A Conning rod

Exactly 9 days after the thieving incident, reaching the Bukit Jalil - Seri Petaling intersection from a meeting with fellow 0-100.com forummer; an unfamiliar noise being heard from the engine bay. Though throttle response was normal, the sound was a bit more louder than it supposed to be.

Worrying that the piston could be shattered, slowly I drove the car to Ganu's place (Ganu aka Mitsubishi) for his review on the case. He confirmed that the conrod's bearing is out of place. Gosh. August have not been kind to me. I'm pretty upset but knowing that it could've been worse, I'm set for development on this block since I already had the plan to overhaul for quite sometime.

The car stalled in EB One for 4 days, so I drove carefully to a friend's workshop nearby Hicom Shah Alam to engage the repairs. After bringing down & disassembly of the engine, looks like conrod no 4 is badly damaged & needs to be replaced. Quickly I searched through Mudah.my & saw an ad selling set of 4G93 pistons + conrods. Turns out it is the same person I dealt earlier to get a backup crankshaft.

Dead conrod

I took the rocker head for some colouring project while Alvin sent the engine parts to the machine shop where they confirmed a few things:

1. Crankshaft need to be shaved & polished
2. Current conrods are all goners!

Luckily I had the set of conrods, so that already save me big time. The crankshaft however, is going be shaved & not replaced which means it will be fit with a specially measured bearing for conrod no. 4. So, I'm going with ACL Aluglide set for this session.

To be continued...

D*mn Buggers

Earlier this month, about 2 weeks before the reach of Ramadhan, my car was breach by riding robbers! The driver side window was wrecked (luckily my tint still holds the breaking portion). They stole a gadget inside of the glove box, along with my gear knob. Gear knob??
Many suspect that this could have been insider's work, from where could it be prolly the workshop that installed the gadget itself but who knows.

According to a maid of a neighbour which is also the only eye witness during the incident, there were 2 men on motorcycle that produced the tragedy, which could probably be Indonesian. It was around 2.00pm in the afternoon when it happpened.

Seeming there's an intake manifold at the backseat, the robbers only took whatever convenient most to handle but they do possess the knowledge on the gadgetry since it the socket was detached without any trace of snaps...

Just some pics for viewing pleasure...

Broken

Mess

Under the hood 1

I've been thinking about changing the tower strut for a while, so I crossed a half-cut store that sells few adjustable Cusco struts matching the mounting specs for a Putra. The one I had in the bay (looks like Hurricane tower bars sold in ENEOS) is already distorted due to flexes taken on hard driving days, where it also marked a scratch underneath the front hood.

Bought the used strut for RM200, which I reckon can get cheaper about RM150 at some other shop. Guess I was just to lazy to joust into a bargain :P

So I had it replaced on a fine day during wheel balancing at a tyre shop, earlier this month.

Mounted tower brace

A few days ago, I bought some pre-cut hood sound dampeners from Brothers Accessories Shop in Kelana Jaya, so I just took my time pasting it underneath the hood to further help insulate the engine noise when it's running. Cost is quite cheap which is RM38 for a stock Proton Wira / Satria / Putra front hood. Just for reference, same insulation material retails at RM35 per square meter. The material looks & feels of an OK quality for the price offered.

Sound dampeners (insulation)

I wiped all access grease underneath the hood. Any tough grease got a good help from WD40 for removal & get the surface squeaky as much as I can with a dry cloth.

Day 1

Day 1: Halfway

Day 2: Completed

As we can see everything fits into place accordingly. Not too shabby eh?

Face-Lived

After sometime, the car's paint seems to be a bit in disorder due to peeled skin & unwanted scratches which oversees the true religion of the paint nature.
I had again ordered a touch-up activity from Din (my occasional spray painter) to help me about it.

Few things had been re-sorted:

• replacement of side skirts (Poly Urethane Perdana V6's trimmed length)
• installation of door trim (lining) with custom rear fender lining
  
• replacement of Asti Spoiler with custom duck tail version (non-Batman or so-called Asti-Z)
• refinement on front lips mount & paint work
  

Replacement of spoiler includes tampering the mounting holes with steel for permanent seal.

The works started on the 10th this month but seemed to dragging until Saturday, 15th since the rain was up & about during the works. Due to lack of sheltered ground, the works only completed that night about 1 am, when I was finished with my badminton activities @ New vision courts in Petaling Jaya with fellow ex-university mates.

Cadangan yang sama

Sejak akhir-akhir ni aku di hujani isu yang sama je... jumpa org ni tanya soalan tu. Jumpa minah ni cakap macam tu. Jumpa kawan aku pun bagi cadangan yang sama. Cadangannya ialah,

"Tukar je la kereta baru."

Hehe, aku bukan tak berkenan nak tukar kereta lain, tapi aku sayang keta aku ni. Enjin jarang bermasalah, cuma kadang-kadang je merengek. Biasalah, umur lanjut skit. Bayangkan, hari-hari dapat jumpa pun aku masih nak keluar dengan kereta aku jugak. Sebab itulah ramai lelaki panggil kereta tu bini, sedangkan isteri di rumah pun belum tentu nak jumpa hari-hari! Kalau dah menyampah macam tu lah...

Walau bagaimanapun, aku rasa suatu hari nanti aku akan beli kereta lain jugak. Samada kereta ni aku simpan ke tak tu blakang cerita la tapi sentimental dah tentu kaw-kaw punya, dah lama bercinta la katakan.

2 orang manager kat bahagian Business Development opis tempat aku kerja sekarang ni pun asik la pancing aku beli Evo... kalu aku cap duit aku memang dah sental dah Evo Meebo ni.

"At least masuk turbo... 4G63 laa tak pun GSR", kata Mr Z no.1 & Mr Z no.2.
Sama je otak dua-dua. Mana taknya, sorang bawak Evo VII, assistant-nya plak bawak STI ver8... Cis dunia memang tidak adil....

Sekian aje aku membebel sensorang kali ini. Kalu ada lain kali nanti aku bagitau. Aku bagitau sini je laa, korang bukan nak amik tahu sangat pun.

Project S?

Adjustable coil-overs have always been the fond of basic handling modification. As I treat myself to getting used to ride-stiffness by changing springs, I finally came to my senses of installing hi-low adjustable absorbers.
Project S of Taiwan is a newly introduced brand, which I'd say I'm satisfied with the setting & its material are acceptable if not on par with common brands like GAB or HWL. Spring rates goes 6kg (front) - 4kg (rear) which are pretty ideal to my preference.
A colourful & catchy set, how it caught my attention earlier. Was inducted by fellow ZTH forummer. Installation was later carried out by ATS Automobile in Sunway.


Thanks for the bargain, Andy.