Heya Fordmods blokes & blokettes.... like most people i've been lurking around here for a little while without a thread. I figured it was time put up a thread. For some you might have seen these posted up on other forums, so please excuse the repetition of some parts!

I bought the XR8 almost 2 years ago after searching for a while for a low km EF/EL XR8 or VR/VS SS (or clubbie). I was looking for the usual - Low km's, manual, decent condition all that crap. As most know, manual low km EL's are impossible to find. I stumbled across this one and bought it. 150k km, auto, cat-back zorst, immaculate interior, Navy blue paint still sparkled.
Luck had it that the next week a burgundy EL XR8, manual, stock as a rock with alot less km's popped up. It was even owned by an old fella living even closer (a 2 minute drive). p****d off! i even contemplated selling mine to buy it. In hindsight i should have!

anyway heres the car from the carsguide ad, looked fairly neat -







So, drove it around but shifted like a pig, so dropped it off at local Rileys Garage. got S5 replaced and an auto service. drove nicely. unfortunately when i parked it there it p****d coolant, as seen below -



i had them install a decent sized trans cooler with new lines (not through the radiator) whilst there

So new heater tap, all new radiator hoses & overflow bottle. a home radiator flush and tonnes of murky brown s**t came out... mother f*cker! anyway, topped it up with new coolant and tightened it all up and it's been pretty well behaved.

Next thing was the oil pressure guage was s**t itself on long drives on the motorway (M7 & M5 for the sydney siders). Which was concerning! it was dropping off to nothing and beeping and carrying on. SO my Mechanic (Mr John Leffler for all those Group C buffs) checked it out with a mechanical guage and all fine. replaced sender unit twice too. At some point soon after he replaced a few bushes and the intermediate steering shaft, which apparently none existant now? so dont f*ck your intermediate driving shaft

Sept/Oct 2010 i decided the cat back which was on it when i bought it sounded s**t, so went and got a twin 2.25 inch mandrel bent exhaust, pacies, hi-flow cats to make myself feel better. Sounds great, it even impressed the die-hard holden/HDT guys who did the job. Not bad for a stock 5.slow auto








Soon after the engine mounts went. So they were replaced ASAP

Also bought new tyres, i was interested to see if i could get 245 or 255's on it at the back, purely for bulge purposes. i dont race my car, its slow so a soft sidewall doesnt bother me. Couldnt, disappointed, so i'll just have to wait for Simmons

Went on a few little cruises with my brother (BNG - in the blue EF & then the burgundy EL XR6) and car nut marty (white EF XR6) down to Wollongong or out to douglas park/camden. Pretty fun. They have involved a few other guys too, most from camden (Tony, kimber, craig/gary/greg/g-banger/whatever, Mark, & of course corey from Fordmods/the gong).
It's great being the only V8 amongst a flock of XR6/XR6Ts











E-series look better then B-series!



E-series pop up everywhere, including work...



car was travelling along nicely, a few minor kiccups (i'll explain later as i've still got them).

Earlier this year I managed to ground the terminal at the back of the alternator, destroying the alternator, battery and the 100A fuse. Won't be doing that again. New alternator, battery and fuse and car's checked over and all ok.

Unfortunately my Dad succumbed to cancer and passed away in June, sort of relegating all things in life to unimportant. The project 1963 mini is at a standstill and the XR8 copped no love for a while. A week later my uncle passed away unexpectedly. Pretty f*cked up timing.
So with spirits high *cough* (sarcasm) a month later in the pissing rain the car lost all power, everything. Life cant get much worse can it? Cue small engine fire and much swearing. Fire out quickly, minimal damage as it was on the passenger side extractor.
So the wonderful missus and i sat in the back of her hatchback and waited for a towie for an hour, he turned up and we headed to my auto electrician. Conveniently his pneumatics decided to not work, so we waited another hour for another towie to turn up (still pissing down)
Anyway, the cable to the starter had shorted to the extractor and blown battery and fuse again. New battery, cable to the starter and starter was rebuilt by my now close mate auto electrician






needed a new fuel pump (i think)



Recently i decided the shagged suspension was needing a trip to the tip and replacements were needed. Original shocks and springs!



I had thought about some springs and good quality shocks, but i like the thought of adjustment. The first pic shows it in its 4WD glory...



