General engine questions/issues that aren't specific to the other categories
By EG Coupe 95
#288128 So my buddy just brought me into the realization that supposedly if you add a cold air intake or short ram intake modification to your engine, at some point in it's life it will start to "tick" a little bit from where the valves are not used to the excess amount of air coming in from the intake. His "theory" he hopes is that by adding a complete exhaust (header-back) it'll push the air out quicker and hopefully make the engine last longer in the long run?

I'm wondering: if the intake statement is true? (You get a tick eventually on a daily driver?) If so, how do you avoid this, or prolong the life of your engine once you add an intake?
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By Ajax1989
#288129 you'll get a tick no matter what you do.. if you leave it stock or not

the valve need to be adjusted quite often.. so if your on top
of your car, you shouldnt have any problems with a tick(unless you dont know how to adjust valves)
By EJ1_MK
#288138 Honda recommends that you do a valve lash adjustment every 30k and timing belt replacement every 60k with a valve lash adjustment at the same time. There should never be air anywhere besides the intake manifold and the inside of the cylinder. Even if air would pass thru the valve guides it would not mess anything up it would just push back thru the breather tube that goes from the valve cover to the air intake pipe before the throttle body.

Someone is feeding your friend bad information. If you have question just ask we try to help people out on this forum board more than any other. Really in "theory" and exhaust is suppose to help air move out more smoothly with lest restrictions, not quicker, it will on the other had help with MPG sometimes. Best thing you can do is add a 2" pipe after the cat, back to a factory muffler. It will help with air flow as well give you more TQ and help with MPG.

Hope that helps, Valve lash adjustments are not hard if you know anyone with some mechanical ability and manual will explain all and give the proper specs, and it take an afternoon the first time. After that they will take no time at all.
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By Flatland_EG
#288145 The first time I did my valve lash it took a couple of hours, I think if a person has even limited mechanical ability it can be done fairly easy.
Oh course, if you're dealing with a DOHC engine it's going to take a bit longer. :)
If you can read fractions/decimal points, use wrenches, screwdrivers and a feeler gauge it should be no problem. :thumb:
By EG Coupe 95
#288424 Well, my buddy and I currently just go by what we hear. I joined this site so I could ask questions and learn. Thanks for all the feedback. It sounds like it wouldn't be any more difficult than measuring like backlash and pre-load in a differential? (I'm currently going to school at an Automotive Technical college, but have only done so much so far.)

I'm just looking to basically mildly modify my car for looks and slightly better performance. But everything I've been hearing about modding a daily driver has been bad.. Hence why I'm here asking questions! :thumb: But my dilemma is that I drive, A LOT, and I mean A LOT. So I didn't want to do anything other than maybe an engine swap (my Civic has 213xxx miles on it and beginning to show signs of it's age) and an intake, and maybe header-back exhaust? And I've also read playing around with offsets can be a bad idea for a daily driver too... Because I was looking at slamming it down on some diamond racing steelies and making it flush as hell.

Any suggestions?

EDIT: Not meaning to get off topic, this whole question about mildly modding a daily driver may belong somewhere else. But if anyone knows a lot about modding a daily driver, you can PM me and I'll give you my whole game plan I had in mind and you can shoot suggestions from there?

Thanks! :D
By EJ1_MK
#288425 Everything you want to do you can still daily the car. Just make sure you get camber kits and lower the car the proper way on full coil over something like Function Form F1's, modding a daily will not cause any harm. There are many people out there that drive the cars on this site everyday are heavily modded. You just need to make a game plan for what you want and look at everything that needs to go with it. And yes valve lash is just as easy as the measuring backlash on a diff. Intake header and exhaust are all basic mods that any car people do. Doing suspension work is also basic to a point. There are even some of us that drive our track cars on the street and really shouldn't. The things you want to do are all mods that you can still drive your car everyday you will just have to figure out the best setup for yourself as far as wheel and tire and suspension because that is where you will loose comfortably when lowering a car and flushing it.
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By Flatland_EG
#288468 When you start looking at bigger injectors, higher flowing fuel pumps, stronger CV shafts, stand alone ECU's and large turbo's then your moving out of daily territory. :D Even then if your crazy enough you can still daily it, it's been done before. :lol:
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By Apexracing
#288471 shit my ep3 has 207k miles. maintenance does wonders.
By EG Coupe 95
#288545 I guess that makes sense. Aren't camber kits bad? In a sense that tires wear out faster or anything such as wearing anything out faster? And as far as lowering, I'm trading my stock springs and struts for a set of Koni yellows come Friday possibly. And I have eBay coilover sleeves for now. Will those destroy the Koni's? And would the Koni's + eventually Ground Control coilover sleeves be a good daily option over coilovers?
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By Flatland_EG
#288548 There was thread here a while back stating the reasons that camber kits are not needed, I too damn lazy to look right now though. :D :P
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By Apexracing
#288552 To run your camber at the oem settings with a lowered car you need a camber kit. Plain and simple. Proper camber keeps tire wear at a minum ans keeps your tires in proper contact with the road. Konis are nice ebay coils are crap.
By EG Coupe 95
#288559 Okay, well are camber kits what cause cars wheels to seem to sit like so: / \ ? And will the eBays blow the Koni's? Or will the Koni's be able to handle them fine? At least for the time being.
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By Apexracing
#288566 Camber kits make the camber adjustable. You can have the tires whatever way you want. When you lower a car you get negative camber by default. So adding a camber kit allows you to correct your camber settings. If your getting konis get a good spring instead of the ebay coils. The konis wont last long on shitty springs.
By EJ1_MK
#288598
EG Coupe 95 wrote:Okay, well are camber kits what cause cars wheels to seem to sit like so: / \ ? And will the eBays blow the Koni's? Or will the Koni's be able to handle them fine? At least for the time being.


This is from them not having camber kits. I am tucking wheel all the way around and no one is the wiser since it looks factory. Due to having camber kits. Some people put camber kits on so that they can go lower and you have to camber / like this so they can clear their fenders that would be the hella flush look. That look also comes from people that lower their car to far without camber kits and trust me that they will wear thru the inside of a tires with in a few hundred miles and not 30,000+ miles like most tires last for.


And I agree with Apexracing Koni and ground controls are blah. Not bad for daily use but there are better options out there for the same money.