As some of you may have already seen, we recently leaked a few renderings of our Turbo Inlet Pipe Kit for the 2016+ Honda Civic 1.5T platform. Our team is ready to shine some insight in regards to what we’ve been up to, why we’ve “taken so long,” and why we’ve kept things under wraps.
Since the very beginning of our R&D on the 1.5L Turbo Civic chassis our focus has been to offer products that increase efficiency on Honda’s already notably efficient L15B7. One of the components we have been discussing how to feasibly upgrade, manufacture and bring to market over the years has been the tiny and ugly factory plastic turbocharger inlet pipe. Upgrading the factory inlet pipe will increase airflow before the turbocharger, allowing the turbocharger operate more efficiently. However, this project has given us quite a few obstacles to overcome.
The factory inlet pipe’s design is a rather complex unit. Honda’s injection molded piece utilizes a built-in bypass valve (BPV), vacuum, charge air (compressor outlet) and evap ports. All of these features paired with tight routing and unique profile of the inlet pipe has faced us with an engineering nightmare. Could we design a desirable prototype in our CAD software? Sure, but the real difficulty in manufacturing, though, is transforming an idea or design into a functioning and affordable reality. Our design team has been working together behind the scenes, implementing new technology, tools and manufacturing methods that we’ve acquired along the way in an effort to bring an aesthetically pleasing, affordable and high-performing turbo inlet pipe kit to market.
We are still making a few minor revisions to our concept before moving forward with a prototype piece for testing, but we are happy with what we’ve come up with and are happy to share our progress with the 10th Gen Civic community. Much more data including dimensions, comparisons and material(s) will be released shortly. Stay tuned!
Basic Tech Information:
The Civic Si and Non-Si models utilize two slightly different inlet pipes. However, despite common misconception, the difference between the two in terms of flow and performance is very minor. Both pipes feature similar cross sections. – Please note that our Turbo Inlet Pipe will fit both Si and Non-Si models with stock and/or stock location, drop-in upgrade turbochargers.
