2011 Raya Goodies - Part 2

Just to make Mamba more stealthier during Hari Raya I bought these Rays Extended Nuts. And it's in black.

Cost:
1. RM450 - Online.

Wheel Bearings and Such

It's time of the year again for the much waiting long festive leave. Before I could go back to JB in peace, I discovered that something is not right with the front wheel arrangement. There was this humming sound coming from in front and it gets louder and annoying after a while. Not wanting my long journey to be disrupted, I went to my trusted mechanic John to get it checked..

After a brief 5 mins checking, it turns out my front right wheel bearing has gone. The left side is also heading the same way as the other, just matter of time. I bet the bearings were never changed before. Furthermore 6mm spacers I use might hasten the lifespan of the bearings. Either way I decided it's best if both sides are changed..

Knuckle being taken out and sent to machine shop for pressing to remove and install the bearings.

Looks really old here.

Mamba helpless on the jack.

I also took the liberty to change the oils for Mamba. This time I had to settle with Cusco oil (5W-40) as the Greddy F4 Pro is no longer in production. It's kinda funny how this motor oil is being produced and distributed and discontinued by the big brands; firs it was Blitz, then it was replaced by Greddy. Now both are no longer available. The other thing that puzzled me was there's another version of Cusco engine oil that has 'low friction formula'. The cans look the same but price is different by RM100. Hmm....

The 2 years + old Trust Airinx filter is due for replacement and it was being replaced with the authentic HKS 3 layer super filter.

Latest engine shot of Black Mamba. It is still showroom-condition clean.....hehehehe..



Costs:

1. Cusco engine oil = RM150/can (4 liters) – N1 Racing, Sunway
2. Redline LWSP gear oil = RM55/bottle (2 bottles) – N1 Racing, Sunway
3. HKS Super Filter = RM100 - N1 Racing, Sunway
4. OEM Honda front wheel bearings = RM200/side (both left & right changed)
5. Labor by Hiper Racing = +-RM200

2011 Raya Goodies - Part 1

After 2 years of waiting, I finally got my hands on this pair of discontinued Ganador aero mirrors for DC5. This awesome mirrors are motorized and it's a direct fit to DC5. It's also flexible in and out to protect it from extensive damage if being hit by motorbikes. LOL. I just had to repaint the mirrors with Nighthawk Black Pearl to match the color of the body. My previous Spoon mirrors are sold to a fellow DC5 owner in East Malaysia.

Oh yeah, my custom header has also been completely fabricated. Seriously I hope I could pick it up and install this weekend before going for a long Raya leave.

Brotherly Luv

A good ol' friend of mine had just purchased a mint DC2 GSR recently. Having no luck with Adlan's EP3 previously, he unreluctantly traded in his Kenari for this car. This black DC2 was obtained from a used car dealer at a very good price and the best part is the car has all the basic Type-R conversion done, including the venerable B18CR engine.

Just after couple of weeks of owning it, he has already converted to Type-R 5 lugs together with mean green 16 inch Volk TE37 and also a lot more handling stuffs from Ultra Racing, ASR, Hardrace etc. Had a good time rolling with him last weekend and it seems that he's enjoying revving the car till 8000rpm hehe. Welcome to the VTEC world buddy, now it's time to bring her to Pasir Gudang! :)

Shaving The Rod

This post is about the simplest and cheapest form of mod you can do to your DC5 Type-R's handling. For those who doesn't know, DC5 suspension department comes in the form of MacPherson strut. Unlike the previous Civic and Integra generation where the Double wishbone suspension are easily tuned, the McPherson layout is totally a different ball game.

I first encountered this issue when I first went to Era Maju to change the wheels back in 2009. The standard camber setting for my car was about -1 front and -2 at the back. Since my Teins come with front adjustable pillow mounts, I guess why not tweak the front further to -2 (or more) to compensate the naturally 'kangkang' rear. Also by having more negative camber at the front, it will give me more grip during corner and reduce the tendency for understeer. Unfortunate for me when the front camber was adjusted to -2.5, the toe-in become so great at +3 on both sides it will be impossible for me to drive. The effect of the positive toe is due to the limited adjustability of the stock tie rods. Frustratedly I had to go back on the normal setting until the tie rod is being fixed, either by shortening it or replace it with aftermarket rods and inverted tie rods (as per the T1R link on the side of this blog).

