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Hello again AI This is the third thread about my car, the mighty 1978 Ford Fairmont XC. I'll jump back a bit since it has been a while. I picked up this car in July 2012 for $3500, after looking at zero other cars before it. I picked it up off the original owner (his son sold it to me, the old guy was in a nursing home), it was garaged and registered up until a year before I picked it up. When I looked at it, I had no clue what I was looking for and it was at night. I got really loving lucky that it wasn't worse.   (gently caress it's strange looking at those photos again, it's almost like it's a different car) The day after I picked it up:     It was a really good buy, especially considering how much a car in this condition goes for now. It had a little bit of rust but it was all fixable (and has been since then, apart from one hard to get spot), mechanically it was running but not great (had a blown head gasket, injecting water into cylinder 6), and the steering and suspension were stuffed. I got that all fixed with the help of a friend I met on some forums, he pretty much had to show me everything since I knew nothing. To cut a long story short, as most of it was all in my previous threads. I got it registered, it was my daily for years. I rebuilt the motor and had it burning oil after 10000km (hosed carby and hosed trans kickdown, washed the cylinder walls down). Replaced the motor with an XE Falcon alloy head crossflow and C4 auto which it's still running right now. Did a bare metal respray in the slightly adjusted factory colour, painted in 2 pack. The result was this, taken a few months back after putting the sunraysias on there. Before that, I was still running the EF Falcon alloys that came with the car.  Currently, the car has a mostly stripped interior and I'm part way through a differential swap. It's also got this sitting in front of it in the garage:  My plan for the car originally was an N/A Barra, but I wasn't really feeling much motivation to actually do it since my daily is a BF Falcon ute with one of them. It would have been fast but nothing special. I went on a trip down to Sydney in my friends Evo 7 and after getting on boost a few times when I was driving it, I knew what I had to do. I already posted about the diff swap in another thread but I'll do a bit more of a write up in here about it tomorrow, as well as go into detail on what I'll be doing to get this motor in my car. I'm finishing off the diff install this weekend, so I should be able to report on if I did a good job at flaring brake lines. If you don't hear from me again, I didn't do a good job.
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Feb 18, 2019 10:19
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I'll start off with the diff swap and get on to barra swap stuff tomorrow. So the main reason I wanted to swap in a new diff was to get the correct ratio for the barra + 4 speed combo plus I hear they like you having discs on the rear for getting engine conversions mod plated. Oh and gently caress drum brakes, mostly that. I had a few options for this, as leaf spring diffs are easy enough to get. All Falcon utes and wagons had them. My first thought was to use the one in what was going to be my donor car - a 2003 BA wagon. The problem with this is from the AU Falcon on the diff was slightly wider, changing the rim offset from the early Falcon +0 (or somewhere around that, probably +5ish) to +36. Having different offset wheels front and back wasn't appealing and I didn't want to run spacers. These diffs also have a horrible reputation for whining, which I experienced with my BF ute (a complete rebuild solved that problem!) So looking at earlier models, I could try find something from an XA-XC but the disc brake diffs go for money, especially the 9 inch (and gently caress having that power robbing hunk of metal unless you're running a lot of power). XD-XF ones, same deal, most of them came out with drums on the rear. The E series Falcon diffs were a good pick, the utes of that series - the XG and XH (they kept the body of the previous generation utes, I assume that's why they weren't labelled as EA-EL with the Sedans and Wagons) had good ratios and could be picked up for cheap. The XC's diff had a 2.92 ratio, a BA Falcon with a Barra and 4 speed auto have a 3.23 (poverty/taxi spec) or 3.45 (XR6/XR6T). The diff I picked up out of an XG ute has a 3.27 ratio which seemed perfect to me. The next problem was the tailshaft or the fact that I'll probably need two since I'll be swapping motor and trans combos. The best part of this whole conversion was finding out, no I don't need two different tailshafts. The C4 and the BTR 4 speed are the same length and can take the exact same tailshaft. The tailshaft from the EB all the way to the AU sedans are the same length and are the correct length for an XC with an auto and a Borg Warner differential. Thank you Ford Australia for making a Barra swap so much easier. Technically I could have used my original diff and tailshaft but that diff was stuffed. So I picked these up from a wrecker for $330.  I could have got something cheaper off facebook but the cars they came out of are so cheap a lot of the time you have to remove the parts yourself if you want them. While I was doing this I figured now was the time to give the rear suspension a freshen up. I decided I'd get rid of the raked look and lower the rear to be level with the front. I got some new King low springs, Koni shocks, all Super Pro bushes, and new brakes (I wonder why, those discs looked fine!). The only things that are problems with this conversion are the handbrake and the brake lines. The handbrake I'm ignoring for now, the old one didn't work anyway. The brake lines because some time in the 80s the brake lines went from imperial to metric. Most solve this problem by getting a little adaptor, I decided to round off the nuts by not using a pipe spanner so I bent up some new lines with new fittings, imperial on one and and metric on the other which leaves me using the XC body to diff flexible brake hose and the XG diff to caliper ones. I thought the master cylinder might be an issue going form drums to discs but XCs use the same master cylinder on both. One less thing to worry about. I did a clean up of my new diff and it came out okay for a lazy job. Better than what it's replacing.   For the most part the removal was uninteresting. Everything actually came out really nicely which is unlike this car.   The install was a poo poo of a job. All because of one part. The U bolts. I thought I was smart buying new ones. Apparently Whiteline can't make parts to fit specific cars but are happy to say they fit. The factory U bolts have a 73mm diameter, the whiteline ones were 75mm which is enough for them to not fit. I've ordered some more from a restoration parts shop.  That's where it's at right now. The rest of the parts should arrive tomorrow, and it'll continue on Sunday (and hopefully be finished). I hope that wasn't too many words about uninteresting things. CAT INTERCEPTOR posted:Oh poo poo you're gonna Barra turbo it now rather than NA???? Hahahah holy crap that old girl is going to be frighteningly fast even if you leave the motor resonably stock. A mate had a FG Barra T and that thing leapt into hyperspace after 80kph, I cant imagine what a considerably lighter car would do. Oh wait I can, 10 sec quarter. I think this car might scare me when it's done, I'm too used to driving slow cars. I'll probably stick to the stock tune for a little while and get it tuned later on when I'm confident that transmission will last. My goal is an 11 second 1/4, I have a feeling that won't be too hard. Stocko XC front and XG rear... that's good right? I'm thinking about one of those Wilwood kits for the front, I'll see what my wallet looks like when the motor is in and running. Nidhg00670000 posted:I like following these projects the most, meaning the ones that a) are done by someone who, uh, is learning as they go and b) are about cars that we never got where I live. Keep up the good work! I'll try not to disappoint. You're definitely in the right place for a). I have no clue what I'm doing half the time.
