This will help u what is a VTEC and what are the 3 stages
EK3 Honda Civic Ferio Vi Multimatic
The Honda Civic entered it's 6th generation, the "EK-generation" from late 1995 till late 2000. Replaced by the current ES-generation from late-2000, nevertheless many fans still feels the EK-Civic to represent a peak in Honda's acheivement amongst all generations of Civics thus far. In the EK-Civic, the various variants were truly refined to the highest of standards. The SiR was given the code EK4 and carries the 3rd (and as it turned out to be also the last) incarnation of the legendary B16A. This generation also saw the introduction of a true Type-R Civic, the EK9. Best of all, for the person with family requirements, the so-called "executive" D15B engined version was one of the best overall Civic yet designed by Honda.
I have always felt the EK3 Civic to be one of Honda's best overall Civic models. For its market segment and design objectives, it easily ranks alongside the excellence level of the EK4 Si/SiRs and even the EK9 Type-R. Even against the lastest ES2 Civic Ferio RS, the EK3 Civic still show-cases some unique technologies that have rather unfortunately been removed in the Civic RS. I decided to do this series on the 'Executive' EK3 Civics to show-case the unique technologies that it possesses, using two of my older articles to start it off; the one on the D15B engine and the english translation of the Honda Japan web-site's technical article on the state of the art Multimatic transmission. This is followed by TOVA reader Evan's article about his EK3 Civic VTi hatch. While many knows about Honda's Multimatic, few are fortunate to have experience of its usage so I next did a coverage on the Multimatic Driving Experience. Now in this article, I focus on what I feel to be the best overall mid-sized sedan Honda have yet made, the EK3 Civic Ferio Vi.
EK3 Honda Civic Ferio Vi - What's in a Name ?
For the EK-generation Civics, Honda used the model code EK3 to denote the 'executive' Civic versions. As I wrote in the D15B article what I call 'executive' versions are effectively '2nd from the top' Civics, in this case, just below the top B16A and B16B engined variants. Executive Civics are powered by engines with a balance of fuel economy and power and designed for practicality and comfort unlike the B16A & B16B engined Civics which focuses purely on performance to the extent of compromising rather large degrees of comfort and even practicality.
"2nd from the top" Civics relies on the D15B engine in various configurations. The D15B displaces 1493c.c. and is always SOHC in design. In the EK3 series of variants, Honda equipped it with either just plain PGM-Fi which produces 105ps or the now famous 3-stage VTEC mechanism in which case it produces 130ps but with fuel consumption that can reach up to ~28km/l ! With the EK-generation, Honda also continued with the segregation of using the Civic name for the 3-door hatchbacks and Civic Ferio for the 4-door sedans. However, in addition to this Honda also used different type nomenclatures for the hatch and sedans.
Thus in the EK-generation, we now have two line-ups of the executive Civics. The D15B SOHC PGM-Fi (105ps) versions are now Civic Ri and Civic Ferio Mi while the D15B 3-stage VTEC (130ps) versions are Civic VTi and Civic Ferio Vi. All of them are coded E-EK3. The ones you want are of course either the Civic VTi or if you're a more family oriented man with domestic requirements, the Civic Ferio Vi. Both represent probably the one of the best overall small sedans ever made.
The first VTEC-D15B used on the EG-Civics has attractive black crinkled painted valve covers. But since then, Honda have been continously simplifying the engine valve covers. In late production EG-Civics, the black covers were replaced by plain metal covers though still with the casted VTEC word. For the 3-stage VTEC D15Bs on the EK3s however, Honda removed the VTEC word and replaced it with a single 'Honda' word. This move have actually caught many people by surprise - ignorant ones even confidently tell people that EK3s are always non-VTEC and only EK4s are 'VTEC Civics'. And the proof they say is because the valve cover doesn't have the VTEC word !
