Hello everybody. As the title suggests I am new here. I am from Benoni South Africa and I am the happy owner of a 2007 1st gen Honda Jazz 1.4 (1.3 actually.) 5 speed manual with 142000km on the clock. I have the L13A1 I-DSI engine in my car.

Now for those of you who might own a Jazz/Fit with the same engine, I am sure you know the engine gets a bit wheezy in the high revs. I would like to know how I can get a moderate boost in performance with the least amount of money. (I am a student) Now I am a car enthusiast. I love performance cars, especially customised Japanese tuners. However I would not know where to start if I had to take apart parts and things. But I would love to learn. So I figured why not learn on my current car and give her a boost while I'm at it. So what can I do? If you want/need to know, my car just returned from a service yesterday so in that regard she is perfectly healthy!

Thanks guys in advance!

 

Welcome, first off I'm guessing you've got a GD3 which is the facelift version. GD1's are the 1st gen

I wouldn't focus on getting any significant gains in terms of power from the i-dsi engine or even the L15A VTEC motor either. But all hope is not gone! Doing some simple 'breathing' mods will make the drive more entertaining and increase your fuel economy.

I've got a Mishimoto carbon fibre air intake if you're interested? R1500 and it's yours.
After that I'd do a de-cat exhaust and re-map and just leave the engine alone.

Focus on wheels, tyres and suspension for more worthwhile gains.

 

Ah thank you very much! So you are from S.A as well. I would love to get hold of that part from you. I would however have to wait until I get payed at the end of the month. But 1500 does not sound bad AT ALL!

 

lighter wheels and a rear sway bar will improve your driving feel greatly. Might not have the fastest car around, but you can make it one of the most fun for minimal money!

Intake and exhaust on that 1.3 DSI will not do a lot. Its born to lean burn and save gas, more so then the 1.5.

If they make a long tube header for your car, Id pick that up. Usually longtubes will integrate a catalytic converter delete, since the tail end of the header usually extends quite a bit more then the factory one.

 

I think there's no replacement for displacement. that said, you need to supercharge or turbocharge it. that would cost a few thousand dollars and not to mention the extra maintenance you would require for the extra parts.

a general rule of thumb is that you can barely feel anything with 10% change. that is to say, even if you get 10 more horses in your car from changing air intake, headers, exhaust, cold air intake, you wouldn't feel it. and that's a giant IF you can even get extra power from cheap modifications.

Save your money. Save more and get a faster car.

I have my fit since '07 and I think the fun part is that the car is full of surprises. it handles well, it's not fast but it's not too slow either. you can transport tons of things in it and it looks good. it's good with gas as well. i'm sure you know there's plenty of legroom front and back. (i'm 5'11")

there are tons of modification parts around if you wanna go that route though. you can buy a spoiler, get some springs and change your rims. get some bumper if you wanna.

i personally have a HKS exhaust and to be really honest with you, i have it for the looks and the sound.

cheers

 

Thanks for the reply. All feedback is appreciated. My mother owns the 2nd generation Jazz with the L15 I-VTEC with the CVT trannie (non-flappy paddle). I love driving that car even although I hate the transmission, SIMPLY cause it has so much more go! Now that is 81KW vs 63KW. So we are looking at what, about 28%. Now if I look at the wikipedia (Yes I know don't believe everything they say. ) page for the L series engine. There is this.

For 7gen Civic, City, Fit & Jazz
Displacement: 1,339 cc (81.7 cu in)
Bore x Stroke: 73.0 mm × 80.0 mm (2.87 in × 3.15 in)
Compression Ratio: 10.8:1
Horsepower: 63 kW (86 PS; 84 hp) @ 5700 rpm
Torque: 119 N·m (88 lb·ft) @ 2800 rpm

For 8gen Civic
Displacement: 1,339 cc (81.7 cu in)
Bore x Stroke: 73.0 mm × 80.0 mm (2.87 in × 3.15 in)
Horsepower: 90 kW (122 PS; 121 hp)
Torque: 130 N·m (96 lb·ft)

Can anybody confirm this as being true? If so what is being done differently to get almost 43% more power and 10% more torque from the same engine. Which is more than the L15 I-VTEC. I am sure Honda is using pretty much the same parts as the Jazz/Fit gets. So I ASSUME its gotta be something simple like compression ratio. If that is the case how can I replicate it?

EDIT: Unless as you say it's been turbocharged. In which case not simple. But can this be confirmed or denied as true?

 

compression alone doesnt make a big impact. it does let the car utilize breathing parts better though.

get a header. cheapest way to create a better powerband. intakes barely do anything

 

And how much would one of those cost me? Also what do you think Honda did in the above post to get 120Hp out of this little motor assuming the information is true?

 

I think they were wrong. Might have put a power spec from a different motor.

My 1.5 makes 117 crank horsepower factory.

