Ran into a guy with a really nice looking purple 99 Civic Si de-badged (he did have a HYBRID emblem on it though, lol). He gave me a real good run down a US highway. We started off in 3rd at 65mph, I nudged ahead enough to pass him, but at about 80 we evened out and at 90 he was starting to close the distance again. So we go again with him behind me attempting to pass me. We start of at 65mph again, I nudge ahead then again we even out and then he starts to close the gap again. Then we go from a stop, I pull away in 1st and 2nd, when I hit 3rd we even out once again and again he starts to close the gap towards the end. Down low I had him in 1st and 2nd, we were about even in 3rd, if we would have gone to 4th or 5th he could have spanked me. Why you ask? Let me tell you a little story before I answer this. I stopped to ask what he was running, he said stock motor. I assumed he meant a D16 106HP SOHC. I ask to see under the hood, he hesitates and really didn't want to show me, but swallowed his pride and finally opened it up. There it was, turbo, inter-cooler, BOV etc. He said he was only boosting about 6PSI, he then told me he also did a B18 DOHC 9.2:1 140hp USDM motor swap. What a freaking bull ****ter, all because he didn't want to accept the fact he couldn't pass me. My car in NA with the typical bolt-ons pushing about 140hp to the front wheels versus his 165fwhp (he guessed he had about 195hp at the crank). He wastrying to pass his car off as not having anything done, and hoping my car had more done to it. The lengths people will goand things they will say anddo to feel better or have an excuse for losing. He also saidhe has never ran under a 15.1sec 1/4 with his current set-up.Oh well, it was a nice looking car, inside and out and under the hood. It did run very strong up top, probably could have ran dead even with a stock MTX 350Z past 100mph. My car is only good up to 95and falls on it's face beyong that.
Sorry, at first when I asked what he had, he said a Honda, then I said, oh a Civic. That is why I assumed it was not an Si. Then later on after he revealed the truth about his set-up he told me it was an Si, which did have a B16 USDM DOHC VTEC 160hp motor. He blew that up trying to puch too much boost (20psi)on too high compression. That's why he did the engine swap to the lower compression B18.
190-195hp from 6lbs of boost on a 140crank hp engine is about right. He probably could incraese it to 10psi and get over the 200hp hump, but at what price? If he drives it hard all the time he may be looking at another engine swap, lol. That would be like running a50 shot of nitrous every now and then and then saying "what the hell, let me bump up to a 100 shot and do it all the time." He'd be better off at 9.0:1 or under C/R and a good build and then increase his boost to make some serious HP and run good 1/4 times safely . . . . . .IMO.
99 Civic Si
