Rigid Cola!

One of the reason why Spoon Sports remains famous among the Honda enthusiasts is because they produce simple yet effective performance products. The subframe rigid collar is a good example of simple engineering that improves a car's overall handling. These rigid collars are used to completely eliminate subframe free play by filling up the gaps where subframe and chassis meet and the bolt inserts. With the chassis and subframe 'united', the chassis stability is greatly improved, suspension travel becomes more precise, tire grips are better during driving and unwanted subframe 'noise' is eliminated.

I had the opportunity to obtain a set from a friend who had sold his car previously but never got the chance to install it. While the car was being installed with the header, I've asked them to get this lightweight aircraft aluminium collars to be installed together.




Part no is meant for FD2, DC5, EP3 and Fit GD.



Four sets for the front subframe.



The material is aircraft aluminium. Lightweight yet very strong. Beware of immitation that claimed their product is at similar quality but at fraction of the price.



Simple instruction in Japanese.

Front subframe bolt removed and inserted with the collar.

Locking it up.

Done!

Collar on the rear part of the subframe.

Post Installation Comments:

1. The installation took only around 30-40 mins without any issues removing the bolts etc.

2. I feel the car being fairly stiffer than before with these collars on! Although stiff, driving feels much firmer and precise especially when taking the corners. I'm also happy with the fact that the front of the car is not 'jumping' whenever I hit the uneven pavements. However, some of the FD2R owners didn't feel much difference after installing this probably due to their higher rigid chassis haha..

3. Have a look at the video below on how this little thing works (you can search for english version of the video though)

Cost:

1. Rigid collars: RM800

Reference:

1. http://www.rigidcollar.info/ (They now have their own "Rigid Cola" division to cater for other makes too! Good business for Spoon!Also take note that the rigid collars for the rear subframe is already on sale for the DC5. Do want!).

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.

Merry Xmas Black Mamba! (Part 1)

So it's exactly almost a year since I bought some awesome stuffs for Mamba but never was installed due to 1. MONEY 2. Time 3. Other important commitments. However I wish to highlight that the parts are still under my posession. The badass ChargeSpeed bodykits are already painted, and the K24 block will be dismantled and built in few more months (hopefully!).

I also noticed that the mood of modding the car will only come during end of the year.. and I'm halfheartedly glad it happened again this year. Mamba is growing older gracefully with the slow ass mods but I trust that the mods done are something that will make the car more fun to drive. Good justification right? Haha.

As I have mentioned in my previous post about the weak hydraulic mounting on the p/s side, it gets worse over time since I am driving the car daily. I kid you not as at today I have broken FOUR units of the hydro mount and thinking that I would be a complete idiot by braking and buying another one, I take the necessary action by purchasing the Energy Suspension mount inserts for the front and rear mounts. With these two mounts are strenghten, I can be assured that the p/s mount lifespan will be prolonged until I get a Hasport replacement unit soon. Oh yes, this mount inserts are also perfect to absorb the force of the additional 20whp came from Mamba's heart *wink*wink*.

The R at the end of the serial no means "Race" version. It is stiffer than the street version

The inserts were, well, inserted into the OEM mount from the outside.

Took them less than 15 minutes to fix these on.

Post Installation Comments:

1. The stiffened mountings deliver vibration to the dashboard during idle. Not too shaky but you can feel it on the steering wheel. It was slightly uncomfortable at first but you'll get used to it after a day or two.

2. Gear shifting are awesomely smooth and crisp at higher revs as the engine now doesn't rock back and forth like it used be on stock mountings.

3. The front end of the car feels very 'tight' especially when heel & toe is performed before entering corners.

4. Most DC5 Type-R owner will face this broken p/s mounting at least once in their life. Should you decided not to invest in other expensive aftermarket/custom mountings or engine torque damper, this is the bang-for-the-buck modification and works well. This issue has been resolved entirely on the Civic FD2 Type-R where another bracket is installed on top of the hydro mount to reduce direct stress on the unit.

5. Costs - RM3XX from Tung Chun Racing, JB.

6. Web reference - http://www.energysuspension.com/

Update on Crap-ness

Managed to squeeze my time to go to the workshop today. Drained the MTFIII oil and replaced with 2 liters of Redline Lightweight Shockproof. A short drive back to the office and the 3rd gear crunch has gone completely. I can sleep soundly tonite and rev happily tomorrow.

Note to self not to use the nipis gear oil in the future.

The other thing I reckon today is that the Skunk2 control arm made the car's rear end firmer during cornering. Not much of body roll felt as compared to before and I do feel I can execute faster corner slicing without having to worry the tail to wobble. Thank you Skunk2 for an awesome product.

Usual stuff, Unusual stuff.

Patience pays. That’s what I told my friends who’s been bugging me with remarks like “Woi bila nak update blog woi” and “I think I saw spider webs on your blog brooo”. So today with this post I hope it’ll clear all the doubts you have. Black Mamba is still..ALIVE..and she has received some well deserve (and rare) pampering from me. Be prepared with your food and drinks as this will be a very long post.....haha.

