Last of the VTEC Screamers - 2010 Civic Si daily funmobile

ScottyB said:

mr2s2000elise said:

Love this thread 

 

joined the cult. Got me a red si sedan, 68k miles 

thanks for the inspiration! 
 

also in grm fashion, ordered Curt trailer hitch before bringing car home 

aw yissss!  sounds like you got a peach.  gives me the details my man!  any sedan at only 68k these days is a find.

i hope it treats you well and definitely let us know if you hit any snags, hopefully we can help.  

Dont want to clutter up your thread. Will have to make my own. BUT since you insisted, pics from yesterday. Wll bring car home tomorrow. Let me know any pointers on the hitch istall. 

ScottyB said:

 

thankfully the Curt hitch went on perfectly - really well done kit.  hugs the rear bumper nicely and really beefy construction for a little class 2 unit. 

 

Also you mentioned your hitch is a Class 2. The one I ordered is a class 1, and all seemed to be class 1. Was that a typo?

Also where in GA are you? We come to Alpharetta and Macon once a year, and do a nice drive all over the east coast in a borrowed E63 AMG Sedan, up to wilmongton and raleigh and the smokey mountains and Deals gap and Ashville

i can NOT believe how clean that is.  steering wheel leather and seat suede looks perfect, e-brake and shift knob aren't coming apart, clearcoat looks great....you must have got a garage-kept one that was well loved.  great color too.  score!

make sure you check and/or top off the oil before you ride 'er home.  these K20's use a little and the dealers don't often check the level between what the PO had in it and what burns off from test drives.  when you get home i'd definitely advise flushing all the fluids (including clutch) and do the clutch pedal adjustment.  

yes, i'm a dingdong, its a Class 1 hitch and i just wrote it wrong.

i'm in the Augusta suburbs, so a couple hours east of where you probably go.  i do get over to ATL from time to time to see some family and i'm up in that north GA/northwest NC region from time to time to drive the roads.  maybe our paths will cross sometime.  shoot me a note if you're ever headed that way.

ScottyB said:

i can NOT believe how clean that is.  steering wheel leather and seat suede looks perfect, e-brake and shift knob aren't coming apart, clearcoat looks great....you must have got a garage-kept one that was well loved.  great color too.  score!

make sure you check and/or top off the oil before you ride 'er home.  these K20's use a little and the dealers don't often check the level between what the PO had in it and what burns off from test drives.  when you get home i'd definitely advise flushing all the fluids (including clutch) and do the clutch pedal adjustment.  

yes, i'm a dingdong, its a Class 1 hitch and i just wrote it wrong.

i'm in the Augusta suburbs, so a couple hours east of where you probably go.  i do get over to ATL from time to time to see some family and i'm up in that north GA/northwest NC region from time to time to drive the roads.  maybe our paths will cross sometime.  shoot me a note if you're ever headed that way.

Will definitely shoot you a note. Our trip this year is cancelled due to COVID.

Yeah the one I bought is fully garage kept, 1 owner, all service records from same purcahsed Honda dealer since new, that they traded it back to in a new Si. The dealer did oil changes, new filter, and 4 new tires.  I checked the oil before test drive and it was perfect. My 50 mile test drive was uneventful, checking for gear grinds etc and motor mounts. Cant wait to get it home tomorrow, and spend the weekend fully detailing it and then hitting Angeles Crest highway with it. 

I will have to look up the clutch pedal adjustment. yes I overmaintain my cars, and always baseline them, but last few years, when I get a cream puff like this, I am trying to teach myself to enjoy and drive it for a few months, before dumping tons of money in unncessary maintenance. But I will likely baseline the trans and clutch fluid. 

mr2s2000elise said:

I will have to look up the clutch pedal adjustment. yes I overmaintain my cars, and always baseline them, but last few years, when I get a cream puff like this, I am trying to teach myself to enjoy and drive it for a few months, before dumping tons of money in unncessary maintenance. But I will likely baseline the trans and clutch fluid. 

