Ajustment Period part II

The following day:

Josh, Regie, Fred and I was excited to time the ignition of my car. Karl, our new classmate decided to hang out with us. Regie also fixed his blinker because the driver side failed to light up when he tried to check his car alarm.
After fixing it, we fixed the timing of my car asking our prof, who happened to be just pulling out from the driveway, the right amount. He said 10 deg before top dead center. And so we set it to 10. After adjusting and checking the idle rpm with aircon, Regie wanted to give it a couple of sprint to check. We all decided to tag along with me riding shot gun on the passenger side. He gave it a go on the stretch of Chino Roces to Magallanes underpass. Whoa, I never thought my car could go that fast. Karl even shouted, “Bat parang mamamatay na tayo?!” Regie, a regular racer and a co- owner of a performance shop in Bicutan was pleased with the way my car ran. He maximized all the forward gears and powershifted only on the redline. My car is more than ok for a daily driver, he said. I should compliment my k&n intake with a freeflowing muffler to really maximize the power, he added. My plan of having my car turbocharged before this year ends will go as planned. But between that time and now, I'll be more contended with my almost stock car. The tuning made my car better. In terms of power and fuel efficiency, my car drove like it juts got out of the showroom.

Adjustment Period

8:10- After the class in Powertrain and Chassis, we went outside the school for the usual cigarette break. Josh, Regie and I decided to finally push through with our plan of adjusting the tappets of my car. This is to finally put an end to the annoying knocking sound in the 1,500 up to 3,500 RPM.

8:15- The three of us plus Fred, the funny guy who works in Chevrolet, decided to help along with us. We started getting the necessary tools from our won car's trunks.

8:20- My girlfriend arrives in the school's garage with snacks and drinks in tow. I'm so fortunate to such have a really pretty, hot, ever supportive and thoughtful girlfriend.

8:25- We started working with the tappets adjustment. Our professor dropped by to check us out.

9:30- We are working on the last set. The second cylinder. Because we decided to adjust the tappets according to the firing order. As in any other 4 cylinder cars, the firing sequence is 1-3-4-2. Unfortunately, Fred mistakenly adjusted the adjacent screw, the third, and not the second. So after working on the last, We decided to start the car. My girlfriend was so excited. But to everybody's dismay, the engine bay sounded like there's someone using the typewriter underneath the hood.

9:32- Yosi break again.

9:35- We started working on it again. This time deciding to align top dead center using two full cycles only. We all forgot the pairs the can be worked on during the first rotation. My good buddy Regie wasted no time in calling up none other than Bong of H3- a very popular tuning shop located in Antipolo. He said over the phone that on the first rotation, intakes 1 & 2 and exhausts 1 & 3 can be adjusted. The remaining tappets intakes 4 &3 and exhausts 4 & 2 can be adjusted after the second rotation.

9:40- My girlfriend tried to sleep at the backseat of my car.

10:00- She woke up because she can't stand the mosquitoes feasting on her blood.
10: 30- We finished adjusting the tappets and placed back the valve cover. I started the car and alas! The car purred like a contented cat. My girlfriend got so excited that she forgot she's grumpy.

10:40- We all left the school tired but nonetheless satisfied. The blood (thanks to the ginormous mosquitoes) , sweat and tears (well, almost) because of the costly mistake made by Fred were all forgotten and made it all worthwhile.

Josh said he'll bring his timing light tomorrow to complete the tuning.

Defender '69

My classmate decided to bring his other Rover Defender to school today. After three years in the shop for repair and restoration, the classic off- roader has finally seen the streets of Makati. Here's a photo of my classmates checking out heart of the car. Pardon the quality of the pic, I only used my phone in taking the shot.

Childhood Memory

Magnolia Ice Cream Parlor. This joint is special because it brings me back to the time when things are just simple and the roads are very much less congested. During our elementary days in Bene, when our parents gets the chance to leave work earlier, they would fetch us up and treat us for a movie in ATC. Alabang Town Center was known as Alabang Twin Cinema then. After the usual family oriented -flick from the spouses Nestor de Villa and Nida Blanca, or TVJ and Aiza, we would have fun recounting the highlights of the movie over spaghetti, burger, and desserts such as Ernie and Bert and milkshakes in Magnolia Ice Cream Parlor, located at the basement of ATC. Unfortunately, as Ayala Malls started to develop the area, the ice cream parlor closed shop.
So when I discovered that they opened a branch across Mall of Asia in Pasay near Hooters, I decided to check the place out and relive the memories. Sadly though, the place dissapointed me. The burger and spaghetti is just not the same as they used to be. Well, I guess I just have to come to terms that indeed, you just can't bring the past back.

Porsche Cayenne's Heart

Porsche Cayenne's v8 engine in the Porsche Training Room. After our lecture, I decided to check the engine out.

Street Specs

I regularly visit this shop along Banawe every Sunday for my car's usual car wash. I chose this shop over others because they use the line of detailing products that I myself use, Mothers. This car nut's haven is relatively new and owned by a couple of car enthusiasts. What is interesting about this place is that the owners are fans of different car makes. Two of them worships Hondas, One is a solid Toyota fan and the last one swears that Nissan is the best. While waiting for my car to be totally cleaned inside out, I told them our plan of having it turbocharged. To really convince us (me and my good friend), one of the owners even suggested that we ride shotgun on his turbocharged ek9 to get a feel of what an FI'd civic would be like.
His current set up puts out 270 horses at the wheels. My plan is to just reach the 200whp. For the first run, he set the boost controller to low. I was a speechless. But on our 2nd run, he set the thing up to high boost. Damn, me and my friend was just ecstatic and all we can do is say expletives at a rate of 80 curses per minute. It is unfortunate that we weren't able to catch it on video. Anyway, thanks to the great guys over at Street Specs in Banawe. It won't be long until I bring my car over to your shop again. Not for the usual car wash, but to have a kuhol system installed.

The car on the pic is the twin of the type r we tested. This one puts out a staggering 500whp.

Gas

Slowly, the fuel prices continue to rise as the weeks pass by. Why is this so? I hope it doesn't go back to the 60/ liter rate. As I have personally observed, the best place to have your car filled up is at the Macapagal Blvd. Shell, Jetti and Petron there sell their fuel at usually 2 lower than usual price per liter in the metro. It's a good thing that I frequent the area for food and malling and the occasional tambay for watching 'street tuning'. So when you get the chance to be near the area, it is a good decision to drop by your favorite gas station and say, “full tank na nyo!”

Kuryente

The auto electrical module started with just me, Roland and Regie. Soon after, Joshua and two new classmates joined us in the Toyota training room. Our teacher handed out to us Toyota manuals and an electrical board that looks like this. We were also given a box that seemed like the ones used by high rollers when carrying money to the casino. Or drug dealers when exchanging goods. Anyway, the brief case was a container for all the parts of an electrical circuit.
Here's an outline of what the teacher discussed for the night:

Here's a short video when we created a series/ parallel circuit.