Alcantara

This is something worth salivating after…hmm alcantara-ing the steering, dashboard and centre console; easily make the car a serious gym machine for sunday drives and track day. Can’t wait till the hire-purchase loan come to an end so that I can do something like this without flinching…

SuperSport Shocks - Installed & Shakedown

The Pocong finally has gotten itself new SuperSport short stroke dampers to work alongside with H&R spring. But it wasn’t smooth sailing “waiting & be happy job” on Saturday I thought it would.

First off, Alex’s Ever Auto don’t have 36mm axle socket so they can only replace the rear dampers. Decided not to be a patient man, I went to Auto Reign to get the front replaced. Guess what they too don’t have that axle socket hence they need to take out both driveshafts to yank out the whole knuckles to replace the dampers and yes it took them 3 hours. Then only I took the car to Mun Jee to get it realigned and balanced. That’s a good 7 hours of waiting and RM384 of labour charge debited from my credit card…

The outcome was a mixed one. Because the SuperSport casing and its rod is shorter and thicker than original, the ride height went down ~10mm on all for corners. At this point, I was worried whether 1) Is there have enough suspension travel? 2) How am I going to go through speed bumps on full load?

That would have to wait until initial shakedown today. Both me and my brother on Fiesta 1.6S took the tight twisties of old Gombak road towards Genting Sempah and then Jalan Genting Highlands towards the peak.

What I can say now is that it rides with more immediate feedback through the steering, it corners flatter and cover more ground in terms of lateral grip with more fluidity rather than outright harshness. And speaking of fluidity, I sense that the SuperSport dampers give much more composure dealing with uneven and bumpy roads which means I don’t need to slow down to readjust the music volume and my wife shouldn’t get sick every time traveling on long distance.

In all honesty, I doubt SuperSport is as good as the established H&R Cup Kit and Bielstein B12 in terms of sharpness but it should be a bit more comfortable and definitely the most bang for buck upgrade. Having said that, you can’t use it with stock spring as the housing is a wee bit shorter. Next up is FMIC and full exhaust and of course it’ll be done in slow, cheap but definitely special on the Pocong. :)

This Audi 100 Wagon is the grandpa of soccer mum's as it has Porsche 944 2.7 turbo and Brembos all around.

Stock Sachs vs SuperSport

Ever Auto managed to install the rears only

Mun Jee did the alignment trice to get it right :)

New ride height...the rear is wee bit too low

Shakedown of both Pocong and Fiesta went well but that Fiesta needs to get up to pace for more thrilling sunday drive

Very foggy morning in Genting Highlands

Myth BUSTED!

It’s very much unfortunate that due to work commitments, I had to neglect this blog for quite some time now. But this Pocong is darn good at cunningly and intentionally all in the same body language grabs me back in with its new set of TLC requests!

It was last Monday after my wife taking a pot shot at this fella that it idles like a mesin tebu due to the ECS Stg1 clutch kit fitted, and to my surprise this Pocong taking it very personal. Few minutes after, it went on to becoming notoriously extra vocal in whistling upon spooling at WOT and idles coarsely loud and rough like a mad truck.

On a perpetual disturbed mind, I went to start thinking whether the turbo bolts gotten themselves loose or boost leaks or downpipe/exhaust leaks or is it the first sign the K03S is doing a harakiri etc. The next morning after tiring thinking about it even during my wet dream, I went to drop the car at Alex’s Ever Auto to check it up. That’s where I was basically carless for 3 solid days as they’ve got ½ of dozen of backlog Audis to clear first.

Two days went by and upon calling Alex, the problem myth is BUSTED. It turns out that turbo metal gasket was torn to pieces, specifically the one from the K03S turbo outflow to intercooler needs replacing. This made absolute sense because upon diagnostic checks during 60k kms service we encountered "17705 - Pressure Drop between Turbo and Throttle Valve (check D.V.!)". The original gasket itself is not expensive which is about RM50 but the labour charge is 3 times more as Alex’s right hand man needs about 3 solid hours in getting the job done courtesy of very space constraint engine bay.

But at the end of the day, you know what, to me it’s worth every penny. It now spools stealthier with very very timid whistling with very smooth delivery throughout the rev range. And I’m very certain the car feels punchier now as I can have much more mental torque steer at 3rd gear. The idiocy is BACK!

