Laptop dead, lucky i was able to make changes to the shift points before it stopped.

Feeling alot better, im looking forward to wsid this wednesday.

Testing the 1st to 2nd shift on the freeway shows a very slight improvement but im unable to test 2nd to 3rd to see if the new shift points better suited the engine/power made.

Hopefully i better my previous time of 15.063@91.12mph with a 2.1 60 ft, in a few weeks i should be able to get the 3.91:1 diff gears done (l.s.d in diff is like brand new with tighter packed clutchs?).

so its going to hit the track tomorrow?
should be interesting.

Yes im taking her out to wsid tomorrow

Was a pretty bad night as there was so many delays due to cars breaking down and leaving s**t on the track, my first pass was at 6:45.

Second pass at 8 and then i had to wait for the burnouts to finish...

Ran consistent 14.9s @91.66mph with 2.172 60 ftrs

60/2.175
330/6.255
1/8/9.617
mph/73.13
1000/12.528
1/4/14.988
mph/91.66
17*c, 66 rel humidity, absolute baro 30.14... what ever the f**k that means lol.

Ill be looking at getting that wideband wired in as i think theres a few more kw's that can be extracted BUT i think this is as far as it will go without any work/bolt on's being done.

So next step is 3.9 gears in a few weeks or so....

Port the manifold and get a phenolic spacer. I'll be hitting the strip with my setup when it's reshelled, Untuned first then tuning it and going again. I'm hoping to crack into the 13's with a BTR

So its no secret now at the fordmods meet up on friday nights that ive made the 100% switch to e85 full time.

Pretty much felt I was at the limit on 98 and 100 ron and it just wasn't going to go any quicker without actually modifying the engine.

The original motor that was in the car responded to timing unlike the current one, it was making similar power but this motor has run a quicker time (valve springs arnt butter just yet).

So its been around a month now of running e85, the first 3 weeks had been spent just seeing how the car ran and how it responded to this fuel.

Everyday required 5 turns of the key to get it running, no matter on the time of the day first start of the day.

Things that I noticed

- the smell, so sweet was a nice change from the s**t smell of 98(don't feel like im getting poisoned now.

-fill ups, I went from $25=12ltrs at most to $20=16ltrs

- economy, went from 12ltrs to 100kms (shell 98) to 16ltrs to 100kms (united e85) this is all around town driving as I havnt been out on any special trips or anything.

- performance, completely untuned for e85 the car was still quicker than it was stock when I picked it up (7.9 to 100) to (7.6 to 100) now I cant say 100% that it will be like this for every car but in my case this is what I had found (After installing 42lb injectors).

- 19lb injectors cant cut it for flow AT ALL, I had au 24lb injectors (unconfirmed 21lbs actually) eb 24lb injectors (actual fordmotorsport 24lbers) and the 42lb injectors from my turbo setup.

You can look up any injector calculator online to find out what you need, the 24s wouldn't be able to cut it and I didn't have anything between 24-42 so I put the 42s in.

Previously in the eb I used those injectors with the c&l maf, trying to input the correct settings wouldn't work since the sample tube was tricking the ecu, this time I ditched the c&l maf and ran the 42s straight up with the proper settings.

Now what had p****d me off the most was the cold starts and restarts, as you would try to drive away it would stall and backfire through the intake.

Last straw for me to pull my finger out and start tuning it properly (still had 19sin at the time) was coming back from dctodds engine/gearbox/diff removal session, everyone started there cars and started driving away(here I am trying to crank it and try to drive off).

I stalled it a few times and limped it for the first few corners till it was right, now I needed reliability with this car and after mucking around with the turbo for so long I was not about to stoop back down to e series level of I cbf or dodgyness (nothing against e series as I luv and miss my eb).

Anyways its now tuned with 42lb injectors, straight away the difference was noticeable as it started first turn of the key hot or cold and the performance had slightly improved too.

Now the fun stuff e85 can take so much timing (at one point I had it at 40* WOT and was too scared to go any higher), same with pt throttle timing ive got it jacked up pretty high and im still not getting ping.

Thing is ive been datalogging everytime I make a change and even tho I had wot up at 40* I had lost a lot of power and torque so I turned it down till it started to sing again.

Now I don't think its actually making much more peak hp but the torque is higher right from the word go and is flat as from 3000 to 4500 (the torque in this area is higher than it was before and it seems to carry it out a lot more) feels very different to a petrol tune I had done when I ran that 14.9.

After all that im wanting to head out to wsid as I have a good feeling that ill knock another tenth off that 14.9 with everything but the fuel and tune being the same.

Unfortunatly the Bathurst cruise is a few weeks away and I cant make it to wsid as things need fixing on the car = $

So my first proper tune on e85 had me happy, to the point I felt like I had to take her back to wsid (which I did)

There where a few break downs and I didn't get very many runs in, raced a fairly sedate stock el xr8 which im assuming was auto.

I ran a 14.773@93.88mph and he ran a 15 something a rather..., raced him again and I red lighted as the track had coolant that was spilt on it by a commonwhore.

Pushing through the beams I set them off, I reacted to when he left and I ended up catching him just before mid track and walked him from there( I ended up with the green light).

Best 60ft of the night was 2.158.

Something that was coming to my attention was that the brakes could nolonger hold me on the start line(thank you e85 and nt05's), so I wasn't able to get the 60ft down any lower than that...

So after my last run down at wsid I the 3.91 gears fitted from my eb diff to the au irs centre, also had the limited slip rebuilt aswell.

