High gas prices and the wild influx of rising oil prices, thanks to our wonderful commander and chief, have forced many to begin pinching pennies, transforming us into the scrooges that we never thought we'd become. Gripping tight pockets and a thin bank account is always a limiting factor when looking to fix up your vehicle. Realistically speaking, who can afford to spend hundreds of dollars on an aftermarket exhaust system or custom ignition setup, only to realize that those hard-earned dollars netted you a total of three whopping horsepower? Wow! You're smoking now baby!
Feeling a little down and out now since that jerk we just described happens to fit your profile to a tee? Don't be discouraged my friend. We at 2NR have the perfect solution for those who can't afford to spend hundreds of dollars on engine upgrades, yet are always in search of more horsepower. For less money than a stick of gum, or, in your case, that fake necklace you bought your girlfriend for Christmas last year, you can gain more than five horsepower with little or no money. All you need are a few tools, skills, and of course, the right car.
Chances are, even if you're some wannabe backyard mechanic, a quick browse through your garage will produce the necessary tools to begin project "99 cents." Before we begin performing surgery to your factory coil-on plug igniters, gather up these simple-to-find parts from your local automotive store. A spool of 10AWG wire of whatever color that suits your fancy, a pair of wire strippers, crimpers, a 10mm- socket and extension, a set of four 2 1/8-inch 10mm bolts, four 1 1/4-inch metal or aluminum spacers and eight ring-terminal connectors.
In search of the perfect test vehicle, we were able to track down a shoddy looking Honda Wagovan. A quick glance of this 1988 Wagovan's exterior and you'll notice the faded blue paint, but pop its hood and you're in for a surprise. Using a K24 powerplant mounted to a Hasport kit, the 2.4-liter is outfitted with a fully ported head (milled 35 thousandths), Skunk2 Stage 2 camshafts, Hasport header, Skunk2 68mm TB, RC Engineering 350cc injectors, 2006 Civic Si intake manifold, custom cold-air intake and an AEM EMS unit. Before we commenced with our coil pack modification, the Wagovan was strapped down on the dyno to record some baseline numbers. After numerous pulls, we netted a best of 202.1 wheel hp and 163.4 lb-ft of torque. Not bad, considering the vehicle at one time pranced around with a mere 89 hp. Sad indeed. With the car still secured to the Superflow Dynomometer, we gathered up our necessary tools and removed the cover to gain access to the factory coil packs.
The theory behind this modification is the understanding that most vehicles, more prevalent in older models, have a serious grounding issue. It all comes down to a lack of proper grounding between the engine and its chassis. This improper ground setup can ultimately affect overall horsepower and performance in any vehicle regardless if it's a commuter car or some high-performance race car. Using a piece of metal serves dual purpose for our project. The first is to decrease the resistance from the wires leading from the coil-on-plug ignition to the ECU, while the second is to ensure proper grounding has been achieved throughout the vehicle. In less than an hour, we commenced with a few pulls on the dyno and were pleasantly surprised as the K24 powerplant gained an average of 2 wheel hp and 1 to 2 lb-ft of torque from 3600rpm to 6800rpm. The dyno graphs revealed the gains more prevalent at higher rpm's where many of the K-series motors begin to misfire or loose horsepower due to the lack of spark from the factory ignition system. From 6900rpm to redline, a gain of 4.5 wheel hp was achieved while a 2.8 lb-ft gain in torque was extracted with the new modification. Considering the fact that these numbers are based on wheel horsepower, they can be translated to more than 5.1 hp at the flywheel using an 11 percent drivetrain loss, which is a substantial gain when taking into account the power to price ratio. A cheap yet effective way to gain horsepower for less than a dollar.