 

i think that's wise, and i kind of attempted to do the same thing as you've seen in this thread.  the trans is just usually the first thing other owners complain about so i wanted to make sure i mentioned that in case you ran into anything.

the person that owned yours before you sounds about as good as it gets.  have fun on that drive, an Si on that road should be fantastic.  try a couple corners with the stability control off (hit the big VSA OFF button left of the steering wheel, you'll get an exclamation point light on the dash left of the tach), i prefer the driving experience that way.  it gets rid of the power cutting when there's wheel slip, which you'll get even with the torsen on tight corners in the lower gears.

ScottyB said:

mr2s2000elise said:

I will have to look up the clutch pedal adjustment. yes I overmaintain my cars, and always baseline them, but last few years, when I get a cream puff like this, I am trying to teach myself to enjoy and drive it for a few months, before dumping tons of money in unncessary maintenance. But I will likely baseline the trans and clutch fluid. 

 

i think that's wise, and i kind of attempted to do the same thing as you've seen in this thread.  the trans is just usually the first thing other owners complain about so i wanted to make sure i mentioned that in case you ran into anything.

the person that owned yours before you sounds about as good as it gets.  have fun on that drive, an Si on that road should be fantastic.  try a couple corners with the stability control off (hit the big VSA OFF button left of the steering wheel, you'll get an exclamation point light on the dash left of the tach), i prefer the driving experience that way.  it gets rid of the power cutting when there's wheel slip, which you'll get even with the torsen on tight corners in the lower gears.

GSR just left. BMW88rider picked it up. He is heading to Denver with it. Trans felt great. Clutchsmoke told me about the 2nd and 3rd gear grind, and as a result I gave it a long and thorough test drive. I will keep the trans fluid in mind. I saw you changed to something else. We don't have weather here, so thats not an issue for me. I always run the synchromesh on the Miatas these days, and Redlines on the other cars, and the WS fluid on the Toyotas. Forgot what is needed on the Hondas. 

Thanks for the VSA off info 

LOL, I sold the turbo miata to BMW88rider too!

mr2s2000elise said:

I saw you changed to something else. We don't have weather here, so thats not an issue for me. I always run the synchromesh on the Miatas these days, and Redlines on the other cars, and the WS fluid on the Toyotas. Forgot what is needed on the Hondas. 

 

Thanks for the VSA off info 

yeah i ran Honda MTF the first 10k miles i had it and then swapped to Amsoil Manual Synchromesh.  i've heard they do well on Redline too.  I prefer the Amsoil but ultimately it seems like the best results on any brand come from changing often, probably every 15k-20k miles or sooner if you're really hammering it around.

Great. I have lots of redline here, so I will throw that in, and do it every 20k miles. 

Any way I can get a part number in those brake ducts? I think I could modify them to fit my TL pretty easy. 
thanks! Love the car, BTW. I had a 2008 for 5 years and loved it. 

rustybuckets said:

Any way I can get a part number in those brake ducts? I think I could modify them to fit my TL pretty easy. 
thanks! Love the car, BTW. I had a 2008 for 5 years and loved it. 

absolutely.  here's the direct link to where i got them, they're still dirt cheap:

https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-porsche-parts/gt3-front-brake-duct-upgrade-kit/99734148392kt/

In reply to ScottyB :

Thank you! Ordered  

ScottyB said:

enjoying the upgraded rear bar so far.  feels just right for street tires and the comfort level is indiscernable to stock. 