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Feb 18, 2019 15:52
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CAT INTERCEPTOR posted:I've seen bolt on's on Barra's and older Falcons do 10's. I honestly wouldn't be surprised you are dealing with a 11 sec car straight away without really doing much at all, you have what... about 200kgs less weight to start with? Your old XC might be big and steel but it just doesn't have the crash cell and luxury poo poo the FG does. So the FG stock can do 12.8... you got 1704kgs kerb weight verses the XC's 1475. You look funny at a Barra and you get 50 more KW.... so we could legit see a high 11 immediately depending on a good launch I was thinking about it at work today and I realised I'll need to do a tune on it because to get the motor into the car I'll be doing a few of the bolt ons that that XW is running, mainly the 6boost high mount manifold. It might not work out great on the stock tune. Don Dongington posted:The BA engines had a few issues that they worked out by the time they made the FG motors didn't they? I can't remember exactly what off the top of my head, but I remember Al from the Skid Factory saying something about it when they were taking the Cresta through Drag Week. Some of the issues were only issues because the cars got tuned, for the most part they're reliable in stock form. Valve springs are fine for the stock power but above that they do need to be done (I'll be getting them done!). The oil pump gears are definitely a weak point but are an easy enough fix, a few companies make them. Another is the oil feed line to the turbo is horrible and can get clogged, the fix really simple, new line with an inline filter that's replaceable, I think that comes with some other parts I'm getting as a package so that'll be sorted. The one thing people always make a big deal about in BA and BF series I is the rods. They're pretty much the same as the N/A ones in the early engines. They're a weak point if you go chasing a lot more boost which I won't be... ...yet. The F6 Typhoons, which were an FPV Barra turbo had the better rods and when the BF series II came along all turbo cars got the F6 rods (dedicated LPG cars got them too, but with higher compression). Those are the ones they're talking about when they say they're running 9s on the stock block. Those things pull a bit of money at the moment. CAT INTERCEPTOR posted:Yeah a couple which I think they also go through on the Bedford build. Mostly along he lines of well you should reaaaaally do that anyway........ (head studs, valve springs, oiling). Yes hte FG Barra def is the one to use but the BA/BF Barra motors are a known quantity and the weak points are easily fixed. The Bedford build is what got me motivated again and was part of the reason why I wanted to go turbo. I did find it funny when they started it up for the first time, it sounded exactly like my N/A BF ute. The Turbo taxi is an interesting watch, even with all the back luck they have with it, I think a lot of that comes down to them using LPG. They're having trouble getting good times with that FG though, if I had the same setup in the XC I'd easily be doing 10s all day long. There's a few budget barra turbo builds in commodores around, there was a really ratty looking one I saw on youtube doing 10s with an ebay turbo and an N/A motor. I think it was a VK wagon.
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Feb 19, 2019 11:35
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Quick update before I start writing an essay on what I'm doing for the swap I finally got around to uploading the video I took of the noise my old diff was making. Enjoy my lovely voice https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvlrxRWicM4 My U bolts, spring shackles, and  boot light kit arrived today.U bolts were good, boot light kit was GREAT (seriously, I have wanted a working light in the boot for so long. It had the wiring but the bulb must have gotten lost in one of the accidents that PO had). I'm now on the second replacement part of the diff swap that was wrong. The shackles I got are for earlier cars, they bolt together differently and take different bushes. Of course, the place I bought them from don't accept returns! They might go on ebay or I'll throw them to a friend who has an older falcon. I'm stopping in to rare spares tomorrow to get the correct ones.
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Feb 19, 2019 12:07
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You Am I posted:There's a school teacher in Victoria who has been slowly rebuilding a Fairmont GXL 351, not sure if the series will help you as such with the Barra conversion, but might help you with any interior work or hard to find parts for the XC: His build is great, I was following it a while back but when he took a break I stopped. I'll need to catch up on it. There has been a few times that I've referenced his videos on how to do something. fickle poofterist posted:Ah man I remember your original thread and wondered then why you didnt go turbo barra if you were going to the trouble of engine swapping anyway. I really dont think you will need anything other than stock. Until you get used to the power! I'll be chasing reliability first up, so I'll keep it pretty tame. I have plans to go interstate in it once I've got cruise control and a/c.
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Feb 20, 2019 03:54
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I'll try not to be too boring with this, here's some of what I know and the basics I'll be buying for the Barra turbo swap. I'll start off by saying, compared to some of the stuff I've seen from people here on AI, putting this engine in this car is really simple but I've never attempted anything like it and I have enough trouble replacing an old part with a new one sometimes. This might just be a complete disaster but I hope not. Does it fit? Fitting a barra into an XA-XC Falcon is one of the easiest thing about it. The motor itself fits perfectly without having to cut anything up, it's tall but not all that far off the sixes that they rolled out of the factory with, just a bit more height and wider due to the twin overhead cams. The only real problem is that the barra sump having more capacity makes it hit the factory sway bar, and it needs to be spaced out or have a custom sway bar made. Pretty recently Tuff Mounts started selling a 25mm sway bar to suit the conversion, which I've decided I'll use instead of loving around getting custom parts made. http://musclegarage.com.au/index.php?route=product/product&path=57_78&product_id=244 Next on the list is engine mounts, which there are a few options for: The way the engine mounts bolt to a barra is the same as the way they bolt on to the previous generation 4.0L single overhead cam motors. Most of the later models of E series Falcon had the same oil filled rubber engine mount that the barra did, but ED Falcons and XG-XH utes had a design similar to what's in the XC. The lower part of a 6 cylinder engine mount from an XA-XF Falcon bolts straight up to the upper mount of the ED or XG-XH. There's a small difference in the way either of those options fit (the XF-XH mounts tilted the engine slightly to fit a certain intake). I could pick one of these up really cheap, chances are the rubbers will be flogged out though. The other options are either Tuff Mounts or Castlemaine Rod Shop (CRS), both make an engine mount designed to take a bit of power. Tuff mounts: http://musclegarage.com.au/index.php?route=product/product&path=80_61&product_id=186 CRS: https://www.rodshop.com.au/ford/xa-xb-xc/ford-barra-6cyl-into-xa-xb-xc-xd-xe-xf-falcon-heavy-duty-engine-mounts-em167hp.html I've been hearing the fitment with the CRS ones is a bit nicer for turbo cars, plus with those you don't need to use the base plates. Also they're $100 cheaper. That's looking like my pick right now. That gets the barra into the car, but my other problem is the transmission as I'll be using a BTR 4 speed auto. The crossmember from the BW35 and C4 don't fit, the spot it mounts on the BTR is further back. The only option apart from getting something custom built right now is the CRS transmission crossmember. They make them for a lot of different combos. https://www.rodshop.com.au/ford/xa-xb-xc/xa-xb-xc-falcon-gear-box-cross-member-suit-various-transmissions.html As I mentioned earlier, the differential and tailshaft I'm putting in the car right now (AU sedan tailshaft, XG borg warner diff) fit behind both the crossflow + C4 in it right now and the Barra + BTR. So no issues there. To be a bit more detailed on that, I believe this is because of the EA Falcon. The EA Falcon was available with a 3 speed auto originally which was a development of the BW35 and BW40 that came in the earlier models (my XC had the BW35), the EA also came out with a 4 speed auto which from what I've been told was a loving disaster of a transmission at the time (but eventually was developed into the 4 speed I'll be using). I'm guessing as a cost saving measure Ford wanted both transmissions to take the same tailshaft, or I could just be flat out wrong on all of that. Computer, wiring gently caress I hate wiring. Luckily since I put off doing this conversion so long a bunch of businesses have popped up and are doing some great looking looms for these conversions! Some of you might remember at the end of my last thread I