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In love with my new EP3

ctr-

ctr-

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100
After months of looking around for an EP3 Type-R, I came across one on AutoTrader and once I had some money saved up on the side, I decided it was time to buy my favourite car. I went to view the car in Hayes and took it for a test drive. The seller directed me to road with a 60 mph limit and told me to have fun. On the straight I planted my foot down in second gear, when the VTEC kicked in I had the biggest grin on my face. Bought the car straight away.

Pretty standard apart from a K&n typhoon induction kit. The VTEC kicks in as it should. No knocks or sounds etc. Checked under the car when I had it up on the ramp at my workplace. All bushes etc are fine.





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Going to ditch the induction kit and get the oem airbox back on the car. Next thing I plan to do is refurbish the alloys. I will then get my colleague who does all the body work at the garage to fix up the minor little scratches and dinks on a few panels, spray them and then give the car a polish. Next plan is to give it full service including all fluids and pads and discs etc. Once all the basic stuff is done,I will get onto the performance. Want to to get a new header, new cams, get all parts of the suspension replaced with performance parts. A remap as well. Id like to eventually get a supercharger on the car. But I'm also thinking of turning this into a turbo project. Maybe take the turbo off my uncles 1.8 rover 75 and try to put it in the civic if it is possible, tell me what you think?
 
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Hi mate nice little right up there. That's exactly how I felt the very first time when I drove the civic. If you are thinking of turbocharging the car then your much better off using a well known turbo which has been trial and tested. You have the option of either using a Garrett, Borg Warner or a precision turbo. When I was considering going on the lines of forced-induction, I personally was thinking the following:

> What is my budget
> What kind of power do I want?
> Daily drive or a weekend?
> Insurance
> Supporting mods

And probably more. So once you've had a good idea of the above, then you have some sort of direction.

I am currently having a turbo project done and using a Precision 6262 Turbo. Journal bearing, external waste gate with a billet wheel. And depending on how well the car is set up and tuned, you can get some serious power. However I have heard some really good stuff about Garrett and Borg Warner too.

Whatever you decide, one thing I will advise on is don't get a cheap turbo from eBay, you get what you pay for.

There are quite a few people on the forum who have either super/turbo-charged their cars so well worth searching through the threads.

keep the update going :)
 
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You are right, it is much better to go for a well known one. The reason why I thought let me take the turbo off the rover and spend more on supporting mods is because of my budget at the moment. I spoke a few people and they said the same thing as you. I will spend the next month or so saving up and doing more research into it and seeing what is available to me.

Thanks for the checklist of questions I should ask myself. My budget by July will be a couple thousand pounds. The car is definitely going to be used daily, so I don't really want/need an insane amount of power that can only be used on the track. To be honest I'm not sure what sort of figures I should be aiming for, what would you suggest?
As for insurance it will be a killer I know, but not that much of an issue for me.

I have also heard a lot of good stuff about the Garrett turbo's but I will also look into other options. Is your turbo project on an EP3 civic as well? If so, let me know how it works out for you.

I might go for supercharger instead because I want that low end pull, which the Civic lacks. I will keep you posted on my findings and my final decision.
My friend told me about a VTEC timing/tuning thingy gadget, where I could adjust when the VTEC kicks in, do you know if these are any good or do they even exist?

Before I get onto any major plans, the initial aim for me is to ensure the motor is kept healthy. This the first time I'll be working on an EP3 so I want read about a little and find out what plugs I should use, what oil etc. I will upgrade everything I possibly can from stock, then begin with the big project, just feel like that would be the better way to do it. I want to squeeze as much power as I can being N/A first.

Lol eBay will definitely be avoided, in my experience it is only good for minor stuff on your car
 
Hi Mate

I know a few people who are running about 320-350bhp on stock engine, beating M3's lol:) on a stock engine and using it as a daily drive (50miles per day) and even after a year no issues. Obviously they have taken a lot of care. So I reckon that you will be very happy with this sort of power and not more.

Glad to hear you are doing a budget. Save as much as you can and it will give you much more flexibility towards your project. This is my opinion (and others may differ) but your best bet is to keep it standard while your saving. Don't go crazy doing the odd mods here and there. It's best that you do the whole thing together and when it comes to re-mapping the car you will save money in that respect.

I have known a lot of people who have supercharged their car and eventually replaced it with a turbo. I was going to do the same but after speaking to a lot of people on the forum and outside, turbo-charging is the way. As they say "Best things come for those who wait"

Enjoy the car as it is and believe me once you get the turbo it will be worth waiting for.

With the above power mentioned you don't need to go too crazy with supporting mods. Upgrade brake pads, get braided hoseline, brake fluid, and you will need an LSD, clutch and flywheel. Upgrade injectors,and a few bits more.

For now use 5w30 oil Rock Oil 4 sport. You mentioned about using some gadget which will allow the vtec to kick in sooner..it is known as a vtec controller..DON'T BOTHER..save your money bro.

I am going well over 500bhp so its certainly not going to be a daily drive lol:) otherwise I will have to marry a woman who's father is a sheikh and get me my own tanker lol :)

Where about's in London are you?
 
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Thanks for the advice.

