HondaCivicForum.com - Terminology

Heres a quick tutorial on common terms found on this site. anyone have anything to add, pm me.

FF- Front engine, Front wheel drive car.

FR- front engine, Rear wheel drive car.

MR- Mid-engine, Rear wheel drive car. engine is mounted behind the driver and in front of the rear axle.

RR- Rear engine, Rear wheel drive car. differs from MR in that the engine is mounted mostly behind the rear axle.

Boost- forced induction, extra air pressure added by a turbo or supercharger.

FI- forced induction, meaning extra air is being introduced to the engine by some manner other than the suction of the piston moving down. I.E. Nitrous Oxide, supercharger, or turbo.

Nitrous Oxide- AKA, N2O, NOS, NAAWWWS (sarcastic), laughing gas, "the bottle". a liquid that is stored in a bottle in the car that is 2 parts Nitrogen, one part oxygen, that, when injected into the engine with the proper amount of fuel, breaks apart into the seperate O2 and N, that allow the engine to burn the extra fuel and O2, and the nitrogen stabilizes the burn. this allows for a much higher power level.

Mini Me- putting a vtec head on a non-vtec block (SOHC)

Frankenstein- same as mini me, but on dual cam B-series. (namely LS, but also used to refer to CRV motors.)

Turbo- exhaust driven compressor that adds air pressure to the intake to boost power.

Supercharger- Crankshaft driven compressor that adds air pressure to the intake to boost power, usually driven with a belt connecting the crankshaft to the turbine/compressor.

VTEC- please spell it right. it stands for Variable valve Timing and lift with Electronic Control. it changes the cam timing and lift at a specified RPM point to compromise between the low-end power of a small profile cam, and the high-rpm power of a big cam profile.

VTEC I- Variable valve Timing and lift with Electronic Control and Intelligence. same as VTEC, but also, controls cam timing in relation to the crankshaft.

Cam- controls the opening and closing of the valves.

Valves- open to allow air/fuel into the engine, and exhaust out.

Engine- air pump, byproduct of the amount of air pumped, is power to turn the wheels.

Transmission- changes the gear ratio of the wheels to the flywheel of the engine to allow useable power to be maximized.

Transaxle- a transmission commonly used in FF and MR or RR cars that also contains the differential.

Differential- also called Diff. last factor in gear ratio, spits the power to each wheel.

L.S.D- Limited Slip Differential, allows power to be split more evenly between the tires.

Open Diff- most stock diffs are this type. under hard acceleration, puts more power to one wheel.It causes wheelspin. Its not good for performance.

Shocks- shock absorbers. stop the bounce of the springs.

Springs- absorb the variations in the road, allowing you to not feel every bump in the road.

Coil-over- suspension design that places the spring around the shock. also used to describe the adjustable systems that use a threaded collar to adjust ride height.

Lowering springs- aftermarket springs that are shorter, and usually stiffer than stock springs.

Header- exhaust manifold that has seperate tubes for each cylinder, allows air to flow out of the engine easier.

Cat- catalytic convertor, burns excess hydrocarbons as they leave the engine, can be replaced with a higher-than-stock-flow one to improve power.

Test Pipe- straight pipe that replaces the honeycomb filled cat, improves exhaust flow as long as it is the same inside diameter as the surrounding pipe.

Camber- the tilt of the wheels when looked at from the front or rear, the top or bottom is closer to each other.

Negative Camber- tops of tires are closer than bottoms, from front or rear, has / \ profile. a little bit is good for cornering, when the tire rolls over, it makes the loaded ouside tire flat on the ground.

Positive Camber- opposite of negative camber. has \ / profile from front or rear. doesnt have any use on civics. maybe useful when jumping (as in rally or off-road racing.)

Downpipe- pipe that carries exhaust from turbo to cat. AKA, DP.

Drilled Rotors- brake rotors have holes drilled in them, in theory, it helps cool the rotor, but more often than not leads to cracking.

Slotted Rotors- Have slots running the width of the contact surface of the rotor. they remove the gas layer that is formed while braking, helps improve brake efficiency. and also scrape a thin layer off of the pad to keep a fresh contact surface.

SS lines- common name of Stainless Steel brake lines, which wont expand like the stock rubber ones, resulting in a firmer brake pedal.

Proportioning valve- valve that splits the braking force between the front and rear tires.

Distributor- sends spark to the proper spark plug from the coil. also reffered to as "Dizzy".

ECU- Engine Contol Unit. computer that controls the aspects of engien systems, I.E. timing, air/fuel ratios, injectors, and trouble codes.

Rad- slang usually reffering to the radiator.

Ill add more as i think of them, and as they are suggested.

dont reply to it to much, i dont want it getting really long if its going to stay at the top.