And while waiting for SuperSport dampers to reach Frank’s place sometime now, I just have a pretty good idea of how my ideal cheap & cheerful FMIC would works great in giving cooling consistency and reasonable response. All I need is a good condition used aluminium intercooler like Evo3, new piping route from turbo-intercooler-manifold with ~2” diameter and Ah Heng’s magic hands. Clues are available below :)

Oh yes, I suppose to rant my thoughts of the new Fiesta 1.6S and how well it cope with the uphill & downhill curves at Ulu Yam but unfortunately my brother who just gotten the delivery of it keeping his keys miles away for me to grabs it. Nevertheless, I’m still going to try HARD to give it a go hehehe

The troublemaker ...

Original VW 1.8T intercooler flow...

This is what I have in mind...unfortunately Ah Heng is pretty tight up :(

60k kms Service Done!

The Pocong just had her 60k kms major service done yesterday at Ever Auto which so happens accompanied by 2 Mk1 TT 225 and 2 Mk1 TT. Everything went very well except upon changing the ripped rr brake lights, it worked as dimmed as rear tail lamp something isn't right there. Oh well, got to do it next week then! Oh yes, if nobody was around, I could have sawed MTM muffler of one modded TT 225 and get it weld to Pocong but my luck wasn’t that bright haha…

Once done with that, sent the car for alignment & balancing at Mun Jee (MPS) Sunway. Tyres were flipped and rotated, toe calibrated to 0 and some other magic mojo and I'm happy to report the steering feels much more pointy than before!

Here’s the breakdown of the cost this time around:

Engine Oil: Castrol Edge 5W-40 4L RM205.00
Engine Oil: Castrol Edge 5W-40 1L RM51.25
Oil Filter: VW 1.8T (06A 115 561 B) RM35.00
Spark Plug: NGK Platinum V-Power BKR7E RM50.00
Coolant: G12+ RM40.00
Rear Bulb RM3.00
Labour RM80.00
Service Tax RM4.00
Alignment & Balancing RM84.0o0
Total RM468.25

Cun looking MTM muffler there!

Mun Jee's mojo rocks!

52.5k kms oil change

Pocong just had new heart fluid change at Ever Auto last Saturday. Typical 4.5ltr of fresh Castrol Edge 10w40 and original oil filter replacing the old. And prior to that, the mechanic did not fine any signs of leaks at all CV boot covers and rear bearings still ok. A total bill came to about RM316.75 which includes RM75 for the oil filter. This is a bit odd because either it’s so expensive in here or Alex got it confused with Pocong as Mk5 Golf GTI. Either way, I’m happy with the place and will visit again on coming 60k mileage for major timing belt replacement, perhaps bringing oil filter, plugs and G12+ coolant on my own hahaha

Mild mods performance stats and new POISONS

It’s been a while since I’ve been actively blabbering about things in here, well the very lame and cliché reason I can say is ‘career’ related. My attention has been glued to it since few months back particularly when I’m in the midst of heading to different paddy field to kais pagi makan petang and also doings lots of catching up on database and geodatabase technologies.

I’m happy to report that the new SQL Server 2008 is twilight years ahead of SQL Server 2000 which I’m certified for; plenty of administrative controls over database schema, impressive TDE and of course almost seamlessly able to accommodate direct injection of spatial data without middleware while performance tuning points largely remained unchanged. Of course, it doesn’t mean it will outcast the tried and tested Esri ArcSDE anytime soon because I can’t see how the SQL Server able to manage geoversioning without much customization.

Well none of that now because it’s not what I’m going blog about anyway. I’ve received two screenshots of Azdilizan’s Polo GTI PocketDyno result. Looking at it, there’s nothing not to be pleased about it. 0-100kmh in 6.85 secs, 0-150km/h in 12.93, ¼ mile in 15.03secs! Quite similar performance figures of a stocker DC5 ITR which is still a very rapid machine. Should he improves on his RT, I definitely think low 6secs in 0-100km/h and mid 14s in ¼ mile is on the cards.

Another thing that caught my eyes is, there’s a possibility of PnP a pair of Porsche Boxter’s 4 potter calipers into the Pocong while still retaining 16” rims as both using the same 312mm rotors. Hmmm I like that! And also for the umpteenth times, I’m still contemplating on getting coilovers and at the moment I know just the right brand, model and at a price that won’t nuke my pocket and of course it’s a landed price. What I can tell you right now is the brand starts with H…

But these two won’t be happening any time soon as I’ve got a novel to write about which is called job handover, it is now eating up the pages akin to a script of Indonesian Sinetron which you can never can say it will be completely finished as branches suddenly keep on expanding like no tomorrow. But having said that, there’s not a day goes by without me thinking of getting these two so stay tuned :)

This reminds of doing frequent 'visits' to route E6 in the wee wee hours with a buddy and G tech gadget glued on the windscreen and floor all the way till the engine went to heaven, that was a loong time ago....

