Honda Ep3 Setup

Hi there to everyone and thanks in advance for any advice in advance!

Got an EP3 Honda and I am planning to go with a Haltec ecu preferibly the 1500 elite and the 02 wind band for any future plans. The car has already had installed a tegiwa air intake but as planning to make a bit more power out from the k20 i am thinking of a cat back exhaust system. Anyone had any experience with different exhaust manufacturer's? Looking at the tegiwa cat back, spoon n1 and fujitsubo one. Plus are the stock injectors good enough to put up with these upgrades? possibly looking at 220bhp?Thanks again for everyone's help!

Yay - another ep3 owner!

The Tegiwa cat back is not a bad system, decent size, good design and materials etc - and works well from what I've seen from dyno results over in the uk - the Spoon n1 will be loud, and also work well (whats the term the uk peeps have - full asbo exhaust?) - the fujitsubo will be way more tolerable than the spoon one, and again also works well.

But you would probably get more of a seat of pants butt dyno increase by doing a set of extractors than you would doing the catback. The factory exhaust isn't tooooooo bad - you can get a little bit of extra hp easily enough with a catback - even changing the rear muffler picks up a little bit on the factory exhaust - but you'd get more seat of the pants usable torque with a set of extractors than the cat back.

That 220 hp you mention - from what i understand from uk dyno vids that i've seen - is estimated engine hp and should be achievable with your intake and a good tuneup

The stock injectors should be fine - and if your going to change the ecu I'd do that before you do any other mods. If you want to upgrade the injectors after that the cheapest upgrade would be the honda rdx (?) injectors that are i think 440cc and have a different spray pattern - that will also pick up a couple of hp due to the improved spray and ability to tweak the injector spray window a little bit for the engine after you install them. But you'd need the ecu to do that.

Being over in the uk wouldnt it be easier to go kpro tho? there are a lot of good tuners over there who specialise in ep3's and kswap tuning with kpro ecu's. The kpro is designed for the k20a2 you have in your ep3 and there is a metric fck load of maps and stuff available for them and it keeps the really nice multiple maps for cam angle (6 maps) and vtec low and high (2 maps for each of those 6 cam angle maps) - the the haltech does not support that many maps for fuel and ignition. Also the haltech doesnt support the factor gauge cluster water temp display - and swapping to a haltech also knobbles the aircon support - both of these will work fine with a kpro as its a "factory" ecu - but the kpro will have issues with an immobilizer - so its swings and roundabouts really as to what direction to go in.

Having said that I've got a haltech elite / haltech wbo2 on my jap import k20a ep3, and altho people on here will hear me whinge and whine about how this or that is giving me a headache, it's mainly because I'm doing it meself (with help from the forums here) and I'm learning as i go and i don't have dyno access. So getting the results i want and am happy with takes me a LOOOOONG time. But its a hobby and i enjoy it :) well apart from fuel costs these days anyways...

If your going to get someone else to tune it - get whatever ecu they know the best and make sure they have experience with a k-series engine - seriously you'll hear that from most people on this forum - or find a tuner who is experienced with the haltech AND a k-series engine - otherwise the end result wont be as good as it could be.

If your doing it yourself - then the haltech is available as a plug in kit that doesn't require cutting any wires.

You do need to use the haltech o2 as the haltech does not support the factory o2 sensors and you need to remove them or they will carbon up and die. And you also need to use the haltech air temp sensor (a MUST) as the factory air temp sensor is plastic and heatsoaks badly and gives fake readings (60+deg c) when your in rush hour traffic which screws up the fueling calculations and you end up running mega lean.

Apart from those two things its pretty much a plug in option which is why I chose it over irreversibly modifying my jdm ecu with a kpro setup. I can totally revert my car back to stock again if I want to as i've kept all the bits :)

What do you think of your tegiwa intake - I've been umm-ing and ahhhh-ing over one (it requires cutting :\) - I hear that in the rain they just drink water in in due to the snorkel intake - but im getting frustrated and on my 3rd under-bonnet intake setup trying to find one that isn't a hot air intake - and the snorkel would give a constant supply of ambient temp intake air to the engine and "more powah" as a result. If i could find a spare scuttle panel for the ep3 - i'd chop that up to install the intake and be done with it - but the parts are rare down here in nz :\

sorry for the wall of text - hope this gives you a few more bits of info you didnt already have and feel free to ask any questions you want and if i (or anyone else) knows the answers we'll provide the info if we can :)

Hey Lawrence,

MASSIVE THANKS AND HUGE RESPECT FOR YOUR SUPPORT! YOU ARE LEGEND! Well said on the haltech ecu as i am trying to learn myself and the plug and play option really saves me trouble with wiring and I can go back if i want to. As for the extractor for now im going slow and thinking of the tegiwa miltek 3 '' one rather than the tegiwa 2.7'' for a bit more better flow on high rpm maybe when i get a set of extractor as well in the future. Injectors wise i ll stick with stock as i ll be spending enough money but much appreciate the set up you told me. As for the the tegiwa intake it was on when i got the car, dont worry about the water scooping in as it has a drain hole at the bottom of the scoop, i was worried as well!haha the chopping part is something you ll need to sacrifice but it makes sence for the actual cold intake like you said in my opinion. If possible i would too find a second hand part to make the cut on that and keep the other one just in case you wanna go back. Have an awesome day man and again really appreciate the talk with you and all the best with your EP3!