Recently, I had the honour of being invited to Perth to get a bunch of cars tuned.  There were some modified Civic FN2s, and also an Integra DC2.  All modified and needing a tune to maximize the potential of these venerable Honda engines. It was also a good time for me to take a break from work after many a frantic month since the start of the year.

Instead of boring you with the intricacies of the tuning details, engine modifications, blah blah.  Just share a little of what went on during my short trip.

I rented a car at the Perth Airport from the good guys at Hertz Rent-a-Car.  I was determined to be an environmentalist this trip and preserve Australia’s nature as much as i could.  After all, I am quite the advocate when it comes to driving souped up cars around without a catalytic converter.  For now, let me try to build up on a little bit of good karma…. By going GREEN!!

I rented a Hybrid vehicle albeit it being a little pricier than the regular sedan, but what the heck, it was only for a few days.  I will just try to drive more sedately during this period to save some on gas to make up for the higher initial outlay.

This was my first time in a Hybrid.  Pretty cool stuff I must say.

Always my favourite icons.

BAD BAD BAD

The acceleration on this Camry is really zippy!  From a standstill, I estimate that it would out sprint most regular 3L sedan.  I think, it would even give a built K20 motor a good run for its money; till about 80km/h that is.  Which actually is all the speed that you need on our restrictive local roads.

Where I was put up.

And what a beautiful view.

Pictures of some delightful dishes I had for this short holiday.

Menu from a regular restaurant

versus an amusing menu that I took when I was in Zhuhai, China for tuning on another trip.

For once, an entry that I hope is more palatable with my readers who are not so technically inclined.  I thank you for your time here with my humble blog and hope you will be back for more soon.

Now, finally, here is the article as posted by my customer in an International type R forum.  I trust they should be pretty pleased with the outcome of the tune.  You can read more about it here.

CT Engineering has been selling supercharger kits for Acuras/Hondas for a long time.  However, they did not have a complete kit for the JDM FD2 Type R.

We got them to send us all the parts that they had to fit on to all the different models of the Acura/Honda K series engines.  Items like pulleys, tensioners, belts, for K20, for K24, etc.  So we had all the parts, be it from the RSX, TSX, Civic Si, etc to ensure that we will at least have as many parts as we might need to complete the installation in the JDM FD2 Type R.  There is no kit offered for the JDM FD2, so we just wanted to make sure we had everything.

Here is a breakdown of the parts that came, it is really complete; Belts, OE Gaskets, hoses, charger, bolts, pulleys, etc.  CT Engineering even included a set of brand new IK24 plugs from Denso.

Instructions from CT Engineering recommended that we crush the fuel pressure regulator in the fuel tank so that we can have more pressure/fuel.  However, as I wanted this whole setup to be completely reversible, we went with a slightly bigger set of RC engineering injectors and left the fuel pressure regulator alone.  After the tune, we realized that there was sufficient fuel supplied from the factory fuel pump.  Exactly what we wanted.

As this supercharger kit does not come with any aftercooler, we decided that this engine needed the neat setup from AEM water/meth injection kit would aid in the cooling of the charged air.  This has been tested and proven on many other cars that we did.  In addition, the stock engine on the FD2 has a factory static compression of 11.7:1.  That is really high for forced induction, and we needed to have the coolest intake temperatures to keep any detonation at bay and also make better power!  We normally used an output on the KPro to run the water injection system.  That way, we are able to trigger it base on RPM, throttle position and also boost levels.  However, as the flashpro does not have any external outputs yet, we were left to run it off the stock AEM controller simply based on boost.  It works fine, just that I would have preferred the pump to come on based on the RPM vs Boost setting for a finer control.  I am sure in future, Hondata would be able to incorporate a feature like that in the Flashpro as they already have a PWM control now for boost control.

This car has Hondata Flashpro in it, and it worked like a charm controlling the larger RC Engineering injectors.  they idled perfectly and were easy to tune.  We managed to get 262whp on the heart-breaking mainline dyno… a regular FD2 type R normally musters about 180whp on this same dyno with an intake mod.

As mentioned, with the high compression NA engine.  Utmost care was taken while tuning this monster.  Timing the water injection right, choosing the most suitable water jets, VTEC engagement points, variable cam angles, appropriate fueling for the right air fuel ratio, spot on ignition timing were all contributing factors to a perfect tune on this engine.  The tune was just like having all the perfect ingredients put together by a Michelin-starred Chef.  Simply delightful to drive and never fails to put a smile on my face, not just when giving it my all, but even for the daily drive around town with its immensely higher amount of torque from the get go.