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i hate that facebook keeps being useful in my life but sure enough it earned its place a little while longer when i was browsing some classifieds on Thursday.  been on the hunt for some 16" wheels (the smallest i can go with these brakes) for a couple months now and couldn't find anything that wasn't either grossly overpriced or cheap and trashed.  i want to take a more serious crack at rallyx and need more aggressive rubber (with some actual sidewall height) to do it.  as an added bonus, if i use the 16's as a streetable second set of wheels it will let me replace the current garbage on the stock 17's with stickier, dedicated summer rubber. 

the civic is fortunate to share its lug pattern with a lot of other popular Japanese cars, so i had cast a pretty wide net as was looking for a set of decently straight wheels under $250.  a guy in Greenville SC posted up these MSW Type 14's with 4 nearly new all seasons for $200 and after some initial hesitation that they were legit and not a ruse to take my kidney and leave me for dead, i told him i'd see him Saturday.  they came off his wife's Mitsu Lancer ES and to my surprise were a total score...i guess he just needed some garage space back.   

they need some proper hub spacing rings, a good scubbing, a proper balancing, and the Sears DieHard tires (didn't know that was a thing until now) are a little tall at 205/60-16 but have almost full tread and will be adequate for this season and into winter next year.  the tall sidewall may actually be a blessing, it gets me just about back to stock ride height and i don't think it'll rub anywhere.

 

 

 

while i was busy driving up and back through the most depressing corridor of south carolina, everyone else was enjoying a pretty outstanding turnout at the local rallyx held that same day over in Union Point GA at the Durhamtown Offroad Resort.  Atlanta and Middle GA regions have merged their rally programs so this looks to be a really awesome season. TONS of FWD competition in the stock class, which makes me have bad thoughts if i should put my stock springs back on and have fun with them vs. only competing against 1 or 2 guys in Prepared class where i would be right now.  the struggle is real.

next event's a month out, hope to be reporting back with tales of Sears cheater tire domination and many VTEC braps.

I was reading on the 8th gen forum that 16s don't seem to work on this car. Of course you have proved that theory incorrect. I don't have book of faces. Are there only certain 16s that work with the brake calipers?

Locally there are lot of RPF1, and NT03 and some BBS LM for sale for good prices on craigslist. However, I prefer to get something a bit ligther than the BBS LM. So came to this thread, and found you talking about 16s, and want to explore that first. 

Thanks

mr2s2000elise said:

I was reading on the 8th gen forum that 16s don't seem to work on this car. Of course you have proved that theory incorrect. I don't have book of faces. Are there only certain 16s that work with the brake calipers?

 

Locally there are lot of RPF1, and NT03 and some BBS LM for sale for good prices on craigslist. However, I prefer to get something a bit ligther than the BBS LM. So came to this thread, and found you talking about 16s, and want to explore that first. 

 

Thanks

yep the common misconception is that 16's don't fit, and truthfully MOST do not, they will have spoke interference with the caliper.  but in terms of room inside the barrel, stock Si brakes have plenty of room on my MSW's.
i've seen many Si owners successfully run the 16 inch RSX wheels as a winter setup, and you can use front-only AP1 S2000 wheels as well but they require 20+ mm spacers to work due to their high offset.  any 16 inch wheel with a high offset and very flat spokes should technically work as long as the hub bore is 64.1mm.

that said, for canyon work, i think i'd personally try to keep a light 17 on this car.  tire choice is already poor for 16, the tall sidewall will likely leave you disappointed, and there's no weight savings in the tire itself so whatever weight you do save is in the middle of the wheel where you'd probably notice the rotational weight difference the least.

however, if you are going with some really stiff performance tires maybe it could work?  i know you've had a lot of cars so your experience there may prove a lot more wise than my theories.

I don't need 16s. Light 17s would be fine. 
 

22lb is the stock wheels. I would like to lose some weight there. 
 

225 ad08 or a052 is what I am looking to order 

mr2s2000elise said:

I don't need 16s. Light 17s would be fine. 
 

22lb is the stock wheels. I would like to lose some weight there. 
 

