So I went up to Auto Tune in Ballymena (30 miles north of Belfast) today hoping to get the ECU remapped and K&N inductionkit fitted. Also had a K&N oil filter and oil change done at the same time.
FIrst things first, big thanks to Ryan at Auto Tune, he works away with no drama and is very easy to talk to. The first thing he did was dyno the car to get a benchmark for comparison with the car post-map. This gave 191 bhp and approx. 150 lbft of torque. The graph confirmed what I have always felt about the car - there is a horrible torque black hole around 5k rpm before the vtec kicks in and stabilises things right up to the std limiter (approx 7,300 - 7,400 rpm on my car). The torque dip is so bad that the horsepower actually dips also!
With thi completed the car was put on the lift and JP (ex Honda mechanic and owner of a very cool red modified DC2 ITR) whipped out the ECU, gave it to Ryan and started work putting in the K&N kit and oil change.
Ryan then sent the serial number on the ECU to Paisini who then sent him three diagrams of circuit board to choose from...and it wasn't any of them! At this point I started to think that the sceptics in the forum were correct and it couldn't be mapped. However, Ryan was confident that it could be done - apparently the circuit board is very similar to the 2.0 Accord's so he knew that even if Piasini couldn't confirm which terminals he had to plug the Piasini tool into he could work it out with a multimeter! Eventually Piasini sent the correct circuit diagram and Ryan was able to hook it up and read the standard map - result! At this stage I knew it was definitely going to work.
Ryan then emailed this to Paisini and they emailed back the new map, which was uploaded and then the ECU was put back in the car. All tht was left was to warm up the engine and put the car back on the rolling road. This was the tense bit as everyone in the workshop gravitated towards the car now that the K&N was giving it a wicked snort!
Dyno completed and the end result is 207bhp! A full 16 hp increase, which I think is super on a naturally aspirated car. When you look further into the graph you also notice that there is a 20 - 25 hp increase across the mid-range with peak torque now over 170 lbft. The before and after dyno runs are below:
So how does it feel?
When you are driving normally, as far as I can tell after an hours driving, no different. However, when you stamp on the accelerator the feeling and sound can only be described in the word uttered by Sir Patrick Stewart in a recent advert for a price comparison website - EPIC! The car feels more urgent from low down the rev range and when you pass the peak torque at about 4,500 rpm it softens very slightly but still pulls hard all the way to 7,000 rpm. Really makes a noticeable difference to power delivery, much more linear and feels more oem than the standard map.
The most noticeable and probably most enjoyable thing is the sound. The K&N opens up a whole orchestra of sound that just wasn't there before. On three-qarters throttle or more there is a real roaring thrum that builds with the revs. It really does sound spectacular, not really a whooshing sound as I had expected but more like the CAIS lets you hear the engine working much more clearly and the tone change when the vtec comes in is great. People will stop and look when you put your foot down! It is the best of both worlds, however, as when you are cruising or accelerating at 50% throttle or less you wouldn't know that the intake wasn't completely standard so no annoying droning at motorway speeds or in commuter traffic.
Overall I am delighted with the results and am leaving it there in terms of mods for the engine as anything else short of a supercharger is not going to give good bang for buck. To sum up the car now, I woudn't feel like a fraud if I were to replace the Type S badge with a Type R. The engine pulls hard right through the rev range and the induction sound is metallic, honda thrum at its best!
If anyone has any estions feel free to ask. I gues this kinda makes all the 'can I swap ECUs / immobilisers / hondatas into my car?' questions redundant...!!!
FIrst things first, big thanks to Ryan at Auto Tune, he works away with no drama and is very easy to talk to. The first thing he did was dyno the car to get a benchmark for comparison with the car post-map. This gave 191 bhp and approx. 150 lbft of torque. The graph confirmed what I have always felt about the car - there is a horrible torque black hole around 5k rpm before the vtec kicks in and stabilises things right up to the std limiter (approx 7,300 - 7,400 rpm on my car). The torque dip is so bad that the horsepower actually dips also!
With thi completed the car was put on the lift and JP (ex Honda mechanic and owner of a very cool red modified DC2 ITR) whipped out the ECU, gave it to Ryan and started work putting in the K&N kit and oil change.
Ryan then sent the serial number on the ECU to Paisini who then sent him three diagrams of circuit board to choose from...and it wasn't any of them! At this point I started to think that the sceptics in the forum were correct and it couldn't be mapped. However, Ryan was confident that it could be done - apparently the circuit board is very similar to the 2.0 Accord's so he knew that even if Piasini couldn't confirm which terminals he had to plug the Piasini tool into he could work it out with a multimeter! Eventually Piasini sent the correct circuit diagram and Ryan was able to hook it up and read the standard map - result! At this stage I knew it was definitely going to work.
Ryan then emailed this to Paisini and they emailed back the new map, which was uploaded and then the ECU was put back in the car. All tht was left was to warm up the engine and put the car back on the rolling road. This was the tense bit as everyone in the workshop gravitated towards the car now that the K&N was giving it a wicked snort!
Dyno completed and the end result is 207bhp! A full 16 hp increase, which I think is super on a naturally aspirated car. When you look further into the graph you also notice that there is a 20 - 25 hp increase across the mid-range with peak torque now over 170 lbft. The before and after dyno runs are below:
So how does it feel?
When you are driving normally, as far as I can tell after an hours driving, no different. However, when you stamp on the accelerator the feeling and sound can only be described in the word uttered by Sir Patrick Stewart in a recent advert for a price comparison website - EPIC! The car feels more urgent from low down the rev range and when you pass the peak torque at about 4,500 rpm it softens very slightly but still pulls hard all the way to 7,000 rpm. Really makes a noticeable difference to power delivery, much more linear and feels more oem than the standard map.
The most noticeable and probably most enjoyable thing is the sound. The K&N opens up a whole orchestra of sound that just wasn't there before. On three-qarters throttle or more there is a real roaring thrum that builds with the revs. It really does sound spectacular, not really a whooshing sound as I had expected but more like the CAIS lets you hear the engine working much more clearly and the tone change when the vtec comes in is great. People will stop and look when you put your foot down! It is the best of both worlds, however, as when you are cruising or accelerating at 50% throttle or less you wouldn't know that the intake wasn't completely standard so no annoying droning at motorway speeds or in commuter traffic.
Overall I am delighted with the results and am leaving it there in terms of mods for the engine as anything else short of a supercharger is not going to give good bang for buck. To sum up the car now, I woudn't feel like a fraud if I were to replace the Type S badge with a Type R. The engine pulls hard right through the rev range and the induction sound is metallic, honda thrum at its best!
If anyone has any estions feel free to ask. I gues this kinda makes all the 'can I swap ECUs / immobilisers / hondatas into my car?' questions redundant...!!!