A big Thanks to HybridJDMHonda for taking the time to write this up and post it!
if the mods wanna move this to the teg forum tahts cool, but i figured civic people would benefit from this too..
first of all, i choose the skunk2 because of the plenum and runner design.... basically the skunk2 manifold is built almost identical to the ITR manifold, with fat runners and a fairly large plenum, helping in the mid-top range from 4K rpm and up. i would have gone with something like the JG but tahts made for cars with 450+hp, whereas i'm only pushing a little less than 300hp... the JG is also made for power up top, past like 7k rpm, which i didnt need as much as the mid-range.... feel free to ask questions or whatever.
Heres a pic of the manifold fresh out of the box... on the flange where the manifold connects to the head(on the right in the pic) you'll see a fitting... this is where a short coolant lines from the thermostat to the manifold. all of the other fittings are used for vacuum or sensors...
to get started, disconnect the negative side of your battery... i'd reccomend taking pictures or labeling vacuum lines and stuff like that so when you are putting everything back together you'll have a reference.
completley drain your coolant since you'll be disconnecting quite a few coolant lines -- if you decide not to drain your coolant you'll end up spilling antifreeze all over.
relieve the fuel pressure in the system by loosening the bolt on the top of the fuel filter...
now you can start taking off sensors and disconnecting vacuum/coolant lines..(brake booster, FPR, etc)
disconnect the fuel line from the fuel rail and disconnect injector clips(you might wanna label each clip so you know which one goes to which cylinder.
remove the throttle cable, and intake piping from the throttle body, and disconnect any coolant lines or sensors that go to the throttle body.
now on the underside of the manifold there is a coolant line that tees off in a couple places... there is a bracket that holds this line on.... there is one 12mm bolt on the left, underside of the manifold near the throttle body that needs to be removed, also there is a vacuum line for the PCV that needs to be removed from the same area.
on the underside of the manifold in the middle there is a vacuum source box, this is just held in by a clip type of deal, and can be easily removed by pulling down on it... refer to the next few pictures to get a better idea as to what i'm talking about.
now you can remove all of the 12mm bolts/nuts that hold the manifold on to the head(it takes a while to get all of them especially on the underside... use an open end wrench when needed. and pull the stock intake manifold out... disconnect any lines or anything that is holding the manifold in.
picture i used for reference....
once you've got the old manifold out you can swap over all of the sensors, injectors, o-rings, gaskets, throttlebody, etc.. check the o-rings and gaskets to make sure they arent torn or damaged, and replace them if needed, other wise you can reuse them.
now you can put the new manifold in, and start connecting everything back together... the vac. line that use to go to the acuator for the secondary butterflies just connects to the front side of the manifold, and the line that connected to the backside of the stock manifold goes on the backside of the skunk2 manifold. reconnect all coolant lines, sensors, etc.
heres a picture of me connecting a vacuum line to the front of the plenum... basically, this line is coming from a tee .. one side comes from the PCV(small box on the back of the block near the oil filter) and the other comes from a vacuum line of the EVAP.. then you extend a line to the front of the plenum and connect it.... i just bought a brass tee from napa and some vacuum line and did it that way. and since there isnt a spot on the new manifold for the EVAP...i just ziptied it near the master cylinder..
everything fit on the skunk2 manifold fine, and bolted up fine.. the only problem i ran into was the blow off valve hitting the hood....
so i chopped off part of the extension on the flange and rewelded it...
now be sure to completley refil your cooling system, double check all lines, sensors, etc... reconnect the battery and start the car.
it should idle high until you reach the normal operating temp...
i had to play with the idle adjustment on the throttle cable but other then that it was fine.
if you have a rough or bad idle make sure all of your sensors are connected and all of your vacuum lines are connected. listen for vacuum leaks and coolant leaks.
I noticed a nice mid-top end range, and it was definantly worth the $245.... install is pretty straight forward, but some parts of it can be time consuming.
i apologize for any grammar or spelling errors but i typed this up pretty quickly... i'm sure i missed a few things so i'll come back and add them later.
By: HybridJDMHonda
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