225 ad08 or a052 is what I am looking to order 

i'm on the hunt too, looking at 17x8's so i can run a 225.  

konig and enkei make flow formed wheels with a great strength/cost ratio, that's where my budget's at right now.  with some more coin i'd love a set of SSRs (GTX01) or Weds (TC105X).

i like a wheel with a load rating at least 1.5x the heaviest corner weight on the car even if it costs me some weight.  700kg is the value i like to try to hit for this car.

ScottyB said:

mr2s2000elise said:

I don't need 16s. Light 17s would be fine. 
 

22lb is the stock wheels. I would like to lose some weight there. 
 

225 ad08 or a052 is what I am looking to order 

i'm on the hunt too, looking at 17x8's so i can run a 225.  

konig and enkei make flow formed wheels with a great strength/cost ratio, that's where my budget's at right now.  with some more coin i'd love a set of SSRs (GTX01) or Weds (TC105X).

i like a wheel with a load rating at least 1.5x the heaviest corner weight on the car even if it costs me some weight.  700kg is the value i like to try to hit for this car.

I have been seeing a lot of RPF1 and NT03 Enkei for sale locally. Prices are 800-1200$ for used set.  

Problem with the RPF1 are the 8inch wide are HORRENDOUSLY ugly, and I have to go 9 to get the right face. Most of the 9inch wheels around me are all +20, and thats too aggresive for what I want to do.

SSR Type C, Racing Hart, GramLight PRO57, Volks, would be wonderful. Any Weds or Works will be nice too. There is also the FD2 Type R option. $2,000 gets me the wheels that I would want to actually put on. $800-1200 seem like a good budget compromise brand . Those are the prices in my neck of the woods. 

Any thoughts on the SSR GTX- 01? They are 17lbs. 

https://www.8thcivic.com/threads/canada-got-game-too-eh.218096/

yeah i know exactly what you mean.  i'm not considering RPF1's for that reason either.  word has it that width were originally intended to be the front wheels on a RWD stagger setup when they came out and the bulging wheel face was to accommodate the big brakes on the front axle.

FD2 R wheels are 18 inches just so you know.  

love any SSR, and as i mentioned if i had the coin i'd have me a set of GTX01's in a heartbeat.  thoughts?  just look at em!

you can never go wrong with TE37s or volks either.  

In reply to ScottyB :

Locally brand new set of gtx01, unopened in boxes since 2018. Guy wants $600 to get out of garage. 
 

or say screw all Volks etc, and spend $800 for new Enkei tsv 17x8, + 35 ? 

https://www.fitmentindustries.com/brands/wheels/Enkei/Tsv?sort=popular&dia=17&brand=Enkei&wmodel=TSV

ssr type c in Virginia - 3 sets, $1700 a set 

fd2 type r white - $800

all this wheel talk, made me weak.  had a TREAT YO SELF moment late last night.

so now Ampliforms are inbound.  17x8 +40, bronze.  here's a mockup.

planning to wrap them with 280-340TW tire that has good rain traction and isn't a droning hairy animal on the highway.  i'll take snappy response over peak grip.  so far the General G-MAX looks very promising, especially for the price.   also have my eye on the Conti ExtremeContacts and Advan Fleva 701s, although the Contis are said to have a sloppy sidewall and the Flevas give up rain grip.  not willing to spend PS4S money and they'd go to waste on the roads i drive 95% of the time anyway.  i put about 6-8k miles a year on it.  any suggestions in a 225/45-17?

Congrats on the wheels !!!

