Considering Hondata Tuner/Intake/Exhaust for the Wife's Civic 1.5T

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The wife has mentioned that she wished her 2018 Civic Hatchback 1.5T 6MT had a bit more of a performance sound. She doesn't want the "fart can" ricer sound, but, a little bit freer-flowing exhaust and maybe a cold-air intake was what I was thinking...

Anybody used the Hondata tuner? They make some pretty impressive claims. Should be able to get up to 25-50 extra HP/LB-FT, as well as eliminating the irritating rev hang. Also can allow for keeping the turbo spooled between shifts, and foot-to-the-floor shifting.

Her car's 174 HP feels good with just the driver, but, add a passenger and a bit of cargo, and it's just not enough.
 
Unless your out of warranty why bother. Even if something does happen you take the program out they still find out you had a tune. If you want fast look into type r.
 
Hondata is to Honda as Cobb is to turbo Subies. Very well respected and safe tunes, at least from my days with an ’07 SI. I can’t imagine that’s changed. What do the Civic forums say about this topic these days? There’s no way our recommendations will be better than theirs.

Do you still have to send out the ECU to have it flashed by them? I would not deviate from whatever specific mods you’ll be tuned for (e.g., specific intake, etc.) An intake will give you the best bang for your buck NOISE-wise; however, there are no catbacks that will improve performance. I haven’t heard any catbacks for this engine, but it’s unlikely anything cheap will sound much better than a fart cannon.
 
Hondata is to Honda as Cobb is to turbo Subies. Very well respected and safe tunes, at least from my days with an ’07 SI. I can’t imagine that’s changed. What do the Civic forums say about this topic these days? There’s no way our recommendations will be better than theirs.

Do you still have to send out the ECU to have it flashed by them? I would not deviate from whatever specific mods you’ll be tuned for (e.g., specific intake, etc.) An intake will give you the best bang for your buck NOISE-wise; however, there are no catbacks that will improve performance. I haven’t heard any catbacks for this engine, but it’s unlikely anything cheap will sound much better than a fart cannon.

Negative.

Hondata has a unit called a FlashPro now. You connect to your OBDII, similar to the Cobb Accessport.

I need to do a search to see if any companies even make a cat-back exhaust for this car, since it’s not the “Sport” model (the one with the center-exit exhaust, similar to the Type R).

The wife’s hatchback has dual exhaust tips that are kinda hidden under each side of the bumper.
 
I got a Cobb AP for my FXT used for something like $450. How much are the FlashPros going for?

Are you able to Data log with the FlashPro? I’d highly recommend logging like crazy to ensure your engine is running well. Post logs here and on the Civic forums for confirmation.

What mods are supported that you’re considering? You mentioned intakes also. I can’t imagine the stock intake being restrictive, but many CAIs make small 4-bangers sound pretty mean, in a good way. You may also get more spool and bypass noise from turbo, not just an aggressive sucking sound. This was the case with my previous STI. The intake didn’t do much power-wise, but sounded awesome!
 
The wife has mentioned that she wished her 2018 Civic Hatchback 1.5T 6MT had a bit more of a performance sound. She doesn't want the "fart can" ricer sound, but, a little bit freer-flowing exhaust and maybe a cold-air intake was what I was thinking...

Anybody used the Hondata tuner? They make some pretty impressive claims. Should be able to get up to 25-50 extra HP/LB-FT, as well as eliminating the irritating rev hang. Also can allow for keeping the turbo spooled between shifts, and foot-to-the-floor shifting.

Her car's 174 HP feels good with just the driver, but, add a passenger and a bit of cargo, and it's just not enough.
Check out civicx.com. Tons of civic owners are running both hondata and ktuner with mixed results - quite a few blown engines are being reported monthly (some are with base maps). But that forum would be a great place to start your research
 
Unless your out of warranty why bother. Even if something does happen you take the program out they still find out you had a tune. If you want fast look into type r.

Well, obviously, if we decided to do this, we'd be making an "educated gamble". A substantial increase in performance, while still maintaining reliability (this is a must, since this is the wife's DD). I think this is possible, especially since Hondata is well-known and respected as a very knowledgeable company, and you can keep a very close eye on engine parameters such as knock, with their setup.

