Dietary Supplements Part 2

The Slowtra has had even more fasteners replaced since the fuel hike. A lot of flab will have to go to hopefully improve the fuel consumption and power to weight ratio. Have decided to take the fasteners technology on the Slowtra to SP/motorsport levels of mod.

Bolts on the front headlight mount and radiator top mount brackets replaced with lightweight silver anodized aluminium items. 7075 aluminium is 60% lighter than mild steel and doesn't rust.

The bonnet latch bolts replaced with black anodized aluminium items.

Horn bracket mount bolts replaced with aluminium potassium bichromate items. Potassium bichromate coating is cheaper than anodizing but doesn't look as nice.
Radiator coolant overflow bottle mount bolts replaced with silver anodized aluminium items. Three bolts hold the bracket to the car's body but surprisingly only one bolt holds the bottle to the mounting bracket. There is a tab on the other end of the bottle and this tab slots into the hole on rectangle hole on the bracket.
Inlet manifold support bracket bolts replaced with aluminium potassium bichromate items. Likewise bolts holding the EGR plumbing.

I've much more fasteners on the car scheduled to be replaced with lightweight aluminium and some titanium items when my budget allows. Watch the Dietary Supplements series.

Nismo Badge Installed

I finally made some time for myself to personally install the Nismo badge. Took me bout 15 minutes including ensuring proper alignment. What do you think?

Closeup

I'd have to say the end results look good. Guess it better be at more than 400 smackers!

Black Thursday

I normally don't like to blog about politics but yesterday's announcement by our dear PM really made my blood boil. At a stroke the price of petrol went up by 78 cents to RM2.70 (40.625% increase!). How ridiculous can you get? To make matters worse most of Penang's jokers were actually putting our already slow traffic to a standstill in their efforts to rush to the petrol station to fill up before the price hike. Most of the roads with any semblance of a petrol station were filled to the brim with up to kilometres long of cars waiting to fuel up. Some were actually blocking the entry/exit of some roads in their efforts to queue up for petrol. Come on people! How much can you save?

I did a quick calculation of how much more I would need to spend on petrol and it came up to the following:

Currently am refuelling bout 40 litres every 1.5 weeks for my Slowtra. This means I’ll hafta refuel approx 35 times per year.

This would make my fuel costs

Yesterday
(40 X 1.92) X 35 = RM2688

Today
(40 X 2.70) X 35 = RM3780

Difference = RM1092

Deduct the RM625 rebate promised by our dear Gov and this means that I would be paying extra RM467 per year or RM38.916666666 per month.

Which doesn't sound that bad until you hear that Tenaga Nasional is to raise electricity rates by 18% for home users. This will then likely spiral the price of everything else upwards. Went for lunch earlier today and a bowl of large koay teow ting immediately went up to RM3 from RM2.50. Unscrupulous or Unbelievable! On top of that I''ll be moving to my new house soon which will mean that my new mileage will be approx 40% higher. Double Ouch! Now excuse me while I go sulk in a corner..

SR20 Forum's Excellent Suspension Faq

The SR20 Forum has one of the most comprehensive suspension faqs around. Lovely stuff! Everything you wanted to know about modding the N16's suspension is listed in the faq. The link to the faq can be found here!

In case you need a rehash the USDM (US Domestic Market) B15 chassis code Sentra is practically the same as our N16.

If you want to mod your N16's suspension and don't know where and how to begin do yourself a favour and spend some time to properly read, understand and digest the faq. If you have questions you can always ask me and I'll try to answer to the best of my ability. Now where can I find someone to bend my rear beam in Bolehland?

Nismo Badge Here!

This just came in a couple days ago courtesy of Bro EJ! Would like to thank Bro EJ for taking the time to source this original authentic Nismo badge as found in Nismo project cars in Sashimi-land. The badge's not cheap (RM400++) but gotta be worth at least 50bhp from the looks alone!

Looks good enough to lick! Question now is where should I place it? Was thinking of same place where my "1.6 VTC" badge used to be. Any suggestions?

Nissan Sentra Sport Edition

This is what TCM is trying to do to push off the remaining stocks of everyone's favourite but ageing N16. Why TCM would want to call this the Sentra "Sport" is beyond my logical reasoning. Pictures of the brochure below

Now on to the million dollar question. What "sporty" changes did TCM make? The changes are... drumroll please!