Considering the fact that Mamba needs to do some major stuffs, I decided to drive down from East Coast to Sunway to get the items and get it fixed by my mechanic John of Hiper Racing. Reached Sunway tad early but lucky I have a CL7 Euro-R friend of mine around. Had breakfast and good chat with him before heading off to few shops to invest my savings on the needed parts. Haha.

Shareil’s well done CL7. Matte TC105N with Wilwood 4-pot callipers make this rare sedan outstanding from others.

So then I went to two places, N1 Racing and Samurai Racing (Formerly known as SS Racing) to buy these things:

1. Greddy F4 Pro engine oil

As you have read on my previous posts (under maintenance tab), I used Blitz engine oil for the car. But since N1 Racing has no longer brought in the oil, it was replaced by Greddy F4 Pro oil. The viscosity is similar to Blitz and I have used it for a few oil changes without any issues. Thanks to the robust iVTEC engine that doesn’t need to be lubricated by expensive oil.

2. OEM Honda MTF-III gear oil

The decision to change the gear oil came when some friends told me that the Redline Lightweight Shockproof gear oil I’ve been using ever since can create sludge residue in between the gears. The prolonged usage can cause the gears to be ‘sticky’ and it can damage the synchros over time. Not wanting to take any chances for disaster to happen to my gearbox, I opted to get the OEM recommended gear oil – the Honda MTF-III. One can is 4-liters. Good for two changes. Thank you Desmond for helping me to get this from Exceptional Auto. Let's see what will happen to my gears with this oil.

3. Endless SSS 500deg brake pads

Having driven the car for almost two years without changing the brake pads, I decided to get the same brake pads that came with the car – Endless SSS (Super Street Sport) with the maximum temperature of 500degrees. Pretty happy with this brand as the wear rate is very slow. 23 months with 60,000km on the mileage coupled with few track days doesn’t stop the pads to perform at its best. And there are some leftovers too. Rear pads are still good though, so I guess it will only be changed next time.

This pads can be fitted on Fairlady Z33's Brembo as well.

Macam pad cap ayam je???

Perfectly placed in between the worn out Brembo callipers. Hehe.

Old pads. Still usable..well, for few hundred kms perhaps?

4. Skunk2 rear lower control arm

This is one of the item I’ve been drooling since I got the car and after months of contemplating, I finally made up my mind to get this. Apart from being the ‘bling factor’, the purchase is justified as when the OEM rear control arms were taken out, I found out that the bushes are already torn. Gold was chosen from other colours (including the stealthy black limited edition version) as it appear more visible from other drivers view (drool factor)..hahaha. Took John less than 20 minutes to install this and as soon as it was done I took the car out for powersliding. Nah just kidding. Well upon installation I could feel that the rear doesn’t ‘bump’ as it used to be. Probably due to the harden bush on the Skunk2 arms.

What do you get inside.

The hardware. I farking love the embossed ‘S2’ logo on the bolts.

Say goodbye to the stock control arm. Your service is no longer required haha.

Sifu John at work..Rambut makin kurang dei..

Stock vs S2. Worlds apart. Period.

S2 is thicker but it’s lighter. Senyum sampai telinga.

One side in, one more to go.

All set! Looks damn ganas with the S2 tie bar and Cusco ARB. Rear end mods completo!

Hensem tahap cipan!

Costs:

1. Greddy F4 Pro = RM135/can (4 liters) – N1 Racing, Sunway
2. Honda MTF-III = RM 180/can (4 liters) – Exceptional Auto, Glenmarie
3. Endless SSS pads = RM500/set – Samurai Racing, Sunway
4. Skunk2 rear control arm = RM7XX after discount from RM850 – N1 Racing, Sunway (Must nego till you cry then only you’ll get the discount)

Once everything is done, I took the liberty to snap some spy pics around Sunway....this might be at Hazry’s interest. Hahahaha

John ‘korekking’ a Skunk2 intake manifold for a 300whp K24 project on a.......Civic ES! :D

Remember Aloysius who helped me with the CV joint issue? This is his daily driven 2003 C-West DC5 on dyno. Using full slick tires at the rear. Bastard. Hizam was eyeing at the GT-wing as if it's a naked chick with big boobs. hahahah!

I do not understand why Aloysius, who’s a Mugen freak used C-West bodykits on his car instead of Mugen. Nevertheless, this Mugen MF10 wheels are hard to come by these days and looks effin killer with the Wilwood 6-pot brake kit. Just to make things more interesting, his interior is fully equipped by Mugen! You the man Aloy!

Neo Synthetics gear oil from United States. Highly recommended by Aloy. Might give it a try next time.

This is perfect for Prasath’s 250whp DC5! haha

Last but not least.......Saw this black cat while having my lunch @ the food court. Maybe I should really think of what it said to me..

I'm going for a run now. Till the next mod. :)