got my hands on a loom, which was very loving dodgy. It was sticky and smelt like VB. I decided against using it and found a shop that makes loom kits (inc body loom, engine loom, flashed ecu, and an accelerator pedal) and do the conversions for people. I could tell these looms were actual quality because they included the relay block for the engine bay and all the plugs and connectors, none of which the old one had. If the loom is set up correctly, it makes this part very easy. Did I mention I hate wiring, easy is good. The factory ecu is pretty easy to use with a conversion. For a few hundred you can have the ecu flashed to remove security and swap over the speed sensor to take a signal from the transmission extension housing (as a lot of B series Falcon had ABS speed sensors). I shelled out a bit more and got a SCT 4 flash tuner, which will be handy once I want to get the motor tuned as it would be money I need to spend for that anyway. I'm sure I'll run into a bunch of problems when I actually go to wire it all up, but that's going to be a future problem. guzzoline The fuel system for the Barra is going to be a pain in the rear end for me, also expensive. The XC from the factory has a tiny hard line from the sender up to a rubber hose that goes to the pump then to the carby. No return line. The tank has no baffles, and nowhere to really modify it like some other fuel tanks to fit a drop in EFI pump. I'm left with either custom tank or surge tank and external lift pump. I've already decided I'll be going with a surge tank. To start with, I need a pickup and a return line. Luckily a company makes a fuel sender for XA-XC with options for barb or AN fittings with a pickup and return. Oh it's really loving expensive too. I think this is the one https://hume.com.au/product/robbie-mac-1100-fuel-pick-12-sending-unit-72-79-falcon-xa-xb-xc/ After that I'll get something like a Carter gold as a lift pump, I'm not 100% on the one I'll be going for but that one popped into my head as what had been recommended before. As for the thing I'm stuck on, the surge tank. I'm part of the problem with this one, I don't want a surge tank (or battery) in my boot. I like my boot space. Most ebay specials are ones that fit in your boot and sit upright. There are a few under car ones but most look like I'd be dragging them along the ground with how tall they are. There's a couple of surge tanks made for BA-BF Falcons making good power with Walbro pumps inside that look like they might fit in the engine bay of the XC, one downside is they're loving expensive. This is something I'll research a bit more before coming to a decision. For the main pump I want to avoid using the usual noisy Bosch 044s. I'm leaning towards a Walbro inside the surge tank, that's what most people are using for barras anyway. Turbo Jumping back to how the barra fits into an XC, the motor fits but if you throw a turbo on the side with the stock log manifold it hits on the shock tower. Apparently you can turn the manifold upside down and cut a hole in your bonnet to make it fit or find an FG manifold which leaves you with a fraction of a millimetre of space between the turbo and shock tower. The two serious solutions are notch the shock tower or fit a 6boost high mount manifold. I don't know why but I have an issue with cutting into the car. I'm set on the 6boost manifold so I don't have to cut into the shock tower, it also doesn't help that most of the crazy barra builds use that manifold. The turbo I got with my motor has pretty much had it, so I'll be looking at another one or a supercore. I can get a decent kit from Goleby's with turbo, manifold, wastegate, dump pipe, and oil and water lines. I'm leaning towards the kit, even with the big price attached to it. If I do I'll flog the stuffed turbo off as a rebuilder (for the price people pay for them, the cost of it and a supercore usually comes out higher than a new turbo). I've also considered getting a GT3576R from an FG, they went smaller on the FG to get it to spool faster, which it does really well. I've been in an FG G6ET and it doesn't really have the rush of getting on boost, it's sort of just always there and flying down the road. That said, the turbos on BA-BF spool pretty quick too. Cooling The inlet and outlet for the XC radiator is the opposite to the barra. So I need to use something else. I've got a BF radiator out of a gas ute I wrecked a while ago, it should fit in pretty easily. I've seen people using the XC lower radiator mounts and the BF top mounts with a bit of modification. I'll be getting rid of the coolant header tank by using a thermostat housing with a cap added. It's a bit hard to fit the tank into earlier falcons, especially with a turbo. I'll also be running a transmission cooler up front. For those unfamiliar with the disaster that is falcon transmission fluid cooling - in the BA they had the oil running though the radiator which failed and mixed coolant with trans oil. Then in the BF they fixed it with a heat exchanger on the side of the motor. Those also had a habit of failing and mixing coolant and trans oil. BTR transmissions didn't like coolant all that much but the best part was when they introduced the ZF 6 speed auto, some of the more important parts in that transmission are water soluble. I'll most likely go for a standard XR6T intercooler, depending on fitment. I've got plenty of room behind the grill on the XC so I don't see it being a problem. --- I'll leave it at that. I've probably forgotten a few things but the motor is still on a stand so things will change as I go. After this weekend you might start seeing pictures of the motor being prepared, if I get this diff all sorted. I had plans to get the crossflow out by mid March before I got away to the UK but since caliper pistons took a month to get to me that's going to happen once I get back. Ansith fucked around with this message at 15:19 on Feb 20, 2019 |
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Feb 20, 2019 15:15
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Kaptainballistik posted:Why not get the fuel tank modded to take a Internal surge tank and lift pump? (Something like the Radon setups)? I'd never even thought of that, that's actually a really great idea, thanks! I had a quick look and there's a place in Brisbane that does that sort of thing. The first thought that came to my head was what if they want a crazy amount of money but then... the other set up I was looking at would probably put me close to or over $1500. I'll chase up a quote once I get back from England. - Back on the diff install. I tried doing the flares on some brake lines as a test before flaring the ones I bent up. Nooooope, not happening. I can't get the flares right, I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong but with how bad they're coming out I'm set on getting someone else to do them now. I also realised I'm missing the washers for the brake hoses for where they screw into the caliper. The new hoses didn't come with them but the workshop manual for a E series falcon shows them (as "front brake gasket") there in the picture. Searching comes up with nothing, I have no clue what I need. I'll see if I can get a mobile auto hose guy to come out and do the lines for me, I'll ask if they know what I need for the brake line while they're here.
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Feb 21, 2019 13:42
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Boaz MacPhereson posted:There's also these guys if you're wanting to keep your stock tank but go to an in-tank pump: https://www.aeromotiveinc.com/product-category/stealth-fuel-systems/phantom-system/. They've got full pre-plumbed tanks as well, but I don't know what their Aussie offerings look like. With the XA-XC tank the spare wheel is cut out into the tank and doesn't leave too many flat surfaces for one of those drop in pumps. The only spot it would work is where the filler neck is. It's surprising that nobody has made a kit for these cars since theres a fair few running around on efi. The tool I got was a chinese copy of the eastwood handheld tool. Might be why I failed. I've got a guy coming to do it today, honestly even if I did it well I'd always be worried about it. The guy I called seemed really happy I had something bent up already and the original, must be sick of making things from scratch. If this goes well I'll be testing out the new diff on the weekend and then I can start messing around with the barra.
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Feb 21, 2019 23:41
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Gave the mobile auto hose guy a call at 8 in the morning. A few hours later he came by my place (I'm very lucky I have a good boss who lets me go home to do this sort of stuff). He was happy that I had the originals to base new ones off and that I had a go at it myself. Gave me a funny look when I said metric on one end and imperial on the other. Good results, and holy poo poo he was quick at it.   Cost me $88 which I considered a bargain for peace of mind. Then there's this  That's Fairmont quality right there, no more loading in things in the dark like all of you other peasants. This arrived yesterday, in addition to wanting to support them because their videos are great, I actually lost 22kg recently (with a lot more still to go) and my old shirts are a bit big for me. Thought I'd get a shirt as a gift to myself. 
