Project FPR

Another minor modification for my beloved ride. After changing my stock exhaust to aftermarket performance exhaust, my car was running rather lean as shown in the dyno chart [please see the Project FGK-Hotbits post for the said chart].

At first, I did not bother much with the air fuel ratio ("AFR") because my trusted tuner, Drex told me that it the AFR will not put my engine at risk. It's just a matter of my engine's performance is not optimized.

Then one day, I came to know that one of my friends was going to change his car and yes, he is letting go his Works Engineering FPR. On top of that, he is letting go his FPR at a bargain, RM180! So I decided to get the FPR off him.

Once the FPR is in my hands, the only natural thing to do is to head over to EA Autoworks to get the FPR installed. So, any difference felt after installing the FPR? Well, I don't feel any difference. LOL!

Works Engineering Fuel Pressure Regulator

I have dyno-ed my car at GT Auto Sunway. I can see that my AFR is no longer "running" wild.

** Update (21.4.2013) **
I experience a lot of hissing sound with this product. Not sure if it's due to the product leaking or what. I contacted Works Engineering who told me that it's normal when it's new. The thing is, I have been using it for a more than 5 months but it's still hissing. Still resolving this issue.

Goodbye FGK 4-1

This post is dedicated to my beloved FGK 4-1. Thank you for serving me well all these while. You are really a good extractor. However due to some unavoidable circumstances, you have to go :-( Afterall, you deserve to be used by a new owner.

FGK out of the car

Race Tech Performance - CAK & Smooth Shifter

Hi,

Some of you already know by now, I have recently pay downpayment for my future home. Seriously, getting a property is not easy as there are a lot of costs involved. Say, you need to pay for the loan legal fees, MOT stamp duty and not to mention, the bulbs, fans, air-conditioner...this is the reason why I have not been modifying my car lately. In fact, I have not done any modification on my car since the mythelogy LCP. Speaking of the LCP, it's been some time since I last blog about my car, the mythelogy LCP which I have previously saved as draft was not published recently due to sheer inadvertence. :P

Anyway, after having saved some money, I come across Race Tech Performance's chasis alignment kit (CAK) and the smooth shifter. They are relatively cheap, CAK costs RM220 whereas the smooth shifter costs RM120. At least, those are something I can afford.

First thing first, the smooth shifter! Satria Neo drivers are well aware that the gear shift from the first and second is far from smooth. The gear shift is blocky and can be quite annoying. So when this thing came out, I asked Drex from EA Autoworks whether this can help smoothen the blocky gear shift from 1st to 2nd gear. He said, "most certainly". So I got it installed on my ride.

Ta-da, the smooth shift

Initial impression is that, the gear stick becomes overly stiff and firm. The feeling is like as though your gear is laden with super glue which makes shifting very very difficult and tiring. I asked Drex about this and was told that this thing will season in after about 3 weeks. As to date, I am still driving with this and truthfully, the gear shift has become much better. It's smoother than when I first installed. It is defnitely more solid and precise. Hope this product will be great when it fully settle in. 

As for the CAK, things didn't go too well. Remember the Klawang crash I had? Well, when Drex removed one of the subframe screws, we have problem putting back the screw in place. Apparently a nut inside the chasis (near the sumframe) is dislocated. We suspect that the mechanic who repair my accident, forcefully screw the thing in and as a result, dislocating the nut altogether. 

Spent hours at EA where Drex tries every possible ways he can think of to tie the subframe back and to make sure that my alignment doesn't run. All this so I can drive my car home. Well, thankfully he managed to do just that. 

So on Monday, Maddriver and I went to Sureen's place to get the nut fixed. I left my car there but when I'm back, the car is done. I am not too sure how it's repaired but I was told that Sureen did another nut to hold the subframe. All's well ends well!

To be honest, I don't feel much difference with the CAK. My car doesn't feel more comfy, I don't feel any noticable difference in the chasis feedback....my far is still firm....

Project Mythelogy Lightened Crank Pulley

Happy Chinese New Year, Gong Hei Fatt Choy to everyone. Last Friday, 20 January 2012, I went to EA Autoworks and got a Mythelogy LCP from Drex. It was a very hectic day, busy at work, then the trip to EA after work is crazy. The weather was bad, the traffic congestion was a nightmare, took me almost two hours to get from my office to EA Autoworks. To add salt to injury, the installation of the LCP took less than 15 minutes. LOL.

I am absolutely happy with the LCP. Absolutely. I felt instant improvement with this baby. At first instance, I felt that my poor low end has been fixed. Tap my pedal and I'm off. The engine feels lighter and the revs is light across the rpm. I guess less burden on the engine due to the LCP frees up more power to the wheels :P

Apparently this LCP uses the best Japanese patented PTFE coating process. What is that you wonder? According to EA, it is aluminum oxide, which forms a composite layer with the PTFE, which then provides mechanical, thermal and chemical protection to the aluminum surface of the pulley. 


