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

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.