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.

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.

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.

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!!

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.

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.

Full story available here.

We have made KPro a Plug and Play solutions for these cars.

- 2002-2007 Honda Accord Euro R JDM

- 2002-2004 Acura RSX / Honda Integra Automatic

- 2005-2006 Acura RSX / Honda Integra Automatic

- 2007-2009 Honda Civic with DBW to Cable Throttle conversions

- Other kit cars that has the Honda K-series motors in them

I have to say that the KPro is one of the best ECUs available when it comes to controlling the K or F series engines from Hondas.  Why so?  Simply because it rides on the factory Honda’s ECU which would definitely had numerous hours of R&D put into it to have it cater to all the hundreds of thousands Honda vehicles running these engines plying our streets.

Here is an example of a customer giving us props for our good work…

You can view a larger and clearer picture here.

You can also view the thread in clubrsx.com here.

Now with the additional support that we are providing to the US customers, I hope we can keep up with our good work we have been doing all this while to our other customers.

When news and pictures of the new Evolution X was out, I was immediately sold. Specifications of the new 4B11, technical info of the twin clutch SST and the sheer looks and presence of the car was enough to make me sell off the Evo 9 and put a deposit down for the Evo X.  As much as I was sad to see my beloved Evo 9 go to the hands of another man, the very next day, I had already placed a deposit for a brand new 2009 Evo X SST.

As with most parallel importers, I too encountered the usual shipment delays and awaited for 4 months before the car was sitting at my door.  However, after staring and drooling at it for a while, I hopped in and took it for a spin around the block.  All grievances were put to rest.  I was thrilled by its sheer torque and power.  The car is absolutely amazing!  Its everything I thought it would be.

Now, like all typical petrol heads, many ideas came into mind.  I wanted to increase the power of the car, however my first priority was to improve the handling and stopping prowess of the car.  Weighing in at just under 1500kgs, the Evo X is anything but a lightweight contender.  Yes, the factory brembos are acceptable, however I wanted more stopping power, a lot more.  Also, the car sits far too high , and I needed to dump this bad boy to its knees.

I made a call to Joel and met up with him.  We decided to go for something out of the ordinary, 1 of Wilwood’s most massive callipers in their range, the TC6.  These callipers were meant for larger and heavier vehicles like the Humvee’s and Ford F150 trucks, therefore the Evo X would be peanuts in weight compared to these vehicles.  Paired with a set of Dynapro 4 pots to the rears, we were pretty confident that the Evo X would be able to stop when commanded to.  Only downside to the story at this point, lead time for the brakes to arrive was 3 weeks…. bugger.

Whilst awaiting for the brakes to arrive, something else had to be done (to cure my itch).  In the handling department, a set of JIC Magic RS Coilovers were sourced from Uber Garage and installed.  With the car lower and less roll in the corners, I was now more confident than ever with the car.  Not to mention, the car now looks heaps meaner.  I wanted to give the car a RWD type look, thus a set of Works rims were sourced.

I decided to use a set of 18×9.5” XT7’s for the fronts and a set of deep dished 18×10 XD9’s on the rears.  All I can say, I couldn’t have been more satisfied…

The weeks flew by and one fine day I received a call from Joel saying that my brakes have arrived!  Immediately, I flew down to his office to pick up 2 big Wilwood boxes.  Upon inspection, all I could say was that the calipers were one of the biggest I have ever seen!!!  In one word… WOW!  Immediately we went down to Uber Garage to strip off the stock brembos and test fit the new Wilwoods.  We needed to custom make brackets for the calipers as there were none off the shelves.  We used a “template” bracket, took some measurements and off to the CNC shop we went to get the brackets made up.

It took us 3 attempts (meaning stripping the brakes, and running to and fro from the CNC Shop) to get the front and rear brackets right so that the callipers would sit in the right position of the rotors.  IT SURE WAS A LOT OF WORK MAN!!  Kudos to all the mechanics who made this possible.

Alas, the brakes were finally on the car!  Paired with a set of Goodridge Braided Brake Lines, and armed with Motul RBF 600 brake fluid in its veins, I was ready to take it out for a spin.

The results?  Well, the car definitely brakes better than the stock brembos. WAY WAY BETTER… It feels as though my car’s got a parachute at the rear when I lightly depress my brake pedal, the clamping load on the rotors is simply extraordinary, and the car looks meaner and more aggressive with the massive brakes….

The verdict?  Although it was a long and painful wait, and the amount of time and effort spent pulling the brakes in and out and all that running around, I would say that it was all well worth the effort!!!!

The Evo is still undergoing surgery every now and then when I have the time. (And the money!!) Stay tuned to this blog for all further updates!!!

Having driven the old Honda B series engine before, K series was just the natural way for me to go when it came to choosing my new ride. Thus I settle for the Civic Type R FD2R.

Of course, like any other motorhead, stock simply wasn’t just good enough for me. Yet I am not an avid racer neither do I need insane 350 BHP NA cars to pacify me before I sleep at night. All I want is a smooth and comfortable drive, a little faster than stock, and most of all, I do not want my fuel consumption to be affected too much.

When this car was first launched, there were no ECU management solutions at all! It was so frustrating! Solutions then were restricted to units that have to splice our wire harness ( definitely a NO NO since I have been accustomed to Hondata’s Plug and Play S300 for my old Honda civic.) Or replacing the entire ECU with a Super Expensive Standalone with a big modification to the wire harness and/or to the e-throttle to convert it into a cable throttle.

Sighs, all options were exhausted and I reduced myself to just being contented with some simple bolt on mods like intake, headers, and exhaust.

However, the people at Hondata had heard the prayers of the FD2 Type R & FN2 Type R community. They have came up with the FlashPro!

I was prepared to pay the price I did for my old Hondata S300 but the chaps at Hondata surprised me even further! Since it’s a reflashing solution, its price is greatly reduced to an economical $1200* installed with tuning!

* Edit: This is only available as a special promo price and only for the few early bird customers.

I jumped at the idea immediately and did a pre-order with Joel from Driven.

Now I would like to write a field report for the dyno tuning session we did at Uber Mainline Roller Dyno machine.

It was Sunday and the quiet neighbourhood at Red hill is about to be awaken by the roar of the K20A Vtec on the dyno!

All shapes and sizes and colours of CTRs turned up promptly. Everyone was very patient while Joel treated us to drinks and pizza.

After a short wait, my car eagerly hopped up onto the roller dyno and awaited Joel’s magic touch to its ECU via the FlashPro.

Joel took care and time to slowly tune my car, ensuring that power is achieved while ensuring that the driver get as “stock” a feel as possible., treating every of his customers’ cars as his own. Its an amazing feat considering he spent almost his whole day swimming in exhaust gases.

Below are the figures that I have attained with my mods.

I drove my car right after the dyno session, and it was an immediate feel of nirvana. I had struggled with the stock maps for my bolt on mods for so long and finally, everything seemed to have fallen into place.

Absolutely no regrets. It was good money spent. Now I can enjoy my ride till I get ideas for my next project.

Definitely I will aim for something more adventurous since we now have the FlashPro.