First dyno test of 2017 Civic EX-T 6-speed; appears to be underrated
Date: November 28, 2016 21:02
Submitted by:
JeffX Source:
Hondata
Credibility Rating:
Not Specified
Hondata recently dyno tested a 2017 Honda Civic EX-T 6MT sedan. The EX-T sedan 6MT uses the L15B7 engine, rated at 174hp@5500rpm and 167lb-ft@1800-5500rpm. (Note: This is potentially different from the new L15BA that's found in the Civic 5-door Sport 6MT, which Honda rates at 180hp@5500rpm and 177lb-ft@1900-5000rpm. We're not quite sure what the actual difference are, just yet, though).
As you can see from the following plots, it appears that Honda may be sandbagging a little bit on the real numbers that the L15B7 can generate. The plot that you see is the car as it was tested following a full ECU reset, which means the ECU assumed the lowest "safe" octane rating and ran with the safest parameters (which would be something below 87). There was actually 91 octane in it, and after Hondata had made multiple passes on the dyno, it had time to "learn" the actual octane of the fuel, the final numbers settled out at around +10hp and +10lb-ft across the board. So, that's over 200hp and over 200lb-ft (hopefully we can get our hands on those plots soon).
Note that this is not necessarily WHEEL horsepower, as you normally see from dynojets. This particular dyno (Church Automotive, in LA) typically correlates pretty closely to the rated crankshaft figures.
After speaking with Doug @ Hondata, he said that on an ECU that has "learned" the 87 octane fuel, these figures should be a bit higher (around 2-3hp). And filling up your 6MT Civic 1.5T with premium should result in another 5-7 hp on top of that gain for a total of right around 200hp.
The next plot shows this 2017 Civic EX-T 6MT overlaid with a stock 2012 Civic Si (rated at 201hp@7000rpm, 170lb-ft@4400rpm), tested on the same dyno. As you can see, the numbers for the 2012 Civic Si plot are much closer to the factory spec.