Spark Plug Cable @ Ignition Spark Wire

Ignition wire or spark plug cable is a cable composed of one or more electric conductors and covered by insulation. In short, those wires are nothing other than conductors. Although most new ignition wires will perform the function of conducting coil output to the spark plug, what is important is EMI (Electro Magnetic Interference) suppression. All electronic devices can be effected by EMI emitted from ignition wires. As production vehicles age, engine management sensors and wiring deteriorate and become more susceptible to EMI radiating from improperly suppressed ignition wires. To be truly effective, ignition wires need to be EMI suppressed for a reasonable time, while having the ability to maintain good conductance without overloading other ignition system components.

I been using NGK Power Cable for quite some time since it came when I bought the engine. I keep on wondering how old exactly that cables were since I've been using it for 4+ years and I have no idea how long it has served the last owner back in Japan. The trademark blue coloured cables were already turned to black. So when I opted to change those cables, I saw an advert in local car forums selling this new Quadcore 10mm cables for 4G92 MIVEC at a fraction of the price of the new NGK Power Cable. Pardon the name of the new cable. It really reminds me of Intel's Quadcore family processors. It was given that particular name since it has 4 inner core wires. Yea, but still...

When I pull out the NGKs, one of the rubbery boot plug was badly hardened and inside it, a small part of the metal tip was chirped off. A quick inspection later reveals that all the remaining wires were still acceptable in condition. This is one of the reason why big names put big tags on their product. The brand brings quality assurance. The new Quacore cables didn't snugged into the plug hole as perfect fit as the NGKs.The boot plug also look less durable. But these new cables did perform the task well. The car starts on every first crank. Power and fuel consumption did remain the same though.

Teflon-based Shift Knob

I bought this knob on the same day with the coil buffer. I was tempted to get my hands on Ralliart knobs but since it's pretty hard to differentiate the fake one with the genuine, so I went for this much cheaper shift knob. It is made from teflon which is considered to be the most slippery substance that exists. Once cured, teflon-based plastic is very durable and since it wasn't made from steel, I won't burn my palm when trying to shift into gear in our globally warmed hot afternoon.

I don't know why, but I totally very was into the awesome white colour knob but somehow or rather end up with the black one. Compared with the OEM shift knob, the new knob is slightly smaller and way lighter. Removing the OEM knob was just a matter of turning it counter-clock-wise. The new knob fits perfectly. It comes with several sized inner thread to fit almost any shift lever.

The smaller and lighter gear knob has a little bit improved the shifting at some level. Unfortunately the notchy on 2nd gear hasn't been toned down. This is not strictly a 'performance' upgrade for the car though but after using the old knob for merely 7 years, I think it's about time for some changes.

Coil Spring Buffer : The Poor Man's Choice

Since my car is too low and I don't feel like replacing the still-in-mint-condition shock or the spring to make it higher, I've decided to give this spring buffer a try. There are a few sizes to choose from as it covers quite a number of cars from different manufacturer. It was claimed that this spring buffer helps restore spring tension and extend lifespan to sagging coil spring. Is this quite true though as the thick rubber will fill the gab between the spring clearance, that particular area will hardly absorb any load or tension. This eventually will make the spring stiffer and the "restore spring tension" claim is somewhere eligible when applied to an old and sagged spring. Since this buffer is in its prime selling time, you'll be suprise the price that has been tagged on it. It can be anywhere from RM55 to RM120 per pair. Lucky me I've found this one at $60, including installation of course.

Installing the buffer isn't a hard job. Jack the front part of the car and wallahh.. this will enough space between the coil to slit the buffer in. The buffer is made from hard silicon rubber so improper installation may produce an annoyingsqueaking sound; you have been warned.

The outcome?? Ok, here we go. First of all, the tire and fender clearance increase roughly almost an inch. Not much but better than nada. Secondly, the car feels harsher as the coil is now stiffen. Handling feels a bit better as the front part wobble a bit lesser than before, but I still manage to hit the tire with the fender when driving over on certain flyovers on MRR2 (thanks to Uncle Sammy's brilliant road projects).