We'd shoot for a tune that would offer a modest upgrade in horsepower and torque - somewhere between 25-50 HP and about 50-75 lb/ft. torque. Just pulling those numbers from the MotorTrend article that they wrote up on the Hondata tune for the Civic 1.5T back in 2017:


With a few bolt-ons (probably downpipe, exhaust, and cold air intake) and the tune that increases boost by 9 psi over the stock boost level, which is ~ 16.5 psi, from what I've read, as much as a 40+ HP and 70+ lb-ft. gain. Doesn't quite touch the 268 HP/260 LB-FT of my old 2016 WRX, but that would put the wife's Hatchback pretty close to, say, a Volkswagen GTI, which has 228 HP/258 LB/FT from the factory.

So, yes, there's always risk with something like this, but it can be mitigated. We're not looking to push the stock components to their limit; our goal would be to stay comfortably within the safety margins of the stock engine internals, while getting some noticeable gains.

Plus, the Hondata tuner eliminates the artificial rev hang that's built in for emissions purposes (you have no idea how irritating this is until you've driven a car that has it, like this Civic and my old WRX), as well as the (again, artificial) delay of almost 2 seconds of the turbo boost after a shift.
 
Just to be clear, those are significant gains, not modest, considering the low starting point.

Would you be able to run 93 AKI fuel with, say, a 91 tune? That’s what I’m doing to give a larger margin for bad fuel, engine issues/leaks, etc.
 
Just to be clear, those are significant gains, not modest, considering the low starting point.

Would you be able to run 93 AKI fuel with, say, a 91 tune? That’s what I’m doing to give a larger margin for bad fuel, engine issues/leaks, etc.

I had thought about that. And, that is probably what we would do. 93 octane fuel is widely available in my area.

We already run name-brand 93 octane fuel, anyway. We always have in this car.
 
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Well, obviously, if we decided to do this, we'd be making an "educated gamble". A substantial increase in performance, while still maintaining reliability (this is a must, since this is the wife's DD). I think this is possible, especially since Hondata is well-known and respected as a very knowledgeable company, and you can keep a very close eye on engine parameters such as knock, with their setup.

We'd shoot for a tune that would offer a modest upgrade in horsepower and torque - somewhere between 25-50 HP and about 50-75 lb/ft. torque. Just pulling those numbers from the MotorTrend article that they wrote up on the Hondata tune for the Civic 1.5T back in 2017:


With a few bolt-ons (probably downpipe, exhaust, and cold air intake) and the tune that increases boost by 9 psi over the stock boost level, which is ~ 16.5 psi, from what I've read, as much as a 40+ HP and 70+ lb-ft. gain. Doesn't quite touch the 268 HP/260 LB-FT of my old 2016 WRX, but that would put the wife's Hatchback pretty close to, say, a Volkswagen GTI, which has 228 HP/258 LB/FT from the factory.

So, yes, there's always risk with something like this, but it can be mitigated. We're not looking to push the stock components to their limit; our goal would be to stay comfortably within the safety margins of the stock engine internals, while getting some noticeable gains.

Plus, the Hondata tuner eliminates the artificial rev hang that's built in for emissions purposes (you have no idea how irritating this is until you've driven a car that has it, like this Civic and my old WRX), as well as the (again, artificial) delay of almost 2 seconds of the turbo boost after a shift.
Does it do anything for the problematic fuel dilution issues in the 1.5LT? My wife had a 18 CRV for a year and a half till she wanted something bigger and got a 19 Pilot. Right at the 20K mark was when the dilution started. About 1.5 qrts in 7500 miles.
 
Does it do anything for the problematic fuel dilution issues in the 1.5LT? My wife had a 18 CRV for a year and a half till she wanted something bigger and got a 19 Pilot. Right at the 20K mark was when the dilution started. About 1.5 qrts in 7500 miles.

My wife’s Civic doesnt seem to be affected. I’ve never noticed any real change in dipstick reading.

But, then, her car sees plenty of freeway driving. Her commute includes several miles of 70-80 mph freeway, in which the oil has time to reach full operating temp. And we take out of town trips in the car frequently. Also, neither of us drives around like Miss Daisy. The car is a 6-speed, and sees redline frequently. Another thing is, Nashville isn’t a very cold climate.

