Suck and blow! - Updated 09062009

Breathing better isn't only important to an active sportsman, it's also key in making gobs more power and my darling Silver just ain't breathing right. So over lunch, I visited Fer (my mech) for a little tweak of the intake tract. Fer opened up my manifold a little more to provide more throat for the suck, then Kiong (exhaust dude) took out one of my resonators and welded a 2.2" pipe in its place for the blow.

Exchanging my Apexi unit with my Werewolf (local brand) currently used in Daniel's Civic. What a samaritan I am.

Billy hooking me up with the exchange.

Silver reunited with my "Werewolf" muffler. Locally made, low on budget, but works awesome and sounds fantastic.

DOHC T/B ported maximum and polished smooth.

As I was also facing trouble installing my strut bar (I've been running without one for oh-so-long and I miss it dearly), I'd also replaced the super large throttle body (which is a little rough around the edges) that came with the engine for my stock SOHC throttle body to get a smoother flow pattern in the mean time whilst I get my DOHC one modded to fit.

DOHC T/B getting prepped for milling to allow my strut bar installation.

On the mill for removal of excess material.

After some soft testing last night, it seems the combination of all three changes done had resulted in lower low end torque but with much more up top, with excellent response to boot. I also had better fuel economy and a smoother revving engine. I guess bigger isn't always better aye?
Still, I can't wait for the other throttle body to get back from the mill. I wonder how the larger throat would affect this setup?

Hooked on '63~!

After delving deeper into the Mitsu experience, I've fallen for its' most illustrious powerplant, the 4G63. My recent excursions with the DOHC have gotten me more and more addicted, to a feeling I'm growing towards, a feeling I'm craving to experience again, an experience that lingers in the back of my skull, culling at my will, waning my restraint. Then it struck me... I'm addicted to torque!

After driving numerous turbocharged rides up the Penang touge routes, I've found that an FI FWD is a real challenge to be kickin' it with. But the amount of control involved, pedal work, and stupendous torque steer just livens the experience. I've been skulking around the www and found a tuner Sanjev is practically devoted to, the AMS team site. Enlisted are some of their works.

AMS SCCA North East Division Road Race Champion.
The multiple win, AMS SCCA South East Division Road Race Champion.

The brutal 2.3L AMS Time Attack EvoCheck out the stupendous rear wing... It bolts right onto the frame.

AMS is also the winner of the Castrol Top Shop Challenge where the target is the highest output per litre of capacity wins. This AMS beaut pumps out 1035HP runnin on only 100RON piss-water.. Dang!

Finally, for the 2009 season, the AMS Time Attack EvoX, which already has titles under its belt since November 2008.

With chassis work that's the stuff of dreams! Can you say chrome-moly costs moolah!

I know these being Evos and all... But with such potential that these turbocharged monstrosities possess, I'm sure the NA 4G63's aren't that far off... Right??? Right???

Guys... Wait up...

Scooby Dooby Doo

Another Scooby visits RPM for an intercooler swap. This version nine belongs to my very "painted" friend whom traverses the N-S highway often. Good choice on the car to be making all those trips in. I just love the awesome bodykit. Those little carbon fibre lips are just to die for. Even so, just the little front lip costs RM1,300.00. Yikes!

The intercooler is removed along with all necessary piping and prepped for the install.

Anyhoo... His weary old I/C had battered fins and loads of other "battle" scars. See how much ink he has on (himself I mean)?

Another STi unit is installed and ready for blasting.

This is the first time I've actually watched the Defi VSD in action.

This is where it all happens.

Ooh... Version 9 has the DCCD fun button for some "slide-ways" action.

Awesome STi keychain made from actual carbon fibre, every Scooby driver's necessity! You dun even wanna know how much this costs.

Finally, a Ganador item to complement the outrageous body kit.

We talked and drank the afternoon away whilst Chun tried to manage 1.5 bars of boost on his Kancil. But that's another story, for another time. 'Till then, see all you readers again.

Ciao~!

Refreshed, Revised, and Reeeally Fun

"R3?", you read??? I could only imagine Proton's "heffer-of-a-car", the Perdana, being improved by Proton's R3 division. But heck, I just couldn't resist using this title/connotation, with all the "R" abbreviations in our daily automotive banter. A summary and continuation from my Cuore Sostituzione posting, Silver (as the Silver Banana will now be known) has been refreshed with a new breath of life, running on a revised heart and it truly is much more fun to drive.


The old heart sitting at RPM, tired and weary.
With a failing crank and trouble breathing, Silver was refreshed by RPM with a 4G63 DOHC that promises gains in more ways than one. The initial "drop-in" was completed in a hardly believable day (since everything is plug and play), with the wiring taking just another day to complete.

Here's Chun and Joe checking out the head after opening it up in god knows how long.
It still looks "ponna" clean with no residue or gunk to be seen anywhere.

I'm not one for painted valve covers... So I got down to stripping the paint with some paint stripper and Joe did the finer crevices.

The valve cover all shiny and.. er... blank!

I got this awesome Mitsubishi strut bar from a buddy in Sg. Petani. Fits like a glove, and I ain't seen anything like it before.

Engine hoisted up and locked down.

An original Mitsubishi oil cooler came with the engine, so heck, anything that comes with, goes with right? So Joe hooked it up without a single hitch.

The DOHC sits in nicely with loads of room for them to work, still.

Here's Chun doing some final inspections and prepping for the initial crank. Some simple maintenance was done to ensure everything was running smoothly and off we were for tuning!