I was going to suggest the Contis. Love mine and they're aren't too loud. They are further worn and much quieter than the BFGs on my last car. Grip is ridiculous. I can't comment on the sidewalls as these are the only tires I've had on this car but no complaints. Soft sidewalls=good ride. 

spandak said:

I was going to suggest the Contis. Love mine and they're aren't too loud. 

pretty much all my friends are saying the same thing, so i appreciate another vote for them.  i'm pretty sold, hoping they do another promo this fall like most tire manufacturers do, we'll see i guess.

got Blue out for some excercise this weekend.  my son had a scout camp in the N. GA mountains and of course i pulled up the twistiest way to get there.  on the way home we came down Blood Mountain which is a really popular road and one i've been running off and on for the last 15 years.  i rarely get to carve more than the odd off-ramp with my son so it was a lot of fun having him with me while we enjoyed the road a bit.  the Si is so at home up there, it feels totally wasted on the interstate compared to how alive it is with the suspension loaded up and the engine sitting on the big cam waiting to strobe that shift light on the next straight.  how soon can i get back up there...

turned 107k miles on the trip.

We used to have two of these, great cars. This thread brings back a lot of memories. Especially of running hard in the Smokies. I absolutely love rt215 outside of Waynesville. That repave is awesome! Can't believe what a nice job they did way the heck out there. Pair that with 276 on the other side of the mountain and that loop is intense!

Best mods we ever did were the larger rear sway bars, hondata flashpro, and rear lower engine mount. - get a better mount. Also, you won't need a 3" exhaust, all the power is on the intake side IIRC. A 3" intake and a tune? Heck ya! You have to run a tune to be able to utilize the intake, the MAF can't handle it.

There is one achilles heel you're going to need to watch out for. The rear lower arm mounting point for the endlink of the rear sway bar. That little hole tends to tear out with a larger bar and especially those larger endlinks. We ran the progress 22mm rear sways on our cars and the kit comes with reinforcement brackets that bolt into that location. There is another hole right near the mounting point that you can bolt it to. Works fine and lasts.

You could try hitting up progress and see if they have the plates and bolt kits still available. Or make your own if you're handy. I think there are still threads on the 8th gen forums but pics are typically missing at this point.

Shoot em an email. I got replacement bits pretty cheap before.

https://www.progressauto.com

FRAME DAMAGE WARNING:

Also, if you go to a larger bar, and get the brackets for the lower arm, and run the larger endlinks: The weak point becomes the frame mounting point for the bushings. I ended up tearing out the entire area around the L shaped bracket. Car effectively dead. It's unibody so "frame damage" and nigh unweldable location. We killed both cars with this. We were able to patch the holes and sell the cars to people with kids turning 16 and taking off the speedy bits. 

(Yes we were upfront about it and sold them the cars for $1500. Basically they could never run a rear sway again but the base DX didn't even come with one.)

I highly recommend sticking with the OEM endlinks so those are the weak point and not destroying the frame on the car.

collegehillshonda.com  OEM parts section and pretty dang decent pricing.

Mine was way worse as the entire threaded insert tore out in one big piece. Gaping hole.

Bjorn 1349 said:

We used to have two of these, great cars.

awesome post!  thanks for all the great info.  you still up in that area?  i love driving up there, and if i had the time when i was up last, i would have absolutely done 276 as well.  hoping to hit 80 and 226 soon.  215 was beautifully smooth, a far cry from some of the roads i took on my way north into Bryson.  definitely the highlight of the trip.

So as it stands i'm just running the 20mm bar from the 9th gen.  I felt that was big enough for a street/mild track car and i'll try to tune the rest of the grip with camber and spring rate as I continue to learn the car - that said i'm very content with it as-is and i doubt i'll touch anything for a very long time.  there are only a few mild bits of the suspension i want to improve on (front lower control arm bushing, adjustable rear upper arms, and go back to OEM strut tops) and then that part of the car is effectively done.  stock bar is 17mm, does 20mm sound safe?  i had no idea that part of the car could see such catastrophic damage, although its not the first time i've read about a car tearing out mounts due to a massive sway bar, it happens across many brands it seem.  a number of 8th gen track guys i know of run the big 24mm bar and i haven't heard about tear-outs yet, i wonder if its just a matter of time.

