Civic EG

As I said in my thread about getting a turbo, I'm a huge fan of torque and that's giving me a hard decision between a b16a or a b18b.

After getting a exhaust and header on my v8 camaro, I gained a lot of torque, but I've heard that I'm not going to get nearly the same in my civic.

So what can I do to increase torque and how much would I gain?

add 4 cylinders ;) torque is hard to get in a naturally aspirated 1.6L

The best thing would be just a b16a2, GSR, or Type R tranny. Use one of those with a B18b with a small turbo and tune and you'll be beating many.

if you want torque and those are the two motors you are choosing from, then its quite easy. Get the B18b. Makes more torque.

Forced induction or high compression.

You can buy an aftermarket B series block with upwards of 2.2 liters displacement btw. I think maybe even 2.4... not sure.

Most of the tricks that work great on domestic vehicles don't work so well on Hondas.

When a domestic company wants to make more power, they build a bigger (larger displacement) engine. And to save cost they keep recycling their ancient engine designs.

Japanese manufacturers have a lot of incentives to build low displacement, low emissions, highly efficient motors. But the market and cultural pride demands high power figures. As a result, Honda concentrated their efforts on the head. Consequently Honda has designed the best flowing heads of any production engine.

Nearly anything you do to Honda engines pushes the power and torque peaks to a higher RPM. That's great for going faster, provided you have lots of money to keep things together. Too much low end torque is bad news on a front wheel drive anyway.

So what should I expect the specs to be for a b18b after I got:

CAI
mandrel bent exhaust
headers
skunk2 manifold

And how would it affect a b16a? Which would you think would gain more HP/torque?

Out of the mods you listed? The header most definitely. Hands down. I know I had an intake and exhaust on, and until I slapped on a header I didn't feel much gain at all, but once I did, I had to baby it going down my gravel drive way. It wasn't a HUGE gain, but I noticed if I didn't, I'd loose traction MUCH easier. Gravel is fun!

Matt.M wrote:So what should I expect the specs to be for a b18b after I got:

CAI
mandrel bent exhaust
headers
skunk2 manifold

And how would it affect a b16a? Which would you think would gain more HP/torque?

you should expect it to be louder. Sound like its going ALOT faster and make a lil bit more power. I have those mods on my LS swap in my car. Its a 14 second car at the drag strip...