I'm at loss for words here .....

Rear brake pads

I met Mike yesterday and got this original rear brake pad set from him. This pads (6Q0 698 451 B) are specifically for 9N2 Mk4 Polo, 6Y Skoda Fabia, 6L Seat Ibiza and 8Z Audi A2. Hmmm, time to get the rear rotors skimmed, fit this in and re-bleed the fluid at 45k kms service perhaps.

Small only

As usual, the pads comes with sensor and new clippings and bolts

Mk5 Polo GTI commercial video

Have a look at the commercial video by VW. The Pocong’s successor is freaking awesome!! New car sickness already sipping inside me, slowly and hard. My heart already sending signal that it wants one but can it overrule the head…..

NGK BKR7E

This BKR7E plug has got to be one of the endangered species where non of the shops I've been are selling it. Luckily I managed to make last minute phone call to my brother who's coming back home to buy these instead. This much cheaper and a range colder plug with 0.028" gap should works well with the Pocong!

3 sets, 2 sets for friends and only one for me :(

Stock Polo GTI on 150m sprint

What we’re looking here is a stock 9N3 Polo GTI from Belgium where the only thing that has been altered were KW V1 coilovers, K&N drop-in filter and meager weight saving i.e. removal of rear seats and spare tyre. That’s it. The way he nailed those starts were almost perfect!

New battery for Pocong

The Pocong's battery gave up yesterday morning after only about 18 months of usage. Oh well, but the car could have been sitting here since February 2008 so that makes it 2 years.

Anyways, I managed to get time off from work and began hunting for VW junkies workshops and the only one opened was 7th Gear. Azman got me GP maintenance free DIN66 battery for RM350 and installed it right away. Surely the price could be cheaper if I source it from PH Auto but I couldn't figure out how to remove the fuse box on top of it, so taking it to Azman's is like getting me a headache-free insurance at a price of course.

Speaking about this, I kinda fancy to relocate the battery at the back to make way for carbon airbox but first need to sort out the fuse box location. Until then, dream on....

I apologise for the image quality... DIN66

Neat looking battery housing don't you think?

Teaser to New Polo GTI

Quick facts: 1.4 TSI | 177Bhp | 250Nm | 1184kg | 0-100kmh 6.9s

It looks sensationally brilliant. Hell I prefer this to the Mk6 Golf in terms if looks and rumours have been flying that the puny 1.4 TSI is tuneable to 200Bhp with just a reflash and easily nudge 280Bhp!

Interior wise looks have been much premium too. Aduh, I think I've been slowly infected by penyakit nak kereta baru :P

Grooming session part 2

Let me start first by wishing Gong Xi Fa Chai/Happy Chinese New Year to my Chinese friends, may the year of the tiger bless our hidup segan mati tak mahu economy :)

And this means I’ve got two days (excluding Saturday and Sunday of course) of nothing to do. But after berangan long and hard, it pops my mind that it has been three months Pocong receives grooming session and the water beads getting large and flatter. So I guess it’s no harm to ruin my Sunday morning by being a dedicated car slave.

As usual, I’m using the cheap and cheerful PermaGlass Tar Remover, PermaGlass Polymer Sealant, TurtleWax Clear Vue and Ambersil Dash & Trim carried over from last exercise. A solid 4 hours slavering session bar car wash (this one I outsourced to under coconut tree car wash :)).

End result should last another 3 months of seeing high and small water beads after raining. After doing it twice in a row, I began to realise that this is an addictive hobby. Next time, I kinda fancy Bosch GEX-270AE and Meguiars, hoping for mega wonders!

PS: While the PermaGlass Tar Remover is a life saver when it comes to removing stubborn contaminants, a word of caution – don’t use it on the bonnet because it eats up paint!

Evolve Polo GTI in Hot Tuner Challenge

Motor Magazine

Polo GTI vs Colt Ralliart vs Swift Sport vs Fiesta XR4

Wheels Magazine Australia

Wheels: Mini Golf

Wheels Magazine Australia

NGK BKR7E

This is just something I’m going to try along with some other stuffs. The original NGK PFR6Q plugs (which is in the same heat range as NGK BKR6E anyway) are relatively good but darn expensive and starting to be looking a hindrance one you’re making 100bhp more than stock or close to it. This is where NGK BKR7E comes to play. Its way cheaper than PFR6Q, one heat range colder plug, and once gapped to 0.028, it should do mini wonders!

Time to visit PH Auto!