• "Smoked" headlight and rear lights
• Black tricot seat fabric
• Insulation/upholstery on rear trunk lid removed
• Only the top and bottom rows of the front grille are chromed. Rest is painted a metallic greyish tinge
• No bird maple panels on centre console (less plastic trees to kill?)
• No rear seat centre arm rest
• Different design wheels but still puny sized 14 X 5.5"
• No UV-Cut glass
• Rear "Sport" badge stolen from the Latio Sport

And the Real Performance Mods are....

• Unfortunately a Big Fat ZERO unless you consider a very very very slightly better power to weight ratio from the deletion of the rear arm rest and rear trunk lid insulation.

Lastly the only thing that makes your heart beat faster on the "new" car is it's price!

• Sentra Sport 1.6M = RM85,750.00
• Sentra Sport 1.6A=RM89,800.00

Last I knew my better N16 cost roughly the same. Ouch! Sorry for coming across as a frustrated old fart but that's how I feel about the Slowtra Sport edition which is even worse than the Nismo edition. What a big fat shame!

Slowtra's First Dyno Charts

Here are the long awaited dyno charts from the Slowtra's baseline dyno back in December. I apologize for the long long wait but I had practically zero time to blog till the current CNY hols.

Pix below of the power curve and output figures below. The curve very closely resembles what TCM shows in the Sentra brochure. The 25k km mileage engine's bone stock cept for Heat Range 6 ND Iridium plugs and a K&N drop-in element replacement filter. Figures are all at the crank.

The torque curve and output figures

As you can see from the power and torque curves there's a very pronounced dip between 3500rpm to 4000rpm. Most people actually feel this deep as a surge of power thinking the engine's VTC is like VTEC. Wahahhahaha! This proves once again that butt dyno's are only good for feeling power/torque transitions rather than gains. I have a set of Hot Bits stainless steel headers and exhaust b-piping on order. This should hopefully get me some gains and

reduce the dip in the curve...

Happy Chinese New Year 2008!!!

First off I would like to wish all fellow Chinese a Very Happy and Prosperous New Year!!! May 2008 bring as much cheese as possible for you and the N16. 2007 has been the toughest and most challenging year of my life balancing between finances, work, personal, the Slowtra and the shag pad. Here's hoping for a better 2008!!!

Nismo Badge

Yes I know I'm getting ricier by the day but does anyone have the leads to get the Nismo badge below? My contacts in JDMland is telling me this badge is not for sale and only found in Nismo factory/project cars.
I just need the Nismo badge. Don't need the "Z-tune". If this cannot be had I also don't mind a similar looking badge (just different "O" alphabet treatment) found on the Latio Tiida S-Tune. In all honesty a proper badge looks so much better than a sticker decal. Nismo Japan online website only lists the following badges

I don't mind having the above badges if these were at least 50% larger. At only 100mm width X 28mm they're way too small...

Chit, Chit Chit! - Birds in my Engine Bay?

The Slowtra's bloody aircond/power steering belt squeaks like a hungry/horny bird? whenever the engine's cold. The chit, chit, chit is driving me crazy and the sound is getting more persistent by the day. I previously changed to a Nissan Key Value (Made in Japan second grade parts) belt on recommendation from TCEAS and all was well for bout 5-6 months before the sound came back. Damn!

Checked with fellow Slowtra owners and apparently this problem is nothing new for the CKD Sentra. Everybody suffers from it. Anybody got kangtao for Nissan Bluebird Sylphy G10 belts direct from Japan? Apparently this is the only cure.

Slowtra Gets Dynoed

Have been planning a while to do a small engine/intake/exhaust upgrade program for the Slowtra just to get some extra oomph. And No I'm not planning cams, high compression, mega porting, individual throttles and what nots. Decided to do a baseline dyno to see where I stand before the upgrades. Per my knowledge there are only two dynos in Penang and both are relatively new (circa 2007). Used the dyno in Northern Garage. I believe the other dyno is at M Power. The dyno at Northern Garage is a Dastek unit. Dastek is the same South African company responsible for the famed Unichip series of piggybacks. Having been educated mostly on Dynojet and Dyno Dynamics dynamometers so the Dastek is new to me but so long as it can give me repetitive power readings that are not out of this world (like 700+hp for a friend's 1.5 NA Wira on the Speedworks Dyno Dynamics dyno once) I'm ok. One should never compare or brag about power readings from different dynos anyway. They're all different. The trick here is once you get a baseline on a dyno try to always use the same dyno down the road.