On top of that, the best part of this LCP is that it has the same size of the OEM LCP and it is dampened too. So no worries about the critical vibration which may be damaging to your car :D


Since I'm so happy with this product, I'd say thank you mythelogy, Drex and EA Autoworks. 

14 January 2012 Dyno Chart

I dynoed my car on 14 January 2012 at GT Auto to see the performance gain after changing to FGK extractor + Hotbits muffler. Guess what? I am extremely happy with it. I'm glad to have listened to Drex at EA Autoworks. Before this, was contemplating between several exhaust brands, WORKS, Hotbits, Everco etc., at last, I decided to go with my current setup for just RM1000. As compared to, something double that price? [except for everco which is quite well priced but it's not stainless steel].

Ever since I changed my exhaust, I felt an improvement and this feeling has just been confirmed with a dyno. Note that both dynos [now and my first dyno] were done in GT Auto on the same machine.

So what is the performance gain? Let the picture do the talking.

I passed both my dyno charts to Drex and he overlayed them. Hence this picture. The copyright of this picture belongs to Drex which was used with his kind permission.

Project GAB SS

Recently I changed my suspension to GAB SS. Now I have the ability to adjust my car height and damper rate as and when I like. This feeling is nice but adjusting it may prove troublesome.

So how is the cornering performance of this GAB SS? Put it this way, absolutely sweet and no regrets. Well comfort is sacrificed, if you speed at bumpy roads, be prepared to feel the bumps. Fair trade off, I'd say. Well, the reason why I change to this suspension is so that I will enjoy a firmer ride with minimal rolling. Also to reduce the unsprung weight and to have the overall planted feeling, not to forget the more aggressive lowered look :-P

I believe I have achieved all that with this GAB SS.

But on Christmas day, on the way back from my friend's place in Rawang, I was going a bit too fast on the downhill and didn't brake hard enough for the speed bump....cracked my bumper, dislocated the front part of my engine bay a little. Spent another RM70 to put everything in place. LOL...Still no regretz, the feeling when I throttle at the corner will put a smile on my face, anytime.

My Christmas present box

Inside my present box

Notice how the front looks lower than the rear? Serious no-no for me, re-adjusted it thereafter

Project K&N Drop In Air Filter

It's been a while since I last posted. On Christmas day..ah...the time when everyone is having a good time, well my ride is no exception. It's about time I change my OEM air filter and at last, I decided to go for the K&N drop in air filter. Previously, I was contemplating between open pod and drop in. Some of my friends advised me to get open pod whereas some dismiss the very same idea. So I'm left to decide.

Open pod is claimed to improve performance at high rpm whereas the low end would suffer. Sounds good eh? Not to mention, the beautiful intake sound -the perfect icing on the cake -

Well, open pod is marginally more expensive than a drop in setup, and more complicated. One would need to customize an air ram or get a ready made ones [for a start]. That would set you back around RM100-RM250 depending on the material and workmanship. After that, one would need to look for a good heatshield as open pod is susceptible to heat which is not good for your engine performance which means another RM50-200. Another thing to consider is that open pod would tend to get dirty faster than conventional filter. Well, since more air is going in, can't help that the dirty particles may escape the filtration, isn't it?

Contrast the above to drop in, well drop in is just plug and play. Take out your original OEM filter, fit the aftermarket filter. Easy as A-B-C. Well it is said to improve air flow but the performance gain is said to be superior to that of the open pod. Despite this, I decided to get the drop in. The reason? I don't see it as an integral part of my plan to build a 130 whp Neo. I heard that Neo MME retains its original air box + higher air flow filter AND the Satria Neo R3 are using K&N drop in filter but pushing 145 hp. With this backdrop, I guess drop in would do the job just fine. Afterall, I'm not building a hardcore high hp engine. Since a drop in will give me what I want, I don't need open pod. Not to mention, no suffering during hot weather and a relatively cleaner engine. Total costs of the K&N drop in filter is RM250 from Kakimotor.


Why K&N? Well, K&N claimed to be the best air filter in the world. Since K&N 'live and breathe' air filters, it's only natural that I look at them for air filters.


Ok, last part. How is the performance? To be honest, I don't feel any difference. LOL. Nothing at all. But I have no regrets. Since I can re-use this filter again and again and I'm sure the high flow characteristic will benefit the engine in some way. Perhaps a 1 whp increase? LOL

What's inside the box?

Ada K&N sticker, Ada GAYA