Dyno chart comparing between the Supercharged product vs a stock FD2 with an aftermarket intake and exhaust.

It can be seen from the dyno chart, there is a 82whp difference at the peak power!  Power was also higher everywhere else in the rev range.

Having driven and been modifying many cars previously, I have to say that this is one of the most value for bang mod I ever did.  The gains and drivability obtained from this exercise is definitely worth the price tag that accompanied it!

I have to say the mechanics did pretty well as we got all the supercharger bits installed on the car in just 1 day, and just another day to get the water injection fitted and Hondata tuned.

Last week, our friend Jon from KL was on a trip down to Singapore and took 1 of his nice cars down.  This time, it was a newly acquired Bentley Continental Flying Spur.  Massive, commanding and impressive piece of British engineering… almost bordering on cumbersome though.

I definitely needed to get a ride in it, in fact, the moment when Jon came by my office to pick me up for lunch, I promptly opened the rear door and hopped right in.   It was Plush, Extravagant, Spacious and smell of new top grade Connolly leather.  There I was busking in all its ostentatious charm… and then Jon thundered, “Get in the front Asshole!!”.

The car with its 6L W12 engine was very quick.  With its twin turbochargers, it was supposed to do the century sprint in 5 seconds flat.  However, because the car was so smooth, it does not even feel like we were at 120km/h after some full throttle action.  Jon did mentioned that he was cruising down the NS Highway at a comfortable 240km/h, and made it to the Tuas checkpoint in 1.5 hours effortlessly.

While seated in the FRONT passenger seat, I noticed a couple of gadgets that caught my eyes.

There were knobs situated on the Dashboard, each on a side of the A/C vents.  Originally meant to slide fluidly in and out to modulate air flow out of those vents.  But I believe Bentley must have designed them primarily for the Singapore drivers in mind… so that we can hang our Kopi-O from our local coffeeshops.

WAIT!!  On further inspection, I realized a few other specific features that aids the local Goondu drivers to improve their skills.

It’s got a B on its gear shifter.  I guess it’s to educate the owner that its B as in Button, so depress it before shifting gears.

Notice the B on the Brake pedal?  It is also there so that drivers can know that it’s B as in Brakes; so step on it if you would like to stop.

Yes, there’s a B right there.  Situated prominently in the middle of the trunk.  But Bentley being a British company, would probably call it the B as in Boot button.  A feeble prod on it would raise or shut the trunk electronically.

Tired of the Bs yet?  Theres another 1 right there, on the Bonnet.  Yes, you guessed it, B as in Bonnet.  It’s definitely there so that the mechanics will know that they need to lift that knob to reveal the mammoth engine.

Are we done with the Bs?  Apparently not!!

There’s the last one right there… so that you can fill her up with the most important B.  B as in Best oil you can afford.

If you ask me, this car is pretty easy to decipher, B as in Brainless!!!

Ever since I got the Miata, I’ve been itching to put a turbo in there.  Yeah, the car is a pleasure to drive, handles wonderfully, beautifully designed, etc.  But it is sorely lacking some grunt.  120bhp just will not cut it here, and imagine, a car that does not have the go to match its looks.  I mean, what, it takes like 10 seconds to do 0-100km/h… seriously.  I am getting overtaken by Toyota Corollas on a daily basis!!

So, it’s been determined that the car was going to be turbocharged.  Now wait, since we are going to put a turbo in there, why not just put in the newer 1.8L engine in there as well?  In conjunction with that, we can also put in the later model 6 speed transmission.  Considering that we are going to do so much, might as well go the whole nine yards and drop in the LSD in the rear as well so we can have a little sideways action occasionally.

Oh, I wasn’t quite done there when I was mentioning all those modifications that had the domino effect; one after another.  Consequently, I just had to rip out the complete motor and send the car for a thorough paint job.  Being the anal self I am, instructions were given to the painter that every nook and cranny had to be covered with the new color.

In addition, I do not want the car to be  heavy-ful of putty and filler, all dings and dents on the car body needed to be pre-prepped by Master Craftsman Mr Lye of Lye Designs.  He painstakingly massaged every imperfection and returned me a car with all the panels dent-free! So there you have it, a simple turbo bolt on job has totally evolved into rebuilding a perfectly good road going car.  Ahhh…. but that’s just us at DrivenCrazy; a bunch of motorheads that just cannot leave their their cars alone.

Car being prepped for paint

Minimum putty and primered.  The car was given a couple coats of primer and then sanded down for a perfect finish.

Ahh… finished product

Here are the parts for the engine and drivetrain.

