Sparkle the EP3
 

So I'm starting this to document everything I do to Sparkle my EP3(2002 Honda Civic Si). My kids named it so don't ask about the name. Ok so here is my back story on Sparkle.

Bought the car in May 2016, and since I have owned a good amount of Hondas, and didn't have a daily driver I wanted another Civic. I only had my 68 VW bus, and I wasn't about to start driving that everyday with a 12mpg average. So I got Sparkle.

Ok onto what I have done to her. First things first it came with the cat back exhaust so that was a good thing, everything else on the car was unmolested. So time for me to start the altering. I first added a AEM V2 intake. It picks up air right near the header so its warm air which is a good thing.
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Next I decided to mess with lighting and changed out the lights with HIDs for headlights and LED for everything else. Saving amps wherever I can.

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I then added fog lights which help out because the actually block some of the front. So I was adding things, and I wasn't even starting to EcoMod yet.
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Next I was still going for performance so I opted for going with rims next. I got Konig Heliums which dropped 10lbs per rim off the stock Si rims.

https://scontent.fsjc1-3.fna.fbcdn.n...d5&oe=5866642E

Now the controversial mod with which I would say so far is giving me good numbers so I can't really argue with the things I have found about it, and the numbers I got with it. I added a ASP rear bumper diffuser (i know its not really a diffuser per say). Again the bumper was pretty bad looking before I did it so the holes and kit actually make it look pretty mean.

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So since I did the holes in the bumper I decided to start Ecomodding and challenging myself to get the best MPGs each tank. Best so far is 32 MPG I'm shooting for 40, but I will live with 35. So next thing was getting a Ultra Gauge so I can watch what I'm doing and adjust the nut behind the wheel.

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after that I flipped the front license plate to block more of the front bumper hole.

https://scontent.fsjc1-3.fna.fbcdn.n...cb&oe=5867A898

Today I worked on two things a upper front grill block, and bumping up the tire pressure all the way around. So I got the upper grill block in, and I bumped the tires from 25ish to 35. I'll see what these to things do, and see if I get better numbers then I did last tank. I will keep adding more probably as I do more research. I think I'm going to stick to one upgrade, every new tank so that I can see if it does something or not.

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I think Si[s] are nice and all, but I used to get in the 20s in my '61 panel van with a best tank ever of 30mpg. Do you still have the bus? Kombi or camper?

68 Riviera Camper all deck out for camping. I have a 61 bug too, but sadly its in Montana waiting for me to come back there. I just got it back on the road, it sat for many years and the person i bought it from didn't care if it sat. He had a lot of projects, and I asked a few times about it until he hit me with a number I couldn't resist.
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Gorgeous van, and your 2002 Si was on my short list at one point in my life.

Careful with the grille block, I'd hold off on blocking it too aggressively until you have an OBDII reader. Many cluster temperature gauges don't even start to move until the engine is close to dangerously hot.

Honestly, the #1 mod to improve economy in your Si would probably be to regear it, though that's really ambitious. If it were mine, I'd probably look into a slightly taller final drive, and a significantly taller 5th, but keep the others as they are so it stays fun to drive. If I'm not mistaken, you're spinning just under 3000rpm at 60mph in 5th, when you would still have power to spare at 2000rpm. I could see that being worth a flat 5-8mpg when cruising.

Thanks I did pick up a UG so I have the reader and I have the temp on my 1st page. I know gearing would help a lot, and yes I sit at 3000 rpms at 60 in 5th. The short gearing is just really fun to drive. Thanks for the tips

I understand completely. :thumbup:

Nicely accessorized Riviera. Have you noticed what's happened to pre-67 prices since 2008? The 0.001% are buying up real estate, fine art and old VW buses. :eek:

To end the thread-jack: You can tweak the final drive ratio with tire sizes. Go tall and narrow with equal contact patch.

Love the van... Keep up the good work with the civic... A turbo would come in handy too for both fun & FE... :D

I would think about taller tires/rim size if I didn't already buy new rims for it a couple months ago.

I a turbo would be fun lol. Maybe one day:thumbup:

Alright today I scored a 94 honda accord front lip so I added it up. Added about 3 inches to the front so that much closer to the ground. I'm currently spraying it black to make it pop again.

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Although it won't improve your fuel economy, there's an easy way to clean up your headlights.

