Tuning
Tuning a Type R is a very straightforward process that anyone can easily accomplish with little more than a Windows computer and a handheld device that plugs into your FK8's OBD2 port near the pedals. The major platforms come with several excellent basemaps that will add a good chunk of power to any FK8, and there are many tuners that can take it even further.
Getting tuned
Should I tune my Type R?
That entirely depends on whether or not you want more power or driveability out of your Type R. If so, tuning is necessary to achieve this goal as adding parts does little to nothing on its own. Depending on what tuning platform you choose, you can get entirely new features like full throttle shifting.
Adding a moderate amount of power (50-100lbft) to an FK8 is relatively safe and very affordable, although some parts such as your clutch will still wear faster. Since the FK8's release, there have been very few K20C1 engine failures that didn't involve a methanol system failing, antilag being heavily abused, or the engine seeing very heavy track duty. The basemaps on both platforms have proven to be very reliable and tuners have figured out at this point how to get the most out of an FK8 without making it unreliable. There are daily driven 550-lbft Type Rs nowadays.
However, you should be aware that jailbreaking and tuning your FK8 partly voids your powertrain warranty. If something does happen you may be on your own if the dealership determines your tune was responsible (or could have been responsible) for a part's failure. The ECU shows how many miles it has been since a flash and this cannot be hidden or changed. The rumor that dealers mark down whether or not you are tuned after any service visit is not true, but if you try to get an engine replaced they will probably check the ECU. A new engine is not cheap.
What to expect
Tuning Process
It's extremely easy to tune a Type R. It's not much more than buying a handheld device, plugging it into the OBD2 port under your steering wheel and into your laptop via USB, and uploading a new calibration with a handful of clicks. Downloading and reviewing datalogs is usually just as easy. This section will be expanded soon.
Parts
First off, take every dyno sheet with a grain of salt and keep your expectations broad.
Depending on what parts you install and what fuel you have available, you can land anywhere between 350 and 600 lbft of torque and your horsepower will be within roughly 25 of that. Most tuned Type Rs will be in the 350-425 range due to how easily attainable and reliable that power level is for daily driving. Without a tune, don't expect to make much more than 15-30 lbft extra, even with full bolt ons.
While every manufacturer states that their part will add a certain amount of torque, for the most part many of these parts actually do very little for power output until you're pushing significantly more airflow. However, many of them will help greatly with reducing intake temperatures, which greatly increases power longevity.
Estimated torque output
Note that these tables are very rough estimates of how much peak torque you can potentially make with what's available on the market. FBOs are considered as intake, downpipe, frontpipe, intercooler, and exhaust. Downpipe is assumed to have a high flow cat - removing the catalytic converter entirely generally only adds only 5 to 10 more lbft of torque over a high flow cat. Many parts combinations may not have a basemap available. The estimated price does not include labor or the cost of building the engine, should you decide to do so.
| Parts | Estimated Price | No Tune | 91 Basemap | 91 Custom (+$500) | 93 Basemap | 93 Custom (+$500) | Flex Fuel Basemap (+$400) | Flex Fuel Custom (+$1000) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| None | $0 | 300 | 320 | 340 | 340 | 350 | 360 | 370 |
| Downpipe only | $500 | 310 | 330 | 350 | 350 | 370 | 390 | 410 |
| FBOs | $3500 | 320 | 340 | 360 | 360 | 390 | 400 | 425 |
| Turbocharger + Downpipe | $3000 | N/A | 390 | 400 | 400 | 425 | No Basemap | 450 |
| Turbocharger + FBOs | $5500 | N/A | 400 | 420 | 410 | 450 | No Basemap | 475 |
| Fuel Pump + Downpipe | $3300 | N/A | 340 | 350 | 380 | 425 | No Basemap | 475 |
| Fuel Pump + FBOs | $6300 | N/A | 350 | 360 | 400 | 450 | No Basemap | 500 |
| Turbo + Fuel Pump + Downpipe | $5800 | N/A | 400 | 425 | 425 | 500 | No Basemap | 550 |
| Turbo + Fuel Pump + FBOs | $8500 | N/A | 410 | 450 | 430 | 525 | No Basemap | 600 |
Most beneficial
The table below is ordered from most beneficial to least beneficial modifications for making more power.
