Havent seen too many post, or any in fact, of people adding power mods to their car. The 1.6l cant be that unreliable...right? So heres some things I have planned for now, but nothing is set in stone and im open to suggestions.

Performance chip off the bat. Easy, cheap, supposedly gives +35hp and boost gas milage.

Performance Cold Air Intake. Ive seen a few of these posted but none with good airflow locations.

Full Suspension Upgrade. Don't know what brand i want to pick yet but jeez this car cant handle a pot hole for anything.(i avoid them the best i can!)

Cat back (honda fit fart box because why not)

After all this is done, Im the the talks with some people about installing a Honda Civic type R engine and transmission. If anyone has attempted that before, some links would be super helpful.

If anyone has advice, tips or recommendations it would be helpful!

 

There are many posts here about performance mods, what works and what doesn't, and the limits of the Fit engines for modification before you're likely to suffer catastrophic failure. I don't want to burst your bubble, but I will make a few general comments.

1) If there was some sort of cheap, easily installed chip that provided both 35 hp and improved fuel efficiency to a small 4-cyl engine, don't you think Honda would have used it from the factory? Or, barring that, wouldn't it be common knowledge among Honda fans and one of the best selling automotive products on the market? It's your car and money so give it a try, but don't expect much.

2) What do you mean about "handle a pot hole?" Hitting potholes is a recipe for expensive and dangerous damage to suspension components and wheels, especially in a small and low car like a Fit. If you're looking to drive through pot holes with abandon, you might prefer a vehicle with greater ground clearance and suspension travel. Some flavor of Subaru or even a SUV/truck.

3) If you have the considerable funds to purchase and (I am assuming based on your questions, pay someone else to) install a Civic Type R engine and transmission in a Fit, why would you mess around with modifying the stock engine? That's like being hungry, cooking the finest meal you can make with the groceries at your home, and then throwing it away to fly to Paris and dine at a five-star restaurant.

 

Forgot about molding the stock engine.

Go with a K20 or K24 engine swap. Check YouTube for more information. Search K20 or K24 on YouTube.

 

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1. About the chip, if you google "Honda fit power mods" it is the first thing to come up. I know plenty of people who add aftermarket chips to all sorts of different cars and have had pleasant experiences. Its not an uncommon thing or something experimental im doing.

2. Fit handles most bumps, dips, and holes in the ground worse than the few other small stock cars ive driven. Im not flying it 90mph into a pot hole, but when im on the highway i don't appreciate my fit getting airtime from a tiny bump in the road

3. The only engine mod i listed is for the cold air intake. Which i can literally take off and put back into the new engine. Its more like id be ordering from an olive garden and bringing my own breadsticks

 

I'm not looking to argue with you, but having been around cars my entire life (my dad is a mechanic), and having been pretty regular on FitFreak for the past few years, I'm not familiar with any cheap or easy method, including any chip available on the Internet, that will turn a 130 hp car into a 165 hp car. As I said previously, if that was possible it would be part of daily conversation on FitFreak, as I can't imagine any Fit owner who wouldn't spend a couple hundred bucks for 35 hp + better fuel economy. But you should definitely give it a try, quantify your results, and report back here.

If your car is "getting airtime from a tiny bump in the road" you need to get it towed to a mechanic or suspension shop ASAP before you hurt yourself or someone else on the road. What you're describing is not representative of a car with a functional suspension.

 

While I get that there isn't nearly as much GK related info here as forums have tapered off in popularity, there still is great info here. Just grab a snack and brew of your choice then give the 3rd gen section a healthy look though. You'll see that the basics of Progress rear sway bars, a decent shock/spring or coilover with a good alignment is the general way to go in the handling department.

Aftermarket support for the L15B1 is rather lacking. There wasn't any marketed FI options in the states so one would either make their own turbo kit from scratch, live with the car being N/A and doing simple bolt ons and a tune, or either swap in an Earth Dreams turbo L15 or a pre Earth Dreams era K series... The engine swaps being obviously the priciest option due to parts, labor, and dealing with the CanBus system to retain emissions compliance and creature comfort like A/C, cruise, immobilizer, gauge cluster functionality, etc. On the plus side though... There are companies that are producing jumper/conversion harnesses again so this may drive the price of swapping down as well as engine mounts have been made long ago by HaSport.

Until that happens though, it hasn't not been realistically possible to do a sub 5k USD K or L series swap without GOOD parts hook ups (and waiting for discount days at junk yards) and doing the bulk of the labor yourself aside from buying a donor and parting it out to fund the swap. Which would be another headache in its own entirety.

With that said...

Just to be clear cut and honest, those alleged aftermarket chips on modern cars are pretty much the electrical equivalent to snake oil in the case of the Fit.

You'll need a PCM editor such as KTuner or HondaTuningSuite to reflash to the PCM and tune accordingly. Even then you're usually limited to around 130ish BHP with the basic bolt ons, one step colder plugs and being tuned on 93 from the B Spec prepped GKs I've seen on dyno without their restrictor plates. Even with that said, 130 WHP in a roughly 2600lb car is NOT bad. Sure, its still a momentum car but it is a very rewarding drive on track or a good section of road with a good suspension, wheel/tire and brake combo.

I feel that this and the prior pothole statement is a bit over exaggerated but if the vehicle is that unsettled and not absorbing/dampening the road surface abnormalities then you're highly likely dealing with dampers that are at the end of their service life and/or not using situational awareness for the known potholes or hazards on your route.

Depending on the year of GK you can either update to the 2017 to 2020MY struts & shocks (Sach makes and possibly add lowering springs with it as well, pick up the HFP suspension package that Honda offered for the facelift models (it IS compatible with the older cars, make sure you order with your transmission spec since the front spring rates are different between 6MT and CVT cars), or look into some coilover package like BC Racing, Tein, Fortune Auto, Bilstein, or whomever.

Eh... That's debatable depending on intake piping diameter and routing. While the K20C4 (the physically identical Accord spec of the FK2/FK8/FL5 turbo K20) does have the throttle body on the back/firewall side of the engine bay it doesn't necessarily means the intake would transfer over. I'd honestly wait until swap time before potentially throwing any funds in the wind for an intake that won't work in the swap without modification then fab one up once the swap is in and you're doing your final fitment.

This is due to the L15B1 not having many off the shelf cross components that are compatible with recent model Hondas. This includes backdating to the L15A and L15A7, various pre-Earth Dream era K series engines, and updating to the current Earth Dream era L15BE, L15B7, L15CA, and K20C4.


There is not such a thing. Getting a 25 to 30 WHP gain out of GK is doable with a fresh walnut blasting and the onslaught of basic bolt ons but that's after a bit of tuning magic via KTuner to reflash and lock those gains in.

The days of chipping and socketing a PCM to tune like the old P28s are long gone.

 

i bought the direct injected fit BECAUSE it had more horsepower than others....TBH i cant really tell the difference between my 100 HP nissan micra and the fit (might be a weight thing) and now the walnuts...slaphead