I want to start off by thanking Cj from AP Drive. As always, he provided valuable inputs at the expense of closing a sale. This is one nice person the world should have more of. Good advice is always hard to come by. If you read some of the things posted in forums, you will soon realise that there are many uninformed, ill-informed or mentally deformed people who just wants air time. They offer nothing constructive to your queries and when all else fails, they ask you to do a search on Google. Then, there are the crusaders who tries to flaunt what little they know so that they too can have the air time they want; their mission is to protect the newbies but not knowing that what they say, in reality, reflects their lack of intelligence. There's a saying that goes like this; you can fool some people some of the time but not all the people all the time. Another saying goes like this; if you keep your trap shut, nobody will know you are an idiot. However, I consider myself blessed to have met many nice guys from the forum, not ON the forum. In fact, we have become good friends, sharing thoughts and ideas not just about cars but life itself. That is probably the only consolation and motivation that prompts me to visit the forum. But, I have grown wise and avoid threads that the so-called 'gurus' patronise. But, you cannot avoid these people because they will poke their nose into every other thread to show their intelligence (or the lack of it) so that they maintain their status as Gods of Mods and Crusader to the meek and humiliated newbies. Perhaps, their web persona is a way for them to gain the respect they need because in real life, they don't get a second glimpse from others. But, that's their business and as long as they stay out of my hair, I will not give them a hoot. Sorry, I had to let off some steam and now, back to the issues at hand.
The idea of an oil cooler has been ditched. I was 'educated' on the pros and cons of an oil cooler by Cj and the conclusion is that the Swift does not really need one. The oil temperature at 120 - 122degC at 4500 to 5000 rpm is normal. The critical temperature is actually around 135degC. Since I change my engine oil regularly, there will not be any siginificant ill effects on the engine. All I need to do now is set my oil temperature warning light to come on at 130degC instead of 120degC. Problem solved without incurring a cent. All thanks to Cj. In addition, the license plate will be changed to a longish-type since the present squarish-type is blocking a part of the front lower grill. Every bit of enhancement counts.
The full bucket seats will stay. To provide better ingress and egress out of the cabin, I will invest in a quick release for the steering wheel. It will also serve as a security measure. I love those bucket seats and giving them up is the last thing I would want to do.
The stock ECU will stay. Apparently, in order for Monster Sport to re-program the ECU, you need to send them the stock ECU. Downtime is about 3 to 4 weeks and the cost is about $1500. There is really nothing wrong with the stock ECU, it provides the power and more importantly, the flexibility and adaptability to suit different conditions eg. fuel grade. Of course, a little bit more juice would be nice but I can always do it some other way, perhaps mechanically rather than electronically. I have also been advised not to re-flash the stock ECU. So, the new ECU idea is ditched.
The Hurricane drop-in air filter will be replaced with the stock paper filter. Air filtration was one of my worry during the drive. While I knew that the enhanced air intake system was pushing in huge amount of air into the system, I also know that a lot of dirt is going into the system too. Coupled with the rain and dirty water being sucked into the system, it was a bit uneasy. Although provisions were made in the intake system for water drainage, there was concern still that everything may not be 100% perfect. However, my inspection of the air filter and the main components seems to show that all is well. I thought the filter will be covered with mud but it seems to be really clean. This is either very good or very bad. It means either the water has run-off even before reaching the air filter. Or everything has gone into the system. But, if the latter was to happen, I think the engine would have seized up but it did not. I am convinced that the Hurricane steel-mesh air filter is working well; it actually filters out dirt down to 0.5 microns. But, I prefer to err on the safe side, so the paper filter is going in and the Hurricane filter is coming out. This is a good article regarding stock air filter:
http://autospeed.com/cms/A_2232/article.html
Read it and make your own conclusions. I already had intentions to remove the Hurricane air filter previously but never got down to doing it because the local conditions are not extreme enough to have it removed. Having gone through the extreme conditions of the epic drive, I am convinced the paper filter will prove itself useful; it will not create a power loss or 'choke' the engine. If conditions are better during such drives, I can always pop in the Hurricane air filter.
