. In fact, the stock B16 fuel-delivery system was at maximum flow capacity by about 7000 rpm, making any driving in the very highest range of the motor an unsafe bet. Upon the advice of Mr. Church and in the interest of saving myself a lot of heart- and headache, I added a few more items to the “to do” list in the form of larger injectors, a new fuel pump and a couple other odds and ends to upgrade the fuel system in Project Civic. Stay tuned for more on that in a future article.

Getting ready to hop on the dyno. The newest additions to the bay include a fresh head gasket, 70mm custom-bored throttle body and ported intake manifold (courtesy of Maxbore.com) and a fresh load of Redline 5W30 synthetic motor oil.

Getting ready to hop on the dyno. The newest additions to the bay include a fresh head gas

Because the car was running fine everywhere leading up to the 7000-rpm point, higher than I ever get with normal street driving, I felt the downtime spent waiting for the fuel system parts would be well spent looking into upgrading the interior in search of improved driving feel, seat position and, most importantly, safety. I picked up a smaller-diameter deep-dish steering wheel from Vertex, and when paired with a Splash Sports steering hub, these two mostly aesthetic changes make a big difference in the overall feel driving the car — it feels more nimble and easy to control with precision.