Project FGK-Hotbits Performance Exhaust

After more than a year, I finally got myself a performance exhaust. Having considered various exhaust brand in the market from Hotbits, Works-Engineering, Everco, Superstreet etc. I finally decided to go for the FGK extractor. It must be stated at the outset that this FGK extractor is not in any way related to the FGK Japan (Fujitsubo) exhaust. To avoid confusion, I'll refer to the Malaysian FGK as FGK (and not the FGK Japan). Apparently, I was told that the FGK is a registered trademark in Malaysia.

Anyway, I came across this local FGK extractor lately thanks (or no thanks) to Drex. According to Drex's own words, "Welding and material quality (of the FGK is) better than Hotbits. Unexpectedly, surprisingly worth the cheap price!!". [The words in the round brackets are mine]. I had the opportunity to do a short visual comparison between the hotbits and the FGK, it seems that the welding of the FGK extractor does look much better than Hotbits extractor in the sense that the welding of the FGK is more smooth and fine. 

That aside, I have no regrets getting the FGK 4-1 extractor. No noticeable power loss below 3k but there is a noticeable power surge from around 4k onwards all the way to 7k rpm. At high rpm, I can feel the air exiting from my exhaust at a rapid rate which makes the rev and the car feels lighter. Perhaps, this is what 4-1 is all about, torque at high rpm. For those who is unsure of whether to get 4-1 or 4-2-1 extractor, I believe Drex's chart is useful to explain the difference between the two setup and then it's up to the driver to see which one to get.

Drex's chart illustrating the performance difference between a 4-2-1 and 4-1 extractor

Generally, 4-1 would improve the mid to high rpm range at the expense of the performance at low rpm whereas 4-2-1 improves low to mid rpm and generally throughout the powerband.

To complement my FGK extractor, I got myself the Hotbits straight flow muffler. I kept the original mid piping. So now the sound is awesome. At low rpm, it is bassy whereas at high rpm, the sound is firm. Absolutely no regret. Thanks to Drex for the recommendation and advice. Much appreciated.

In the meantime, I will continue to observe the performance and will be posting a dyno chart soon, maybe at the end of the year.

Master Drex fixing the FGK extractor

Proud user of the FGK 4-1 extractor

Picture of the dyno chart. The chart was overlayed by Drex for ease of comparison

Feel free to check out the video

Service with Mobil 1 Fully Synthetic

Ahhh....am typing this at 9.31pm after a long fun trip in Indonesia. After a fair share of adventure and even bigger share of bus ride, I am happy to be standing on Malaysian soil earlier today at 1.15pm. So what did I do the first thing I get home? Spending time with my beloved ride of course. This time around, 'we' made a trip to Bernard's place aka Maddriver's garage because 'she' is due for oil change.

Previously, I filled her up with the Petronas fully-syn 5w40 and today, I chose to fill her up with Mobil 1 fully syn 0-40.

So the million dollar question, how is this Mobil 1 engine oil? Well...I feel that my engine is smoother (if any). Seriously, the difference if there is any, is too negligible. Having said that, I did feel that my engine revs lighter but this feeling, is so minimal until it may very well be considered as placebo effect. In other words, there's no noticeable difference. The reason why I say that the engine revs lighter / smoother is because when I drove my car out of maddriver's garage...I enjoyed this light feeling but after that, it gets all normal.

Notwithstanding the above, the biggest difference I can feel now is that with Mobil 1, I can continue driving my car the way I drive with an absolute peace of mind knowing that my beloved ride will be reasonably-well protected.

4 Liters of Mobil 1

Signal Light problem solved

Today I'm in a good mood because I managed to fix my car's signal light problem. I was having this weird problem, every time I turn on my right-hand side signal, it won't retract on its own after I make the turn. While this doesn't affect my driving/cornering but it is slightly annoying because I need to turn off the signal light. I would say the annoyance rating is 1.5/5.

Actually this problem surfaced after I collected my car from Proton SC. I highlighted the problem to them and they had ordered and fixed the center cone and center console (the white plastic thingy behind the steering wheel) but yet, they could not fix it. After close to 3 weeks, Proton SC gave up on rectifying the problem and told me that it's due to my steering + NRG kit. Well, from my point of view, they just push the problem to me and tell me to go solve it myself. Of course, I am rather disappointed with them because this problem can never be associated to my momo race steering + NRG Kit because after I installed those items, I never encounter this problem.