The non-VTEC D15B and the 3-stage VTEC D15B on the EK3s are actually very different designs. The regular D15B has a top mounted air-filter box, with the throttle body mouth facing upwards. Therefore, the non-VTEC D15B engine has the air-filter box very prominently on top. The 1.6l SOHC engines used on various Asian versions of the EK-Civics looks similar to the 3-stage VTEC D15B however - the 1.6l SOHC-VTEC used in Malaysian even has black crinkled valve covers with the VTEC word. So, how do one confirm that an engine is a 3-stage VTEC D15B ?
Look, 2 VTEC soleniods ! After all, this is a 3-stage VTEC
Well, there are a number of ways to confirm. The most obvious and certain ones are of course the VTEC solenoids. Yes, solenoids, with the 's' because the 3-stage VTEC will have two of them. If I am not mistaken, the 3-stage VTEC D15B is the only Honda engine with two VTEC solenoids. One is for transition from 'stage-1' (12 valve) to 'stage-2' (16 valve 'mild' cams) and the other for transition from 'stage 2' to 'stage 3' (16 valve 'wild' intake cams). As explained, for the SOHC engines, the VTEC solenoids are not located beside the distributor but just on top of the intake runners. The photo on the right shows the two VTEC solenoids very clearly.
The famous "ECONO" LED
Note how high's that red-line on the tacho
The 3-stage VTEC D15B has other technological advances that the plain non-VTEC D15B and indeed many other Honda engines doesn't have. The 3-stage VTEC D15B has the ability to operate in lean-burn mode. Lean-burn mode indicates the engine is running at a super lean air/fuel ratio of around 20:1 !! Normal engines would probably have detonated itself to pieces way before getting anywhere near this ratio but the 3-stage VTEC D15B exploits the 12V mode to acheive this. In 12V lean-burn mode, only 1 intake valve opens during the intake stroke and this causes the air to swirl into the combustion chamber. This swirling promotes a very complete mixing of the air/fuel mixture and with other design innovations, Honda is able to run the 3-stage VTEC D15B at ~20:1 a/f ratio under ideal conditions (very light throttle, level road, etc). Lean-burn mode on the Civic VTi and Civic Ferio Vi are indicated by the lighting up of a green LED on the dashboard with the word "econo" on it. Actually, the 3-stage VTEC D15B is the only Civic engine in Honda's history so far to have this LED feature. For the person who values economy, it is a fantastic way to monitor fuel consumption. Everytime the ECONO led lights up, it means lean-burn mode and the engine is running at ~20:1 a/f ratio. Sustain this and fuel economy will approach 28km/l ! With careful and sensible driving styles, it is often possible to maintain this mode for a surprisingly large part of an ordinary journey. The beauty is that even if there is a need to overtake the car in front, lean-burn mode can be re-entered again almost immediately after the manuveure !
A 7200rpm red-line and ~20l/km mileage
Impossible ? Not for Honda's 3-Stage VTEC !
VTEC engines are of course also reknown for their ability to rev to high rpms. Actually this is not really due to VTEC per-se but rather that VTEC enables the application of race technologies in everyday engines. And naturally-aspirated race-engines relies heavily on high revs for power. The 3-stage VTEC D15B red-lines at a very high 7200rpm, a redline acheiveable by few engines even today. Thus the Civic Ri and Civic Ferio Mi (as well as 1.6l SOHC non-VTEC and VTEC engined Civics) have tachometers with red-lines at 6800rpm while the Civic VTi and Civic Ferio Vi will have tachometers with red-lines at 7200rpm. One can imagine just how much technologies have gone into this unassuming, mild looking yet amazing engine. On the one hand, race-technologies have given us a 7200rpm red-line - way above many cars with claims to being "performance" or "sporty", with race-like wild cam profiles and the induction roar of a performance tuned engine. Then on the other hand, the same little engine will happily putter along at below 2000rpm for speeds up to 70-80kph and at the same time running at a hereto unheard of ~20:1 air-fuel ratio ! This 3-stage VTEC D15B gives us 130ps, a power output range more commonly associated with larger engines as well as mileage of 13 - 14 km/l or more for in-town driving, even higher for long distance journeys - fuel consumptions more commonly associated with small engined economy
