How safe is the 19.5/23psi really for the 1.5t si engine?

RoB y4h3ll

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Hey guys, I know this has been a much talked about subject, but really how safe is the 23psi for the little 1.5t Si engine?
I've officially tuned for the above. I feel like its an extraordinary performance gain compared to the stock tune. I've tuned down to the 21.5 psi for a couple of reasons.
Reason one, When matting my foot down, I enjoy kicking some a** but, I can't help but feel like I am going to throw a rod one day and have that embarrassing moment as the competitor passes me by dodging oil on the ground lol...
Reason two, I feel as if between 3-4k rpms I may be slipping.. maybe i'm just paranoid, or maybe I am just ignorant when it comes to when I should be putting my foot down.
Another thing, I do understand that its a high risk boost creeping under 3k.
This discussion is mainly for the 2020 civic Si, however, input from 16-19 is also welcome. All in all, I feel like the tune is wonderful, but maybe explosive? lol.

Any reassurance would be GREATLY appreciated.
Thanks
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You're gonna get a lot of different answers, but the fact of the matter is that once you change how the engine performs from how the Honda engineers who spent years engineering it intended it to perform then all bets are off in terms of reliability and longevity. Imo, I say send it! Just make sure your car's oil levels are good and do the necessary maintenance for it.
 
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RoB y4h3ll

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You're gonna get a lot of different answers, but the fact of the matter is that once you change how the engine performs from how the Honda engineers who spent years engineering it intended it to perform then all bets are off in terms of reliability and longevity. Imo, I say send it! Just make sure your car's oil levels are good and do the necessary maintenance for it.
Thanks for the input, I will be doing the maintenance for sure. I actually bring my car in at 15% to change the oil because I don't believe in that 6k mile crap.
On another note; For a second there, I glanced at your picture and thought you had a row of toilet paper on that shelf... Lol... our town is nuts man, TP is gone everywhere.
 

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Hey guys, I know this has been a much talked about subject, but really how safe is the 23psi for the little 1.5t Si engine?
I've officially tuned for the above. I feel like its an extraordinary performance gain compared to the stock tune. I've tuned down to the 21.5 psi for a couple of reasons.
Reason one, When matting my foot down, I enjoy kicking some a** but, I can't help but feel like I am going to throw a rod one day and have that embarrassing moment as the competitor passes me by dodging oil on the ground lol...
Reason two, I feel as if between 3-4k rpms I may be slipping.. maybe i'm just paranoid, or maybe I am just ignorant when it comes to when I should be putting my foot down.
Another thing, I do understand that its a high risk boost creeping under 3k.
This discussion is mainly for the 2020 civic Si, however, input from 16-19 is also welcome. All in all, I feel like the tune is wonderful, but maybe explosive? lol.

Any reassurance would be GREATLY appreciated.
Thanks
Just stay on top of your maintenance and don't abuse the car. And maybe its just me but I wouldn't feel comfortable letting the maintenance minder get as low as 15% before changing out the oil. Maybe 40%, but I do drive spiritedly a lot. Some things you shouldn't do are floor it or run the car hard before it's been properly warmed up, using anti-lag, and using low quality gas.

Honestly I wouldn't worry. A lot of people have been running that tune for awhile with no issues. Probably not as much feedback for the 2020 but unless there was some change In production quality theres no difference between the 2020 motor and the 2017-19
 


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RoB y4h3ll

RoB y4h3ll

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Just stay on top of your maintenance and don't abuse the car. And maybe its just me but I wouldn't feel comfortable letting the maintenance minder get as low as 15% before changing out the oil. Maybe 40%, but I do drive spiritedly a lot. Some things you shouldn't do are floor it or run the car hard before it's been properly warmed up, using anti-lag, and using low quality gas.

Honestly I wouldn't worry. A lot of people have been running that tune for awhile with no issues. Probably not as much feedback for the 2020 but unless there was some change In production quality theres no difference between the 2020 motor and the 2017-19
93 all the way. Luckily I have not been running anti lag lol. Always warmed up before it gets more than 20% throttle. I'm more worried about mistakenly accelerating like I did before the tune with LSPi and well... regret the tune at that point lol.. My main thing is that, I wanted to stick with a base/21 or 23 ... but the base inst actually base, I am getting 3 more psi on top of what was stock with the k tuner for the base portion of the tune. I believe this tune was made for the 17-19.. again I may be paranoid. Everyone else says they are getting 17-18 psi full throttle with no tune, and I get 14-15 psi full throttle with no tune.
 
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Hey guys, I know this has been a much talked about subject, but really how safe is the 23psi for the little 1.5t Si engine?
I've officially tuned for the above. I feel like its an extraordinary performance gain compared to the stock tune. I've tuned down to the 21.5 psi for a couple of reasons.
Reason one, When matting my foot down, I enjoy kicking some a** but, I can't help but feel like I am going to throw a rod one day and have that embarrassing moment as the competitor passes me by dodging oil on the ground lol...
Reason two, I feel as if between 3-4k rpms I may be slipping.. maybe i'm just paranoid, or maybe I am just ignorant when it comes to when I should be putting my foot down.
Another thing, I do understand that its a high risk boost creeping under 3k.
This discussion is mainly for the 2020 civic Si, however, input from 16-19 is also welcome. All in all, I feel like the tune is wonderful, but maybe explosive? lol.