Please view the video below for better understanding.

Well since Proton SC cannot rectify it, I had to go back to Kakimotor Sunway. I reached Kakimotor slightly after 10.00am and by 10.30, they managed to pin-point the problem. Half an hour later, I got back my car with the problem fixed. Viola. I'm so happy. Kakimotor don't know how much labour costs to charge, they said RM20 which I gladly paid.

Car Detailing Session with Sonax

Today is a rather tiring day because it's time for me to perform the monthly claying, polishing and waxing on my car. I normally use Turtle Wax products but recently, I came to know about this product from Germany, known as Sonax. Unlike other well-known products in the market such as Meguairs, Turtle Wax, Perma Glass, Soft 99 [and the list goes on], Malaysians at large have never heard of Sonax (at least among my car friends). I guess it's largely due to the fact that Sonax products are not available in most retail stores. In light of this, I decided to write a review about the Sonax products that I have used to let more people know about this product. As the saying goes, shared joy is double joy.

Apparently Sonax is a very reputable brand in Europe and is one of the world's leading car care product manufacturers. They used to sponsor a few F1 teams in the past but currently, they are the Mclaren Mercedes F1 team's official supplier.  

Having tried out the Sonax Active Shampoo 2 in 1, I was quite pleased with the overall performance of that shampoo. I have used many shampoos before but I was using the Turtle Wax Ice Car Wash which costs around RM70 prior to the Sonax shampoo. The Turtle Wax Ice Car Wash is quite a good car wash, it's thick, sudsy and smells like honey dew whereas Sonax shampoo works as good as the Turtle Wax Ice car wash but only cost RM30. Nevertheless I feel that the Sonax shampoo doesn't feel as thick but it works and cleans the car well.

A side-by side comparison of the two car shampoo bottles

Now a quick comparison between the two, Sonax shampoo costs RM30 for a 500 ml shampoo whereas the Turtle Wax Ice car wash costs, as said earlier, around RM70 for a 1.89 liter of shampoo. Now, Sonax doesn't look that attractive anymore, right? Well, Wrong. This is because the Sonax shampoo boasts an impressive 1:500 concentration ratio which means that, only 20-30 ml is required to fill up 2 gallon water unlike the Turtle Wax Ice car wash which requires 2 Oz. (59 ml?). So in the long run, Sonax is more economical and if you need to clean a very stubborn stain, just use the Sonax shampoo undiluted.

Notice just a small cup of Sonax shampoo is needed to produce 2 gallon of water full of bubbles?




Anyway, I started off the detailing session by giving my car a full 'shower' using the Sonax shampoo.

See how dirty my car is after just 1 week?

So after I washed my car, I dried it with the Sonax synthetic chamois. Well, the chamois absorbs water very well and it is an essential tool for drying your. Now I cannot imagine drying my car without it. I use the chamois to wipe of the water from my car and then followed by the Sonax ultrafine microfiber. If you ask me, it is a quality product which comes at a very reasonable price.

After washing the car, I clay my car to ensure that my car surface is free from any contaminants. The result? Well, a smooth surface. Then, I apply the Sonax Xtreme Polish and Wax No.2 using the Sonax application sponge. I don't know how much polish and wax liquid I have used to polish and wax the whole car but it's not much really.

It's very easy to apply especially with the application sponge

Not bad for an amateur

Now my car is rather shiny. Well, I'm quite satisfied with the Sonax Polish and Wax No.2. It costs RM47 and I'm sure it can last for another 3-4 applications before I need to restock it. So am I going staying with Sonax for my car care need? A definite yes.

I like the shine :-) If someone like me can do it, I'm sure you can do it far better

A mirror like shine, well almost yeah?

The water bead

Well considering that Sonax is a quality product and has exceptional value, I am looking to replace my current Turtle Wax Ice products with Sonax once they are finish. But I'd still keep the Turtle Wax Ice Synthetic Liquid Polish as an icing on the cake :-P

For those who are interested in buying sonax products, you may visit here http://extremecarcare.blogspot.com/
It is an online shopping place for Sonax. I got my stuffs from there.

p.s.: I do not get paid for writing about my experience with Sonax, I'm just a happy customer.