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Feb 22, 2019 08:29
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Got so very close to having the diff done. All I had left to do was check the sway bar end link height, put in the shocks, change the diff oil, torque everything up, check the brakes for leaks, and then bleed the brakes. Which all went great up until we finished torquing up everything. We rolled the car back out of the garage so we could get to the master cylinder. My mate calls me over and shows me a puddle of fluid which leads back to the rear right hard line to brake line connection. It's just pissing out and we've done nothing with it apart from tighten it up. I have a go at loosening it and re-seat it. Nope. I do it a few times and eventually it stops... ...until we throw a little bit of fluid into the master cylinder and it starts again.  I pump the brakes a couple of times to see if it's the only spot but the opposite side is doing the same just not as bad. Diff block and brake hose to the body hard line is all sweet. I suspect it might be the metric fittings if both are doing it, or the caliper brake hoses not liking the flares. I'll give that guy that did the lines for me a call on Monday and get him back. Hopefully I can get it sorted quickly. I was so close to driving it! Otherwise, it was pretty funny getting the car on the ground and finally seeing the ride height (I'll get pictures when it's driving again). Apparently King lows front v rear are different heights as I now how the ride height of a bogan's flogged out commodore. High at the front, low at the back. I think it's pretty hilarious and I'm more than happy to drive it like that. I'll just cross my fingers and hope the barra evens it out a bit..
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Feb 24, 2019 14:50
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 The rear used to be pretty bad before I had the springs reset. See through doors? Less weight for the 1/4 mile. They really are a problem area on these cars. Spoke to the auto hose guy, he apologised for not checking what flare was in the brake hoses I had. I told him double flares so that's on me. He's pretty certain they're bubble flares in there if it's pouring out like it was. He's coming to sort it tomorrow.
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Feb 25, 2019 01:11
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You Am I posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SDnJAYeN6c Saw that a few weeks ago, watched a few of his others too. He rated it pretty decently, going off some of his other reviews of Australian cars he was usually pretty harsh. The interior is definitely one of the best parts about XCs, I prefer it over XA/XB and XD onwards. I can see why he liked it, I even prefer it over most modern interiors. Progress report: The brake hoses were made for bubble flares which isn't right as I pulled double flares off that diff. Lesson learnt, I'll check next time. The hose guy did some steel braided hoses for me, no labour cost as he felt bad for not checkimg as well. Bled the brakes and took it for a drive to work, found one of the flares is weeping a bit. Apart from that, holy poo poo the rear suspension feels amazing. It's a lot tighter but the ride is like it's on a cloud now. Even going over a speed bump feels great. The front feels like dog poo poo in comparison, harsh and vague. The crossflow and C4 are nice with the 3.23 ratio diff - it really gets moving now, I imagine it'll be a bit sad on the highway though.
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Feb 26, 2019 22:12
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You Am I posted:Yeah, compare it to his review of the HX Holden where he absolutely bagged the poo poo out of it, it was surprising for Wherritt to be so positive about the Fairmont. Too bad it took Ford until the XF mid-refresh to make all wheel disc brakes standard across the passenger (not ute or van) line. He really did not like that Premier, I'm not sure if it was in the comments or where I saw it but someone was saying that Holden really hated him for that review for a long time. Now that I've got my rear discs working correctly, I can definitely see that he was right on the 4 wheel discs on these cars - they do need them. For the most part the setup is the same as the original XC 4 wheels discs (though I do have better pads and tyres), the car pulls up better than I'd imagined it would. I can get on the brakes pretty hard now (where as previously the drums would lock up at anything more than light braking) before any of the wheels lock up. I actually have a little bit of confidence in the brakes now. I did a rebuild with rubber bushes on the front end just after I bought the car, I went with some king springs lows and gabriel gas shocks when I did that. It's always been harsh ever since the rebuild. Since then I've put in a 22mm sway bar and power steering (it was originally manual steer) from the XE wagon donor and replaced the castor rod bushes, idler arm, and pitman arm a second time. I need to rebuild it again, this time I'll be going with the roller bearing spring saddles and control arms and superpro bushes everywhere else, I'll keep the king lows and go to Koni reds like I did with the rear. I hope I get the same results as I did with the rear because I really can't get over how good it feels now. Here's a picture of the new ride height. This is the drivers side so it sits higher than the other side.  (I did actually put the 5th wheel nut and center cap back on before I drove it) The last leak ended up being the flare getting deformed, might have been from trying to get it to seal in the bubble flare seat. Got my mechanic to sort it out for me while I was at work.
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Feb 27, 2019 13:27
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STR posted:I haven't commented much, but drat, this car has come a long, long way. It looks great! Thanks! Still feels like the old shitter it was when I picked it up but I'm sure my opinion on that will change when I've got the barra in there and the interior is sorted. Also: thanks to everyone else who left nice comments about it. I might not respond to all of them but it's very much appreciated. I took the XC to Lakeside raceway yesterday, which is an old track (I think most popular in the 70s amd 80s?) that mostly gets used for club events and car shows these days. Yesterday was the "All Aussie day", Australian built or assembled cars only. So mostly Falcons and Commodores but there was a couple of Sigmas and Camrys. I wasn't planning on going but there was a call out from The Skid Factory for anyone going to come say hello. Since the XC was back together I figured why not. Got out there and of course it was raining but it was a pretty good turn out and the cruises on the track kept going. I found the VL they've been doing which really is in amazing condition, then Woody from the show spotted me wearing the shirt. Really nice guy and was happy to meet a supporter of the show, got to chat with him for a while and he even came over to check out the XC. We spoke about the barra swap and he definitely approved of the switch to turbo. Al couldn't make it but Woody came along to meet people anyway. Very cool meeting someone I've been watching on youtube for a while and I'm glad he was a decent guy. I was stupid and didn't take any pictures. Hopefully something comes up on facebook. E: Found one!  e pt2: Bloody GT Falcon got in the way of a shot of my car  This was from when me and my mate were lining up for time on the track. Ansith fucked around with this message at 10:03 on Mar 4, 2019 |
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Mar 4, 2019 00:31
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Going away for a month to the UK tomorrow, so obviously progress has stopped. I had planned to pull the crossflow and do the first barra test fit before going but I'm bad at time management. Once I get back I'll be straight into it. My car curse is still going strong. The ute which has been going well has developed the famous BTR 4 speed 2-3 shift flare when cold. The sign of the c1 clutch being worn out. I'll baby it for a while and if it gets worse I'll find myself a turbo BTR for it. I also realised all the parts I won't be using on the XC give me all the spares to turbo the ute. It might happen after the XC works. My friend found a video of lakeside which was a slideshow of pictures from the day. So now I have pictures of my car on the track, gave the guy a few dollars for the high res version and he threw in all the ones with me in the background for free.   
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Mar 14, 2019 00:14
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It's connected, it's just a lovely fitment. The whiteline sway bar end is angled different to the stock one, so I had to use the end links from the kit which are about double the length over the factory links. Went up one of the mountains near me the other night, I could hear it hitting the ground on some corners and my friend asked me about the sparks my car was throwing out. I might put the old one back on or see if someone can bend the ends of the bar.
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Mar 14, 2019 01:49
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I survived the UK and had a great time. I was stuck as a passenger in a diesel Peugeot the whole time which really left me thinking how much fun I could have in my own car in the Scottish highlands. I've spent as much time behind the wheel of the XC as I could over the past few days, I'll savour my last moments with the 250. The 250 will go up for sale once it's out, I'm still not set on getting rid of the C4 as there are bellhousings for barras for sale, if the BTR ends up being a endless money pit I might rebuild the C4. The transmission is quickly becoming the part I'm worried about the most. This weekend I'll be cleaning up the barra and painting the block. So finally I will actually give you barra swap content.