Checked in a very wet Slowtra for dyno after a long day at the office last Thursday. Rained Giraffes and Hippos on my drive to Northern Garage. Pix below of the Slowtra all set up for dyno.
The PC holding the dyno software. The display next to the PC is the Dastek's display.
Pix of the Slowtra all hooked up to the dyno PC and the huge industrial spec blower which is used for cooling during repeated dyno runs. Without such a fan the likelyhood of overheating is high as the car is stationary with no airflow.

Innovate Motorsports LM-1 wideband air/fuel ratio meter is used.

The LM-1 is a single self-contained unit that combines a wideband air/fuel ratio sensor controller, a 6-channel data logger, and an easy-to-read backlit LCD display. The LM-1 also features two configurable analog outputs to connect to analog gauges, dyno computers, ECUs, piggyback controllers, and other devices with analog inputs.

Butt plug? Nope, it's the LM-1's Bosch wideband oxygen/lambda sensor plugged into the Slowtra's exhaust. The sensor is a Bosch LSU4.2 5-wire, wide-band O2 sensor.

Slowtra getting dynoed and the horsepower output graph being generated on the PC's monitor.

For car's with manual gearbox dyno should be done in the gear closest to 1:1 ratio which is typically 4th gear on a 5-speed gearbox. If you want a higher reading for bragging purposes you're welcome to try 3rd gear ;)

Closeup of the display

The bill came up to RM100 for the baseline dyno. Did it in a packaged deal along with some friends who were also doing the dyno. Aerotech previously charge RM200+ for a baseline so the cost is very reasonable and competitive with what Speedworks PJ is offering. If you decide to use Northern Garage's dyno, work out the cost with Ah Loy (boss of Northern Garage).

And now on to the question everyone's been waiting (that's if they haven't been bored to death first reading to get here) What did the Slowtra dyno for?

How does 106hp and 150Nm of torque at the engine sound to you? If you ask me that's pretty decent for a stock QG16 engine once you factor in power steering pump losses and weather variables (not sure what correction factor was used and the Northern Garage mechanic couldn't tell me). The only "power mods" I have is a K&N drop-in filter and Nippon Denso Iridium plugs. I did try to get power readings at the wheel but the Dastek gave me a ridiculous 79hp reading. I doubt the manual transmission results in a 25% power loss. The mechanic blamed wheelspin but I think that's even more ridiculous with only 106hp/150 Nm of torque. Dyno graphs to follow once I take a decent picture of the graph printout. The PC was not able generate a softcopy. Bummer!

S**t Happens!

The SP got broken into recently (Nov 30) with numerous parts stolen including the one off full carbon pre-preg bonnet. My heart goes out for Mugil.

Publishing this note on behalf of Mugil...

"SP was broken into on Friday morning and the following items have been stolen from the car:

1. Full CF Bonnet
2. Momo Corse 78 Steering Wheel
3. Works Bell Rapfix II Quick Release (only the half connected to the Steering)
4. CF Side Mirror
5. Matspeed J5 ECU
6. R3 CF Gear Knob
   

If you know or hear or offered any of the parts stated above do contact me at 012-3350607. A small reward will be provided if any of the items above can be recovered."

Anyone wanting more pixs or info on the stolen items is welcomed to email me or comment in this blog.

Dietary Supplements

The stock bolts that hold the fuel lid hinge was starting to rust so I took the oppportunity to replace with lightweight aluminium alloy items. Pix of the stock items. Top bolt has a major rust. What an eye sore!

The stock bolts are M5 X 10mm. I replaced them with aluminium alloy silver anodized items. The M5 washer proved too small so I used an M6 washer but alas did not have any M6 silver anodized ones left. Used regular potassium bichromate plated versions. Gold and silver never looked better! Pix below.

Thinking of getting Nismo fuel cap garnish but that will add more weight :( Also replaced the bolts holding the boot lid hinge with aluminium items. Stock crappy bolts..

Pro-Bolt M6 X 40mm aluminium alloy silver anodized bolts installed.

Ordered bolts 5mm shorter than stock. Don't know why the stock bolts need to be so long. There are loads of thread still left once the 40mm aluminium bolt has been fully tightened.

Mike Kojima's Nitto Tyres Sentra Spec V Racecar Ready!

I'll let the pictures do the talking. Needless to say this is probably the fastest Sentra in the world for Time Attack/Circuit Racing.
For those of you familiar with SE-R/Sentra.net or read Sport Compact Car mag a lot you'd be familiar with the name Mike Kojima. In US Nissan Sentra racing circles the guy's a Guru and this latest project was build to compete in Time Attack events in the States under the Unlimited FWD class. Details of the car's build can be found here. The amount of custom fabrication required to build a competitive professional racecar is out of this world! Enjoy! Can't wait to see a 500hp FWD rear suspension beam Sentra whup cars with independent rear suspension. Really major inspiration for me to make the Slowtra hopefully not so slow...