2000 NB1 half cut, crashed but in otherwise good condition.  Comes with the variable intake manifold but no VVT.

Bilstein shock absorber in the fronts

Bilstein shock absorber with Autoexe lowering springs in the rear

I do not understand the different springs… perhaps the Japanese swapped out the front Autoexe springs to use them in their Giant wastegates to run more boost pressure.

Complete rear subframe with LSD

Hondata Intake Manifold Gasket to keep the intake temps in check.  I just had to have some Hondata products in the Miata, ultimately am still a true Honda fan at heart.

Turbo Manifold

Rebuilding the engine before putting it back on the car.  Notice the VICS intake manifold, made gobs of torque in the mid range when having it switched on or off at the right RPM.

Type R Style Red Valve Cover

The car makes about 250bhp now, a far cry for the paltry factory 120bhp.  It’s such a blast to drive now.  The Corolla uncles are much less successful now when they try to accelerate to close up the gap with the front car to refuse me a chance to merge into their lanes!!!

This article was contributed by CL7 customer, Dorian.  We were both aghast when I removed the panels to uncover a bunch of unsightly wires leading to the ECU.

In the olden days when each kampong had only one Television, experience and information shared was very limited. Almost everyone in the kampong knew each other and most certainly anything that happens, everyone will know within hours. That was information passing in those days.

Fast forward to today, we have the Internet. The place to go to find answers to whatever questions that you have. Now, but do we know how reliable the source of the answers are?

The other person commenting in your car forum might be a 14 year old secondary school kid who has just highly modded his RX-7 in Initial D Stage 5 - The Arcade Version.

Nevertheless, it is still a pretty rich source of comments and opinions, and i guess we have the ownership to verify and determine if what ever advice we get online are actually sound advice.

If I were to start a online thread about ECU management for Honda cars, most certainly the name “Hondata” will be mentioned. No doubt there are many other substitutes, but Hondata has made a name for themselves by using back the Honda’s OEM ECU and modding it till it has full standalone powers. This translates to a plug and play solution that have tonnes of ready maps to give you stock like characteristics, while you tinker and change the values to suit your mods.

Now, isnt that sweet? You plug out your stock one, plug in the new one, load a base map, tinker a little, crank, and the engine starts! Now compare this to other solutions where by you have to splice and crimp wires together to attach on a powerful piggy back, or those super powerful universal standalone ECUS.

So what bewilders me is, with the internet available, with Driven being the local distributor for Hondata ECUs, why would anyone agree to still attach a Hondata to a CL7R by splicing and joining wires? A further research would have shown a Driven ready made harness that plugs and play the DC5R Hondata K-Pro directly to a CL7R wire harness! Or even if one is too lazy to research, a quick ring to Driven will have provided the solution!

Its amazing what salesmen can do nowadays, how they are able to wrap our minds to think the unthinkable.

My car came with a spliced up wire harness, used to connect a K-Pro. Ex owner must have met a superb salesman. I wonder if he had actually saved any money at all by splicing the wires instead of buying a conversion harness.

As we go about modding our cars, let’s make sure that we mod our cars once and we mod it right.

Happy Lunar New Year to everyone.  Hoped you had a good one!

It has been a relaxing one for me and having nothing much to do, I decided to install something new to my car.

Nothing fancy, nothing too technical, just some simple 12 year old technical class tasks.

The car this time is the 2001 Mazda MX-5.  This car has a room light so dim, its basically useless.  When its dark, you can forget about tearing coupons, looking for Touch’n'Go Cards if you dropped it, or something essential like reading your map when lost.  Sure, we all know the MX-5 is not the most practical vehicle to own, but come on, Mazda could have put in a couple more lights couldn’t they?!?

Anyway, since we have a full warehouse of car accessories, I basically have access to numerous types of super bright LEDs at my disposal.  This was something that I have been wanting to do since early 2009, but well, procrastination is always good…

so that I can work on other MORE important stuff.

I chose these

Small and bright enough to fit on one of the panels on the dashboard.

Of course, just a good dose of double sided tape will work well enough to have them fully functional and connected to a on-off switch.  But if that were my standards, I’d rather die or just put something like this instead, something we use in the house.

NO!  I will not have any of those slipshod work… I just got to have them the best, the neatest and something that will make me smile every time I use it.

While surfing Yahoo!Japan, I came across this used switch.  Originally used to disable power to the windows, but it will work for my application too!

Now, time to get the hands dirty and start working.

Firstly, we drill a small hole.

Then get a hole saw the right size and drill it to suit.  Since it is the Lunar New Year, and none of the hardware shops are open.  I just have to use the closest sized hole saw I have.  It would have saved some time if I got the right sized one as I can just drill it through and have it fit perfectly than having to port the hole to get the perfect size.