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Apr 23, 2019 02:45
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Sorry I've been so slack getting updates. I've been caught up helping others with their cars and neglected mine. One of the cars is one I've mentioned before, my mate who pretty much showed me how to do everything when I showed up to his house with my car on a tow truck, his brother left his HQ Sandman replica WB Holden ute to him when he passed away after a fight with cancer. We stripped it recently for a few repairs.  Floors are pretty much stuffed. Dodgy panel beater welded a replacement floor over the old one. Anyway, on to mine. I'm nowhere as far along as I should be but I made a few decisions to make my life easier. Decided to go with a rebuild of the GT3582r that came with the motor, a place down in Victoria has a good name for doing high flow rebuilds of them for falcons capable of 450rwkw. Genuine GTX core, ceramic bearings, machined custom compressor wheel, and wastegate flapper mod. My mate also convinced me to notch my shock tower, so I won't need to use a high mount manifold. So in the end this way will save me 2-3 grand over high mount and new gen 2 garrett. I was scrolling through facebook a while ago and found a fuel system discussion. It answered all my questions to what I should do with my tank.  I was under the impression there wasn't enough room for it there but I was wrong. I still need to get the tank patched and cleaned out but this pump looks like a good solution. As I promised months ago, photos. The starting filth   Cleaned up. I took the sump off and got a new gasket. Took the sump to the car wash and got the tyre and engine cleaner on it. Seriously powerful stuff, it got all the oil staining out from the inside where degreaser and carby cleaner did nothing. Still have to paint it.  This past weekend I got into gear and put the car in it's final resting place with the crossflow. I had to move the engine stand and my toolbox from the back of the garage to the front so they're accessable. One last look at it:     I got a few bits out as I was waiting for some friends to show up to help me take the bonnet off but everyone flaked out on me and have done the same for this coming weekend. Straight after I put a bunch of hours into fixing their cars, always funny how that works. That was on the Saturday, Sunday was stripping the Holden, my mates response was offering to stop what we were doing and come help me do it. Not that I took him up on that offer, he doesn't get much spare time so I don't like to waste his time on my car. This weekend I should get close to having the motor out, I'll keep the updates coming now.
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Jul 26, 2019 00:39
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You Am I posted:I've just moved home and hoping to get started on some work on my old XP ute Look foward to seeing that! CAT INTERCEPTOR posted:HAHAHAHAHA. gently caress 10's, this poo poo has 9's written all over it. Anything past a 14 will likey scare the poo poo out of me, I'm too used to slow cars. Update: Hey there little guy, where did you come from?  Oh, my sump.  Decided to do the sump to main bearing bolts while I was waiting for some penetrating oil to soak into a stuck EGR nut on the crossflow. Torquing them to 58nm as per the manual and this one let go on me. I gave up on it for this weekend.
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Jul 27, 2019 07:50
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Stuck bolt is still stuck but I went to ford and got a new one which is just a normal bolt, so I'll get the rest from a bolt shop and replace all of them with new ones. Found a guy that removes bolts as a mobile service, I'll be getting him out during the week. The big news is my engine is now out. No more 250 crossflow!   Apart from the EGR cross over pipe splitting in half (which wasn't a bad thing since one nut was stuck) it was all really painless. Put it up for sale afterwards and my mate offered to buy it, I assume for the C4 since the rest isn't worth all that much. Bought a Milwaukee 3/8 M12 stubby impact wrench for a few of the lovely bolts which worked extremely well. Going to pick up the m12 socket wrench during the week too, you don't think about how much easier things are with power tools until you start using them.
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Aug 4, 2019 10:14
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Snapped bolt came out easily, and the guy also fixed up the threads on the oil return hole. He must do a lot of automotive stuff because he knew to check for it. Got some replacement bolts which are similar, along with bellhousing bolts, also similar. Ford used some strange sizes and heads on their bolts. At $6 each, with something like $200 total, the Ford ones weren't going to happen. The copied ones from a bolt shop - $14 total (after buying one of each from ford for $50). It's a shame there's nothing online or in the workshop manuals with all the bolt sizes listed, if I had more time and motivation I could probably start something like that. Tried to prepare the turbo for postage by removing the dump pipe. Hand tools did nothing, so I got the 3/8 stubby on to the job. Two nuts came off fine, 3rd one snapped the stud, and the last two rounded off the nuts (using impact sockets, the metal of the nut just melted away). Called the turbo shop, he said just send it because they cut and drill the studs most of the time anyway. One plus to this is I confirmed that the stubby impact is more than enough for my kind of work, I need to be careful with it. Picked up the 3/8 ratchet, definitely going to use the poo poo out of it. The only thing that's disappointing with buying both of the tools I did is I'm noticing how poo poo the selection for 3/8 drive impact sockets are. No problem finding anything 1/2" at bunnings but you can only get the 3/8 ones at proper tool shops and even then selection is limited. Wouldn't be a problem if the sets I bought didn't skip sizes. I've got a long weekend this weekend for the Brisbane show holiday, so I'll get into putting the motor back together* and painted. *no bolt snapping this time
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Aug 9, 2019 03:14
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Easy, they're dirt cheap. Any XE or XF will have one, including some XDs. The XE and XF ones will have the two barrel weber carby which is what you want, the XE being the pick of the two since they did some strange things to the XF ones for emissions. As for swapping it over, different intake manifold and exhaust manifold (some extractors are multifit). I managed to get the XC accelerator cable to fit, so whatever the Maverick has might work. I could be wrong, but I think the head bolts are different between the two as well. Otherwise the rest is pretty much the same apart from some minor stuff. Definitely worth it for the weber, much better than the stromberg single barrel. One thing you can't do is use an alloy head distributor in an iron head block, there was a slight size difference that I'm told can eat up some of the metal in the block.
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Aug 10, 2019 18:24
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You Am I posted:I think NinjaTech is talking about the US Ford Maverick. I don't think the Aussie 250/4.1lt alloy head will fit the US 250 block, as Ford Australia did some changes to the block when they moved to cross flow heads. Oh right, I've spent so much time around people with crossflows I sometimes forget the earlier 250s exist. I was just thinking it was another model Ford Aus put a crossflow into, I'm pretty sure a few F trucks got them (could have been a dealer fit thing though). It definitely won't fit, sorry!
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Aug 11, 2019 05:51
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I've seen a few people in the states posting in the barra swap facebook groups, it's mostly fox body mustang swaps. They even do an engine mount for it at tuff mounts now. Anyway, progress: I got the sump back on (with added bead of sealant that I missed last time - note to self, read the wsm). Put in the bolts I picked up from the bolt shop. Torqued up nicely with no snapping, I did it in stages this time just to be careful.  The m12 ratchet made all those sump bolts so much easier to get in. Saved half the time I spent on my previous attempt. I got all the coil packs and spark plugs out, which I hadn't done earlier out of laziness. I'd tried to turn it over by hand a few weeks ago but got stuck at a certain point trying to over come compression. Just thought I'd finish the job. Couldn't move it at all. gently caress. I put a little bit of oil down into the cylinders and let it soak overnight, just in case it was from sitting around dry. It was a pretty stressful night, thinking about how I need to remove the sump again to find whatever I dropped in there. The next morning with very little effort it was turning easily. I can't imagine whatever surface rust that it was getting stuck on is going to be good in the long run but she'll be right, it's just a taxi motor.
