Hey there,
I recently bought my BA XR8. And although it is great to drive, I have noticed a flat spot when I tramp it. I have taken it back to the ford dealership and they put on computer, Biut say nothing is wrong.
Does anyone have any ideas.
Cheers Yan

Where is this flatspot in the rev range?

The flat spot seems to occur in the low revs, or occasionally if you plant your foot whilst going up a hill etc.

Have you checked your leads? They might be breaking down under load.

Could also be fuel related.

phong =P~

Just want to let you know,BA XR8's dont have leads they have individual ignition coils.I would look at your fuel system get is checked.Make sure you have sufficient flow and pressure also a good pinch pressure too.
One thing i would like to point out with the early BA XR8's they have a problem wearing out valve guides this causes them to run rough.I know this from experience one of my good mates had a 03 BA XR8 ute and had 50,000km on it and wore out the valves guides.He had 2 sets of heads fitted to his then he sold it because of all of the dramas.The later ones i think 04 or maybe 05 they revised the head and you do not have that problem.If you wanna know more i can explain in detail.but if you have a later one dont be too fussed.
also clean out the throttle body.

Hey there,
thanks for that I will look into it. my car is an 03 model and would like if you could explain in more detail. Love the car, just lets me down OFTEN when I have tramped it...Had to let a skyline think it won....when it was the flat spot that let me down!! Taken it to ford they put on computer but say nothing shows up.. Are reluctant for me to take them for a drive and show them..This is annoying..I have it booked in next week but feel that they will probably say there is NO prblem.
any help would be greatly appreciated.

Dont be to surprised with the turbo skylines,they weigh less than a BA and they are turboed which gets the going quickly.But its not hard to get a BA XR8 flying.Also another problem with the BA XR8's is the oil light staying on for alittle time when you start.This is cause by the O rings near the tensioners in the heads and this problem needs to be rectified ASAP and will be covered by warranty because it is a known problem (not too sure about the warranty but).
Ok back to your flat spot issue.Well i'll explain the experience my friend had with his 03 BA XR8 ute.He purchased the ute from a for dealer with just over 50,000kms.Had it for almost 4 weeks and started playing up one day the ute wouldnt start and then was towed down to ford under extended warranty it had a faulty fuel pump.This is a big job on a ute because you have to remove the tailshaft and loosen the diff and roll the diff back to remove the fuel tank because it wont clear the diff.So it was fixed.Then a week later it started to idle rough i had a look at it and took it for a drive for him but i didnt really notice the rough idling.So a week later he took it to ford and they found that ithe left head on the passanger side the guides had worn out.My friend doesnt drive it stupid hard but does drive it.So they removed only the one head and was sent to wagga to get machined.The head was fixed and then the ute was fixed.He picked it up from ford and only drove it another 2 weeks and it start to have lifter noises and now i could notice it idle rough (it didnt sound good the motor.)
So he took it back and told them to find the problem and fix it.They ended up removing both heads and on both heads the guides were worn/perished badly.the wearing was different to your normal stress wearing like back and forward.The wearing pattern was side to side.These heads were sent to wagga again to be checked and machined.The ute was put back together and my mate went to pick it up from ford and he said "what am i going to do if it doesnt it a gain" and the service advisor said "burn it".So my friend took his ute and drove it for another 3 weeks.In this 3 week period it did idle slightly rough.So my friend who is a diehard ford mann all his life traded the ute in at holden and bought himself a VZ ute.Ford didnt do a good job of hanling this issue.
The thing is with the BA XR8's (ford knows this problem) after i think late 03 maybe december on they changed and revised the heads on the 5.4L engines and you dont have this problem (earlier models had weak heads).But i have heard of some in 05 models burning out valves due to faulty guides.

So my friend had only done less than 10,000kms in this ute and had the worst experience possible,ford try to get him to pay for both head problems but he was lucky that thay footed the bill.Ever since he had the VZ ute now he has no problems what soever.

Sorry if this isnt relating to your issue of flat spotting,but just wanted to share it with you so that you are aware of these problems.

as for your flat spot,i wouldnt be surprised if the problem was in the fuel system or the intake side (throttle body.)The best thing you could do is take your BA to a performance shop that do specialize in the BA V8's.Hey by the way where are you from???Are you far from Griffith NSW???

yes I have also recently heard of the BA XR8 valve guide issue....any idea on the revisions that ford made....other than new material and better lubrication I cant see how they could fix it short of a major redesign...

and this could cause flat spot issues as the guide could be letting in unmetered air affecting A/F ratios (though I would expect u to notice a poor idle as well)

also i did a quick search on google and found virtually nothing on this issue, which is a major one...and very costly to rectify...

the only way i head of it was through a guy who worked at an engine shop doing warrantee work for ford....

also he mentioned seeing a brand new BF without engine bearings installed!!!

We also have a customer with a BA MK2 XR8 manual with a leaking head.Leaking water on the drivers side.Less than 80,000kms.For the heads im sure they would have changed the design of the heads but there were some later model of the ba that had engine/head problems.The worst part about it is that if you bought a 03 04 BA XR8 brand new from ford now they are out of warranty and if you kept up the regular servicing through a ford dealership i dont think they would try and healp you out if you were to fall victim to the head dramas.For the job on my mates old BA ute the last job where they did both heads was more than $3000.I dont know the actual figure.

Hey guys,
thanks for that. I will look at all your info. and yes I have only just bought this car from a ford dealship and has 3 yr warranty. I was thinking of getting a chip put in and am unsure to go ahead and let them check out my problem as after I get it chipped thought that my warranty may become invalid???
I love the car.......and the go...but,
I did try to tell them what was happening and they looked at me like I was a real nutter...hey I am over 40 and not friggin stupid...I have owmned alot of performance cars.It`s just the new computerised stuff....makes you a bit invalid when a problem occurs.
and yer I am actually in the Northern rivers area, NSW

Sorry wasnt calling you stupid.but there are some people who loves cars but have no idea when it comes to the mechanical side.As for any modifications done to your car will void warranty.

just an update on the dodgy xr8 heads...

found out that if u have casting number AG on the heads then these are the s**t ones that kill guides due to the water passages not being designed correctly..

the updated DB heads are also a s**t but the DC heads are good