Another project car that we got involved in 2021 is a Honda Civic Si 2008 sedan. This cars are very popular platform since they come from the factory with the famous K series engine, specifically the K20Z3 with factory 6 speed transmission and LSD.
When we first received this customer [at our shop in Lake City FL] he asked us how we can help on getting his car dialed in since he started doing some bolt ons modifications that included a cold air intake, header, exhaust and RDX injectors. The car was running rich and poor but still managed to produce 201whp on our dyno.
The first step was to get him on a Hondata Flashpro to get his car dialed in along with the modifications but with open options for the future mods. After installing and dyno tune the car with the Flashpro, with gains of over 20whp / 20ftlbs tq in the mid range and a peak hp of 215whp and 152tq, the car was working better than ever before.
He had never been on a dragstrip before and we invited him to one test and tune that we were attending at Gainesville Raceway. Instantly he liked the track and the drag racing. On his first time out he managed to run a 15.0 and then followed by a 14.5 @ 98mph! Is not an easy task on this heavy Honda Civic on a all season tire full weight and just his 2nd time ever practicing drag racing.
Then he asked us what will be a good option to get some more power out of his car while keeping the drivability and street able configuration. We recommended him to go with a PRL Motorsports turbo kit that was available at the time along with a Precision turbo 6262, Fuel injector clinic 1200cc injectors, AEM 340lph fuel pump. Instead of the common gauges that are usually used on cars we decided to use the AEM CD5 carbon dash to display all the data that we may need. In the meantime we also installed a Competition Clutch stage 4 with a Competition Clutch Lightweight flywheel.
The results? First pull on the dyno the car made 335whp at only 5.6 psi all this on 93 octane fuel.
One important note on this build is the mileage of the car- 249,000+ and still has the original engine.
That being said we don't want to push everything to the limits, we decided to bump the boost just a little more taking it to the 7psi area were the car made 357whp.
We also verified the actual weight and balance of the car after installing the turbo kit and with full interiors minus spare tire the car weight is- 2,854 lbs without driver. 
Now we know the weight and the power, is time to go back to the dragstrip and find out what is this vehicle capable of. We went again to Gainesville Raceway, knowing our limits- street all season tire, stock motor, stock transmission. We decided not to push the car to the limits and just do a couple passes to make sure that everything works as it should. With the weight of the car + the power we came to the conclusion that at least we should trap 110+ mph in the 1/4 mile. The time was not our main concern because depending on how good is the launch = 60ft, that can change a lot.
First pass ever on the turbo setup myself driving it ( Jorge ) and the car owner as a passenger to teach him how to properly launch a fwd on street tires at the dragstrip we managed to run a 13.862 @ 111.76mph with a weak 2.502 60ft and a 9.362 1/8 mile.
Second pass I drove the car with no passenger, full interiors minus spare tire, very soft launch, crossing the 1/4 mile mark at 13.318 @ 113.17mph with a 2.250 60ft, 8.910 to the 1/8 mile.
Third pass the owner jumped on the driver seat and on his very first pass on the turbo setup he ran a 13.892 @ 102.79mph (he let off early) with a 2.592 60ft and 9.364 to the 1/8 mile.
The results are promising with this project, we drove the car to the track and back to the shop after 3 successful passes at the track (btw- it was grudge racing, we got ourselves 3 wins on our first time out) There's room for improvement on the car even at the same power level if we change the tires for something like drag radials or even better- Slicks! Let's see we we take this project in the near future!
