1995 Acura Integra GS-R

Our first Power Page blast ended with a maximum gain of 155.4 hp and 122.3 lbs-ft of torque with the use of a full A'PEXi arsenal. This consisted of an A'PEXi Power Intake, World Sports A'PEXi exhaust system and A'PEXi exhaust manifold. Since the car baselined 144.7 ponies and 116 lbs-ft, the gain was well worth the money invested.

The Engine
Now with the engine equipped with a line of bolt-on power, it's time to dig into the internals of the engine. Due to the DOHC VTEC's highly advanced cylinder head, this motor is the most popular amongst Honda fans. Imagine having two pairs of camshafts; one pair for good drivability and the other set for high rpm power. That's what Honda has offered factory in the '94 to '00 Acura Integra.

Performance Components
This session was tested in a much different fashion than normal. We decided to go with Web bumpsticks without adjustable cam sprockets, AEM underdrive pulleys and an A'PEXi V-AFC fuel computer.

Ensuring that the cams are the right fit for the vehicle, Web Cam insisted on grinding Honda cams that are OEM in the vehicle. In our case, Web required the cams directly from our Power Page vehicle rather than a set of VTEC cam cores from another vehicle. According to its tech support, " Most VTEC cams are not the same and using the cams that are specifically out of that vehicle ensures a proper grind."

The AEM pulleys come with both the air conditioning and alternator pulleys as well as the properly sized belts. The units are CNC-machined billet aluminum and come in anodized blue, red and silver. The underdrive pulley kit is very easy to install and required no modification for clearance.

Last in the second round line up is the A'PEXi VAFC fuel computer. Just like its predecessor, the AFC, the V-AFC has the ability to control an engine's VTEC on top of managing specific fuel parameters. The VAFC harness requires tapping into the factory ECU harness but the minimal modification is well worth the ability to do fuel tuning.

Dyno Testing
Our second round baseline netted 151.2 hp, which was 3.9 less than our last session on the Dynojet. Our first reaction to the loss in power was a quick tune up but we soon realized that the owner, Jensen Oda, had swapped out the factory 15-inch wheels for a set of 17-inch custom units. Since our original testing was done on the stockers, this threw off our new baseline by 3.9 horses, due to the difference in weight and circumference.

Our first installment was the AEM underdrive pulleys. The units were very simple to install and well worth the money, netting 153.2 ponies and 120.9 Ibs-ft of torque. There was a solid 2 to 3 hp gain across the board, but most of the torque was discovered in the bottom end pulling 3 to 5 Ibs-ft of torque from beginning to 5000 rpm.

The Web package comes complete with reground camshafts, titanium retainers, valve springs and various size shims for proper installment. The bumpstick package netted a peak of 157.2 hp. Most of the power was seen in the top- and bottom-end with a sacrifice in the mid-range. With the addition of a pair of adjustable cam sprockets, we are confident that more horsepower could be revealed in the mid-range.

Last in the line up is the V-AFC. We wanted to use a fuel-tuning component to clean up the graph for a smoother pull in the top-end and that's exactly what we received. VTEC point was fine at its factory position for the Integra, but fuel needed to be enhanced by about 2- to 4-percent in the high-rpm region. Total output netted 161.5 hp.

Conclusion
At day's end, we took home a total of 10.3 hp over baseline, which gave us 16.8 hp from our two installments of Power Page. Since this vehicle is non-OBDII, we are able to incorporate ECU tuning and a few other goodies for our next round. Stay tuned, 'cause you have only seen the beginning of VTEC secrets.