Headers will range from $100-500 american dollars. I do not know your currency transfer.


DC Sports or DME are the headers I would look at. They are known to fit correctly and make decent power. But those were tested on USDM 1.5 L15A1 motors. Perhaps they will not work as well on a 1.3


Best bet is to buy some lighter wheels, get through school, then have some fun when a nice job starts the cash flow!

 

I am through scholl already LOL. WHen I say student. I mean college, with a job! And it works out to about R11 to a Dollar. No thanks to Zuma and his crackpot ANC party.... A header sounds like a complicated task. It also sounds like all of the parts out there are for the VTEC lumps. My googling skills found little for the 1.3 motor...

Also what is all that stuff in your sig? Looks like you got some DIY mods going on there?

 

There's a few pics in my build thread you can check out.
https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/fit-...ml#post1143922

 

Just buy a faster car. For what it takes to mod a Fit you could buy a v6 anything and dust 99% of the modded fits off the road.


Dude, you bought an Econobox..... embrace it.


These "Can I make my Fit faster", "how can I get more Power from my 2 squirrel 1.5l engine" threads crack me up. WTF were you thinking when you bought this thing anyway?


Run the piss out of it and enjoy the 25 mpg. Simple deal.

 

hi. i also live in SA (durban). if you want more power ,sell your 1.3 and buy the 1.5 manual jazz 2009 - 2013 .Honda has designed the i dsi very well ,and extracting more power without turbocharging is not gonna be easy .the 1.5 produces 88 kw and 145 nm of torque which is a lot for a 1.5 cc engine. it also does a 0-100 in 9.3 sec which outperforms many 1.6 and 20 l cars. I own one and i know for sure that this little car got plenty power. i can reach 170 kph effortlessly uphill with 4 passengers onboard.( after marrianhill toll booth going towards pietermaritzburg). the easiest way to gain better acceleration without any engine mods etc , is to change your wheels to a lightweight one. this reduces rotational mass .

 

i think that figure for a 1.339 cc is wrong cos the 1.5 jazz i-vtec only produces 88 kw. its more like 90 horsepower to me

 

So guys. This thread has been dead a WHILE! Anyways. Since I am a huge Honda fan and I am a member of these forums. (dream car is the new 306 horse Type-R) I thought I would ask you guys for assistance. I did as I was told in this thread and left my Jazzy pretty much stock. And still managed to smoke some N/A polo's and their pretentious drivers at the red lights a few times XD. (although no besting those 1.4TSI's I'm afraid)

However now I have come into an opportunity to get a Fiat Stilo Abarth. It's a 2.4 20v. This particular model is a 3 door manual. So no sillyspeed box here to worry about. From what I can tell that's half the battle won already!

Anyways I have been doing some reading about the car. And here is what I have learned.

What I like.
If people have good things to say about the car. It's normally the model with a manual box. The one which is what I might get. The car seems relatively easy to get some cheap power out of it. From stock 175 to 200 ponies with a intake kit and a remapping. And some Eibach's. This from what I have read takes the car from 8.9s to around 7.5s for 0-100 acceleration and thanks to the Eibach's handles a load better too. It also seems to be in good condition. It's owned by a friend who is a fiat and abarth fanatic. I think his goal is to have owned every single one there is before he dies. From what I can tell the 01-03 models were the devil in terms of reliability but the later models (this one being either an 04 or 06) were substantially better. This one also seems to leave out a lot of electronic fluff since it doesn't have the satnav and stuff the EU models got. SA pretty much got a bog standard stilo with a big engine in it. So this seems like a far more exciting car to own with some potential power gains that should be easy enough for me to learn on in terms of modifying cars.

What I don't like.
This car has a reputation. It's either loved. Or its hated. Nobody seems to sit on the fence with this one. It also seems the engine computer dips it's grubby fingers into everything. Intake kit breathing TOO WELL? Well we don't want that! Let's just run the car lean and cut the horses in half until you get that checked JUST TO BE SAFE! Also while it is easy to get around 200 hp out of her with the above mentioned relatively easy stuff. Getting more than 250 is a no-no on stock internals since it seems there is a lot of float between the conrods and the crank and too much power will send something flying. Which means some turbo love is out of the question without some new and expensive internals. But don't think I would want more than 200 With this car. At least until I have better pay and can afford to take it beyond the risky 250 mark when I have money to replace things if it goes bang. But if I have that money in the first place I think instead of taking her beyond 250 I'll just get a Type-R instead.

So have any of you owned this car or had experience with it? Is this a good idea? An exciting car to own? (maybe not exciting by today's standards of hot hatch, but by my standards since its around 2x as powerful as Jazzy) Something to see me through until I am really earning some better monies? I can't keep the jazz I am afraid since I would sell her to pay for the abarth.

What do you guys think?