If you are unsure about it, the piece of mind and having the liability for mistakes rest on a mechanic shop will make things easier to get past your insurance agent in the event something occurs.

If you are confident, have the tools and an understanding of what is involved along with a service manual go for it.

Since it took a few hours, either he is OCD and gave you a good alignment, or he just wanted you to pay him a few more labor hours (especially if he is flat rate and not book rate)

 

I did a set of springs awhile back for another FitFreak in her driveway because I could and she couldn't... I think I had a shot or two of her Bourbon but I didn't charge her a thing.... Another Fit Freak wanted her to drive to his place in a different town and pay him $250.... I thought that this place was a site for enthusiast to share knowledge and talents with others that have the same interest.

 

One of the things that has kind of stopped me from doing all my own work on my Fit is its my only car. I have always been worried I cant get the work done in time then I would be SOL

 

Bolded for emphasis...

This is an important point, learned this lesson when I was younger.

Staying up till 3-4am to finish so you can drive to work gets old fast

 

In did a lot of that also. The reason was that I seldom paid over $400 for a car or motorcycle and usually much less than that until I was almost 30... When I was 37 I was driving a Rabbit I had paid $300 for and at 39 I had a $400 hearse. I was used to going to sleep at 4:45 and waking up at a quarter till 5:00 but I always felt like I hadn't slept at all.

 

LOL

---

Let's assume there is something to this "150 hp" youtube video. Notice the Unichip in the mods list:

YouTube - Honda Fit GE8 AT 150HP Dyno

Also, here is Shiro, who I think is on this forum, saying he put down 133, and lo and behold, a unichip in his list too:

YouTube - Shiro New Jazz GE8 RS AT @ Sentul Circuit - JFC track day

 

IIRC Shiro said that was 133.5 HP at the flywheel which is a gain of about 11-13whp, and as far as $/HP that is pretty steep, if you check out his list of mods..

Unfortunately the video of 150HP GE8 doesnt provide a dyno graph to go with the pull, and he says that he did a full port and polish in one of the first couple comments.

Which if you are not doing it in your garage is very expensive and time consuming. I do it for my engines, and it requires taking the head off the block which requires taking the timing case off (among other things), disassembling the head, giving it a lot of love from a dremel, then cleaning the deck, hot tanking, reassembling the valvetrain, buying a new headgasket and then retiming the engine. Even then if you don't know what you are doing you may hurt things more than you help. Especially since bigger is not necessarily better when it comes to port work. It is all about flow velocity and laminar flow.

Here's why you should buy a junked head to practice on and experiment with (doesnt matter what it comes from):



So I don't see that being feasible for most Fit owners, he also mentions he only picked up "10HP" from doing this, not clarifying whether thats at the wheels or the crank.

For reference, I picked up only 3.x lbs/min (about 30whp) after spending >40hours on the cylinder head currently on my Laser.

Thats only 30whp on a 2.0L engine (25% more displacement) Remember these gains were under 18-19psi on a 34lb/min turbo, the Fit will see less than that, and you might actually hurt cylinder filling (VE) if you don't do it properly and in an educated manner. Head work is expensive if you don't do it yourself, and even when a reputable shop does it, there may be no gains to speak of unless they are flowbenching it in stages..




I am already in the process of another one.



Here is what it will look like after I send it to Carlos at Tirado Custom Coatings and let him do his magic:

 

I'm not opening up the engine, but I'm sure some other people need to know what they are getting into going down that route. What are the options for the exhaust side with the internal header design? Are there extrude hone methods that might work? Seems like an even bigger job just to get to the damn thing.

 

That is a great question, I am not sure we will even need to port our heads considering how much power people make on stockers in the Honda/DSM crowds.

550whp with a mild cam is common through stock DSM heads, and Honda heads seem to be very efficient as well, I hope they would be atleast with 20 more years of tech behind them.

The only thing that would make me cautious or hesitant about extrude hone/port a GE head would be that the Honda R18 cylinder head, as [Lyon]Nightroad was able to point out, actually has a smaller integrated exhaust outlet than the GE, for a motor with 300cc more cylinder to evacuate.

Look here:

 

That is puzzling. What is that, a pre-cat in that one on the right? I assume the previous manifold the turbo replaces on the other one was just like it? It's a honda, so I'm thinking emissions stuff having to do with quick heat buildup and gas volume (read: slower velocity with more heat), but I'm really beyond my actual knowledge base at this point. haha

 

About the resistor (UNI Chip) thing....... If you have done intake and exhaust changes, the damned things work. It will make your car stay in open loop but 14.7 to 1 isn't rich by any means and your ignition timing will advance further.... I was getting 39 MPG with one during the winter and driving 90 MPH for miles at a time with a similar item, axle back and SRI. To do it on the cheap I'd suggest getting a few resistors of differing ohm values and a scan gauge set to readout the IAT sensor temperature figures, cut the 5.1volt wire to the IAT and put the resistor inline between the wire ends.. You use a resistor that will bring the scan gauge IAT readout down to half of what the reading is at operating temperature. It worked well for me and is still on my car but with the reflash I don't need it to run any richer than it does..... I was in the red with bad reps for bringing it up then so watch the haters come after me again.... Oh well....