Why Octane Booster Is A No No

Since the government is going to officially introduce RON 95 into the market on Sept 1st and float the price of RON 97, we can actually see the RON-related or octane topic is increasing as every local forum in the internet is eagerly to discuss about this matter (well, I'm afraid I'm also included into the statistic). Some 'self-claimed experts' among the forumers even stated boldly that RON 95 will eventually destroy their pimped twin cam rides and suggested to use octane booster to rectify the additional octane requirement. But wtf is octane anyway? Octane numbers are something we see every day and probably take for granted before this. It is a rating means to measure a fuels resistance to pre-ignition. Let's first assume you have a car that runs well on 95 octane. What could you gain by altering the fuel you fill up with? By going down to 92 octane you might achieve better mileage (due to no ethanol which commonly used to raise octane in fuels) but could risk detonation depending on your cars engine. By going up to 97 octane you might allow your car to advance the timing gaining horsepower (but some cars didn't benefit the higher octane at all). Due to lower BTU (British Thermal Unit - unit of energy) per liter you will give up a few miles per liter. So right off you can see that it is a balancing act.

Looking closer at this, you notice that the extra horsepower comes from the ability of the car to advance timing and not the fuel itself. Higher octane fuel has less BTUs, but still nets power due to the timing advance and higher boost (in turbocharged application) it can achieve. In modern vehicles with knock sensors the ignition timing is constantly varied to achieve the best balance between performance and economy. Because this adjustment takes time, simply switch to higher octane at the track is not good enough. The fuel needs to be run in advance to allow the ecu to compensate for it. So using 92 all he time and then going to the track and filling up with 95 is not going to help your track times. You will have a faster car on the ride home though.

The other end of the spectrum is less octane. The down side here is the risk or pre-ignition and high EGTs (Exhaust Gas Temp). Both of these can lead to melted or bend pistons. Valves and the head are also at risk. If you have a modern vehicle it will detect this and retard timing to prevent damage. This timing modification is easy to detect with an OBDII scanner and it an easy to diagnose too fuel with too little octane.

Because of the above reasons, a lot of people turn to the boosters as a way of having both good fuel commonly and good performance at the track. The problem with them is most do not work as advertised. If you do find one what works, adding it to your tank a day before you go to the track can be beneficial. Despite the benefit, use boosters sparingly as most rely on MMT (Methyl cyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl - what a freaking kind of name though..) or Toulene as a means of boosting the octane. While MMT is a pretty good octane booster but it leaves combustion chamber deposits very quickly. These deposits lead to pre-ignition and knock so people will evually add more octane booster which leads to more deposits, more knock ... you can see where this is going. MMT based boosters also quickly reach a point of diminishing returns i.e. the more you add the less it helps. And how much this booster cost in the market?? Much more than you actually pay for your fuel.

Toluene has the advantage of being relatively cheap, and fairly effective at raising the octane even in fairly high percentages. Plus it has good resistance to pre-ignition which is an important consideration in a high compression engine; in this case such as 4G92 MIVEC. The downside is as you raise the percentage of Toluene, the throttle response quickly becomes flat and mushy. So the engine won't knock, but it probably won't run any better either.

Commercial octane boosters are a scam. They are simply as bogus as those loan sharks. For example, if one says it'll raise your octane by 7 points, this is what they meant:

92 Octane + 7 Point Octane Boost = 92.7 Octane and NOT 99.

Most of addtive says "up to 5 points", "up to 10 points", or "up to 20 points". What does that mean? It means it goes up anywhere from 0 to 20 points, so you might get only 1 point after all. Who knows? 1 point is still within the number range to 20 and you can't sue them for misadvertising though.

