Two things...
Registered User
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 7,134
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From: Columbia, MD
Our ECUs are not reprogrammable. You have to be careful when lowering the VTEC engagement point that you don't go too far. By lowering it, you are introducing a larger air charge into the engine at a lower than designed point. Go too low, and your engine will spend much of its energy merely trying to compress the charge rather than making power. I also suggest against raising the redline if you have no intention of reworking the stock internals. Yes, our engines can go higher, but stresses increase by square law...by increasing the redline by 1,000 rpm (11%), you're increasing typical stresses by 23%. Be prepared for things to go boom late at night.
Thread Starter
Registered User
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 405
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From: miami springs
well, my intention was to raise it to the redline of the 03'and back. The reason i heard honda lowerd it was because of the 04 increased lower to midrange torque, they felt the higher rpm wasent necersary. I may be completley out of whack, but im pretty sure thats what i heard. Is the 04 engine not capable of the earlier higher redline?
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Joined: May 2002
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From: cooper city
you do not need to worry about hurting your engine when the ecu's that are on the market now are designed for use with the stock motor. the amuse car for instance uses a mugen cai, amuse hi tech rom ecu amuse header, and amuse exhaust. stock internals. also you have a larger problem there are no ecu's intened for use on the 2.2l engine right now. they are all designed for the 2.0. so basicly you can't do anything at the moment.
Thread Starter
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Joined: Mar 2004
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From: miami springs
bah....looks like ill get a vtech controller in the meantime...thos of u that have the controler,Do u guys have it hidden, or up on the dash? Im scared that every ricer with a civic is gonna wanna cut thru my roof and tear that sucker out... I just got the thing, my general fear where ever i go is some type of theft...
Registered User
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 7,134
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From: Columbia, MD
Jonathan,
Just because 10 people jump off of a bridge, do you think it's safe? No. Just because the ECUs out there allow the redline to go higher, does that make them inherently safe? Absolutely not! So why flat out state it does no harm to someone's engine and that everything will be OK? Just because engines don't automoatically frag themselves the moment the ECU is installed doesn't mean there isn't long term stress and harm being put on the engine's components.
As I stated before, increasing the redline by 1,000 rpm, a mere 11%, increases the stresses on the conecting rods alone by a whopping 23%. If you consider this amount of extra stress irrelevant, then your engine is a disaster waiting to happen as you start playing with upgrades. 23% is a significant amount of extra stress...go gain 35 pounds and tell me how far you can run without your knees starting to ache.
Just because 10 people jump off of a bridge, do you think it's safe? No. Just because the ECUs out there allow the redline to go higher, does that make them inherently safe? Absolutely not! So why flat out state it does no harm to someone's engine and that everything will be OK? Just because engines don't automoatically frag themselves the moment the ECU is installed doesn't mean there isn't long term stress and harm being put on the engine's components.
As I stated before, increasing the redline by 1,000 rpm, a mere 11%, increases the stresses on the conecting rods alone by a whopping 23%. If you consider this amount of extra stress irrelevant, then your engine is a disaster waiting to happen as you start playing with upgrades. 23% is a significant amount of extra stress...go gain 35 pounds and tell me how far you can run without your knees starting to ache.
