Power Pages: 2000 Civic Si

The Power Pages section is 2NR's claim to fame in the import aftermarket. We love getting our hands dirty in an effort to provide you, the reader, with the utmost, reliable dyno testing and product evaluations on the most basic power adders available for all the popular sub-compacts.

We know we have not covered every manufacturer's vehicle in the Power Pages, so don't hesitate to drop us a line at importtuner@mcmullenargus.com and voice your opinion on which specific powerplants you would like to see strapped to the dyno.

For this installment, we decided to further evaluate the B16A3, which is now standard equipment on the 2000-and-up Civic Si. Follow along as we get to the thick of things and tach out the high-revving twin-cam.

The Engine
Now that our Si is equipped with the basic bolt-ons, it's time to get into a few components that require more know-how. In our last segment, we were able to extract 152.6 ponies and 109.4 lb-ft of torque.

It is a fact that the B16 engine is designed to turn rpm galore, so in this round, we will prep the engine to take the valvetrain abuse of 9000 rpm.

In a later segment, we will remove the rev-limiter to up the ante in rpm.

Performance Components
Since we have done the basic bolt-ons, we decided to go into the internals, starting with Crower's valve springs and titanium retainers, 63401 camshafts and adjustable cam sprockets. AEM is helping in the fuel-tuning department, with its new, adjustable bolt-on fuel pressure regulator. Helping us adjust the regulator accurately is B&M's bolt-on fuel pressure gauge.

The 63401 Crower cams are of chill-cast construction and have been bench-tested to ensure proper wear and longevity. The valve springs and titanium retainers were installed to compensate for the high-lift cam to eliminate the chances of spring bind.

The Crower sprockets are great for dialing-in specific degrees required by the cam. The 12-point 8mm bolts make frequent adjustments much easier than the normal hex bolt. Degree marks are in one-degree increments, with up to 10 degrees advance and retard.

AEM supplied us with its new billet adjustable fuel pressure regulator. The unit can be adjusted with a hex wrench and 10mm combination wrench. This is a replacement unit that bolts onto the factory fuel rail and plugs into all existing hoses. We do recommend purchasing B&M's bolt-on fuel pressure gauge to ensure accurate fuel pressure tuning.

This round, we ended with a baseline of 142.2 hp and 108.1 lbs-ft of torque, which tells us we are down 10.4 ponies from our last visit.

Considering the temperature from the last runs to these particular runs was off by 16 degrees Fahrenheit, this could have thrown a wrench into the calculations. After a quick plug and oil change, we were able to regain two more ponies, resetting our baseline to 144.2 hp and 108.9 lb-ft of torque.

Our first installment was a set of redesigned Crower 63401 cams. Although we installed a set of adjustable cam sprockets, the baseline adjustments were set at "0" for both the exhaust and intake. The cam install bumped up our peak power to 147.6 hp and 113.7 lb-ft of torque.

The raw cam power added an additional 3.4 hp in the mid-range.

Brian Crower of Crower Cams informed us that we were sure to gain additional power in the mid-range by playing with the cam sprockets.

After a few runs, we discovered this to be true when advancing the intake cam four degrees and retarding the exhaust by two degrees. The idle seemed to be a little more aggressive, but the added 6.8 hp was well worth the extra stumble at idle. This made the Crower package an easy 10.2 hp gain.

With the added air to the combustion formula, we were short on fuel. We called upon an AEM fuel pressure regulator to increase fuel pressure 6 psi more than the stock 42 psi, for a total of 48 psi. This resulted in a peak output of 156.7 hp and 111.0 lb-ft of torque. The loss of torque in the mid-range should be fixed with some electronic fuel tuning that we have in store for the future, but for now, we think it's worth the sacrifice for the extra 2.3 horses in the top-end.

Conclusion
In this round, we were able to extract plenty of ponies and a sufficient amount of torque. With the Crower cam and sprocket package adding an additional 10 hp and the AEM fuel pressure regulator picking up an additional 2.3 hp, our high-revvin' 1.6-liter is ready to take on more for round three.

In our next round, we will add some electronic fuel tuning, additional air consumption and a bit of nitrous charging.

Because we were adjusting the fuel pressure to see if more power could be extracted, we once again turned to AEM for its bolt-on fuel pressure gauge. With the gauge in place we were able to precisely dial-in pressure.