Accident at Klawang Route

15 May 2011 marks a very special day because it is on this day that me and my neo had an accident. On that fateful day, myself, Izrin, Amir, Syed, GFX, Yehlai and DJ decided to go on a midnight drive on the Klawang route. We all started the drive around 12 midnight and few corners after we passed the beautiful dam, my car understeered badly into the drain. I was shell shocked as to how it could happen. Well, it was a dearly mistake as my front rim was broken, the rear rim was scratched badly, my drive shaft bengkok, my door slightly out of shape, bumper cracked and many other damage that was later detected in Proton SC.

Before the drive, I was feeling very uncomfortable with my car as I have adjusted my camber setting and not only that I wasn't used to the new setting, it felt weird for me and I was yearning for my old original setting. But after the warm-up session, I managed to overcome those hard turns and was able to build up my confidence with the new setting. For some reason, I decided that I was going back to the tyre shop to adjust back to my old setting the next day. Well, sad to say that I didn't get to carry out that decision because, after the warm up session. I decided to up the game a little (seeing that I managed to clear the warm-up session) and was driving close to my usual speed, each corner passed gave me slightly higher confidence which induces me to increase more pressure on the pedal. Until, this particular corner, a huge sweeping left hander, my car understeered right off the road and onto the drain. I was shell-shocked for it was the first time that I was caught by such heavy understeer. Maybe, I think, maybe I pushed the car beyond my driving ability and beyond the car's safety limit. I guess, I was going at too high a speed. Truly a good lesson for me. I forgotten my sifu's words to me, don't push to the limit on the street. The street is, afterall, a very limited stage. Safety comes first. Well, in the midst of having that much fun on the touge, one tends to forget the basic.

So my car was stucked in the drain, Izrin, Amir, Syed, GFX, Yehlai and DJ all worked together tirelessly to help me pull the car out. Seriously, words cannot express how much I appreciate their presence there that night. Without anyone of them, I don't think things will go as easy as that night.

Firstly, thanks everyone for helping out in getting the car out. Especially Izrin and Syed who had to go around finding solid object as a platform for my car to roll out of the drain. Well, according to Syed, he claimed to have seen a white cloth or commonly known as a "kain kapan", a type of cloth which is used to cover dead bodies among the malay community. Apparently Syed and Izrin lifted a nearby wooden plank before Syed started running for his life leaving Izrin behind, who then slowly put down the wooden plank and left too.

Secondly, thanks to GFX, you are like running a mobile clinic with all the useful tools in place. From carpet to hydraulic jack. Seriously, they are a huge life saver. Without them, we would be stucked there longer. Also to Yehlai who is one of the coolest guy I've seen. I'll forever remember the crazy anxiety when we failed to keep up with the tow truck which was towing my car!!

Amir and DJ, thanks for your laughter and companionship that night. Of course, special thanks to amir for being the last car. I don't think that's a nice place to be. LOL. Again, thanks everyone who cruised at 10km/h on klawang that night together with me. It must be very boring and tiring for you guys. I'm so sorry for the trouble. Special thanks also to Syed who went to find help at the police station. Special mention must also be given to both GFX and Yehlai who both accompanied me to Kajang police station. It was around 7 am when it was all done. Somemore Yehlai had to work the very next day. You guys are the real angel.

I'll forever remember what you guys did for me that night. Of course, my car stucked in the proton service centre for almost 1-2 months.

Well it'll be sometime before I can drive with you guys again.

Sigh

Ouch

 See, the thing is bent?

 What become of my rear rim

 New rims :)

Project Oil Catch Tank

I got a free oil catch tank as my birthday gift recently. Well, actually oil catch tank is not an essential item for satria neo as indicated by some because the amount of oil trapped by the tank is so minimal that there is no real reason in installing it in the car.

Well, since I got it for free, I took it to Drex for installation.

For those who don't already know, the purpose of an oil catch tank is to trap oil in the form of mists and blow-by gases to prevent them from which would otherwise be routed back to the intake for the engine to burn off. Apparently, the oil catch tank is able to collect the oil mist and condenses the fuel vapors while allowing "cleaner" gases to be passed back into the intake. However, the oil catch tank must be cleaned every three months just in case.

Can spot my oil catch tank? It's in the pic

 This is my Oil Catch Tank