Season 4 Premiere, Disabling the Soundaktor

It has been over a year since we've posted new videos. We at Machine Zealots are happy to say that we are back; with more episodes and more mods!

If you have been a long time follower of Machine Zealots, you would have possibly read, or heard, that we are making our show a bit differently now. Due to changes in our personal lives, we can no longer do what we used to do; that is: film an episode, edit, and then upload. What we have found most efficient is to plan out all the mods and episodes on our breaks. Then we film all the episodes in the summer, while it is warmer with tons of daylight, and upload those episodes in sequence during the winter times, which is also our hiatus; and the cycle continues that way.

We don't know how long this method will last, but it's much better than our previous methods for sure. The only down side is, you guys have to wait for larger chunks of time before any new content is posted online. With that said, we thank you for patiently waiting for us, and I hope the new season won't be a huge let down!

With that long introduction out of the way, let's talk about the episode.

This season will be slightly different from the past seasons. As you can see, the first episode we aired is focused on the 2012 Golf GTI. Ever since Season 1, we had wanted to integrate more of Puyang's car into the episodes. Largely due to budget concerns, he was unable to join. This season, as you will come to see, is very balanced in terms of the cars. You will see pretty much equal amount of screen time between the 2006 WRX STI, and the 2012 Golf GTI. You may also see some special guest cars here and there, but you'll have to stick around to find out.

This episode specifically covers one of the first things that the GTI owners modify. Removing the Soundaktor, if you listen to the description in the video, is a key part in enhancing the driving experience. If you didn't understand the description, it's totally fine. In short, the Soundaktor is an artificial noise maker, that syncs to your engine RPM. It ends up being a tacky way of making the car sound sportier. While new technology is often cool, Puyang was very irritated at the Soundaktor. Either way, it has been disabled, so the GTI sounds so much better.

It's good to be back. Merry Christmas everyone!

Season 4 Airing on Christmas

Have a Merry Christmas, and happy holidays!

Impact of the year

It has been quite a while since I have made any post here on the blog. Of course, our YouTube channel has been even more inactive. There are already some episodes completed and ready for upload. As I have promised, I planned to have the episodes aired near the end of the year, so that episodes can run all the way to late spring and summer. That way we can concentrate on making content during the seasons of nice weather, and concentrate our efforts on editing and processing the episodes during the rainy autumn season.

I apologize for any of you guys waiting for our videos but have not heard from us. I will make a short vlog to explain what I have explained here as well. However, subscribers are still flowing in faster than people unsubscribing, so I thank those who have subscribed to us, and thank those who have remained patient. I know you guys will love the new season, it is our biggest season to date.

On a personal note, why we haven't been able to get out episodes sooner is because of changes in life: Settling down, buying a home, and focusing on work is no small matter. In fact, I am thankful that my future wife actually encourages us to keep Machine Zealots going. More on this later.

I had recently invested in an impact wrench, impact sockets, and some torque sticks. I was getting tired of changing my wheels by hand, and since these tools were on sale, I thought it would be wise to invest in them.

The impact wrench is a heavy duty cordless wrench running on 20V lithium ion batteries. Featuring a 1/2" square drive, with a friction ring system that securely hold sockets and adaptors in place. It packs up to 145 ft-lbs of beastly torque and has a maximum speed of 2700 RPM. It's equipped with a small LED work light for those late nights in the garage, or for darker working areas.

It definitely sped up my summer to winter wheel swap. I think I spent only five minutes per wheel; from lifting up the wheel, removing, cleaning any rust, installing the new wheel, tightening, then torquing down.

The torque sticks were probably the most expensive out of the three, relatively speaking. Though I was hesitating whether to buy them, I ended up getting them, and I didn't regret it. For the first wheel, I had to use my torque wrench to test the accuracy of these torque sticks. After getting used to the torque sticks, I realized that they do the job very well! Perfect job every time.

I'm very happy with this investment, and I know I will put them to good use on other things as well.

That's it for now! I will update you guys later.

Importfest 2014 Photos

On August 9th, Puyang and I were invited to Importfest 2014. We saw some of the same cars displayed at last year's Importfest (Episode 0310 on YouTube), but there were quite a lot of new ones too. In fact, I think Importfest 2014 was a better show compared. Puyang and I were also happier this year as we got a couple of free T-shirts, sunglasses, posters, and other small gifts.

The Episode for this car show will be edited and uploaded at a later date as well. For now, please enjoy some of the photos we took at the show. There were lots of cool looking Subarus, for you subie lovers out there. ;)

Hope you enjoyed the photos. We will continue to make updates on our Season progress. Stay tuned!

GTI Autocross experience

On July 19th, Puyang took his GTI to his first autocross event. It was one of the best autocross weather conditions I have ever seen. In fact, most of the drivers that day said it was truly a miracle. Apparently, the land around us was pouring rain while we got dry tarmac, clouds, and a bit of sun. It was the perfect temperature as well, while it wasn't too hot for us, the tarmac absorbed enough heat for some really nice tire grip. We have to thank God for all of it!

Being a front wheel drive car, I was quite impressed with the handling of the GTI. There was definitely understeer and got a bit nose heavy, but it handled the corners quite well. We were also running on the stock all-season tires; a less sticky tire compound, and with soft side walls, so we were definitely at a disadvantage. For the first couple of runs, Puyang left the Traction and Stability control on. It was later that I told Puyang to turn them all off for a better sense of the car's handling. However, from factory there is a system in place for his GTI that helps with cornering. The system is called the XDS, and what it does is brakes the inside wheel on a hard turn so that the outside wheel can push the car back in the proper driving line, thus removing some of the understeer. Ideally, this is simulating what a limited slip differential would do, but for a fraction of the price. However, there would be faster brake wear present if one were to take hard corners all the time.

Overall, Puyang learned a lot about handling his car and driving techniques. He has now set a benchmark for the factory car, and his future modifications will now be compared to this benchmark test. If you want to see the entire photo album for this event, please visit our Facebook Page. If not, then enjoy some of our favorite photos from this event below.

We will have two episodes covering this event which will be aired at a later date. Stay tuned!