Hi there,
I'm new to this forum and would like some assistance with my current project. I recently sold my 460 big block which I had in my XC Coupe and have decided to go down the path of installing a BA turbo 6 in it. The problem is that most of the turbo tuning houses seem to ignore anything before EA when it comes to supplying turbo kits and those that haven't don't seem to have anything to fit the BA XR6T motor into the XC. As many of you would know, the engine bays in XC/D/E/F Fords are much narrower than the succeeding models and my concern is whether or not an exhaust manifold designed for an BA XR6T will fit in the XC's engine bay.

I already have the motor which I purchased new and completely rebuilt it with forged rods and pistons. The original intent was to go for around the 900HP mark and the internals were selected with this in mind. However I have since revised my aim down and would be happy with around 350-400 wheel KWs as the coupe is a relatively light car compared with the later models and the problem as I see will be getting any more power down to the ground with the leaf spring rear end.

Do I have to go down the path of a custom exhaust manifold or is there something already available out there that will fit the bill?

I would have thought a factory manifold would just fit, as it's a log design. If it won't allow the power your looking for, a custom manifold that sits the turbo in the front of the strut tower might be required to be made.

Won't know until you get the engine mounted in the bay & take a few measurements. This is a path that probably hasn't been traveled before, so you might be blazing the trail here. Sounds like a fun project, got some pics?

Cheers

ToranaGuy

Thanks Torana Guy,
I just came across this. http://forum.streetfords.com.au/showthread.php?t=2608
All in all the standard turbo/manifold will be a tight fit but does appear do-able although the guy in this thread gave up on it. The pics also don't show the steering box so that's still a big question mark.

I need to do some more research and getting up to speed on what sort of power figures I can expect with different manifolds/turbos and if I could achieve 450-500KW with a GT35/40 turbo AND log manifold I would be a very happy little vegemite!

As it stands I have a very good exhaust fabricator available to me here in Adelaide and ultimately if it came to that I would get him to make me a custom manifold with external wastegate and the turbo mounted forward of the shock tower as you've suggested where there is an abundance of room. Every time I look in that engine bay I curse that awkwardly placed recirculating ball steering box. Wonder how much more room I'd get with the RRS rack and pinion kit? Alternatively I could rely on the fact there's heaps of headroom under the bonnet of the XC due to its high bonnet line and go a high mount turbo. But wouldn't it be so nice to be able to just buy something off the shelf.....

I just wish I wasn't the trail blazer here and could rely on other people's experience! Been there done that with the first street legal 460 into XC conversion here in Adelaide in 1988 and this time around I'm time poor compared with back when I was a 21 year old with nothing else to do except work on my car......

I will get onto the pics but I can assure that they wouldn't be that exciting at this point. They'll consist of a dusty XC Coupe with no engine and a 4.0 litre long motor sitting on the floor next to it!

the standard log manifold can still push the 450 rwkw that your after

if its not going to fit there are a few high mount options from snort, ETM, fantasy, and 6 boost... im sure they would be able to give you the turbo position so you can measure it out before buying one....

Pics of the starting point..

Looking at that pic, and knowing what an EB K Frame is like, I would say you are going to need a custom cross member.

A BA engine drops straight into an EB with only a really minor mod to the front cross member. I would have a good look at the early E Series K Frames as a starting point and make some measurements.

Cheers
BenJ

Check out the RSS web site , they do a tower notching kit witch should give you heaps of room. They also do a kit to fit modular V8 witch is a good indication of the room that has been achieved, still dont know how you get on with crossmember.

Wow - that is a nice looking XC coupe and with the beefed up turbo that should fly!

Best of luck and keep us posted!

That coupe is dead sexy!

Cheers

ToranaGuy

You checked the prices on those things? We don't all s**t blank cheques you know.

Thanks for the comments guys.
Yes the RSS stuff is expensive and ultimately I'm not buying it to make the car handle or drive significantly better because I know it never really will handle well enough to justify the expense. I would only consider it for exhaust and engine clearance and I suspect there's cheaper ways than notching and coil overs and rack and pinions to get the piping to fit the car rather than making the car fit the piping. Pacemaker managed to get headers onto a 460 in that engine bay (just) so I think we should be able to manage a 3.5"? pipe through the same area and hopefully a snort system with a high mount turbo will do the trick.

Does anyone know what engine mounts were used in this installation? http://forum.streetfords.com.au/showthread.php?t=2608 Would it have been B series or X series or a combination of both do you think? The front sump on the BA engine really helps my situation.

they look like ea mounts..
eitherway the ea-ed steel bracket bolts straight onto the ba engine and the rubber mounts on the 6 cyl are the same from xt to ed ...

im pretty confident you can get away with using factory made parts...