you are dead right about the motor mount.  mine has become noticably more sloppy in the last 10k miles.  not a complete disaster, but noticeable.  i planned to only replace the rear lower with a 62A hasport mount, since it seems that's the one that gets most of the work trying to steady the engine movement and as a "family car" i'd like to not make it too harsh.  62A is their softest but i bet its still far more stiff than stock.

understood on the tune being the "foundation" for all other mods, i'd like to get one someday if for no other reason than to lower the VTEC threshold down to 5k RPM where i can REALLY use it in the mountains.  i'd also like to run a better intake at some point but we get serious rain down here and i drive the car in all weather.  a bit scared of a full-on CAI that hangs down into the fenderwell for the sake of hydrolock.  not interested in running an off the shelf short ram either (our heat index is crazy in the summer) due to heat soak.  i've kicked around the other idea of taking a short ram and fabbing a less restrictive intake box for it that runs to the fender opening where it can grab some cooler-than-engine-bay air and not risk water induction, but that's also a project for another day - the power is enough even stock that i rarely get to keep the car wide open for long, so i'm fairly pleased with what I have until the grip really demands more power.

when did you have your cars?  i'd be curious to hear more about them.  as you've probably read here, i've found the forums for these things are dead or hard to find decent info on (most pic links are DOA now, searching is difficult) so its hard to find out what some of the past owners experienced.

Hey Scotty,

Yeah I live up by Louisville now. Used to meet up with a bunch of 8th gen drivers once a year to run "the dragon" and then a few of us started going more often and exploring. Everyone moved on to different cars and then into non sporting cars...... 

I think you'll be safe with the 20mm bar. I'm sure it's a nice improvement over stock. I do still recommend those mounting plates for the rear lower arm. I think our troubles were a combination of several things working against the car. We were running 245/40 200tw tires with 22m bars with all the bracing and fat endlinks. Plus hammering on the car for a few years and ignoring the creak when i should have had it looked at. I bet we could have had the mounts welded before they broke and been fine. But, ya drive a modded car some noises are expected.

The tear out issue was very very minor and I saw only a handful experience it. We were just unlucky I think. Just something to be aware of if you ever start getting a creak in the rear and greasing the sway bar bushings doesn't quiet it down.

Her car was an 09' sedan on HFP suspension kit. Mine was an 08' coupe on neuspeed/koni yellows. Camber bolts up front and adjustable arms in the rear. -1.5 front and -0.8 R with the toe at "0" and the cars rotate really well for being a understeering macstrut FWD econobox. Dorman makes a rear camber arm that fits for cheap! I think $45/side off amazon. Almost everything from 06-15 fits the 8th and 9th gen cars suspension wise. I think the springs might be different but a lot is interchangeable.

Ah lets see..... front lower control arm compliance bushings! You can definitely replace those. OEM. There is an energy suspension bushing made for the rsx that fits but I highly recommend not doing that unless you like having a headache when you drive. I put them on my car and it was amazing performance wise but definitely ruined the ride. You will completely eliminate wheel hop but the cost is high for NVH in the cabin. 

A tune changes the car completely. Investing in that alone is worth the money over a lot of other stuff. Dropping the vtec engagement point and eliminating the rev hang on shifts is great.

The intake is a restriction and there was a 3.5" mid-short ram from a place called Import DPS that worked really really well. They called it the "rick spec'd" intake. The guy and company didn't have the best reputation but that intake was a monster. You could easily replicate it. I think pics and youtube vids of it still exist. Also, a quick battery relocation where you just drop it straight down frees up the space for a nice safe intake filter spot.

I had my car for just about 10 years so it was time and the frame tear out just finalized it. Wife had hers for 11 years. Great cars. Very easy to work on. I really should have stuck with the idea of OEM+ and just added a little bit to have had a fun and competent car. I went full racecar and didn't like the car in the end. When I put it back to stock-ish I realized how much better it really had been.

Oh man, I've done it again, I wrote you a book. hahaha sorry.

edit: I did the battery relocation and ran a smaller odyssey pc680