This is my first experience going for an on road tune and Fer (my mech) offered to drive whilst Mael (my tuner) did all the fiddling on his device. I just sat back and enjoyed as they pulled gear through gear en route. First round of rough tuning were completed and I was told to putter around to feel and feedback on lacking areas.

Finally, here's a pic of Silver at Kiong Lee to revise the piping diameter as the engine is suffocating from the stock exhaust system from 14yrs ago. Honest! I'm not really one for changing pipes. Kiong removed a restrictive resonator and retained the stainless steel reflective one (yes, I run 2 for noise reduction), and a new 2.2" pipe was installed in its place up front. Bring the noise!
Touge sessions were inevitable to test out Silver's new and hefty heart and how it would affect handling and control. After just an initial session, I found that acceleration has been much improved and I needed to increase the amount of steps in my throttle control to reign in the wheelspin mid-corner.
After 3 weeks of driving Silver, I can't wait to book Mael for my next tuning session with him for fine tuning and hopefully improved driveability and fuel efficiency. Not that I'm complaining though, I'm getting gobs more power (esp. torque) and only 2cents more per kilometre. I guess hitting 2 out of 3 of my initial targets (referring to the Cuore Sostituzione post) ain't that bad. Now I just gotta wait it out to see how the durability of this lump holds out.

I'm just loving this new lump of metal right now as its a whole new bag of tricks and I just can't perform enough to match it. Time to tighten up my lines and increase the level of pedal control.

Another Cardiac Transplant

The Northern Touge family seems to be facing lots of cardiac arrests of late. A multiplicity of members are getting loads of surgery done and worst case scenario members are getting transplants. What of this grim post? I'm actually speaking of the automotive sense and such cases area aplenty as seen here, even our meek Mark is getting a massive build in progress.
Here's a look at the donor whose turbine infused aortal pump now resides in Meek Mark's green monster.

The long time service 4G93 SOHC is now belittled and regardless, now sits in Mark's garden as part of the landscape.

A retrofitted bumper, by Soon, from another donor now provides protection for the intercooler in the form of a this aluminum mesh.

The I/C is well hidden and quite hardly seen from prying eyes. Heck, we might re-paint it in a contrasting black just for kicks!

As gleeful as Mark is of his 4G6X (*hint* Green Monster is still kept legal *hint*) "cuore sustituzione", he'll be leaving for the US soon and this little baby might be left to the ever caring hands of the NT team. Watch out touge kakis, another contender has just been born!

p.s. With all the current automotive excursions and regular upgrades, I guess a little write up on the Silver Banana would be anything but uncalled for. Keep your eyes peeled on this site.

Northern Touge Mega Gathering

Daniel and Soon were just sitting around chatting when Dan was struck with the idea of having a huge gathering of all touge kakis in Penang under the Northern Touge banner. A couple of SMS flew around and lo and behold. We had a mega gathering on our hands.
We all met up at the Balik Pulau Kassim, which we love coz got lotsa parking space, where friendly banter and chatter took place whilst more and more friends continued to arrive.
We managed to book 6 tables for all attendees and yet, our table was overflowing. We literally breached into the surrounding tables.
We did a little touge action and ended up at TB dam area where we cooled off to the excellent night breeze. Organizers Daniel and Soon can be seen laying back after the successful event.

Here are a couple of other members standing under the light having a chat and some automotive banter. There were many more in the shadows... You know us nocturnal types :P

Me Silver Banana posing with the most expensive touge car to date, a Merc CLS350.

Compliments to Patrick for this excellent shot of my Silver Banana with super bright HID backlighting. Thanks a lot for the great shots of our outing dude.

We concluded the evening's festivities with a cruise down to Gurney for a drink and off to bed we went!

Thanks a million to all the members that had showed up and for all that didn't... You missed out. Hah! But it's ok, there's always next time aye? You can be sure there'll be round 2, stick around.

Of new paths, Of late

It's been a hectic transition and a fruitful one I'd say. I've been moving on to a new job, new people to work with, to get to know and to familiarize myself. New responsibilities, new adventures and misadventures. There's a whole lot of "new", with little familiarity, not even a sliver of complacence remains. But heck, nothing ventured, nothing gained right?

As such, my blog had laid to repose for ever such a long pause. To my dear readers, I assure you, tons of pics had been captured, moments laid in digital caches, and updates are imminent... So is death, I hear. Hence, I promise, the updates will be up soon.

Stay tiu-ned! Cheers all...

Project E30 - Complete

Another trans-mogrified frankenstein (initially seen here) rolls out of RPM Autoworks, only to be unleashed on the streets of Penang. Seng's E30 SR20DET is complete and tests commenced yesterday. Good luck with the build and we don't hope to see you all too soon! :P

MR - Revisited

I previously had a short stint in an MR-S (read here) around "congestion hour" (in Pg its 6-7p.m.) and thus I could only flavor its handling on very select occasions. However, this MR's owner called me up and told me he was getting some suspension parts replaced and a set of new dampers installed.

So I packed up my lunch and headed off to RPM and the install was nearly done, I got a few pics though :P TRD Sportivo shocks and springs yo!

And his little MR had got some huge new shoes. This white baby is now running on 18" staggered fitments. Upon completion, the owner told me that a test drive and review session by the Snappy one was warranted and who was I to refuse? We took off to the nearest hill and did a short run.

And of course, photo ops are never of short supply. I love Penang scenery.

Handling was fantastic, the TRD suspension set really gave the MR-S a whole new perspective. Plus this little car is really obedient and could be told whether to under or oversteer even mid-corner. Excellent!

I have to say though, that the ride was excellent save for the 18's kept scraping all round. I guess more is not always best ;)