| Part | Effects on engine/vehicle/tune | Tune necessary? | Adds significant (> 10whp) power without upgrading turbo/fuel pump first? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flex fuel/Ethanol/Race Fuel | Adds a significant amount of power in the mid to upper RPMs. Easily the best bang for buck mod, but ethanol and race fuel is not available everywhere. | Yes | Yes, but fuel pump greatly increases the potential benefits of ethanol |
| Downpipe | Stock catalytic converter is the most significant initial limitation on power besides fuel quality. Very little difference between high flow cat and catless. Makes exhaust sound way better. | Yes | Yes |
| Fuel pump | Required for getting past 425lbft safely. Allows for adding more boost, especially with a bigger turbocharger. | Yes | N/A |
| Turbocharger | Required for getting past 425lbft safely. Generally sacrifices a little bit of spooling time for a large increase in top end power. | Yes | N/A |
| Intercooler | Significantly reduces IATs and slightly decreases turbo lag. | No | No |
| Intake | Reduces IATs, has very little effect on top power. Most intakes will actually reduce power rather than increase it due to heat soak. Makes turbo significantly louder. | Sometimes | No |
| Inlet pipe | Slightly reduces IATs and slightly decreases turbo lag. Makes turbo louder. | MAF recalibration | No |
| Frontpipe | Has no effect before 400 whp. Afterwards, allows higher top end power. | No | No |
| Exhaust | Has no effect before 400 whp. Afterwards, allows higher top end power. | No | No |
| Charge pipes | Could theoretically decrease turbo lag and heat soak, but no significance for tuning. | No | No |
When to build the engine
The K20C1 has been shown to reliably handle quite a lot over stock power if it is not heavily abused, but there have been engine failures due to improper tunes combined with insufficient parts. There is no known limit to how much the stock connecting rods can handle and any increase in power is a decrease in reliability. There are simply too many variables to say what is and is not safe to run, but a rule of thumb is keeping large increases of torque beyond about 3500 rpm and not heavily leaning out the fuel to compensate for the fuel pump limitations.
Luke Wilson of 4 Piston Racing had this to say about the limitations of the OEM connecting rods:
There definitely isn’t a known limit, and assigning a torque limit is simply a broad generalization. Making power for a few dyno runs and then piddle farting around on the street with the car isn’t the same thing as making the power and abusing it. I have 2 of these cars…one which is abused heavily and one that I keep as my museum baby. Each person treats their car differently, drives differently, and push the limits differently. A lot of guys are making 450-500whp and 400tq and write their strong opinions about the internet being wrong about the limitations of the rods, then 4 days later call me to buy engine parts. We know what happened. Other guys make low power but are sitting on the antilag all the time doing pops and bangs….and they have broken multiple engines….even with aftermarket rods. I’ve also had some well known tuners bend rods that we use at 1300whp and 75psi with a 450whp basic bolt on Type R. That’s just poor tuning and not understanding the injection limits of direct injection. We see broken rods in completely stock engines with NO tuning whatsoever. We see broken rods in detuned factory race cars with less than 300whp and less than 300wtq.
You should consider building your engine if:
- You want to ensure reliability when turning up the power. While the K20C1 is fairly reliable even with increased power, nothing is perfect and there are many variables.
- You want more torque in the low end or you are doing a lot of launching off the line, i.e. drag strips. You will be exerting a massive amount of force at low RPMs.
- You want to be able to reliably use antilag (but not abuse it for show, there is no saving you)
- You heavily track or otherwise abuse the engine.
- You are using methanol injection as an additional fuel source rather than just reducing IATs.
Choosing a tuning platform
As of right now there are two self-service solutions for tuning an FK8. There are also products that intercept and modify the sensors the ECU reads to increase power, but those are not recommended and are not discussed in this article.
Hondata FlashPro
Price: $700 + $250 jailbreak ($325 for 2020+)
Hondata is currently the most advanced tuning platform for the FK8. They offer an at-home remote jailbreak, allowing you to tune your car without ever leaving the driveway. Several additional features can be optionally added.
Unique Features:
- Flex fuel support
- Instant jailbreak from home, no need to send in ECU
- Fuel pump limit and fuel pump duty sensor
- Full throttle shift
- Advanced ignition-based traction control
- A fuel pump upgrade made by Hondata is available, which at the time of writing is otherwise only possible on an aftermarket ECU.
- Antilag
- Tons of basemaps for many different combinations of parts and fuels
KTuner
Price: $450 V1.2 / $650 V2 with touch screen + $250 jailbreak
KTuner is another excellent choice for tuning a Type R. While it doesn't have quite as many bells and whistles as Hondata at this time, it's more affordable and the V2 features an awesome customizable touchscreen. Most importantly, a KTuner unit can be used on any model KTuner supports, whereas Hondata FlashPros are locked to a certain model.