So good old Pedders came to the fore and smacked some of their coilovers in all round.





i decided i'd quickly lower my front left as low as i could go with the trolley jack under it and it looks like this... this was done but the rears and front drivers werent touched. The last pic shows how much thread was left. So it can go pretty low!






The coilovers went in and it now sits better... so this is how she stands atm




you may ask "why doesn't he slam the mofo?" well because my driveways a b**ch. As it is now, it just got down with me in it driving like some homo in a lowered civic (i.e. slow, wide and at angles)




I had some future plans... Like Simmons, trickflow top end kit + tune, maybe one day a 347...



...So the next thing was i had a random bloke come up at tafe one afternoon and chat. Said he had an EF XR8 for sale, a 347 stroker at the engine builders. It wasn't until he mentioned it was a manual that my ears pricked. So long story short, i bought the engine-less car for it's gearbox

One Saturday i stripped the T5 out of the donor EF XR8. Out came the box and tailshaft. I did it by myself, and whilst i might be a pansy i still recommend getting a mate to help! I checked the first gear ratio, input spun 3 times for the outputs one full turn. I was stoked it had the correct ratios

I Quickly Mucked about with the car. It has good pedders suspension (shocks & springs), interior is fairly neat and tidy and the paintwork is better than first thought. It was Polynesian green, ticky kit, barely used pedders suspension (apparently only 2 weeks of on road use), (i thought it had a) police ECU (4DKD), 5-spoke 16" rims, full interior etc

alright heres the donor vehicle in all its sexy spiderwebbed glory!









and the reason why i got it



it looked better on the tow truck





Some pics of when i went and got the gearbox and driveshaft out of the EF.



So with a bit of careful manouvering of a car jack, stands and ramps.



The tailshaft was unbolted and lowered.



then the front was jacked up, the tailshaft pulled out of the box and the oil left to drain out. tilted the front of the gearbox up with the jack to drain more oil out before moving it.





shifter off. exhaust off that gearbox mount. and then the careful lowering of the box of gears







gearbox out! I like the grass & weeds. Very organic




i gave the front corner a quick wipe with a wet rag and dried it off and the paint wasn't half bad (this car kept surprising me)




After removing the gearbox i needed to find a new storage place for the EF. Towed it with the EL... my brakes weren't happy afterwards!




So all was quiet with the XR8 for a while. Earlier this year (before March) my brother and i went to hang out with our mate marty and his EF XR6. BOTH bryce & marty sold their XR6's soon after! disappointing, our e-series trio was gone!

Anyway, i finally fixed the front end up, new brakes (calipers rebuilt, new fluid, pads, etc), wheel bearings, car handles and drives nicely

my brother wanted to swap wheels before he sold it, so we did. He got my FTRs and i got a set of 18's. so had them on for a few weeks, not bad.










it looks heaps high, even though its technically only 10mm higher, not sure whether to lower it or not as it scrapes already :/







Soon after i had a bloke of here from Adelaide (of all places!) PM me asking about the EF. So that weekend he came and picked it up. One XR8 down!


The car decided it didnt want its harmonic balancer on anymore, so it died, so i got that fixed. Mechanic found the timing cover leaking so removed it (and it came off in one peice, which was an amazing effort), then found the timing chain had around 15mm slack.






new powerbond harmonic balancer, rollmaster timing chain/gears, idler pulleys (they were noisey). timing set, et al. It made a massive difference, it drove a lot better, a bit more poke probably due to timing being retarded
(it was still a E7 headed HO intaked wheezer...)



a bit of wear in the case...



together and checkin for leaks, back when i had my brothers wheels



almost hit the 200k km mark... almost!





Thats all for this instalment... the next will have the current chapter of e-series!

thanks,
Brad

Last edited by braad on Thu May 02, 2013 11:16 pm, edited 3 times in total.

ANNNND this is my current car!