I had a bottle of the lens clarifying compound in this kit:

https://www.amazon.com/Turtle-Wax-T-240KT-Headlight-Restorer/dp/B001TI5IIQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1475544785&sr= 1-1&keywords=turtle+wax+lens+clarifying+compound

What I did was sand my headlights with 1000, then 2000 grit to get the old yellowed clearcoat off, then put some of the polishing compound onto the back of a wet dish sponge and got them nice and transparent. If you don't put some sort of coating on them, they'll yellow again rapidly. I originally tried diluted spar urethane, and then later a non-yellowing spraypaint clear coat, but neither worked very well. I ended up buying a tube of opti-lens which worked great and has stayed crystal clear:

https://www.amazon.com/OPT-OPT-OLC10-Opti-Lens-Permanent-Headlight/dp/B00GULJCUM/ref=sr_1_1?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1475544910&sr= 1-1&keywords=opti-lens

Original headlights:

http://i.imgur.com/g2ORVby.jpg


Cleaned up:

http://i.imgur.com/b60dkZr.jpg


You could, of course, buy new headlights, but my Insight doesn't have any aftermarket options, and new OE units would be ~$4-500.

The Lip
 

Alright got some plastic dip I ran out from other projects. Makes it pop a bit more, and I'm glad I got the nose down a little more without having to lower it yet. That is coming soon I hope.

Before the dip
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After
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Thanks I'll look into that. Mine are looking pretty bad.

I now use 303 to coat the lens. We'll see how that works over time. It's a sunscreen and dries clear.

^ I used Meguiar's headlight protectant for a while, which is basically a sunscreen. The opti-lens is a bit different though, it chemically reacts and bonds with the plastic to form an extremely hard oxidation-resistant shell.

How long have you had it on. Reading some of the reviews from amazon it isn't lasting as long as they say.

I'm liking your ride, Comp. That new lip on the dam looks sharp.

You ain't the first guy to do that license plate trick, I chuckle every time I see one - it's a convenient little push in the right direction provided by the government. I just don't get the chance - no front plates in TN.

Probably about a year and a half now? The spar urethane clouded up in a few months, but I was still living in Florida at the time. There's not as much sunlight in Vermont. :p

EDIT: The tube is probably good for 20-30 applications though, so if/when it clouds up again, I'll hit it with some 2000 grit, polish, and recoat it. I expect it would probably take about 20 minutes if I don't let it go too far.

Thanks,
Next step is to get the whole car squatted down a bit. Thinking of doing a 2.5 inch drop I know it says three is preferred, but there is less involved with a 2.5. Plus I'll get that extra half inch in clearance for all the speed bumps I have on base.

Ok 2nd tank since the Holes in the rear bumper, and got 30.3MPG. The weather is getting a lot colder, and I didn't drive a lot of fully warmed up trips. Most trips were just to work which is a mile away. So she really never got to warm up and be efficient. Tomorrow I have to travel 160 miles to take a swim test so I will get really good highway MPG numbers with doing 320+ miles tomorrow. Best without the holes on a trip to Montana this summer was 32. I plan on blowing that out of the water.

Well I finally scored the piece I have been trying to get for the passenger side mirror. I'll be doing a DIY soon on it for the EP3. Anyways after about a month and a half of searching for either a trashed side mirror or the piece it bolts up to I got one. Now to wait for it to show up so I can get to work on deleting it.

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Ok well the results are in from the highway tank. 35.95 MPG which I think is very good considering I have a couple days of work on the tank too. Which is just cold running the car the mile to work a couple times a day. I think something is playing a factor here I don't know.

Ok been awhile since last update. I got the passenger side mirror deleted, and I got my wing in from the UK. Let me tell you I got a steal on the wing. I picked up a Civic Type R factory Honda wing shipped from the UK for $125. You can't even buy a re-pop or CF one for that price. The Type R wing does require some Modification because the hatches from the Type R and the American EP3 are different. Figured it out and cut the bulk were I needed to and fiberglassed over the hole to keep the water tight integrity of the wing. Then added a strip of foam sealer so when it bolts up the wing wont bounce against the window, it looks amazing. Now working on getting this underbody ready for soothing it out.

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I believe I see a belt-driven power steering pump on your engine. It might be a stretch since the car is front heavy, but a power steering delete will gain a decent amount of mpg. Your tires don't look too wide so I think turning effort could be tolerable.

If you really want P/S while saving gas, you can buy an electric steering pump off an old MR2 or from a UK Vauxhall or something on ebay.co.uk and hook it up. That's how I would do it on a heavier car.

Another thing that may be a stretch is a racing mirror on the driver's side. It won't have electric adjustment so that might be a problem. My MR2 has the driver's seat bolted straight to the frame so I can do that mod without trouble.