Unique Features:
- V2 has a touchscreen and LEDs that you can customize however you'd like
- Stores up to 5 tunes at a time (Hondata only stores two)
- Much more flexible charting interface on desktop software
- Access to misfire counts
- Basemaps are made by Derek Robinson
Jailbreaking your ECU
No matter which method you use to jailbreak your ECU, two things are the same:
- The ECU is jailbroken forever and you cannot 'transfer' your jailbreak to another car (i.e. if you trade in)
- You can use Hondata or KTuner, regardless of who unlocked your ECU or how, and switch between them freely.
Shipping it out
You can remove your ECU and send your it to either Hondata or KTuner to have it unlocked for $250, not including shipping. Turn around time is usually only a few days. The ECU is extremely easy to remove and neither company actually opens the ECU to jailbreak it.
At-home Jailbreak
You can jailbreak your 2017-2019 ECU from home with anyone's FK8 FlashPro using Hondata's instant jailbreak service.. You simply pay Hondata $250 and the desktop software will jailbreak the ECU from your laptop via the OBD2 port using the FlashPro. No removal of the ECU is required. Notably, it doesn't have to be your FlashPro. If you'd like to go with KTuner and don't want to have to remove your ECU and ship it to them, your friend with a FlashPro can help.
2020+ ECUs can also now be jailbroken from home with Hondata's CAN gateway for another $75.
Local dealers
Many Hondata and KTuner dealers and tuners can also perform on-site jailbreaking and flashing. If you're lucky enough to be near one, this may be the fastest overall option.
Finding a tuner
Due to the Bosch ECU, tuners that are experienced with even the latest generation Hondas may not be familiar with how to tune a 2017+ Type R. While tuners still get to work with Hondata and KTuner, the engine is still a K series, and the principles of EFI tuning remain the same, the approach for tuning this ECU is entirely different. It's smart, sometimes a little too much so, and does things on it's own that a tuner must be aware of to properly tune it. So, before you book a tuning appointment with your local tuner, make sure they've got some experience with the FK8 or European FK2. If they don't, this wiki should tell them almost everything they need to know.
Remote Tuning
For many reasons, remote tuning the FK8 is a fairly reliable and safe process compared to other platforms. We have a built in wideband sensor and the ECU has lots of protection and compensation mechanisms that will kick in if a mistake was made anywhere - especially the closed loop WOT.
While it's not possible to get every last drop of power out of the engine without a dyno giving you immediate feedback, remote tuning is a perfect solution for the majority of Type R owners and will arguably be a better option than going to a local tuner who doesn't want to do their research and won't get that power anyways. It's a very straightforward, laid back process where you just record and email datalogs of you driving in certain ways to your tuner and they send back revisions for you to upload.
A non-exhaustive list of tuners that are familiar with the Type R are listed below:
| Name | Website | Location | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daniel Butler (Church Automotive) | churchautotesting.com | @churchautotest | Wilmington, CA, USA | |
| Derek Robinson (Innovative Motorworks) | imwtuned.com | @drobimw | drobimw@gmail.com | Carlisle, PA, USA |
| Fred Morales (derf.tuned) | @derf.tuned | derftuning@gmail.com | Miami, FL, USA | |
| Gary Bains (Bains Tuning) | bainstuning.com | @bainstuning | bainstuned@gmail.com | San Jose, CA, USA |
| Jeff Evans (Evans Tuning) | evans-tuning.com | @evanstuning | tech@evans-tuning.com | Mount Bethel, PA, USA |
| Kefi (FK8 Clinic, creator of FK8 Wiki) | fk8.clinic | @fk8clinic | kefi@fk8.clinic | Orlando, FL, USA |
| Paul Bwahan (Splitfire Performance) | Facebook Page | @splitfireperformance | splitfireperformance@hotmail.com | Ontario, Canada |
| Pepo Bebosa (Red Star Motoring) | Facebook Page | @redstarmotoring | redstarmotoring@hotmail.com | San Juan, Puerto Rico |
Tuning on your own
The 2017+ Civic Type R comes with a Bosch ECU that greatly changes how tuning is approached compared to other Honda platforms. Most of this article only applies if you are still using the factory Bosch ECU. Aftermarket ECUs such as Syvecs and Motec will have their own completely different strategies for making power.
There's a recurring motif in the Bosch ECU that you will need to learn quickly: it is very dynamic, nearly everything has inertia, and many of the strategies such as knock control and fuel trims are different from other platforms to complement that. Several things are calculated rather than looked up, and many of the tables are limits rather than targets. When issues arise, it tries to deal with them incrementally or in a small time window, so it can get back to peak performance ASAP. What makes a great FK8 tuner is knowing how to balance this overall dynamic rather than just haphazardly increasing random limits or requests.