I'm sure a few of you saw it for sale on the net (when i called for insurance the bloke i dealt with was an e-series fan and had seen it. small world)

It's a 1996 EL Ghia V8 in Heritage Green with
- XR front
- Ticky Kit w/ no wing
- factory grey leather in excellent condition
- factory sunroof
- Koni shocks
- EL GT wheels
- resprayed at some point (colour-coded moulds)
- LPG installed recently

Apparently had other s**t like the sunroof drain pipes cleaned out recently, new windscreen, new AC pump, brakes re-done

So how i came about this car and moving on from the XR8. I had been thinking about it for a while and spoken to a few people (family, mates, mechanic, etc). I decided if i did move on it had to be better than the XR8, as i've poured too much money into it to downgrade to a heap of s**t.

So (as usual) i was looking on carsales on and off. It was actually my missus who saw another EL V8 Ghia, which was super-clean low-km and fully optioned, up here in sydney on my route home from work. I called and it had already had a deposit on it, so i kept looking.

I saw mine one night after TAFE and called the seller pretty late. Had a long chat about it and asked if he could hold it for 24 hours to see if i could organise everything. This was when my XR8 was getting it's new balancer, timing chain and cover replaced and costing me a chunk of cash. Getting the cash sorted, time off work and flying down to werribee was too hard at that point so I left it saying if it's still available after easter i'd look again.
I left it and kept looking at different things, even checking out Fairlanes, concordes and LTD's. It had to be an E-series, had to be V8 and have a sunroof.
As the Ghia was dropping in price i became more interested in it, and eventually called the bloke. Organised a deposit and sat on it for a few days. Booked flights and after a few mates & my gf tried and failed at getting work off, i went down with mum friday morning. Landed at about 9, drove the Ghia for 15 minutes, chewed the fat and bought it. It would've been nice if the guy HADN't put it on an Unregistered Vehicle Permit. Either way i drove it back with no plates. Such is life eh!

So we started heading back to sydney straight away. we filled up somewhere between avalon airport and werribee. LPG & Petrol cost me ~$80. It was bloody windy!



So the first impressions were pretty good. Steering was lighter than my XR8 and i was enjoying the comforts of a Ghia. We got stuck in a bit of traffic near the westgate bridge road (not sure what its called) and the car behaved well in stop/start

First stop was at Avenel





Next stop was Holbrook, NSW, where theres a submarine in a park. It's a bit random, but whatever. The car was driving well, it was staying cool, was comfy and was quiet, especially since there's a glass panel in the roof. I found out the tyres it has a noisey, but i'm pretty sure they're el cheapos anyway




Next stop was Gundagai, for more LPG (it managed 500km on a full tank of LPG), and a general toilet stop etc. Saw the dog-on-a-tuckerbox whilst there. I thought it was bigger than it is, still, it is pretty cool



interior pic (took it for a mate to show wood, chrome & badge)



we stopped and Goulburn for a refresh and then di the final stint to sydney & home




after a quick wash the next morning it was obvious that the front lip had copped stone chips, and the car needed a general polish






SO, plans for this were to keep it clean. It obviously needed rego ASAP to become daily transport for me and the XR8 was to be sold off. The front lip will need some attention so i might get some bits and peices re-done too. I'm still weighing up what direction i'll eventually take, like keep the EL GT's and enjoy, re-do the chrome in the moulds, some 19" wheels

Here it JUST manages to get up on the driveway without scraping. This is with the sagging springs and Koni reds





Awaiting Blue-slip (RWC) before rego




and all registered and playing daily






Car low on petrol & gas




Car full of petrol & gas



You can see it needed new springs or something done. The car was comfy but looks stupid with any weight in the back (which is most of the time)

Not long after i got the coilovers swapped into it and the Konis have gone into the XR8. They both drove better, i figured the Ghia would, and the suspension suits the lighter steering. The heavier steering in the XR8 goes well with the valving in the Konis. The Ghia is more cruiser and the XR8 feels more composed. It was a good result!

We had to raise the Ghia a bit too, i was going to be up for another set of tyres soon due to the guards chopping the hell out of the sidewalls.

here it is at its current guise, washed and with re-set height


Next was to get the exhaust swapped over between the XR8 and Ghia. So it was booked into the guy who made it originally. So he had some fun! same floorpan, slightly different dimensions meant screwing around with it haha. ohwell, it's done now.

That night i was ready to put the XR8 up for sale. I was fortunate enough to have had a couple of interested people in it (they saw me mention it in forums), but before i knew it, my brother bought it. Easiest car sale ever i think.