92 Octane + 0.1 = 92.1 Octane = pathetic

By now you are probably confused again by what all of this means. To sum it up, if your car has no changes to compression, no raised RPM limiter or lots of boost, you should probably fine using the fuel without any booster added. If you have a beefy race built motor, stick to premium or race fuel that meets the need of your engine. If you have a lightly tuned engine and enjoy the occasional track day, regular fuel is already adequate. Don't touch octane boosters at all cost.

extracted from Octane Boosters and the Truth Behind Them ezine

Beneath 69 - old MIVEC Resurrected

Since early 2000, there was no replacement or additional model in the valve-lifting MIVEC family. Most of the model that carries the word MIVEC only features the variable valve timing and there weren't any valve lifting. Clearly Mitsu spoilt their rep by naming all of their new line pussy engine with the MIVEC name but without the mighty cam engaging feature. They should have came with another abbreviations instead of MIVEC. Maybe something like MVVT (Mitsubishi Variable Valve Timing) or MCVT (Mitsubishi Continuos Valve Timing) or p-MIVEC (pussy-Mitsubishi Innovative Variable bla bla thingy). So, after so many years, Mitsu came out with a new 2.4 litre, four-cylinder, SOHC engine which utilized the old MIVEC feature. Even though this engine is far from being considered a woww and more to an auwww, this could be an early step for Mitsu to get their ass back to produce more cam engaging engine like they used to before. Enter the 4G69.

Cam profiles switching occurs at an engine speed of 3500 min (the speed at which the torque curve yielded by the low-speed-mode cams intersects with the torque curve yielded by the high-speed-mode cam). The 4G69 large-displacement four-cylinder engine has a long-stroke design for compactness. With this design, valve-diameter size is limited as imposed by the bore. This flawed actually will make the flow velocity of the intake air is extremely high. When combined with MIVEC extra lift feature, this will create a strong scavenging effect thus increasing air intake volume significantly. The result according to Mitsu is much better output than the previous high compression ratio of Mitsu's GDI engines.

This engine will never up to par with Honda's K20A nor the Toyota's 2ZZ-GE motors despite the massive displacement it has. This engine (sadly) is more intended to use as global purpose which mainly will offer good driving capabilities, reduced fuel consumption and its quietness. We hope those white-coated people at the 3-diamond star will come out something spectacular incorporating the awesome valve-lifting MIVEC technology they had before. Imagine a 2.4L DOHC 16-valve MIVEC-MD engine with 6-speed close-ratio gearbox. Owhh, that would be freaking nice.

content was extracted from the technical datasheet of Mit 4G69

Ass Lifted - Changing Rear Light

After owning the car more than 6 years, I'm looking for something that can freshen up some bit; or in simpler word, change some parts to have a different look. This PROMOTE rear light design was back from early 2000, only this one the inner frame has been blackened to give that ganas look. Although more recently most aftermarket lights has a growing range of LED style rear lights for cars but unfortunately this light still utilizing conventional bulbs. I guess there isn't much choice specifically for Satria until now.


Installation is easy, in fact a lot easier than I thought. A day before I purchased this light, I was helping my colleague to replace the rear light on the '08 Vios; and that wasn't any easy. Everything seems too tight to open, too small to grip and too expensive to fool around. Maybe that's an advantage when dealing with cheaper and older Protons. Somehow we tend to not feel 'guilty' to mess around compared when dealing with other 'superior' brand car. There were 4 bolts holding the lamp base to the body frame and unbolting them took less than 2 minutes.

Installing the new lamps were also as easy as dismantling the old one. All wiring sockets are snap-fit with each other. The best part is, the lamps came complete with bulbs. Since I've got my car ass-lifted, maybe to get those BMW-wannabe eagle eye should be next on my list. Or maybe, just the plain blackened frame headlamp; like those Wira's/Satria's SE. Or maybe, just get some decent fog lights and blast a 6000k HID kit through it. Or maybe (the list goes on .. and on..)