Tuning the Honda D17

"Comprehensive guide to tuning the Honda D17 engine!"

Herein we provide a guide to D17 tuning and report on the ultimate modifications. Honda D17 provide a fun base for your project and with a few sensible motorsport tuning mods like remapping, turbo improvements and camshafts you will enhance your driving pleasure.

The best D17 modifications on an engine are in our opinion the ones that give the biggest return for your cash.

We won't be swayed by popular D17 modifications, they need to be cost effective.

The cam profile plays a big part in the engines power output so cam upgrades make quite a large difference. The intake & exhaust durations will alter depending on the chosen cam profile, so large torque gains are on offer for cam upgrades.

NB: Fast road camshafts normally raise the power through the rpm band, you could drop a little low down power but higher rpm power will be higher.

Competition camshafts, raise the higher rpm power band but as a result the car will not idle smoothly and low end power nearly always suffers.

A Motorsport and race cam will just annoy you whilst in heavy traffic.

You should ideally match your torque band to your driving style so for a daily driver stick with a fast road D17 cam

Some D17 engines respond better to more aggressive camshaft durations so set your engine up on a rolling road.

The map and fuel pump and injectors also will make differences on the torque gains you'll achieve.

Extending exhaust or intake durations can alter the torque band and on most engines the exhaust and intake durations do not need to match, although most cams and tuners use matched pairs there are some advantages to extending the intake or exhaust durations.

Stage 1 modifications: Panel air filters, Intake headers, Remaps/piggy back ECU, Fast road camshaft, Drilled & smoothed airbox, Sports exhaust manifold.

Stage 2 modifications: Ported and polished head, fuel pump upgrades, high flow fuel injectors, Fast road cam, induction kit, Sports catalyst & performance exhaust.

Stage 3 modifications: Internal engine upgrades (head flowing porting/bigger valves), Crank and Piston upgrades to alter compression, Adding or Upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Competition cam, Twin charging conversions, Engine balancing & blueprinting.

Remaps will help fully realize the full potential of all the parts you've fitted to your D17.

It will usually give around 30% more power on turbocharged vehicles and you can expect to see around 15% on NASP engines, but figures achieved will depend much on the parts you've carried out and the condition of your engine.

It is vital to any performance tuning job to force more fuel and air into the D17 engine

Intake manifold take the air from the intake filter and allow it to be fed into the engine and mixed with fuel.

The bore size, shape and flow rate of the Intake headers can make a big difference to to fuel mixing and power on the D17.

I usually find intake headers are in dire need of aftermarket parts, although some manufacturers provide reasonably good intake headers.

Larger D17 valves, doing some 3 or 5 angle valve jobs and porting and head flowing will also raise performance, and as an added benefit will allow you to get an improved performance increase on other tuning parts.

Turbo upgrades

NASP engines need quite a lot of work when you add a turbo, so we have a separate guide to help you take into account the pros and cons of going this route on your D17

The more air you can get into an engine, the more fuel it can burn and uprating the induction with a turbocharger upgrade makes massive power gains.

When your motor is fitted with a turbocharger modifications are going to net you a larger power gain and you will discover turbo engines will have more solid components.

However every engines have limits

Research these restrictions and upgrade to higher quality components to cope with the power.

We've seen mechanics spending a loads of money on turbocharger upgrades on the D17 only to watch the engine go up in smoke on it's first outing after it's completed.

Big upgraded turbochargers will usually suffer low end lag, and small turbochargers spool up much more quickly but do not have the top end power band gains.

Thanks to progress the selection of turbochargers is always increasing and we commonly find variable vane turbochargers, where the vane angle is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end torque.

Twin scroll turbochargers divert the exhaust gases into 2 channels and push these at differently designed vanes in the turbo charger. They also boost the scavenging effect of the engine.

It is common that there is a restriction in the air flow sensor MAF/MAP on the D17 when loads more air is being drawn into the engine.

Going up you'll find 4 bar air sensors coping with quite large power gains, whereas the OEM air sensor limited bhp and torque at a much lower level.

Adding a supercharger or additional turbo will make large torque gains, although harder to install. We have this article on twincharging if you want to read more.

Fuelling upgrades and mods

When you lift the performance you will need to increase to the fuelling.

More performance needs more fuel. We would recommend you to be generous with your injector capacity.

As a rule of thumb add 20% capacity when fitting an injector, this allows for injector deterioration and provides a bit of spare capacity should the engine require more fuel.

We think this one is common sense, but you'll need to match your fuel injector to the type of fuel your car uses as well.

Exhaust upgrades and mods

You should look to upgrade your exhaust if your current exhaust is actually causing a restriction.

On most factory exhausts you'll see your flow rate is fine even on modest power gains, but when you start pushing up the power levels you will need to get a better flowing exhaust.

Sports exhausts can usually air flow from the engine but avoid an exhaust that is too big or you could will reduce the flow rate. Stick to 1.5 to 2.5 inches as a rule of thumb.

Typically exhaust restrictions can be traced to the catalysts installed, so adding a better flowing performance alternative will help avoid this restriction.

Weak spots, Issues & common problem areas on the D17

The D17 engines, if regularly serviced and maintained, are generally very reliable and have few issues.

Regular oil changes are vital on the D17, particularly when the engine has been modified and is putting down more power than the manufacturer intended.

History of the D17 Engine

• 01–05 1.7 L D17A1 (Civic) DX/LX
• 01–05 1.7 L D17A2 (Civic) EX VTEC/VTEC-II
• 01–05 1.7 L D17A6 (Civic) HX VTEC-E
• 04–05 1.7 L D17A7 (Civic) GX

For more information on Tuning your Honda engine please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss D17 tuning options in more detail with our D17 owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased Honda tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

We need your help improving this article, so please send us your feedback in the comments box below and pass on any tips, points or facts we have wrong or have not covered.

We really like hearing from our readers, and hearing about which parts were the most effective for them, it helps us improve our recommendations and articles to reflect current trends in modifications and ensures that our guides and tips are kept up to date.

Please Check out my YouTube channel, we're regularly adding new content...

Click to accept YouTube Cookies & Play.

This article is flagged for an update, so please pass on specific tips below that I can include. All articles, and content was written by me, Waynne Smith TorqueCars founder. Some outlines are just too general so I appreciate your feedback and suggestions. This entry was filed under Honda. You can leave a response below or join our forum to discuss this article and car modification in detail with our members.

If you liked this page please share it with your friends, drop a link to it in your favourite forum or use the bookmarking options to save it to your social media profile.