The Civic Has Boost! - Intake R&D, Part 1: Stock System
Some exciting news in the Mishimoto garage - we have finally been graced with a brand new 2016 Honda Civic with the 1.5L turbo engine! We have planned our R&D process for the design of a performance intake and we are starting this project by dissecting the stock system so we can learn as much as possible. Let's jump right in!
The Stock Intake
2016 Honda Civic Parts undergoing inspection
Honda has done an excellent job with their new Earth Dreams 1.5L motor. This turbocharged engine has a power output rated at an impressive 174hp, which is a nice amount of power for this new-age Civic. We are very excited about this chassis and we are eager to dig in and develop an awesome intake that will provide easy bolt-on power. Let's check out some shots of the stock system on the car.
Stock 2016 Civic intake
Stock 2016 Civic intake
Stock 2016 Civic intake
The intake has simple routing, but the system is more complex than you might think - we will get to that in a bit. You'll notice that part of the intake piping is routed right over the turbocharger. In our design, we will opt to leave this part of the system alone so as to help with heat soak. Check out some images below.
Stock 2016 Civic intake piece over turbo
Stock 2016 Civic intake piece over turbo
Removed 2016 Honda Civic parts
Another pretty interesting design feature is the way that air is diverted to the intake. On the front driver-side part of the hood, a small rubber diversion plate is located right above the intake inlet. We had to be sure that this air diversion was indeed the purpose of this piece, as that is crucial to how we will go about designing this intake.
Stock rubber air diversion plate
Hood nearly closed
As we closed the hood, you can see in the shot above that the plate is placed right next to the vented area, which is empty space that air passes through. So, the air comes into that space via the front grille. Check out an image below that was taken from behind that area.
Path air takes to get to the intake
Let's dive into the stock system components a bit more. Below is an image of the entire system.
Stock 2016 Honda Civic parts
The top half on the right is the intake where the air passes into the airbox. This is also the location of the air filter. The bottom half on the left is the resonator that attaches to the intake. It is more common in modern cars to have resonators incorporated in stock intake systems. They enhance the sound of the engine inside the cabin by means of specific frequencies.
Let's see more in-depth images of these 2016 Honda Civic parts!
Stock air filter
Path air takes inside this component
Stock MAF housing
To wrap up this introductory post, let's go over the goals we have set for this project.
Goals
Include a fully enclosed airbox
We want to be sure that this Civic is getting the coolest air possible. Since this is a very tight and compact engine bay, it is important that we keep things cool with this intake, so an enclosed airbox is a necessity.
Utilize the factory air duct
Utilizing the factory air duct is important here. There is already a design in place for directing fresh air into the stock intake, so why not make use of that in our design?
Replace only the top portion
The top half of the stock intake looks simple enough, however, removing the resonator was a complex task. We'd like to keep the resonator exactly where it is, which will keep the install easier and also reduce the number of parts that need to be removed from the car.
What's next?
We will be designing and testing a prototype to see what kind of improvements we can make. Up next, our prototype design!
Thanks for reading!
-Diamaan