Personally, I think the 1.5T fuel dilution thing is blown way out of proportion, like many things tend to be on the Internet. Certainly some vehicles have experienced it, but they’re mainly the CRVs and the Civics with the CVT, because the CVT tends to strive to keep engine RPM low, for efficiency. That leads to the oil not getting warmed up, and, in turn, moisture and fuel not getting cooked off.

Also, most people who have had the fuel dilution are in colder climates. The TSB letter was only sent to people in certain northern states. My wife did get a letter, saying that her powertrain warranty was extended for 1 extra year for a couple of engine parts (cams, rocker arms, and spark plugs, I think), because she lived in Indiana when she bought the car.

We also always use premium, 93-octane name-brand fuel (some people think that the use of regular, low-quality gas can lead to the ECU richening the mixture in an attempt to quell knock, which may lead to more fuel dilution), and top-quality oils (I stocked up on over 50 quarts of M1-AP and Valvoline Modern Engine for $2.00/quart during the AZ clearance last fall).

So, I’m not at all concerned about the durability of this engine.
 
The wife has mentioned that she wished her 2018 Civic Hatchback 1.5T 6MT had a bit more of a performance sound. She doesn't want the "fart can" ricer sound, but, a little bit freer-flowing exhaust and maybe a cold-air intake was what I was thinking...

Anybody used the Hondata tuner? They make some pretty impressive claims. Should be able to get up to 25-50 extra HP/LB-FT, as well as eliminating the irritating rev hang. Also can allow for keeping the turbo spooled between shifts, and foot-to-the-floor shifting.

Her car's 174 HP feels good with just the driver, but, add a passenger and a bit of cargo, and it's just not enough.
For noises, see youtube.

tuning the ECU... with the extra fuel thrown around, probably not going to help the fuel dilution issue of the 1.5T
 
My wife’s Civic doesnt seem to be affected. I’ve never noticed any real change in dipstick reading.

But, then, her car sees plenty of freeway driving. Her commute includes several miles of 70-80 mph freeway, in which the oil has time to reach full operating temp. And we take out of town trips in the car frequently. Also, neither of us drives around like Miss Daisy. The car is a 6-speed, and sees redline frequently. Another thing is, Nashville isn’t a very cold climate.

Personally, I think the 1.5T fuel dilution thing is blown way out of proportion, like many things tend to be on the Internet. Certainly some vehicles have experienced it, but they’re mainly the CRVs and the Civics with the CVT, because the CVT tends to strive to keep engine RPM low, for efficiency. That leads to the oil not getting warmed up, and, in turn, moisture and fuel not getting cooked off.

Also, most people who have had the fuel dilution are in colder climates. The TSB letter was only sent to people in certain northern states. My wife did get a letter, saying that her powertrain warranty was extended for 1 extra year for a couple of engine parts (cams, rocker arms, and spark plugs, I think), because she lived in Indiana when she bought the car.

We also always use premium, 93-octane name-brand fuel (some people think that the use of regular, low-quality gas can lead to the ECU richening the mixture in an attempt to quell knock, which may lead to more fuel dilution), and top-quality oils (I stocked up on over 50 quarts of M1-AP and Valvoline Modern Engine for $2.00/quart during the AZ clearance last fall).

So, I’m not at all concerned about the durability of this engine.
My wife wasn’t a lite foot driver. She commuted 60 miles round trip. Used Amsoil SS following the olm. If you haven’t had the oil analyzed it wouldn’t hurt. Hopefully it works out for you.
 
Does it do anything for the problematic fuel dilution issues in the 1.5LT? My wife had a 18 CRV for a year and a half till she wanted something bigger and got a 19 Pilot. Right at the 20K mark was when the dilution started. About 1.5 qrts in 7500 miles.

1.5 quarts! Holy cow. How did you determine this?
 
For noises, see youtube.

tuning the ECU... with the extra fuel thrown around, probably not going to help the fuel dilution issue of the 1.5T

See my response to member ARB1977. We haven’t had a problem with fuel dilution, and will not, due to the factors I listed above.
 
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