After we are done with that, time to port it so that it matches perfectly and the LED will sit flushed with the surface.

Trusty Standard Abrasive Head Porting tools to the rescue.

Perfect fitment!

With all that hard work out of the way, time to wire up the car.  Since these LEDs sap very little power, I just thought that its easier to wire the 12V power direct so that I can have it working as and when, rather then having to switch the ignition to Acc.

Some simple wiring work, and everything was hooked up nicely.

Factory style switch.

Super bright footwell!

A shot at night, man, I need shades!

Now, this was how the MX-5 should have come right from the factory.

Wiseco recently released a shelf piston in 12.4:1 Compression Ratio for the K20A motors.  This was previously sorely lacking in their 2008 and 2009 catalogs.  A high compression piston for K20A motor was almost solely dominated by CP Pistons as they were very early adopters in this category.

I have always been a fan of Wiseco Pistons as I find them to be consistently superior in quality and value.  Most of their offerings come in lightweight guises and also has the skirt coated.  Many other companies tend to charge extra for that.

What we have here are all shelf pistons from the various companies.  They are in the same bore size (86mm) and for stock K20A motors.

Left: CP Piston X-forging.  Weighs 295 gram.  Advertised 12.5:1 Compression Ratio.  Skirt uncoated.

Middle: Wiseco Piston.  Weighs 320 gram.  Advertised 12.4:1 Compression Ratio.  Skirt coated.

Right: Stock PRC Piston.  Weighs 336 gram.  Factory 11.5:1 Compression Ratio.  Skirt coated.

All opinions are just based on visual inspection on these.

Firstly, lets take a look the obvious difference in the pistons.

• Wiseco looks to have the highest dome.

Although these have the highest dome, but only an advertised compression ratio of only 12.4:1.  It could be that the dome volume is being negated by bigger valve pockets and thus sacrificing a little compression ratio.

• Wiseco and stock pistons has the skirt coated.

This would aid in reducing friction and making for a more efficient engine.  This can even lead to improved fuel economy.

• Wiseco pistons offers anti-detonation grooves on top ring lands.

The stock piston also has the same anti-detonation grooves, but they are very shallow and finely cut and does not show up very well in the pictures.  CP pistons however do not have any of the anti-detonation grooves present in their design.

• CP pistons weighs the least.

The mass on the CP piston is very evident.  Just by holding different pistons in both hands, you can already tell that the CP piston is the lightest of the lot.

• Wiseco has the deepest valve reliefs.

Upon measuring with my trusty vernier caliper, I can safely deduce that the Wiseco piston will accept higher lift camshafts with significantly less problems compared to the stock piston.  In comparison to the CP piston, it is marginally deeper, but at this stage where we are getting aftermarket camshafts bordering 14 mm of lift, every little bit of additional clearance adds up.

• CP piston has 2 sharp edges along top ring land

Both the CP and Wiseco piston are machined to accept the largest possible intake valve, and as such part of the top ring land is being machined into.  Running my fingers along the edge, I realize that the machining process CP piston did for their edges does not have “finishing” work done to deburr it.  I would sand it down a little bit more if I were to put it into any engines.

• CP piston under piston area more weight savings

There are more hollows in the forging that the CP piston uses; thus saving weight.  It looks like CP piston used a special custom forging for this piston in order to achieve its superior weight.

• Wiseco has thicker top ring lands

The Wiseco piston measures a thicker ring land of 7.4mm vs the CP piston’s 5.2 mm.  This thicker ring land should give little more insurance in abusive racing environments.  The stock piston ring land measures 6.5 mm.

PS: In all pictures, Left-most piston is CP, Center is Wiseco and the Right-most is Stock PRC.

Now, lets compare between wrist pins, Left is CP and Right is Wiseco.

Both of the wrist pins weigh the same; 72 grams.  The stock one is 90 grams.  I do however realize that the Wiseco wrist pin has a taper on both outsides in its bid to keep the weight to the minimum.

Hope the data discussed here is of some use to anyone who are wanting to choose between these pistons.

My job was to get my ass there and tune as many cars as possible in 1 Saturday.Prior to that, we had already organized all the cars, and made sure that the cars were all in tip top condition and ready for a tune.  It would be pointless to have to go there only to do troubleshooting which is time consuming and counter-productive.

I got there on a Friday night, and was promptly picked up by my host and brought to a hotel.  Come Saturday morning,  it was off to the workshop with the dyno to get some cars tuned.

Upon arrival, I was greeted by some cars that were really out of tune.  Some cars had a stumbling idle, struggling rev counters, and hesitation all through the rev range were just some of the scenarios we encountered.