Dyno procedure
The main things you need to worry about is disabling VSA and the effects of heat soak. Read more here.
Torque-based tuning
The entire methodology by which the Bosch ECU makes power is significantly different from every other Honda to date (excluding the 2015 European FK2 where this ECU was first seen). The ECU calculations begin with the pedal position corresponding to a requested amount of torque for each gear and drive mode. Using a built-in mathematical model of the engine, the ECU will determine the ideal combination of air charge and ignition advance to output the requested torque to the best of the engine's ability in a particular climate.
The throttle body plate and the turbocharger's electronically controlled internal wastegate are what physically controls how much air is let (or pushed) into the intake manifold, and the ECU will internally calculate the appropriate position for both on the fly. This part of the calculation cannot be changed or directly tuned. Comparing tunes or results based on the targeted boost pressure PSI as one does with other Honda platforms is thus almost entirely meaningless. Boost pressure in and of itself is not an accurate metric for evaluation.
Essentially, the Bosch ECU has a much more precise way of controlling the potential energy output of an engine by using an airflow index that is not influenced by temperature, atmospheric pressure, or engine speed. It uses air charge to determine almost every other output.
However, this lack of direct control can make the FK8 uniquely difficult to tune for specific goals. Tuners that are highly experienced with other Honda platforms will be largely lost at first attempting to tune an FK8. While many techniques remain the same, it is much more of a balancing act where you nudge the ECU into doing what you want rather than directly commanding the engine via an assortment of static tables. For this reason, many track-duty Type Rs elect to use a Syvecs or MoTeC aftermarket ECU that control the engine in a significantly more direct (and inherently more dangerous) manner.
Don't add a lot of torque down low
The primary danger is simply due to how outrageously fast FK8 turbochargers spool up. It can be hard for the ECU to control precisely and overshooting is very easy to do, so keeping other parameters like ignition advance and fueling conservative in these areas is wise.
There is no known limit to how much the OEM connecting rods can handle. Currently the rule of thumb is that you should taper off any significant power gains below 3000 rpm, aiming to not exceed 400 lb ft before 3500 rpm. Other than the initial launch off the line, this is perfectly acceptable anyways since a Type R's powerband is from 3500 to 7000 rpm and it will stay in that range for almost every driving scenario other than coasting on the highway.
Balancing between air charge and ignition advance
To make additional power on an FK8, you must first understand how the ECU approaches generating additional requested torque and how it efficiently utilizes the smaller turbocharger.
ECU targets more air charge before advancing ignition
It is vital to know that the ECU will use air charge before ignition advance to achieve the requested torque. It will target as much boost as you allow it to, and then will generate the remaining torque using the requested ignition advance in the ignition tables. Assuming you are already reaching your torque targets, with torque request kept the same adding ignition advance will result in little to no actual change due to the ECU determining it has already reached the torque target.
To increase solely ignition advance, you generally have to increase the requested torque curve while also making minor reductions to air charge or turbo ratio limits. Simply increasing air charge limits will cause boost to increase, ignition advance to decrease, and ultimately little change in power.
In short, the ECU will always increase boost first until the air charge or boost limits have been nearly reached, at which point it will start advancing ignition up to the values specified in the ignition tables.
OEM turbocharger spools fast but is inefficient
The FK8 comes equipped with the Mitsubishi TD-04 turbocharger. Due to it's small size and fin configuration, it excels at rapidly spooling a huge amount of boost but does not carry this boost through higher RPMs. If pushed out of it's efficiency range, it will start expelling increasingly hot charge air which ultimately reduces power.
This is where cam tuning and our exhaust-only VTEC come into play. When VTEC is off at low RPMs, exhaust back pressure is increased and the turbocharger can rapidly spool a huge amount of boost. However, this increased backpressure reduces the amount of ignition advance we can safely run.
Once the turbo has spooled, VTEC should be activated, thereby lowering exhaust back pressure and allowing more airflow into the engine, allowing the engine to run more ignition advance to make up for the OEM turbocharger's lack of top end power.
This is partly what allows the K20C1 to have such a large and consistent power band despite it's relatively small turbocharger and engine displacement.
Fuel pump limits large power gains
The primary obstacle in adding more power to an FK8 is that the high pressure fuel pump is already near its limit on even the factory tune. The fuel pump duty is primarily influenced by changing the air charge limits and target air fuel ratios.