320 - 350 on stock sounds terrific, what bits would you suggest I change/add to reach roughly those figures. Also what brands to go for? My boss mocks me for loving VTEC and Honda and Jap cars, I would like to humiliate him lol. I take care of every car I own, just something I feel like I have to do. Like a mother with her child, comes naturally :lol:

I guess I'll have to take on board what you're saying. I just done a forecast of how much I'd earn over the next month and I've seen that it might be best if I do my research to find out what mods complement each other well and then do it altogether and do the remap right at the end. Initially I was thinking of upgrading almost everything to squeeze the power out of the N/A motor, but I'm going to do it altogether because I do love the car how it is at the moment. and I would rather save a lot of money up rather than spend now then have to possibly spend a lot later on as well.

As for the decision between turbo/super charger, I'm not fully sure on what to go for, time and research will tell. If I did go for turbo, which turbo and what remap should I go for in order to try and get the peak power in the mid range?

I will call euro car parts tomorrow and see if they have that oil, I get a lovely discount. Any suggestion on plugs/transmission fluid etc. Thanks for the heads up on the VTEC controller.

I'd love to see your 500bhp civic when its all done :D If you did do that everyone would try to be your friend :lol:

Im in east London, are familiar with east London?
 
I still can't get any pictures up because they're too big in size :/ will have to take more another time and try again
 
Hi mate

It sure sounds like your doing some serious thinking. You will need to consider upgrading to an RBC intake manifold, upgrade injectors, clutch, LSD, flywheel, 3" custom exhaust system, sidewinder manifold, and few bits more.

You have your car set up via boost by gear. So what this roughly means is that each gear change will give you more boost, which will make your car more drivable. You need to upgrade your ECU, so a Hondata k100 will be perfect. Plugs wise NGK IRIDIUM. At the minimum my turbo will produce 350hp but rated to 700hp, but you don't need something that extreme. You get various stages so do shop around.

I know East London fairly well. I went to Middlesex university a long while back lol :)
 
Done some digging around. As much as I'd like to go for a turbo, I'm being drawn to the idea of having a supercharger. The main reason is because I plan to do the work myself with the help of some others. From now until the end of summer is the only time I have to save money and do the project. I will also be working a lot throughout the summer, so time is sort of restricted. Buying a supercharger and all the extra bits seems to be much easier and cheaper compared to doing a turbo project. The whole reason why I want to do it myself, is simply because I want to see if I can do it and learn. But the decision is not final. I have got a rough estimate of how much everything will come to for both options. I might even just scrap my plans for a super/turbocharged ep3 because I am loving the naturally aspirated power delivery and the vtec sensation.

However the next few months turn out between me and the car, I will DEFINITELY be upgrading a lot of stuff. I've got a target set for July and a list of things I want to buy, so I will be hard at work until then and sticking to taking care of the car for now. Brings me onto my next point..

I want to refurbish and respray my alloys, but I'm not sure what the name of the colour is or can I just go to the paint shop and say "I want silver"?



 
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If you're ever in London give me a shout, would be great meeting up with you and admiring your finished project
 
Hello mate


When it comes to doing your own car you have to do it in a way you feel is best suited for you. And if supercharging it is the way then go for it. Or if you want to get the most out of it being NA then there are plenty of people who are pushing the 260 mark on the forum.


Regards to the paint for your alloy, I am sure it's silver but a nice graphite grey would look very nice also.


keep the updates going and I am interesting in how it all turns out whatever you decide. I do have a thread under Engine & ECU " Turbo Project" so have read buddy:)
 
That's right. I don't want to spend so much on something I might end up disliking. But we'll see what happens I will keep updating. I have been looking at a few of the threads where people have been getting good results by staying na. Yeah I will have a read through your turbo project thread now, should be very interesting.

Graphite grey will be nice but I like the car to stand out so I want to go with the silver. I'm going to go to the paint shop and take off one wheel and wait while the guy matches the colour.

The service parts arrived today but all the ramps were taken up and I didn't want to work on the ground in this cold weather

 
Yeah that's fair enough. I wouldn't do it either lol:) I was thinking of doing chrome black on my alloys. It has silver but the tint of black. Depending on what alloys you have it can look quite good. I still have to shop for wheels yet.
 
Personally I think the oem EP3 wheels look the best on the car. I'm going to go for the silver. Once you've decided on a colour and found the wheels you want let me know what you went for.

I just serviced the car. NGK Iridium plugs went in, replaced Bosch ones that were already in there. Oil and oil filter changed (5w30 fully synthetic)




The fuel filter on this car doesn't share similar locations as other cars. Eventually I found it is somewhere under the rear seat...


Found out that I would have disconnect the fuel pump and a few other stuff etc so I left it. I will do it another day and probably make a 'how to change EP3 fuel filter' guide for the forum users.

Future plans (staying NA, target 250 hp):
Buddy club exhaust manifold 4-2-1
Cat back exhaust, not sure what make to go for. I really want to keep the oem tailpipe goes perfectly with the car
RBC inlet
New, bigger throttle body
Gruppe M induction kit
K pro/k100
 
"Future plans (staying NA, target 250 hp):
Buddy club exhaust manifold 4-2-1
Cat back exhaust, not sure what make to go for. I really want to keep the oem tailpipe goes perfectly with the car
RBC inlet
New, bigger throttle body
Gruppe M induction kit
K pro/k100

Sounds good mate. To save you money go for the K100 it does exactly the same as the Kpro in terms of performance, but with the additional benefit of data logging.
 
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