Traction Issues

It has been raining almost everyday here in Kuala Lumpur, and with all the ongoing roadworks around the city centre its certainly isn't very pleasant to drive around with all the stop and go, bumper to bumper traffic.

Some of you already might have know that the current NCP93 Toyota Vios is equipped with an electronic throttle or better known as the drive by wire system (or fly by wire), which I agree it is actually a very good design for fuel efficiency and other neat stuffs like anti-lag and traction control.

Most will probably agree with me that the drive by wire system in our car is certainly not the smartest, and the comments I often hear are "dumb", "laggy" and "slow" etc.

And hence there are after market electronic throttle tuning products like BRM21 HAC and Pivot 3 Drive Throttle Controller.

Because the opening of the throttle plate doesn't correspond directly with your pedal position, with all the rain going on I'm actually getting wheel spins from time to time during traffic light take offs and its getting really annoying.

Couple of times the car next to me actually thought that I was trying provoke him in to a traffic light challenge and he starts spinning his wheels as well. This is the time where some sort of traction control will be really appreciated.

The sad part is that the JDM Toyota Vios doesn't come equipped with traction control unlike the USDM or European Yaris whereby traction control and vehicle stability control is offered be it standard or optional.

Also if you were to plug in an OBD2 scanner and you'll discover that our cars are actually equipped with speed sensors on all 4 wheels, and from there you will be able to monitor all the individual wheel speed.

Yes, no doubt I love the kind of torque the car is producing now but power is really nothing if you can't transfer them properly to the wheels and control it.

So I'm pondering now perhaps its time to ditch the car and get myself a proper sports car with a full time 4 wheel drive system like the Evo or Subie?

Yes most probably, but before doing so I will still continue to complete all the current pending mods that are lined up on hand.

Sigh, don't think the current 205/45 profile tires has sufficient grip
*depressed*

Innovate Motorsports Wideband Controller

For any natural aspiration to turbo conversion project, a wideband controller is almost a must have item for the absolute serious tuners and enthusiasts.

Most natural aspirated cars comes factory fitted with a narrow band sensor where it could only read air fuel ratios between 14.5 and 15.1, which is pretty much useless for turbo cars whereby the air fuel ratio ranges are much more wider.

Toyota Vios turbo has been using the LC-1 wideband controller from Innovate Motorsports since the very first day it left GT Auto's garage, and the reason why we chose Innovate over other brands like AEM, DynoJet and Zeitronix is pretty much self explanatory here.

The test conducted by Ford Muscle clearly shows that the Innovate LC-1 wins hands down in terms of accuracy and response time over others, put aside the other features such as the logging capabilities of the software.

Besides that, the thing we like about the LC-1 is that it has 2 programmable analog outputs, a feature very useful for tuners to tune OBD-II compliant cars where the ECU relies on 2 narrowband sensors to adjust the air fuel ratio during closed loop operation.

OBD-II car owners should take notice what I am about to post next.

With the analog output feature, we're able to fool the stock ECU to keep the fuel trims in check by wiring an analog output to simulate narrow band reading to the ECU so that it does not correct any adjustments made by the E-Manage piggyback unit during closed loop.

Think of it as an O2 remapping device if you will, and the only other devices that we have seen in the market which has similar capabilities is the AEM F/IC piggyback and the F-Manage from Trust Japan, whereby even the mighty R35 GTR's ecu was also defeated by it.

As far we know, Innovate is the only producer of digital wideband controller in the market which is capable of auto self calibration, whereby the rest are all analog based and had to rely on the factory sensor calibration. This is a major factor to consider when deciding on your purchase of a wideband controller because when the sensor ages, so will the accuracy of the reading.

So if you were somehow unlucky and purchased a unit which is not capable of calibration, you wouldn't have any idea when the sensor is going bad. There won't be any compensations for changes in temperature, altitude and sensor condition.

In simple terms, your engine is basically blinded but with its eyes wide open. In this case, you might as well just throw it away and run your car fully map based, lose your fuel economy rather than risking an engine blow.

LC-1/XD-16 kit package

XD-16 gauge indicating stoichiometric ratio during idling

Motul 300V

Motul 300V is Motul's premium top of the line fully synthetic engine oil with Double Ester Technology, and the entire range of oils were co-developed with the engineers of NISMO, Motul and Honda Mugen Japan GT Teams as well as the Subaru World Rally Team.

This is the oil not only I will swear by, so will GT Auto and their record setting Evolution III drag car, holding the fastest 0-400m drag time in Malaysia.

So, who else uses Motul 300V oil exclusively as their engine lubricant you ask? Just to name a few:

• PRODrive
• Formula Renault
• Subaru World Rally Team
• Japan GT Nismo
• Honda Mugen Team
• Ferarri 550 Maranello
• Le Mans 24H
• Formula 3000
• FIA GT
• French GT
• Porsche GT

I could keep adding on to the list, but you get the jizz.

Toyota Vios turbo has been using it since day #1 and until anything better comes along, Motul 300V will be the only oil that will be going in and out of my engine.

Pricey maybe some will say? Yes, but you get what you paid for.

Motul 300V 5W40

Revised Suspension Settings

Couple of days back, I had my HotBits DT1 shockers sent back to Speedworks for a full service and I took the opportunity to have the suspension setup revised.

After 6 months of driving and testing with numerous setups, I discovered that the best setting to my likings for the spring force would 60-kg/cm for the front and 40-kg/cm for the rear.

So I had Speedworks revised my shockers together with the new spring setup and now its working flawlessly. The damping and rebound on the road is just nice and exactly to what I wanted.

As usual, not a single cent was paid for all the work done as the shockers are still under warranty, and on top of that I was given another 3 months warranty extension starting from the serviced date.

40-kg/cm force springs

Garrett GT2554R

The stage II turbo kit is finally coming in to pieces with the arrival of the most important component which is the turbo itself.

This little baby here is rated to produce up to 270 HP and is suitable for engines with the displacement from 1.4 liters and above. With a dual ball bearing design, we would expect minimal lag from this turbo even on the small 1NZ-FE engine.

It is quite common for ball bearing turbos to spool up at least 15%-20% faster than similar sized journal bearing turbos while giving better damping and control over shaft motion providing enhanced reliability for everyday driving.

This GT2554R turbo uses a dual stainless steel ball bearing cartridge and is the smallest ball bearing turbo available from Garrett. With the ball bearing design, we won't need to supply as much oil as needed compared to journal bearing for lubrication of the turbo.

It also shares the same oil and water cooling housing design as my current GT2056 turbo, however the major differences between the both of them would be the bearing design and the power output.

We'll see how well this turbo performs when it goes in.

Stay tuned fellas.