I had to go back and get new tips for it as the previous ones looked puny with the ticky kit

So we dummied the tips up even/straight and staggered to gauge what looked best. twin 3" staggered tips finish off the twin 2.25" mandrel system off nicely

if you look closely in the following pic you can see the size of the old tips... they look tiny!




it's always a nice sign when the workshop has a couple of GT's & XR8's there







and the result







i like it, i reckon doesn't look too big or outlandish



Thats it, thats where the cars are up to. Apologies for such a long-winded post, but i just summarised 3 years into 2 posts.



let me know what you think!

awesome looking car

Any plans for the ghia ? Like engine mods? Or leave it as a cruiser .

When Bryce sold his xr6 was he looking at getting into another eseries or brought your xr8 as a spur of the moment thing ?

We will have to go on another cruise once mines done .
What car does Marty have ?

Thanks mate! I love the look of it

Thanks man

Thats the one, mortdale carline/Automate. Do you know them?
Are you from the area?

Well atm the Ghia is purely a cruiser. I'll have to wait until it isn't my daily before i do mods. I'm saving for a house deposit too so spending $5k on mods has to wait unfortunately. But its a nice comfy car to drive now. cheap to run on LPG too $30/week

Bryce wanted a skyline. It was more fashionable. Then he was looking at XR6T's. Then lowered his goals & wanted a B-series V8 fairlane or something, then was looking at E-series again, esp XR8's. Then bought mine

Marty has a FG work ute. No personal car. He has to drive his fiances civic haha. He wants something in the next 12 months i think.

Definitely need to cruise once yours is done. I haven't done a cruise for ages, and i want to see your car

Nice ghia man! Looks like someone has taken good care of it before hand. very clean.
EL GTs always look the great on ghias. Might have to grab a set ay.... haha
xr front/ticky kit go well also

Thanks mate. Someone looked after it. It was an optioned up fleet car when new so probably copped better treatment than most. Lucky for me!

Yeah the GT's suit them well, such a good factory wheel for any e-series. Would love some originals, 8.5" wide!

Funny that i refused to put a ticky kit on my XR8. Now i love the look XR front & the tickford kit.

Oh yeah, in remember you mentioning an accident in sylvania a while back.

Mario, the exhaust bloke is good. Some people have issues with some of the Carline guys (i.e. don't like them), my brother is one of those who won't go to them (he had a disagreement). I've never had an issue though. I enjoy taking my Ford up there when they're big holden/HDT guys... Good banter. However i get my car serviced elsewhere with an old school mechanic

s**t happens eh!

I'll have to keep an eye out for your VX, i've always loved the VX/VU SS

Nice falcons you got there, love the look of these models espicialy with the XR EL fronts.

Good luck with the future mods.

I loved the look of that xr8 you had...
Then kept scrolling and saw the ghia and loved it even more!
Makes me wish I saved up a bit more and got something better than a GLi, I'm only a student but, haha. I'm looking forward to seeing more mods.

Thanks mate. The EL XR fronts look great, although i wouldnt mind picking up proper Ghia front end with chrome, just for a change

Haha thanks for the comment. Yeah the XR8 was strange, it looked so good when i cleaned it. I don't think i've had a car that could look so different when dirty & clean
But, the Ghia is better
Well mate enjoy the GLi, you never know where it'll go or what you end up with. My brother had an EF GLi, then a lovely ticky kitted EL XR6 and now that blue XR8. So keep with it. They're easy enough to mod or to find another upper-spec model. You won't be a student forever!

O'Donnells penshurst, are they in that strip up from the aquatic centre?

Rileys did my trans cooler, they were good. Ask for Paul, he's a great guy. He's into his Windsor's, boat racing & minis. He offered to help me after hours to rebuild my mini's gearbox. They haven't serviced my car, but did do trans service, solenoid replacement & trans cooler and i was happy.

If you want someone good to work/service your car, go see John Leffler at St George Steering. He's just off canterbury rd & belmore rd punchbowl. An older guy but absolutely mint work. He's one of the few who will do a proper wheel alignment, and isn't in it to rip people off. He's good enough to be trusted to work on the one & only Phase IV. He's done all my family's cars for over a decade and never been unhappy