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Aug 13, 2019 03:20
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I'm really good at being slow at this whole car thing. I do have a small update though. I got my turbo back from the rebuilder. Modelled here by Scallop:  The specs are Base Garrett GT3540r (3582), the xr6t standard turbo Rebuilt with a new garrett gtx core Machined front cover to suit the 64mm 7+7 precision style compressor wheel custom ceramic ball bearings ported wastegate + flapper Ceramic coated turbine housing + dump pipe Turbosmart actuator (no idea if it's a 7psi or 12psi, i was originally told garrett 10psi - I'll have to get around to asking them) When they pulled it down they found that the previous owner likely didn't do oil changes as often as they should have and shut it down hot quite a bit. That's a good sign of the condition of my engine. I've been holding off on putting the engine in because as I mentioned previously in the thread, I'm a bit worried about blowing up transmissions. The idea of blowing up a gearbox, pulling it out and putting another equally lovely one back in really doesn't appeal to me as much as I thought it would. I've been doing a bit of research on BTRs and settled on what I want to do. I definitely don't want to go to a 3 speed because I plan to take the XC on some trips down to Victoria. I found a few places that come highly recommended for BTR rebuilds, two of them held records for the fastest cars running BTRs (mid 8 and a high 8 on the 1/4 mile). One of them has since decided that they can only safely warranty a box for 280rwkw, the other does a custom billet servo and valve body which makes it manualised (starts in 2nd in drive to be specific, so still drivable as auto) and stands by it at 350+rwkw - might even be higher since that is what they rate them for in a heavier BA. I decided to go with the manualised box, mainly because the other shop didn't even bother coming back to me with a price but having the option of jumping up a few extra kw isn't a bad thing. I spoke to the shop about the option of not sending the auto I have sitting here down to Victoria to them, luckily with BTRs there are so many variants that they need to take parts from all they need is the case and the gears as a basis, turns out the BF N/A gears are better than BA turbo ones. Which means they can pick up a box for a couple of hundred to rebuild.
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Sep 26, 2019 13:10
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I've been feeling a bit guilty that I haven't had an update to post and that I haven't been doing any work to the car. For some reason I didn't attribute building the transmission for the car to be working on the car. Stupid me. Before I go into that, I got a new daily! A FG MkII XR6 Turbo ute. I wanted something a bit newer and a bit faster, plus the transmission in my old ute was about to quit. Seemed like a good excuse to trade it in.  It's got a few problems as it was a cheaper one but it's a solid car. The PO just didn't seem to give a poo poo about it. No plans on modifying it, it's pretty quick for a daily as is. So on to the transmission build! Obviously this is a bit of a departure from what I said I was doing in the previous post. I was talking to my friend about what my plan was, he told me that those manual valve bodys shift HARD. He had just got done rebuilding a BTR, so had all his stuff out and offered to show me how to do it. I picked up a high performance rebuild kit, a billet front servo, and had the valve body modified. I didn't have to pick up the valve body or the servo but they should keep the box alive for longer as well as handle more power. It was $550 for the kit, $295 for the servo, and $550 for the valve body. I ended up using the gearbox I had sitting in my garage for the past few years out of the LPG ute I parted. To our surprise it was the best box my friend had pulled apart. No wear on the clutch packs (could still see all the writing on the friction material), and no damage in any of the gears. I thought it was stuffed since it was a company car, but if I had throw this in my old ute it would have been sweet for another 300k. Pulling the box apart is easy enough, just a lot of steps. Once it's all apart you start with rebuilding the clutch packs. Here's the C1 clutch pack:     The C1 is the most common failure point on these boxes, if it was damaged you would see burn marks on the steel discs and you wouldn't be able to see the part numbers on the friction discs. The C1 has 5 friction discs and steels in between each. When installing you do a dummy install to check the clearances. To do this you put 2kg of pressure on the pack and check the clearance between the top of the discs to the top of the drum. The clearances should all be fine unless you've mixed up the steel discs from the different clutches. Once that's all checked you presoak the friction discs in transmission fluid and check the steels for any dust. Here's the C3 clutch pack fully built with the circlip installed and the fully assembled drum.   Next was rebuilding the oil pump.  I had originally planned to rebuild it with an earlier style pump which are a different design with 19 teeth, when they went into BA falcons they updated them to this gerotor style. I honestly have no idea which one is better, a lot of people say the earlier style is but don't have much to back that up. I also couldn't find anyone discussing the flow differences between the two styles. Part of rebuilding the oil pump is taking out all these valves. They all need to go back the same way, so you line them up in a bit of corrugated sheet. All you're doing is replacing the o rings and cleaning out the housing.  One finished oil pump! Next to it you can see the planetary gear set and the shaft with the parking gear on it.  The one solenoid you definitely need to replace is on the pump, since it's the only one that requires disassembly of the gearbox to replace. All the others are on the valve body which is easy enough. One thing that is great about these boxes is half the bolts are torx bits and the other half are 12 point heads. I don't understand the fascination with torx bits that Ford has. The empty case  Output shaft in. I think this ended up being the wrong parking pawl. The case is from a BA turbo that my friend had sitting around, but we used the output shaft (and everything else) from my box. So we swapped them over to the matching one.   The rear band, not a common failure point. It is used when selecting reverse and 1st gear in manual mode. Same deal as the clutch packs, the friction material has to be soaked in transmission fluid. This thing is a bit of a pain to get in, you have to pull both sides together while sliding it into the case, it's a very tight fit and on top of that it has that bulge on the top stopping it from going straight in.   Planetary gear set installed inside the rear band.   I forget what this part is called, but I think it's just a support. It's held in by a circlip which is one of the harder parts to get at when pulling it apart. You can see the gear set behind it.   Wiring loom in, it has one wire that sits next to the oil pump and makes contact with the wire coming from the solenoid on the pump. All the other wires go to the valve body.   The front band (also another common failure point, the one I used here is a high energy one) goes in, then drum goes in with the in input shaft under it. Of note is a bit of metal around a few of the teflon seals, they're a loose fit so you can actually fit them so they need to be squashed down a bit before install so they don't get destroyed on reassembly. To the left of it you can see the extension housing which got a new brass bush and a new output shaft rubber seal.   Oil pump on. 8 bolts, all 12 point heads.  This is the billet servo with the external cap attached. I won't pretend to know how much difference the billet one makes, but my friend said the oil volume difference between it and the stock one is 40%.  Servos in. This is as far as we got this weekend. If all goes well it will be finished off next weekend. We've only been doing a few hours each weekend, with the heat it has been a bit painful.  We tested out the function of the clutches and bands with compressed air. All worked well! It's been a pretty good experience doing this, I honestly didn't think I'd be doing it but I'm glad I did.I'm also saving money doing it this way. I'm saving at least $1500 and get to keep full auto on the box.
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Dec 1, 2019 10:20
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It really isn't too hard to do as long as you know how things go back together. I think most of the complex stuff is whatever the valve body is doing, luckily you don't have to touch that. I think in total you need one special tool and a press to get everything done. The special tool is just for compressing the springs under the clutch packs, it's literally a plate with a threaded rod on it and a bearing cap with a hole drilled in it with a nut to compress it. Other than that my friend made a cradle for sitting the case on. Sadly there's next to nothing out there in aftermarket support for these boxes, they have a bad name from what I'm guessing is Ford's lifetime fill policy. These things really need to be serviced every 50-100k. A lot of them go to about 200-250k on the factory fill then die.
