Hi all, I have converted my AUI to a barra 190 from a BF XR6
Here's all the info I picked up doing the conversion.
I used the AU ECU and wiring.
I hope this info can help someone as the last conversion post back in 2006 stop updating halfway thru


The barra 190 swap
The engine i'm swapping is a intech from an AUII manual
Things that you need from the AUII engine.
Alternator
Coil pack and leads
both engine mounts (the whole mount inc the metal bracket)
top half of the intake plenum with the throttle body and idle control valve
the whole wiring loom from the engine and transmission
fly wheel
Knock sensor
Oil presser sensor
Both metal heater pipes that run ether side of the engine
the plenum valve vacuum hose that sits on the front
cooling hoses
Things you need to get new is the pilot bearing if your transmission is a manual
(the intech bearing will fit the barra if using a t5 from a AU)

if your car is a manual and has a clutch cable you need to drill a hole in the
barra engine where the clutch cable will go thru as the barra dose not have one.
you won't need to do that if you're converting to a hydraulic clutch as well

I used the power steering pump from the barra but you will need the high presser line from a B series falcon as the pump connector is not the same from the AU, the line
needs to be bent at the rack and it will fit under the low presser line.( its easier to use the barra pump) I used a bolt and put it in the sensor port at the top of the line
and just used the one in the rack.

Remove the intech from the car, note if the car is manual unbolt the trans until the 2 19mm bolt on the sides are left then
you need to lift the engine and gearbox up until the gearbox hits the trans tunnel. then put the gearbox on a jack and undo the 2 nuts and you
should be able to remove the engine without removing the gearbox from the car(its what I did)

With both engines side by side start to remove all of the above and transplant it to the barra
The crank angel sensor plug will fit the au loom

The Cam angel sensor is on the back of the engine and you will need the plug from the barra loom wired to the au cas plug
The barra CAS is a 2 pin for both intake and exhaust and the AU is a 3 wire, green, black and 1 uninsulated wire(shield?)
You need to take the intake cam out and grind the nubs on the back so that the one at tdc is the only one remaining. you also need to retard both cams back 15 degrees and replace them with a
vernier cam gear as the vct gears have a risk of slipping back to the 15 degrees advance

The knock sensor is easy to swap as the barra has a bolt hole where it sits on the AU.
The oil presser sender is also easy, just remove the barra sender (the one with the yellow plug) and slot the au one in.
the coil pack is easy as it sits on the engine mount, you wont need the coil condenser as the barra has one bolted under the intake plenum
the spark plug leads might need to be trimmed to fit down the spark plug hole

If you have a stock exhaust manifold the barra manifold will bolt to the pipe where the AU one sat but if you have extractors
you will need to get them traded as the AU manifold patten wont fit the barra

The A/C pump from the barra will not fit the lines on the AU however the a/c pump from the au will fit the barra mounts but needs to be moved forward 6mm so the belt will line up.
You can use angel steel to make a bracket as it won't move as much as just a flat piece I used 30mmx30mmx1mm that was 1000mm long that I cut to size, it was about $14.50 you will need M8 1.25 bolts
to mount the steel to the ac bracket and using the bolts from the pump and with m8 1.25 nuts you can mount the ac pump to the steel bracket you made. you also need to grind
the keyway/stop at the bottom of the bracket and for the lower bit of bracket steel you need to cut a slot for a bolt that protrudes out. you also need to grind one of the side of the top left nut flat so it clears the barra ac bracket.

The metal heater hoses that run around the engine will fit the barra you just need to swap some seals as the oring for the thermostat housing is built in.
The coolant hoses will fit straight on but for the upper hose you need to cut some off the end otherwise it bends as the barra coolant hose sits higher up and a bit to the right then the intech.

The bonnet should clear the engine as I have the low rise one from a AUI and it clears it fine without cutting so you should be good with the AUII high rise one.

That's all I can think of right now.
I have recorded most of the swap and will edit it and upload it to youtube or something.

 

 

Attachments:

File comment: Pic of the barra engine about to be lowed in to the car, screen grab from the video Image6.jpg [ 219.34 KiB | Viewed 940 times ]

Nice one, I'd like to do this at some stage down the track, this is a good resource to have, post up the video URL as I'd be interested to see the process.

Cheers

It's not much of a how to video unless I do a voice over in what i'm doing as I don't talk much sadly. but i'm building a doc at the moment on how to get the VCT working with the AU computer with a controller but i'm torn on just using the VCT to lock itself at tdc or installing a vernier cam gear and removing it permanently.

If you have the Barra wiring and ECU it would be better to install that in to the au but you might have to flash it to remove the smart lock.

you can have the motor/ecu as a stand alone

Some reading:
post1436569.html
Sign up to AFF to view the thread in there - mandatory reading, particularly
RE the VCT.

Thanks, Snap. I was wondering what I was going to do about the VCT and looking at that thread I think i will disable it for not until I do this conversion with a BF ecu.

Excellent work! How do you find it after the conversion?

Quite abit faster. it pulls way harder even without extractors and it likes to rev up to 5k rpm. this is all with the VCT locked

legendary post ..

what AU ECu are u running? xr6? vct or std? u got a j3 tune?

id say u might gain a bit from adjusting the cams to optimum adv/retard...any idea of positions the BF ecu controls them to under power and cruise?

I'm using a standard manual ECU with no tune or chip
as for the cams I got the best power with both at tdc. I need to get some vernier gears to fine tune it. as for the BF ecu cam timing I believe that when cruising the cams are at max retard and then when you step on it to moves it to tdc or 5ish degrees advance. Don't quote me on that, this is the first time I have messed with a barra engine.

I also totally forgot to post the video for the dude a few posts up
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuj2GMzNTFM

well it should as it would have a good 20kw+ above the stock au engine

Sounds great. I have a couple of questions if you don't mind.

Do you have any pics of the cam lobe mods. Ie. which lobe did you remove and how did you set the timing to TDC. (I think I remember reading that this gave you the best results?)

Also any pics of how you modified the bellhousing to accept the clutch cable?

How are you finding it after some more driving?

Very cool conversion, thanks again for the write up!!

For the cam shaft it has 4 lobes 3 of them are grouped together and the 4th one is alone of the other side. you need to remove the 2 outer lobes in the group leaving the one in the middle and you also need to remove the 4th lone one. this can be done with a angle grinder with a steel girding disk.

For the clutch cable you need to drill a hole in the engine where the clutch cable goes thru the engine. you can use the engine/transmission "spacer" plate as a template.

its was better driving with the barra then the intech as the barra will keep pulling after 4k rpm where the intech will start to drop off. it's also a way better sounding engine if you has a induction intake.

That's great. Thank you.

Do you think you could run it with he cams in the factory timing position? Did you try his or just put the vernier gears on straight away?

i'm using the stock cam gears in it right now with just the timing set. the engine will run fine without touching the gears but you won't get max power.