I briefly  had a chat with 1 of the owners, and he was mentioning that he had the turbo kit on the car for about 8 months, but has not boosted it yet as he knew it was not tuned.  My goodness, that was really some discipline… I know for sure, if it were me, I would probably have put pedal to the metal and also perhaps been greeted by some unwelcomed engine noise accompanied from the untuned engine.

Here are some pictures of the cars that we did… I guess we did pretty well, started at 11AM and managed to do 6 cars that were all tuned from scratched.

Boss’ Car

The one that made 500hp on this “Happy Dyno”

NA Power!

Turbo Power!  With very patient and disciplined Owner!

D series engines still churning out respectable power!  Complete with a large snail.

The one that sneaked out from the Military Base! They sure use fast armored cars in Brunei!

By the end of the tuning session, and we had 6 very happy owners who will vouch for my tunes.

A big THANK YOU to Augustus for all your top notch coordination and organizing this whole event!!

It has been very busy for the past few months.  Been testing many new products and R&D-ing some of my own.  Also been visiting some other countries to get customer’s cars setup and tuned.

Here’s an article from a Hong Kong car tuning magazine that covered my whole tuning event with the great guys at GP Motors.

Hope you understood what was written in there, I for one cannot read Chinese to save my life.  After going through the article for 10 minutes, it is still a no comprende for me.

With the recent uproar in the local media about how Chinese was taught in schools for the past 20 years, I definitely agree with the plans to revamp teaching methods.  If Chinese was taught less mundanely, many of my peers would assumably have a much better grasp of the language.

谢谢您 for reading.

Suzuki Swift Sports Custom Pistons and Rods

Custom made Low Compression Wiseco Pistons

Custom Crower Rods.  The stock rod is on the left.  A simple visual inspection shows how much beefier the Crower rods are.

ASR Subframe Brace

Beef up your rear subframe with the ASR subframe brace.  The EGs/EKs/DCs are prone to breakage whenever a larger rear swaybar is installed.  Stocks available now!

Odyssey Lightweight Batteries

Small 680 cranking amp battery with metal jacket and optional SAE automotive terminals.
Also available without the metal jacket for low temperature applications.
Battery measures 3.11″ wide x 7.27″ long x 6.67″ tall with the metal jacket and weighs 15.4 pounds.

• Excellent starting battery where high reserve capacity is not required.
• Great lightweight racing battery for shedding extra pounds.
• Can be mounted upright or flat.

Ferodo DS2500 Brake Pads

The main characteristics of Ferodo DS2500 Pad are:

• Race developed
• Performs equally well on heavy and light cars
• 20% less pad wear than competitive products
• Minimal bedding-in. Supplied ready to use
• Disc friendly
• Consistent friction level with changing temperatures and speeds to give optimal pedal modulation
• High friction level at low temperature (good cold braking)
• High friction level at very high temperatures
• 35% less compressibility than competitive products (racing pedal feel)
• Less noise for increased driving comfort

Now available for most popular applications and custom orders welcomed.

Carmate/ELF Octane Booster

ELF Formula Tune tested to increase octane ratings in your high compression or highly boosted vehicles.  Definitely a must to reduce knocking with Malaysian newly revised fuel octane supplies.  Even comes with easy to pour spout.

 PLEXUS Plastic Cleaner

The best there is!  Plexus was originally developed for use in the aviation industry; specifically for cleaning and protecting aircraft windshields and painted surfaces.  Particularly good for polishing hazy polycarbonate headlamps that has suffered from continuous UV exposure!

Engine upgrades and Turbo Kits for Miatas / MX-5s

Been working on a lot of Miatas lately, mostly hardcore stuff.  Engine swaps, transmission upgrade/swaps, turbo kits install, plug and play engine management systems, etc.  Please send us your queries if you need any help with yours.

Replacement Earl’s Oil Cooler for Nissan GT-R R35

A completely bolt on solution to an upgraded oil cooler for the R35.  All mounting tabs are designed to re-use original rubber mounts.  Location is also similar which allows the incorporation of the use of the stock air ducts for maximum cooling.  A slighlty larger sized, 25 row oil cooler core was chosen for the task of keeping the oil temperatures under control.

JDM MOMO Competition 350mm

Only available in JDM Land.  Legendary MOMO Steering available with distinctive MOMO emblazoned right across the top of the steering.

Innovative Billet Engine Mounts for DC5s/EP3s

GoFastBits (GFB) Stealth FX Blow Off Valves for R35

You can watch a very detailed and informative review on the Stealth FX below.

Please email racing@driven.com.sg for any queries.