Thanks I'm going to look into that now!

ok on that note I have been schooled more on this EP3. They came stock with an EPS system so don't have to delete that. The thing you are seeing is the AC unit which I'm looking into getting rid of.

The A/C is clutched so drag is very small. You basically have a belt on a free-spinning pulley. I doubt removing it will show up in your fuel economy above background noise, and the weight savings will be minimal. Still, it might help to make some room under the hood, making other things easier to work on?

I want to remove it due the fact that it's tied to the heating and you can't turn it off when I'm using the defroster setting. Which make no sense to me and when that kicks in you can see the MPGs go down on the UG and can also feel it on the power side of the house.

Nice car. Still running the tires at 35PSI? Bumping that up a bit would be free MPGs.
Why not just put a switch to disable the AC clutch for when the car wants it but you don't?

Was thinking that or just pulling he fuse for it.

Ah okay, that's nice. Some Honda K engine powered cars had belt driven power steering, which consumes about as much power as all of the electric accessories combined, sometimes even more.

It's funny that you're getting rid of A/C. I'm in California, I have the heater core disconnected but you would have to pry the A/C from my cold dead hands before I get rid of it, and I'm not even in Socal where it's actually hot year round.

For cost effectiveness I think you can get this "F1 style" mirror off Ebay. Not the lowest drag design, but an improvement over stock:
For 01-05 Civic 2DR F1 Manual Adjustable Carbon Fiber Painted Side View Mirror

The carbon fiber is fake and fitment is probably not the best, you probably want to paint over it with black paint.

I live in Washington and it rarely gets over the high 80s. So Not having AC is not a big deal plus my last Civic didn't have it either so I'm used to not having it. And my VW bus doesn't have it. I'm used to the whole 2 60 air conditioning

Subscribed. Like the rims. Like the grill blocking. Although I know you must have heard this, the tank-to-tank data can't really be thought of a rigorous enough to confirm a FE benefit from your speed holes mod. You'd need A-B-A at least, probably using coast down testing. Got an old '02 Si rear cover laying around somewhere? ;)

But in the end, we have to love what we drive, whatever we drive, since we have to drive so much. And your car looks great.

I'm in Southern Illinois, we definitely don't get Chicago weather, but I have never used the AC much. I've been thinking about my AC delete, 1) for weight savings, 2) because it's like a diet temptation, you don't need to use it, but that candy bar is always there.

If I do it, how do you find a new serpentine belt for after the delete?

It's probably the same unit as the non-Si Civics. There is a sequence you can push to change the behavior of the HVAC controls that will allow you to turn off the A/C when defrost is used. I did it on my '01 HX. I'll see if I can dig it up.

Oh, and welcome, from another Washingtonian (I live in Buckley)

Here it is:

• Have the car turned off.
• Turn the "air condition position" knob to the left all the way (counter-clock-wise).
• Hold the "air-recirculation button" and the "A/C" button "DOWN". (don't touch the "defrost" button)
• Start the car with the "BUTTONS" held down, and wait for 7 seconds. (The recirculation light will flash, keep holding down the buttons till the A/C light comes on.)
• Turn the car off then back on.

Now you can turn the "A/C" off and on now with the defroster setting selected.

Source:
DIY: Shutting of A/C during defrost [Archive] - 7th Gen Honda Forum - The #1 Community for 2001-2005 Honda Civic Enthusiasts

Thanks will try this right now.

Darcane I owe you one. I did it turned it down to defrost light came on pushed the button and BOOM! AC is now off. Just saved me a lot of work, and my wife will be happy because I won't be ripping the AC out.

on another note I haven't tried P&G yet with the car. Let me tell you she glides really well. I was just counting in my head when I accelerated to 70 and then restarted when I started the glide down to 50. I would get almost 4-5 secs past each time. So I had to pick up some stuff from someone, so on the way home for the 18 mile trip on the highway I would P&G the whole trip. I reset the trip MPG on the UG and I got just over 43 MPG on that trip. I saw as high as 47, but the up hills killed it. I was trying to game the up hills as well to try to be on the acceleration portion, and the glide at the top to make sure I was at least glide as long as I was pulsing. So those numbers I was happy with.

Glad to see a fellow Ep3 owner on EcoModder. Awesome build, btw!

Darcane - I, too, owe you one. It worked on the 2000 Accord V6 as well. No flashing lights, so I just held it for several seconds. When restarted, I could turn the A/C on and off with the defrost on. Thanks for the link.

It was very nice this morning having the heat on without the AC running. Made my day for sure.