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Dec 3, 2019 23:07
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The rest of the transmission build was pretty uneventful, a lot of checking clearances and adding shims. I managed to forget to put the filter in the pan which would have been a really bad day. My friend drilled a threaded hole into the pan for me so I can run a temp sensor, which I'll have to work out what I'm doing for a gauge. I'll be running an air to oil cooler instead of an in radiator cooler, so keeping an eye on that will be in my interest. The issue is that I want to keep the interior looking factory, so I'll need to hide it and a boost gauge somewhere. After that was finished I got lazy. The result was this  To be fair, it was too hot to work on it. I have no excuse for the mess though. I was also waiting on a set of wheels and tyres for my ute. The chinesium tyres with 5000km had chunks falling off and a buckled wheel. I got a set of Rotas (yes, I am cheap, but it's just my daily) and some Michelin PS4 tyres. Got 18x10 +15 265/35r18 on the rear which got rid of the horrible wheel arch gap.  I got my poo poo together last week and took my torque converter to the shop to have it rebuilt. After that I got the garage into a better state.  The rebuilt converter came back to me in a nice shade of white which was definitely not completely dry when I picked it up. It was an N/A converter, I couldn't tell you what the stall of them is but they rebuilt it to the factory turbo specs which is in the 2800rpm range.  Note that in the garage photos I was without an engine crane. My friend who lent me the crane I was using let me know it wasn't even his. After 3 years, his friend wanted it back. Picked up the replacement on tuesday for $259 at supercheap auto. The next day I get an email about a sale, engine cranes $199. They were nice enough to give me the difference in store credit. With that, I THINK I'm ready to put the motor in. I'm looking at doing that on the 1st of March.
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Feb 20, 2020 23:57
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One weekend late because my friend flew out to melbourne to buy an rx7. Got it done last sunday. It was an absolutely poo poo day. I started out feeling sick and light headed but my friends were already on the way. I was too focused on working so I didn't get many photos. Two of my torque converter bolts wouldn't go in once we had the engine and transmission together. The threads are stuffed, so now I need to get more, hopefully the threads in the tq are good. I put the tq on to the input shaft in a bit of a daze, I feel like it's in there properly and I prefilled it too. The engine leveller broke mid dropping the engine in, supercheap auto quality! Got it in after rearranging the chain lengths.  Once it was in I noticed the holes on the mounts are all slotted. I hope the bolts will stop it from moving, seems like an odd design decision.  Gearbox crossmember fits nicely but CRS supplied me with the wrong mount. So for the moment it's sitting on the crossmember, which is why it looks a bit out of level. Did a quick test fit of the intake to see if the modified top half would work. The poo poo thing about the intake I have from a BA/BF is they are just a repurposed N/A manifold dating back to the E series falcons. In n/a form they have butterflies to switch between long runners and short, iirc it's for a torque increase. The turbo ones just removed that and left both open.  The top section I have has the throttle body position flipped. Turns out this will not work very well for me, looks like it'll hit the bonnet.   I'm glad the engine is in but mid way through the day I got the worst news, my very good mate who has played a big part in everything I've done to my cars and just been a generally great person, died. The worst part is it had been a couple of months since I last saw him, and I'd said over and over I need to go have a drink with him. This is the hardest I've ever taken a death, he was closer to me than most of my family. Got a few more things to update with but I'll save that for another post.
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Mar 13, 2020 11:29
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I know it's been a few months, but thanks for that. It's been a bit of a nightmare with what happened to my friend. His family that had almost nothing to do with him pretty much cut all of his friends out of the picture. No funeral and the remembrance we had planned got canceled due to everything going on with covid. We're hoping to do something for him soon. Got the motivation to do some work recently. Just pulling the car out of the garage made me realise how much I miss driving it.  The CRS gearbox crossmember ended up being worthless to me, they won't return calls or messages. Tuff mounts came out with a BTR crossmember and mount for XC-XE, decided to just pull the trigger on it. It isn't a multi fit crossmember and it's about 2kg lighter. Fitment is perfect.  The old tailshaft ended up being sacrificed because I had to move the car and hadn't bothered to do anything with the front of it, it was spinning with the diff and hitting the concrete. Picked up a new 2nd hander out of an EF falcon sedan. This one came with a donut on the slip yoke, according to a few ex-ford empolyees if the diff was a bit sloppy at the factory they would throw one of those on to minimise the noise. I was a bit worried there wouldn't be enough length on the yoke but it looks good. While I was in there I fixed up a few things I didn't do when I put the engine in. I was pretty surprised at how lazy I was. Engine mounts were loose, got those sorted but I'm not 100% on the position, it's leaning over a little on the exhaust side. The torque converter bolts were my biggest worry, I felt like I was cross threading them the first time, so I picked up a fresh set of bolts. No surprise it felt like they were cross threaded, the end of the threads are really thick and are more of a triangle shape then half way down the thread go to a normal thread. Put all four in with this in mind and they went in fine. Once I got past the initial bite it was all good. The last job of the day was getting the fuel tank out. Would have been easy if I didn't have 55L of petrol in it and only 30L of jerry can. Run your tank low before you plan to pull the tank out!   Next step is cleaning the tank, sealing up the pin hole, then getting the Aeromotive phantom in.
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Aug 18, 2020 00:32
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Getting back into it recently, did a few things to both cars. The ute had an issue with the exhaust manifold bolts backing out, as most FG turbos have. Picked up two sets of studs, nuts, and nord lock washers, they were half price so I figured the XC could use some too. Turned into a full day job because of the two under the turbo, just wasn't enough room to get an allen key in.  Went for a test drive afterwards, immediately blew the plastic throttle body elbow coming out of my mate's place. It was a pretty big bang so we got out to take a look, noticed it was popped and there was a white plastic ring on the road. I thought the ring was just a bit of PVC pipe so ignored it after taking a look. The ring was definitely part of the elbow, without it the elbow doesn't clamp properly. I had to drive it about an hour home and I was pretty sure I had it fixed but reattaching it, a FPV F6 pulls up along side me on the highway and pressures me into doing a pull. Of course as soon as the system has any real pressure going through it it pops off again, making it look like I threw a turbo badge on an N/A ute. Since I had no tools I was stuck driving it back with no pipe attached to the throttle body. Apart from me being worried about having an unfiltered intake, it was like there was nothing wrong, didn't even get a warning light. Since the elbow was broken I figured I'd do the right thing and get a metal one, problem is the metal ones can't be used with the stock pipes. So I had to get a pipe kit too. I think this was a week before christmas so I just had to pick somewhere with stuff in stock and who weren't closed already. Goleby's site said they had plazmaman kits in stock, as expected they called after the order was placed to tell me it was out of stock. Luckily for me they got plazmaman to send it directly to me and it arrived on christmas eve.  Apart from that the ute continues to be great, I've put 30k km on it now and I'm really happy with it as a daily. I'm even considering fixing a few of the issues with it (roof lining sagging, bonnet paint fade). On to the important stuff! I was stressing over the exhaust manifold and cutting the shock tower for a while. Up until last month I was just going to cut it and use the BA manifold (which requires the most cutting). My mate lets me know that one of the guys we know blew up his engine in his FG G6E Turbo and asked him on my behalf if he wants to sell his FG manifold to me. No but I can borrow it for a test fit. I figured it can't hurt to see if it fits.   Test fitting that manifold was one of the best decisions I've made. Instantly restored motivation. It touches the shock tower obviously, but it actually bolts up. All it needs is a small cut and a massage with a hammer. The hard part was getting one for myself since I'd tried a few times before and they're always gone within minutes. I spent several days glued to the for sale groups, eventually one came up for a little more than I really wanted to pay but at this point I'd rather the car be on the road than have an extra $100 in my pocket. I got over the high price quickly enough when I noticed people selling BA manifold for similar prices, turned around and sold what I thought was pretty worthless for much more than I expected. Manifold arrived a couple of weeks ago, all I need to do now is get my mate to make a small cut for me to get the 10mm of clearance from the shock tower. Changed plans with the fuel tank. I took it to the tank repair guy who quoted me $500+. I decided I'd just get a reproduction tank, which of course wasn't as simple as buying a replacement for my original. XA, XB, and XC tanks are all the same size but there was a few changes over the years, one being a vent pipe in the filler neck to help stop splash back when filling (it's pretty useless for that though). I need a tank with the vent pipe. The reproduction options are standard tank with no vent pipe or long range tank with vent pipe. So I had to buy the long range tank, which honestly I think is pretty sweet since it's 124L but it pretty much moves the spare into the boot and I do like the idea of having usable boot space. I'm thinking I'll try get my hands on a FG space saver which is a 155/70r17 which won't take up too much room. Bought the tank and had to return the first one because it had cracks in the flange and was bashed around like someone had already tried to fit it. Second one came to me in much better condition. The first step for fitting the brand new tank is cutting a hole in it! The ute makes for a great work bench.   This past weekend I got the tank installed and put the aeromotive phantom 340 in. Really impressed with the kit, everything went together really easily which usually never happens.  Bought all new rubber hoses for the filler neck, the old ones had gone completely solid. No wonder there was always a petrol smell in the boot. Next up I'll be picking up a plazmaman fuel rail, fuel reg, and fuel filter. I'll mount them all up then most likely get the same guy that did my brake hard lines to do all my fuel lines and power steering hoses. Does anyone have any recommendations on what I should be looking for in a fuel filter? I was looking at a turbosmart 10 micron washable, but I'm not sure if I should be looking for anything specifically.