 

Well hotter exhaust gasses means higher velocity and more energy vs. the same volume of cold gasses.

This is one of the things that allows my 2.0L gasoline engine to spool a GT37R/GT40R-sized in a streetable manner. (My BorgWarner S259ETT was originally a turbo for 9-12L diesels)

Because 2.0L of 1400*F gas exhaust, while likely smaller in volume than 9L of 900*F diesel exhaust, can still make up the difference in velocity and spool the turbo in a manner that makes it streetable.. Even with a "giant" 74mm turbine wheel and 59mm compressor.

This is what the theory states, and in practice holds true. But other factors like the number of turbine blades, turbine housing design and size etc all play in, but it is a good general example.

My configuration has 10psi in 3rd gear @ 3000rpm, and though I am still retuning my VE table for my new setup (larger IC piping, intercooler and throttle body elbow among other goodies) I was achieving full song spiking to 35psi @4100rpm falling to 33psi by 9250rpm redline, before she went down for surgery again.

I seriously need to leave it be for a while next time I get it where I want and enjoy it..

 

I know exactly what your saying! I had a 99 P-pumped 24v that I traded in for the fit... I sure miss the torque!

As for the OP, diy. There is a great DIY for springs on this site if you search for it!

Did the work for you! https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/2nd-...r-ge8-fit.html

 

I had a 12v 6BT with a "monster" VP44 injection pump.

It was the kind of brute force, where if one was so inclined (and you could find the traction), one could move a pesky neighbors house right off the foundation and to, well, where ever you felt like stopping really...

I am still kicking myself for selling it.

But its cash for a good cause! (School tuition and Land Speed/Standing mile tech certs/licensing and equipment)

 

Apparently they've never been on a diesel forum.

 

Yeah, so my theory is that the larger opening makes the gasses slow down when they reach the outlet. Otherwise, and overall, it seems we have a long way to go on the ge before we will know where the limitations really are.

 

While not a truck, I had a TDI with large injectors, chip, higher voltage MAF and straight pipe. Had to use a dawes device for the vnt to keep the boost from spiking up to ~30 psi, and then upgraded the clutch and flywheel to something that could handle the power. Was a little beast. Torque is so much fun, but I was tired of laying down lines of black smoke, pissing people off, and also having to rev the hell out of 1st to not to get rear ended on the 1-2 shift in traffic, which comes up pretty quick. 2nd gear - smoke screen - wheels screetching for dear life. Bye bye.

Not a car for everyone. Especially considering it could be grenaded by stomping on the accelerator below 2000 rpms or so, which I hear the dealership had done against my advisement before the subsequent owner got their hands on it. They contacted me (gave the dealership permission for them to) asking if it had ever popped out of 3rd before. /facepalm Shouldn't have taken off that little manual boost controller thingymabob dealership! That's what a 30 psi spike out of 1.9L of diesel fury will do to a transmission!

 

The only diesel trucks I have had were N/A 1600cc VWs... They were quicker to get moving than a 302 CI automatic F-150 with the same weight on board.... I would love to own one like what you had Hayden.

 

Diesels are a completely different beast. Shift when torque starts to fall off, usually feels like a short shift if you come from gassers, I'm guessing your talking about the VW/Audi TDIs? They come (underrated IMHO) with something like 235lb-ft from the factory! They use something like a Garrett-Honeywell GT1549 turbo right?

I'm surprised you didn't strip the teeth off gears or blow your diff

When people hear the turbo(s) from a diesel car or pick up and ask you what boost your running (was always the first question I got at least) and you tell them 30+ the look on their faces is priceless. Whenever we were towing one of my toys or a friends and we had to stop somewhere we would get as many people asking about the diesel as the cars. Usually the kids wanted to know about the car, but the guys mid 20s and older always wanted to know what the heck we'd done to the oil burner to make all those jet noises and black clouds..

 

Oh, believe me, I know. Just sharing a bit about my experience with it. Yes, it was a VW TDI, and had a garrett vnt15. I had the dawes set to limit the boost spike to around 19, iirc, but it wasn't a well tuned car. Didn't have the time or money to keep up with the latest. Those guys eventually pushed big power with little to no smoke. They came with around 150 lb.ft. at the wheels stock. That twist could be doubled for not too much cash. Most of VWs numbers are wheel-power figures.

Those cars are pretty stout. Most people just end up breaking cvs, but only when lowered. The newer cars are completely different, make tons more power, use common rail injection, and I know nothing about them.