Besides knock retard, fuel pressure is the main thing to pay attention to when tuning an FK8, watching for significant drops from commanded fuel pressure. If the fuel pump reaches maximum duty, fuel pressure will drop and the injector duration window increases. A certain amount of pressure loss is okay for a very short period of time because flow actually slightly increases when pressure drops, but after a point the injection window will become too long and the mixture will not have time to properly vaporize.
Hondata added injection phase (start of injection) tables to further help with this, but it has its limits. At around 160 bars (from 200 bars commanded) the injectors will no longer be able to compensate and the ECU will enter a protection mechanism that greatly reduces power and causes black smoke.
Generally a drop of up to 15 bars from DIFPCMD, while not ideal, is acceptable. However, it is strongly recommended to not try and ride the limits of the fuel pump so closely: the dynamic nature of our ECU can cause such a tune to start having issues later on when it suddenly wants more boost in a different environment. If you're on Hondata, trying to target about 88% fuel pump duty is the sweet spot. Note that fuel delivery is not linear with pump duty, there is very little left to give after 88%.
Being so close to the limit also makes ethanol difficult to use in high concentrations as ethanol requires more volume to burn stoichiometrically, thus taxing the fuel pump even further. An FK8 with a stock fuel pump and turbocharger will generally see no benefit running more than 25% ethanol as air charge has to be significantly reduced to keep the fuel pump from maxing out.
Hondata solutions
Hondata has developed a few things to help with the fuel pump limitations:
- A dataloggable channel representing fuel pump duty as a percentage from 0% to 100%. This was added to the ECU by Hondata and is not available otherwise.
- A software-based fuel pump limit that tracks the fuel pump duty and limits target air charge if it raises past a set percentage (default 88%)
- A full fuel pump system upgrade kit that retails for $2850 and increases flow by roughly 25%.
Closed loop behavior
ECU needs time to learn after reflash
When a Bosch ECU is reflashed, it will be in open loop for roughly 2.5km of driving or 5 minutes while it calculates a baseline for the air fuel ratio. It is critical to not attempt any large pulls until the AF is reading properly and AFCMD is not pegged at 14.7, as the ECU is basically running blind at this point and using a backup fuel map.
Wide open throttle is also closed loop
Even during wide open throttle, the Bosch ECU remains in closed loop and will still make trim adjustments to meet the target AFR all the way to redline. Very few other ECUs do this, generally going open loop as soon as you open the throttle. This makes tuning a Type R all that much easier and safer, especially in combination with our onboard wideband sensor. For the most part, fuel tuning is as simple as setting the overall trim and AFR ratios and the ECU will calculate the rest.
Factory targets stoichiometric near constantly
From factory the Bosch ECU targets stoichiometric (14.7:1) at almost all times unless it is trying to protect the catalytic converter with a richer mixture. To regain control over fueling, Hondata and KTuner simply lower the threshold for when catalytic protection is enabled to a very low temperature such as 400F. The maps that define the AFR curve are actually meant for protecting the catalytic converter. This is another reason why you should let the engine warm up before doing any hard driving.
MAF calibration is extremely sensitive and will cause feedback loops
The Bosch ECU has terrible feedback control, so combined with our 24/7 closed loop an improperly scaled AFM flow chart table can cause much more significant problems during WOT than fuel trims being a little off. If the calibration is off by even a few percent, it can throw the ECU into a feedback loop of over-correction once the AFM voltage exceeds about 4.6v. The power band will be very inconsistent as the air charge and fuel trims will be rising and lowering multiple times a second in a sinusoidal pattern. Additionally, this condition can be dangerous, as the engine is leaning out multiple times per second during WOT. The AF can swing up to 1.5:1 or more from AFCMD. Every Type R seems to vary in this regard, some having extremely bad 5hz swings, others being barely noticeable. In any case, there should never be a well defined swing for any sensor during WOT.
It's normal to see the AF ratio swinging around AFCMD during cruising and idle, but it should be rock solid and pegged within 0.1 of AFCMD during a WOT pull, especially once the turbo has already spooled.
The majority of parts do not seem to necessitate MAF recalibration, but inlet pipes and certain intakes do. The previously believed notion that 'being within 5% of factory' is acceptable is unfortunately not true due to the existence of this issue. Generally it will only be a handful of 1-2% adjustments to get rid of the swings. Multiple FK8s tested by FK8Clinic that were only off by 3-4% at certain voltages would exhibit this behavior until they were slightly rescaled.
L.TRIM is recorded by RPM
The L.TRIM on the FK8 ECU moves around quite a lot compared to other platforms as well because it is stored by RPM. For example, the LTRIM at 3000rpm has little to no effect on the LTRIM at 6000rpm. This may be beneficial to know when tuning the AFM flow charts.