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Mar 9, 2021 10:14
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I'm really good at this making progress thing, spotted a nice bf gas engine for sale which has the better turbo rods inside (used to stop backfires from bending rods in lpg engines). Decided since I'd already ruined the vct solenoids on the current engine and new ones cost $150 each, picking up the gas engine was good value. Saves me buying parts and will take a lot more abuse.
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Mar 17, 2021 02:19
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There's so much conflicting info out there about them, mostly due to changes mid model or between ba/bf. In late 02 the gas motors got the strong rods due to the back firing, compression ratio was 10.7:1. BF continued with the strong rods but changed the compression ratio to 10.3:1, which was the same as the petrol n/a. Turbo engine compression ratio was around 8.7:1. The gas engine comlression ratio isn't ideal for boost unless you run on e85 (I won't be), but it's a step up from the spaghetti rods in the ba engines. I should be safe taking it to 300rwkw. Picked it up today:  Turned out to be a bit of a win. The seller threw in a set of BA thermo fans and a FG rear view mirror for free. Came with an almost brand new starter and the p/s pump looks to be rebuilt recently. Saved me a few hundred there alone.
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Mar 18, 2021 12:16
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I've been really busy since picking up that engine, I've spent an hour or two most nights working on the car. I've been more motivated than I've ever been, I'm not sure what changed but it's like a switch has been flipped and all of a sudden I can get poo poo done. My work space got a lot worse since I now have both a crane (was sitting at a mates place until I needed it) and the new engine.  I threw all my loose stuff into boxes and then put them on dollys. Here's my workspace most of the time, it really sucks not having room for a workbench with a vice for a lot of this stuff  I changed my mind on the radiator, VK 6 cylinder radiators came up for sale again. They're only 650mm wide end to end compared to 650mm wide cores on everything else I had. This leaves a 30mm gap each side of the radiator which means a lot less cutting when it comes to intercooler piping. The rad itself was only $150 too.   Obviously with the smaller size this made thermo fans an issue again. They don't exactly fit.  I forgot to grab a picture but spin the thermos 180 and the pipe outlets sit under shroud plastic and the holes line up to the mounting holes on the rad. So a bit of cutting and it'll work. If not, they were free anyway. I jumped into the new engine after messing around with that a bit. I decided I would do this one right, clean absolutely everything, paint it, and not throw every loving bolt in a big bucket so I have no idea where things go. It started out great, oil filter was a new level of tight.  The engine was much cleaner over all compared to the old one, especially on the inside - thank you LPG. I spent probably two weeks, a bit of work each night getting everything cleaned by taking one part off, cleaning it, then putting it back on to make sure I didn't lose anything. This was the result on one side.  Really happy with how the gloss back looks, glad I put the effort in this time. The sump has overspray because I'm using the turbo sump off the old engine. I ordered the rest of my fuel system, went with turbosmart gear as goleby's stocks them. Came with a bunch of gaskets and other bits and pieces (water pump, etc). The fuel rail I picked up looks really out of place.  I really managed to gently caress up when I threw out my original manifold top half (that I don't even remember throwing out), it had the turbo map sensor attached which is a $70-$100 I didn't really want to spend. After messing around with that manifold I decided I really don't want to run an intake pipe in a loop because of the standard throttle body position. After looking for a bit I found a shop that mainly does VL turbo commodores has their own forward facing plenum top half that have actually put some effort in to the design to make it fit instead of the giant bricks that most of them are.  (not my car, mine is currently being posted) Looks similar to the stock one, fits an X series engine bay (most don't), flows better than stock, and keeps the longer runners. Talking to one of the owners, he was at the drag strip with an XE he tuned with one and it did a 9 second pass. If it's good enough for that, It'll be fine for what I'm doing. I've started on getting the radiator mounted. I'm using a 3mm thick bit of steel which bolts to the old radiator mounts as a test set up. Once I have the radiator where I want it I'll make it out of something a bit less flexible.  I thought I was pretty good with this position but it turns out 92mm isn't enough room for my thermo fans or almost any thermo fans that will be suitable for sitting in traffic in summer. So I can get another 10mm towards the front of the car which will let me get the thermo fans in but it'll be sitting very close. The minimum I need is 10mm clearance to get it mod plated. I can move the engine back since the mount holes are slotted but the tailshaft has an anti vibration donut (not actually sure what it's for) on it and that is sitting just under 3/4" away from the transmission which from what I've read is about the minimum clearance you want on a slip yoke. I'll be reassessing the situation in a couple of days, I had a radiator fab guy cut off the filler neck for me since I won't be using it and I don't have it back yet. This weekend past I got a surge of motivation and decided I can pull an engine by myself no problem. Never pulled one out solo before and I wanted to challenge myself.  Some of the bellhousing bolts were annoying but I got there in the end. The lesson was either shorter chain or replace my broken leveller. Got it out, swapped over the sump and now that I have even less room, I had to leave the old engine outside. So I gave it some fake compression test results as an anti-theft.  The one thing I really noticed this time is the difference between the nearly spotless insides of the LPG engine compared to the probably never had an oil change turbo engine. REALLY glad I decided not to use it. That's where I'm at for the moment but in unrelated news  My cockatiels had eggs. My two female cockatiels had eggs. They're both taking turns looking after the eggs, sitting on them, and turning them over.
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May 10, 2021 13:44
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