Any reassurance would be GREATLY appreciated.
Thanks
So you ask how safe is 23psi for your engine?

Stock is 20.3psi for 2020 Civic Si.
21.5psi is +1.2psi. This is 5.9% less safe than stock minimum.
23psi is +2.7psi. This is 13% less safe than stock minimum.

Hope this helps. :)
 
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RoB y4h3ll

RoB y4h3ll

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So you ask how safe is 23psi for your engine?

Stock is 20.3psi for 2020 Civic Si.
21.5psi is +1.2psi. This is 5.9% less safe than stock minimum.
23psi is +2.7psi. This is 13% less safe than stock minimum.

Hope this helps. :)

Actually yes... except for the 2020 it will never reach over 14-15psi when your foot is matted down... soo does this still apply? Lol. 16psi SOME TIMES...
 

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Actually yes... except for the 2020 it will never reach over 14-15psi when your foot is matted down... soo does this still apply? Lol. 16psi SOME TIMES...
I got my 20.3psi from THIS site. Oops!
So....14.5psi is stock.
21.5psi is +7psi. This is 48% less safe than stock minimum.
23psi is +8.5psi. This is 59% less safe than stock minimum. :p
 
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RoB y4h3ll

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I got my 20.3psi from THIS site. Oops!
So....14.5psi is stock.
21.5psi is +7psi. This is 48% less safe than stock minimum.
23psi is +8.5psi. This is 59% less safe than stock minimum. :p
Well I mean you are right about the 20.3psi. The engines are rated for 20psi, so yes that helps calm my nerves. This clutch though lol, I swear, I am only at 11k miles and it feels like it may be slipping from 3-4k ... again maybe not, maybe its just ripping it hard lol. Ill mess around a bit more with it tomorrow to see if it still feels funky.
 


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In terms of safety, check out the tuning reliability survey I run. The 1.5T is a robust little engine and Honda really dialed back power in stock form.

Honestly, the only failures we are basically seeing are from custom tunes where power and torque were bumped far above the 19/23 or the cars were abused or neglected in some way.
 

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Well I mean you are right about the 20.3psi. The engines are rated for 20psi, so yes that helps calm my nerves. This clutch though lol, I swear, I am only at 11k miles and it feels like it may be slipping from 3-4k ... again maybe not, maybe its just ripping it hard lol. Ill mess around a bit more with it tomorrow to see if it still feels funky.
You probably are slipping it if you think you are. My clutch started sliiping at 18k km so it's possible. What I found helps is not getting on it until 3500, then it doesn't seem to slip anymore, sucks cause you have to hold out a lot of the time and not get the nice V6 torque curve that engine has but if you want the stock clutch to hold you have to. I also stepped the tune down to 16.5 psi from 15 stock to be gentler, might try 21 again this summer and see if it's ok past 3500.

I also have a hatch and not an SI but I don't think the clutches are much different.
 
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In terms of safety, check out the tuning reliability survey I run. The 1.5T is a robust little engine and Honda really dialed back power in stock form.

Honestly, the only failures we are basically seeing are from custom tunes where power and torque were bumped far above the 19/23 or the cars were abused or neglected in some way.

Thank you for this info. The last time we spoke, I am pretty sure we didn't hit it off well. Seriously though, thank you for dedicating the time to that. This doesn't just help me, I have a group of guys consisting of a 2x17s, 3x18's and a 19 who drive these cars and are worried as much as am. Except of course the one guy that says send it at every light.
 
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You probably are slipping it if you think you are. My clutch started sliiping at 18k km so it's possible. What I found helps is not getting on it until 3500, then it doesn't seem to slip anymore, sucks cause you have to hold out a lot of the time and not get the nice V6 torque curve that engine has but if you want the stock clutch to hold you have to. I also stepped the tune down to 16.5 psi from 15 stock to be gentler, might try 21 again this summer and see if it's ok past 3500.

I also have a hatch and not an SI but I don't think the clutches are much different.
They are different indeed, I believe the Si is rated for 260 torque.... this is why I am confused as hell about this.

I've been punching it around 4k to be safe though lol.
 

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They are different indeed, I believe the Si is rated for 260 torque.... this is why I am confused as hell about this.

I've been punching it around 4k to be safe though lol.
if you got the ktuner with 23 psi you're most likely over 260 wheel tq though. My hatch at 21 is rated at 260 so I would assume you'd be around 270-280 range. Also, if it's rated for 260 and you're right around there, you're stressing it quite a bit.
I've been running mine at 16.5 since Nov and the clutch hasn't slipped even if I punch it around 2500 now so the lower power helped but I want all the power haha. Gotta save up for either the ACT or CTR retrofit now, about halfway there.
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