So after 2 years of not doing anything (HAHAH!) I decided the best way to solve this problem is to meet John of HiperRacing and let him sort it for me...

Check out how 'skema' the front camber all this while..sheesh!

For those who asked what is tie rod, this is it. The gold colored steel.

Ready to be shaved.

John measures the tie rod before proceeding to shorten the tie rods.

John uses a special tool to shorten and rethread the tie rod at the same time. There's no need to take the tie rod off the car and send it to machine shop to shorten it. This would save a lot of time for both customer and mechanic.

Ta-da! It's done! The tie rods were shorten by 10mm in less than 45 mins. Oh in case you're using Tein, 10mm is the most suitable length to shorten the tie rods.

Alignment was done @ Craftmotorsport, Sunway. Front camber now is around -2.5 and rear is almost similar (Need to get the adjustable rear camber kits if I wanna adjust it). Front toe is now at around -1 on each sides.

Looks nice from this angle although the inner tires are crying.

 

Hellaflush? Not quite, but almost there. Hehe.

Black Mamba can grip better in corners, and looks even sexier now!

 

Post Installation Comments:

1. Guess I do not have to elaborate how fun it is taking corners with the new alignment setup. I can accelerate faster in corners without having much understeer like before.

2. The only downside of running negative cambers is that the tires wear faster. Let's see how long does it take for me to change new set of rubbers after this lol.

Costs:

1. RM150 to shorten the rods @ HiperRacing Sunway and RM100+ for alignment and camber adjustment @ Craftmotorsport Sunway.

Kumho-nized, again!

Woot woot! How are you guys doing? Hope everyone are still on the right path of building and modding your ride. It's like what, more than a year since I last change my tires. As you can see from the pic below, the tires have gone through few track days and countless long distance travel and obviously no longer safe to use! Since Kumho Ecsta XS KU36 is the most affordable and bang-for-the-buck performance tires, it has become my choice once again.

Ouh ya..I've also dropped the rear lower by few mm's to make the car height looks 'equal' front and back. No fender rubbing issues with the 225s as I've rolled the rear fenders few months back! Just need to sort out the front camber to give Mamba the perfect grip. It's gonna be a tough job to have the perfect handling setting with McPherson's strut system. Believe me.

Pricewise is not much different than the last time I change, only RM10 cheaper per piece. However it took me almost two month to go this shop after ordering it coz I was dead busy with work. Haha. Nothing else was changed on Mamba except for the regular periodic maintenance. Money is an issue at the present moment but come next month, a customised header and some handling stuff will be added on to the car. Stay tuned!

The Lost Opportunity

Some might know about this, some might not. It was just couple of weeks ago I almost let Black Mamba go. As you would know that Black Mamba is my life since two years ago. But I had the opportunity to own another legendary Honda automobile - the sexy, seductive and sultry S2000. Probably the only chance for me to own it at this moment. However, in order for me to acquire the topless beauty, I must sell Black Mamba; which became the most difficult decision for me to make in my 29 years of living. But I made up my mind, I have to move on.

Decided not to advertise the car on the net, I spread the words among friends. To cut the long story short, I had three interested buyers for my car. The first potential buyer failed to get a loan. The second buyer was asking for ridiculously low price. The third (and the last) potential buyer was something different. He agreed to buy the car with cold hard cash! I was sceptical at first but thinking that I could earn more money by offsetting from my loan balance, I agreed. Oh yes, the plan actually was for me to buy the S2000 UK using my wife's AP and bring back the car to Malaysia. For me to get a 2006 AP2 S2000 at GBP10,000, I need to have cash, hence the agreement to sell off the car to the cash-rich buyer. But I guess the bonding between me and Black Mamba is meant to be longer than 2 years when the buyer couldn't come out with the cash on time (I'm flying off to UK in 2 days, the guy can only get the cash in a month or so).

So the deal went off. Black Mamba is safe and sound with me (New tires and fender bars coming in ngeheheh) and I have no further intention to sell it now. S2000 can wait, if not now, sooner or later. It's just that I regret I couldn't do a money shot with the S2000 like this dude below, am I right Hezz? Hahaha...