Yeah- I know you bloody did Mr Montman... Your engine bay photos were what started me on the whole polishing track. Spent three frustrating hours on the rocker cover and another half hour on the BBM. Looked at rocker cover, looked at the BBM, looked at rocker cover, looked at BBM, shook head, threw arms in the air and took the whole lot to the local sand blaster instead!

Love the polished BBM's and all that, just don't think I'll ever own one

The BBM is letting the bling down Benj. A can of that "brushed alloy" paint would fix it!!!

nice, I got me one of those in my EL...



came with the car so I saved myself the agravation of doing it myself...

anyone want to polish my bbm and fuel rail?

You put in an XR6 standard cam?!

I got one for sale which come out of the "TEL" engine... Offered it for $66, no one bought it.... Is it worth selling for $60?

Is there enough of a difference to make it worthwhile for someone to buy?

Thought it would be a seller at $60! Ah well... Sad. Could have done with some cash back!

Had a busy day today.

Was at the airport by 8.30 to send my Wife over to Perth for a week, as her birthday present this year.

Got home by 10.30 and started ripping the front off the car. Installed the A/C Condensor (finally) so I can get the Air Con gassed.

Then HP Hungry arrived to assist with a cam change. We had been planning to install an RPD R6 cam, but HP found out the STD valve springs are not suitable. Instead I decided to install an EL XR6 cam that I have had in the garage for a few months. The cam swap went without a hitch, and there were no rattles at startup.

Seat of the Pants testing tells me there is a subtle increase in the mid to high rev range. The exhaust sounds a bit throatier too.

Now, I would not recommend spending good dollars on and then installing an XR6 cam as a worthwhile performance upgrade on it's own. In my case, I already have the EL Ghia ECU with Tickford maps, the Tickford 300kpa Fuel Pressure Reg, improved inlet, and extractors and exhaust. This was for me a natural progression and culmination of small incremental changes, which when done get the most out of a standard engine.

Other things done today were the XH tensioner removed, and the EL one installed. This necessitated moving the A/C pump from it's Log manifold location and I lifted it up to the BBM location. While I was at it, I cleaned up the EL tensioner with the dremel, and the BBM Vacuum actuator. The power steering pump bracket also got cleaned up while it was off for the cam change. I also installed the EL belt cover, to provide a better balance of colour to the engine bay.

Anyway, enough bable. A couple of pics.




Cheers
BenJ

looking good ben

Coming along nicely I must say.

what sort of mileage are you getting out of the gas now ben?

Thanks Guys!



Well I have only put one tank through since the reconfiguration, and I got 380kms out of it, with mixed heavy foot driving HEHE. And at under $30 a tank of LPG, it makes for an economical daily driver for doodling around town. Switching to Petrol provides an immediate improvement in throttle response and outright grunt, but with the Mixer in the intake it is not as good as it is on stand alone Petrol. But am working on fixing that.

Cheers
BenJ

I am having no issues with mine and mine is lower and the shield may just touch the extractors but like i said no problems !

This is an old photo with the stock so you can picture extractors

By {DESCRIPTION} at 2009-07-02

Didn't know this.. but by law in WA (dunno about over east) if you have extractors on a gas car, you must have a heat shield installed, but it can't touch the exhaust.. the shield must be fixed to the body of the car and be at least 10mm from any part of the gas setup..

I found that out because I had to fabricate one to get my car over the gas inspection.

If asked ill say that Autopro did this when i had extractors, even though it only had the stock manifold on at the time !

Update time.

It's about bloody time, is what I say.

I have been wanting to do a conversion to EL rear brakes since before I even had the wagon. My old Red EB sedan needed the conversion too.

Why? Due to the use of the EL handbrake, EB brakes don't work with it.

For those of you that don't know, EA-ED rear rotors, calipers and backing plates, are very different to the EF/EL arrangement. The handbrake works in a completely different manner. On the EB, the capliper is used, and clamps on the rotor when the handbrake is pulled on. On the EL, there is drum brake arrangement inside the rotor, in which the shoes press against the inside of the rotor when the handbrake is activated.

In addition, the EB calipers are on the rear of the differential, and on the EL, they are mounted on the front. EL vehicles have one handbrake cable running down the right hand side of the car, and in an EB, there is a cable running down both sides. Very, very different.

So, to convert an EB diff to run EL rear brakes, the following parts are needed.




These are the dirtiest of the donor componets. A BIG thanks to EVL098 for the parts. We are swapping brakes. I needed EL parts, and he needed EB parts, so a swap was agreed.

I cleaned, scrubbed, degreased, dried and painted the backing plates, dust shields and rotors. I also attacked the calipers with the dremel and wire brush attachment. The other parts swapped are the longer EL wheel studs, for the shorter EB studs.

The conversion requires removal of the caliper and rotor. Then undo the four bolts holding the axle and backing plate to the diff. You then need to pop the axle out. Reverse the rotor, screw on a couple of wheel nuts, and use the rotor like a slide hammer. Once all the parts are unbolted it should look like this.



Install the EL backing plate and dust shield. I tapped out the
EB wheel studs while the axle was out of the car and installed the EL wheel studs, before installing the axle. The EL rotor can then be slid on, followed by the caliper components. A trip to Pick N Payless scored some near new EL brake pads. Not bad for $2.



The other different thing about ELs to EBs is that the brake lines are run differently. On the EB there is single brake line down the left side of the car, which then connects via a flexiblie hose to a T piece mounted in the diff housing. A metal brake line then runs along the diff to each wheel. On an EL, the brake lines run down both sides of the car, with a flexible hose from the chassis to each caliper. As the caliper is now on the opposite side of the diff, a little bit of customisation is required to mate the EB metal brake line to the EL flexible line. Not hard at all.



In this position, the flexible line is not bent to much, and the will not interfere with the wheel or the chassis. On the EB the metal line is fixed to the backing plate, however as the EL backing plate does not have this facility, I cable tied the brake line to the diff housing to prevent it all wobbling around.

I then removed the EB handbrake cables, and installed the EL handbrake cable to the diff. Previously, Snap0964, had welded on the EL handbrake brackets to the EB housing. Many thanks once again my friend. The other difference is that a bracket is missing from the chassis for the end of the handbrake handle cable to sit. However, PIMP_LTD had kindly made me one and sent it down many moons ago. Thanks to you to mate. This was mounted to the chassis and the cables connected.

Then it rained, which was a pain. Due to the use of EB seats with the EL centre console and handbrake cable, in an EB, I need to remove the drivers seat to adjust the EL handbrake cable. I will hopefully be able to do that this afternoon.

A final pic with the wheel back on.



Bit dark but you get the idea. Will try for better pics this afternoon, seeing as the sun is shining.

Will be nice to have a working handbrake, especially with a manual car. LOL.

***************************************************
On another note, I finally took possession of this. I had purchased it months ago from a ebay seller in QLD. They came for a drive to Sydney this weekend and were kind enough to bring it with them.





The tailgate is off a now dead ED XR6 Wagon. I have removed the spoiler to be repainted in Black Pearl. I may also use this tailgate as a donor for the wagon, as mine is full of bog.

Cheers
BenJ

Good pickup, the wagons look good with a wing.

Oooo, nice work Ben! Bet is is nice to have that handbrake all functional now! And I see the tailgate finally turned up - good score! I am jealous!!!!!!

I wanna wing.... Been looking at doing something odd with that bit - not like me, I know - but the wing is easy and does look good. Not sure how much cleaner they keep the tailgate tho.?!.

What paint is that on the centre of the brake rotors Benj?!