Revised Suspension Settings

Couple of days back, I had my HotBits DT1 shockers sent back to Speedworks for a full service and I took the opportunity to have the suspension setup revised.

After 6 months of driving and testing with numerous setups, I discovered that the best setting to my likings for the spring force would 60-kg/cm for the front and 40-kg/cm for the rear.

So I had Speedworks revised my shockers together with the new spring setup and now its working flawlessly. The damping and rebound on the road is just nice and exactly to what I wanted.

As usual, not a single cent was paid for all the work done as the shockers are still under warranty, and on top of that I was given another 3 months warranty extension starting from the serviced date.

40-kg/cm force springs

Stage 2 Turbo Project - Garrett GT2554R

Update (01/08): Item sold.

This turbo is now up for sale at RM 4,200, please get in touch with me if you're interested. Only 2 left in the entire Malaysia.

The stage 2 turbo kit is finally coming in to picture with the arrival of the most important component which is the turbo itself.

This little baby here is rated to produce up to 270 HP and is suitable for engines with the displacement from 1.4 liters and above. With a dual ball bearing design, we would expect minimal lag from this turbo even on the small 1NZ-FE engine.

It is quite common for ball bearing turbos to spool up at least 15%-20% faster than similar sized journal bearing turbos while giving better damping and control over shaft motion, providing enhanced reliability for everyday driving.

This GT2554R turbo uses a dual stainless steel ball bearing cartridge and is the smallest ball bearing turbo available from Garrett. With the ball bearing design, we won't need to supply as much oil as needed compared to journal bearing for lubrication of the turbo.

It also shares the same oil and water cooling housing design as my current GT2056 turbo, however the major differences between the both of them would be the bearing design and the power output.

We'll see how well this turbo performs when it goes in.

Stay tuned fellas.

Medklinn Mobile

What I am about to introduce here has nothing to do with the performance of your car, however this product worked so well I wanted to share it with everyone.

Meet Medklinn Mobile, a car air sterilizer/ionizer that plugs right in to your ciggarette lighter socket.

I got it for my car for the following reasons:

1. Despite my best effort there are still tons of dust particles inside the car and I can't take it anymore
2. Durians, if I ever brought any in to the car it'll take forever for the smell to go away

In order to deodorize and detoxify the air inside the car, this device works by flooding the entire car's interior with massive amounts of negative ions to remove offensive odours and pollutants such as pollens, dust particles and exhaust fumes.

To be really exact, it actually emissions up to at least 2 million negative ions per second in order to achieve that effectively.

So do not confuse this with some voltage stabilizer products that also doubles as an air ionizer.

This is not a voltage stabilizer, this is the real deal.

The Star Online actually did a cover on this device 2 years back then and the article claims that the average number of germs on your steering wheel is actually more than double the numbers of germs residing in your toilet.

So did it work for me? Hell yeah. Not only I noticed that my dashboard and audio head unit now has a lot more less dusts, I actually brought different types of food in to the car cabin to see how well this device works, including durian.

And indeed, it worked well.

If it can actually neutralize durian smell, it certainly would have no problems with any others.

So I wind down my window and threw the Ambi Pur out from the car as I no longer need it to cover any smell in the car since I can actually remove it now.

This device requires no maintenance, costs RM 300 and is backed with a year of warranty from Medklinn.

The content of the package

Close up shot

Emits a cool looking blue neon light during operation

Stage 2 Turbo Project - Toga Bearings & AJUSA Head Bolts

The bearings and head bolts arrived yesterday, collected the package and had them sent over to GT Auto this morning.

When I showed it to Toby and Thomas they looked at them and gave me a weird and puzzled look.

Toby : Oi, what is this? Juan show him the ACL bearings!

Thomas : Eh? The bolts not ARP wan ah?

HELLO UNCLES! If ACL had produced bearings for the 1NZ-FE don't you think I would have bought it? And that goes for the ARP bolts as well DUH!

Then they proceed to show me a set of ACL bearings and ARP head bolts and boy I was so disgusted! :P

Anyways we opened up the package to examine the bearings and they seem to look fine. The Toga bearings are tri-metal cast copper lead with electroplatting babbitted overlay and they come with a 3 year/60,000 KM warranty.

AJUSA claims the head bolts to be higher grade than stock bolts, but they definitely don't measure up to ARP. However, they are indeeed heavier than the stock bolts.

Well we won't know how true those claims above are until it all goes in to the engine.

AJUSA head bolts & Toga bearings

The bearings are individually stamped

AJUSA head bolts

Open Challenge To Garage R

So AsiaOne published an article about Garage R and their recent 8.8 seconds quarter-mile achievement.

While many quickly jumped and applauded them for their achievement, I sincerely believe that before Garage R starts making claims in the public media to be the fastest Evo in Southeast Asia they should probably first make a trip down to Malaysia Sepang International Circuit and refresh their 9.4 seconds that they've clocked here previously. (although the article actually claimed a 9.1 seconds which I don't know where they got it from)

Taking into consideration that the venue used in Carrerista Jamboree for the drag event when the record was made is not even a proper built circuit, then throw in an uneven and bumpy road surface I have reasonable doubts that the timing could be anywhere near accurate.

I know some of my Singaporean friends or readers might start flaming me for this post, comments are welcomed but I just want to clarify that I am not dissing anyone here but to cast a shadow of doubt on the claims made by Garage R, thats all.

I mean yeah Singapore Motor Sports Association can sanction all they want but the fact is that the road was uneven and bumpy and the record wasn't made on a proper drag strip.

So, Garage R. Why not you make a trip down to Malaysia and do your 8.8 seconds here? Don't you want to refresh your old 9.4 seconds record that you set here last time?

You have fans here as well, I am sure your fans will be more than happy to see you participate in the upcoming Sepang Drag Battle.

If you can't make it in October, there is another round in November.