And to save the best for last I've been in contact with Mike lately and he really took the time to reply my emails and read this blog. Fab guy! Will publish some of our communication when there's time. Watch this space..

Detailing - Other (Non-Autoglym) Products

Spent many a day and hours during Raya lovingly cleaning, polishing, waxing and detailing the Slowtra. Pix below of the non-Autoglym products I'm using to detail the car

Soft99 Meta-Clean wax

Been using this wax for many years. Ideal for metallic coloured paint. I use it for the wheels/rims and for interior uncovered metalwork such as doors and engine bay. Does not last as long nor is as silky shiny as Autoglym but then I've not complain as the wax costs around half the price of Autoglym Super Resin Polish

WD40

Need more be said? Excellent for cleaning engine bays (degreaser) besides protecting metal parts such as shock absorber bodies and spring from rust. Use loads if you hate rust and oily grime.

Car Plan Crystal Clear Glass Cleaner and Glass Polish

I use both especially the cleaner extensiely to clean my windows and windscreen. The glass polish should be used once in a while to polish your glass and leaving it silky smooth and consequently your wipers judder free.

Care2020

I know it sounds dodgy but this local made product works a treat and is dirt cheap by Autoglym standards. A bottle costs way less than 15 bucks. Leaves a nice glossy coating on interior vinyl trim. Can be used as cheap tyre sidewall detailer too.

Rear Carbon Number Plate Revisited

Remember the crappy rear carbon number plate that fell out coz it was not flat due to warpage? I finally bit the bullet and emailed Rallytech in the UK for a decent wet lay-up carbon flat plate. The plate dutifully arrived after bout a week. Cost was a massive RM500 including shipping for just the rear plate! Trust me you only want to do this (be so crazy) once in a long long time..

I then had the plate clearcoated in Glasurit to my standards. Job was done by my bro Herbert. As you can see the surface finish quality is absolutely incredible. Smoother than a baby's bottom! Carbon weave I'm using is 1 x 1, 3k. twill weave while looking more racelike is also easier to spot from afar. Not good as far as JPJ is concerned.

Numbers were installed to the carbon plate via double sided tape by Uncle. No super glue involved. Numbers stick better in the long term and will not scar the plate when removed.

After more than a month of monsoon rain and intermittent heat wave there's no warpage in sight. This is clearly a case of UK Engineering and unfortunately Malaysia Tidak Boleh! If I'm crazy enough I might eventually replace the front carbon number plate with a Rallytech item.

Good As New

Been wanting to post this weeks ago but been swamped with work, house and personal issues. Anyway the Raya hols are a welcome breather so I'll like to start the festivities with a post..

Got the Slowtra back from my painter a couple weeks ago and I'm happy to say it looks better than new. Only downside is my "Nismo" & "S-Tune" decals had to removed for painting. Will have to get a new set. Sigh! Two quick pixs below..

Took the opportunity during the wait to order some new clips so that I can reinstall back my boot lid's carpet trim which had been removed previously to install my Mine's wing. The original clips are still in fairly decent nick but you know me. Nissan parts are not cheap btw.

That's RM8.50 per clip and not for the pack. There are 12 clips holding the carpet trim so I ordered the 12 clips without first asking the price. I mean Proton clips only cost me like RM2+ per clip. so how much more expensive can Nissan clips be? The bill came up to RM102. Ouch! Pix below of clip in place holding the trim.

Hit & Run

Came back to my car after lunch with colleagues today and saw this..
The road's as wide as any suburban road can be and the parking was perfectly legal. There was also no other car parked directly opposite me so there's plenty of road space. From my assessment whoever hit me was coming from the opposite direction. Also likely to be a lorry/truck or some big SUV/4WD judging by the height of the scrape marks. The thing that pisses me even more is that the f**ker hit my wing mirror and continued going forwards thus scraping my front and rear doors, rear side panel and finally bumper. Luckily my rear light was spared and likewise my wheels. Phew! To the person that did this to my car "May U Rot in Hell!!!!". The Slowtra was parked in Sungai Nibong area on one of the suburban side roads next to Yakki Teppan Japanese restaurant when this happened around 12+pm. If anybody saw the accident pls do let me know. I don't mind giving a reward so long as I can nail whoever did this! The Slowtra's now checked into hospital for some plastic (sorry metal & paint) surgery. Should be better than new in a couple of days...