I was hoping for some opinions on other people's experiences in this matter...

My friend is a fellow GE8 owner, and has been lucky enough to be able to afford some of the few aftermarket performance parts that exist for the L15 motor.

Currently he has a Tanabe Touring Medallion axle-back, a K&N high flow intake, and some new plugs.

We took a baseline dyno run of his Fit in stock form and it put down about 101 hp. After the exhaust, intake, and plugs were added the hp improved to 115. He was quite happy with the results.

After about 2 weeks or so of regular driving, he added some new hoses and a grounding kit to try and keep engine temps down and squeak out a few more hp. But after the install, his car went back on the dyno and only laid down 103 hp. He was pissed! He took out the grounding kit and replaced the hoses and still only put down 102 hp!

We have spoken to a variety of sources about this problem, but the only one who seemed to know what he was talking about was a young tech at the local Honda dealership. He told us that the programming on the Fit's computer is designed with fuel conservation as its primary function. Even though adding performance parts may provide temporary gains in hp, the car's computer will eventually adjust the engine as necessary to maintain fuel economy.

Basically what I took away from all this is that performance parts are useless for the Fit until Hondata or other companies start producing a chip to properly program the Fit's computer. Unless you have a professional racing budget and can map your own programming, you will essentially be paying $400 for a new exhaust note.

Anyone have thoughts on this? Thanks for reading.

 

i agree with adding bolt on parts having minimal gains.

 

My thoughts are... you bought the wrong car if you intend on throwing parts at the motor. That is unless you intended on swapping.

 

That is basically what is happening, the ECU is seeing extra airflow which initially put it outside its intended operating parameters, and it then uses your fuel trims to bring you back in spec. The GD seems to react slight less harshly to modification.

To really take advantage of even the stock setup would require an S-AFC2 or the AEM FIC to adjust how much fuel is supplied, what timing scheme is to be used as well as other tweaks to the VE table which will be needed after modifications.

For these reasons an FIC will be my first serious modification before boosting this spring/summer.

No need for a "professional racing budget" whatever that means, ~$300 for an AFC, or ~600 for the FIC, a healthy dose of reading and seat time is all you need.

 

I also felt this way when I first bought my Fit, there was no way I was going to modify the engine. But lately I keep hearing that the L15 platform is going to be seeing a lot more aftermarket support, especially since it was released in the new CR-Z. I'm hoping that in the near future J's Racing will start production on some of the prototypes they made for their team's GE8.

That being said I want to make sure, as previously stated by DiamondStarMonsters, that if I do decide to add mods to my engine, that I take the proper steps to ensure I'm getting my money's worth.

Haha, I was referring to the costs involved with paying a shop to professionally map and tune your ECU. You are right, with the proper amount of patience and attention to detail you can do it yourself. But for many people that have never done it before, it can be a big gamble. And when shops charge $75 or more an hour in service, 4-5 hours of tuning, plus the cost of parts adds up very quickly. That's where having a "racing budget" would come in handy.

Good suggestion though, I'm going to look into the AEM FIC further.

 

In hindsight, you are probably correct, I am used to a more DIY tuning oriented crowd.

There are plenty of clever FF members out there though, and I like to think maybe I am giving them a nudge (or shove, for some lol) in the right direction.

A couple books by OE calibrators like Greg Banish, and an intro to how turbochargers/superchargers work from someone like Jay Miller will help take some of the stigma off the generally intimidating introduction to tuning for most.

Fortunately the FIC is not super sophisticated or as flexable as a real standalone, so the controls seem more intuitive from what I read so far from users and AEM themselves.

I also like that there are 6 and 8 injector versions of the FIC, for when I switch to Ethanol and big boost.

It is not the most comprehensive tuning tool, but it packs a serious punch for the price.

If you go this route I and several others here can help

 

Funny, that's what they said about the Civic all those years back.

 

That's true, I can see a Fit with specs like the Civic down the road, until then the bolt ons will have minimal gain unless you do a swap. Brings people back to the whole "I want a B-16 or an H-22 in my little EG or EK" days.

 

do a ecu reset, then re-measure. you'll probably see better gains.


but to answer the subject question, yes, basically you're wasting your money. even at 120whp, the car's still slow.

 

Hands down, your best bet to gain power would be to save up for boost.

 

OP - great post. Gave you rep for bringing up a point I was unaware of.

Even if you do an ECU reset, won't the slowly adjust to the OEM fuel map? Are the computers really that determined to get the best MPG in spite of performance mods!?

 

Yes, which is exactly why folks really shouldn't expect any major gains until a few companies start making something complete so we can tune the Fit to how we want it.

 

If you really need more horsepower....

YouTube - There's a horse in that car!

 

There is the full AEM standalone.. AEM FIC is basically AEM lite. There is also the option for Racepack, Haltech, MegaSquirt etc.

You can't get more control than that, and many come with features and tables that aren't even options in factory PCMs. All of the above are more comprehensive than FlashPro or Hondata.

So it comes down to how much control are you willing to pay for.. the options exist already.

For 99% of the people on this forum, the FIC is more than you need.

 

Yeah I am hoping that more aftermarket companies are going to be stepping up their support for the Fit like they have already for the CR-Z. (Seeing as how they share the same engine.)

I just think it's kind of lame that the 5-9 hp gains that companies like Greddy, Takeda, K&N, and others are marketing with their bolt on products are leaving out this very important point.

I mean, there are some people on this site rolling with at least $1,000 in bolt on parts. Its sad to think that they aren't seeing significant improvements beyond their butt-dyno.

 

In modern cars, bolt on parts almost never give the advertising claimed power increases without also modifying the fuel injection, ignition, etc. tables. Most all modern cars - even sports cars and muscle cars - are programmed with emissions in mind, not making more power.

It used to be that you could bolt on parts or make analog adjustments in your garage and get more power, more torque, more of whatever you were tuning for - even with EFI. But for the past 15 or so years, you can't make power without changing the electronics that run the car, as the electronics respond to how the car is behaving and try to pull the levers needed to bring the tune back to the expected baseline.

Zach

 

The products already exist guys, buy a piggy back like an S-AFC2, EMU or ideally the FIC unit, and you have more control than most of you will need.

There is no free lunch in tuning, you will have to educate yourselves, research online and purchase a few books and then get some seat time.

Everything you need to tune around the ECU to take advantage of your bolt ons has been made already.

Also, if the bolt ons you bought are not complementary no amount of tuning will provide you with the gains you want. Especially if those gains weren't realistic in the first place, like 10whp from a CAI...

A drag intake manifold with a stock cam and a big exhaust will actually hurt your power under the curve while maybe giving you a bit of a nudge way up top.

Research is key, most people on this forum seem to overlook that... Not calling anyone out in particular just an observation over the past couple years (lurked here since I bought the Fit in Feb 2008)

 

Totally agree.
In fact, you could even hurt your car in the long run, especially running that CAI with a substandard cone filter that lets grit into your engine and wears away at your internal rotating parts and bearings, or lets water into your intake....

 

Maybe if you have the AT. The MT is much faster than the AT. Its not capable of keeping up with my 540i no. But it does do well against other four bangers and some v6's

 

would a throttle controller not help at all?