What engines for 2016 Civic (Type R and Si)?

[randY49]

If you guys are talking about tuning the 1.5T, I don't see that being a reasonable proposition.

1.5 liters is too small for such a big car, best you are gonna get is modest gains.

looking at the under hood pics of the 1.5T without engine cover, it is a mess of plastic crap all over the place. who knows what all that crap is for and what'll happen to it if you relocate/delete items, or add more boost to the various plastic parts.

CVT is gonna kill it for tuners. Few (actually none in my guess) reputable tuner companies will sell a tune for a turbo CVT car, especially while the cars are under warranty and financing, because someone will blow up their CVT and bad mouth the tuner. The WRX CVT is technically not supported by tuners, some people have snuck a tune into them with negligible results....well no one wants to document what the outcome was at least.

CVT most like probably won't be re-programmable, and really changing the boost characteristics should generally be followed by a change in the CVT programming. Rarely does this happen.

Since the 1.5T is supposedly only available in CVT, this particular platform is doomed as far as any real tuning gains are concerned.

I think you're underselling the tunability of the engine (depending what you mean by "modest gains") as I would bet 250 hp is attainable. However, you are absolutely correct about is being paired to a CVT. As far as tuners are concerned, the 1.5T will be DOA.

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[takemorepills]

I agree that the 1.5T could possibly be tuned to 250HP IF it wasn't stuck with the CVT. No way is Honda gonna over engineer the CVT to handle any real power increases.

The biggest hurdle I see for tuning though, is not just the CVT, but also the engine architecture. Likely this won't be your typical 4 cylinder with a separate exhaust manifold and a common housing turbo. Don't be surprised if Honda uses an integrated manifold/cylinder head with a custom housing turbo. There are some cars like this, and they require the turbo housing to be ported and a new wheel installed because there is no upgrade route like on typical turbo cars. The RDX is a good example of Honda making a tough to tune turbo motor. The RDX uses a water cooled manifold, and as far as I know no one has attempted a turbo swap. On top of that, Honda gave the K23 block weird mount poits and a different bell housing shape than other K motors, effectively bumming out a bunch of tuners who had dreams of K23 swaps.

Hopefully, the Si will either retain a common version of the K series, or if it goes 2.0T, it will hopefully maintain parts swapability for the tuner market. For example, it'd be nice if the exhaust manifold is the typical cast manifold that isn't special, and it uses standard turbo flange and clocking. Since we don't know yet who will supply the turbos, it will totally suck if Honda goes all rogue on us and uses a bunch of weird crap.

 

[martyr]

Forgot the 1.5T is only paired with the CVT
Definitely puts a damper on things tuning wise. I know there's transmission tunes out there for other types of transmission. CVT never been tuned before?

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