The difference was very noticeable (would have went real well with the tfs heads) but the tfs heads gave the car more oomph and down at the track it showed.

Now what I hadn't realised was after the gear swap it had slightly thrown the shift points out and when I took it back to wsid it ran a 14.70, I was like wtf???.

Now I was shifting at 5200rpm from first to 2nd but 2nd to 3rd had increased back out to 5600rpm, I was rushing at a last minute decision to actually go out to the track so I had no logged timing or anything.

Pretty much had to take it out onto the motor way by myself and do some logging (of the data kind), when I was happy with how many I did I headed home and messed with the shift points.

A few more days was spent getting spot on as I had gotten sick so testing was limited, the next week I was ready for wsid.

Headed out there with 12ltrs in the tank thinking id run it low so id get a quicker time but it was hot and id run out of fuel on my 3rd run so I had to drive back home to fill up 1/4 of a tank of fresh e85.

I did a little burn out and wheel spun to a 14.690, after dropping the pressures and doing a slightly better burn out I ran another 14.6 but the launch was still hurting me (2.168 60ft).

Had to wait for the burnouts to finish and got one last run in this time I completely buggered the launch up but I had the traction from what I thought was a decent burnout.

Pro tree is only one yellow and I wasn't familir with how quick it pops up, I stalled it up to high (2100rpm) and started pushing through the beams, I reacted by backing off the accelerator and then the green popped up pfft..

So with great traction but slow 60ft time (remember leaving off idle) I ran a 14.649@94.92mph with a 2.215 60ft (all night I had been doing 2.1's.

So I picked up my slip but I was p****d off at myself for making a lot of mistakes that night and headed home.

I know 100% that It would have run a 14.5 if it wasn't for my s**t at the track, not enough fuel, not warming tyres up enough and the s**t eseries brakes letting me push through (f**k you ford, why did you do this to au1's??).

Anyway I think im nearing the end of how fast I can actually go on a dead standard 175kw wrecker motor, I know theres a faster time left on the table but until I fix the front brake issue I wont be able to do those 1.9 60ftrs.

Ive been mucking with the tune alittle more, testing a few things out and theres probably another tenth unlocked there but it would be a waste of time even trying as the brakes will be over hauled for some au2 twin piston's very soon.

Nomore wsid for this year, next year ill take it back with the new brake upgrade and slight retune just to see what she has left and then ive got some shiny new goodies ready to be bolted on.

Havnt put a sound vid up yet since ive tuned it for e85 so here it is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFye8B3R4XE

Want to try a set of Bendix SRT pads in the front and see if that improves things for you?

I happen to have a set laying round that you can play with until you get the later AU front end off me.

Just abit of an update/record keeping, ive since changed back to 98ron shell vpower and adjusted the fueling.

A few visual modifications have been made aswel as the interior too but ill update that latter.

Summary

15.452@89.89mph - Already had genie headers but as far as power producing mods are concerned that was it.

15.144@92mph - had my tune (timing and tq tags removed), valve float ignition issues and wrong shift points which stopped it from going any quicker.

During this time i swapped heads to the tfs but due to uknown reason's for the failure i replaced the motor with a 175kw out of a fairlane.

15.063@91mph - Now with the tune loaded up from the other motor it ran sweet and didnt need touching up, modifications at this time consisted of
- new 100cell cats
- aeromotive 340lph fuel pump
- full dual 2.5'' cats back system with H pipe
- AU boss bonnet
The weight of the exhaust cancelled out any gains in reduction from the fibreglass bonnet, infact it added an extra 10kg's
- NT05 nitto tyres

14.988@91.66mph - With the shifts adjusted from 5600rpm down to 5000rpm it ran 14.9's all night
I had officialy got it into the 14's .
Something that has annoyed me with this motor is its lack of power compaired to the original that was in it, altho nothing i can do about it i just believe it was worth noting.

14.773@93.88mph - Ok feeling like i was making some real progress at this point, i had made the full time switch to e85 and tuned it as best i could without a wideband.
Proof is in the pudding as far as im concerned, i absolutely smashed what i thought was a stock ef xr8
(turns out it was tuned by t and d bro's out at moorebank) which made the win even more satisfying.
Also noting that at this point in time i was having major issue's with the brakes holding me on the line so i ended up doing an fg brake upgrade with help from DC Todd (au2 suspension) and Troyman (workmanship and supply of brakes).

14.70 - Freshly installed the 3.91 gears that had been sitting around for years (still inside the eb2 diff), took it to the track before i had done any testing and i was very surprised to see it hadnt gained any more mph or barley gone quicker...
I could tell down the track it was reving higher in each gear (back out near 5600rpm) and i was screaming across the line at the top of 3rd gear, looking back through the time slips i had infact gone slower down the last half of the 1/4 (thats exactly what it felt like too)

14.649@94.91mph - I was very happy to yet again go faster with some slight changes made to the tune, lowered rpms down to 5000 again and this time i wasnt leaving it in 3rd gear, i was running consistently quicker until the last run when i had stuffed it up and didnt crack that 14.5.

Now running consistent 14.6's and learning these nto5's better along with finding out the car ran quicker when it shifts into 4th i was raping most cars that were doing mid to high 13's to the 1/8th and infact had gotten a few wins against some evo's,vy clubsports etc etc.

Having not gone as quick as id had hoped i was looking at my next set of modifications(insert 351w here), after seling on my trickflow 170cc heads and deciding cubes was the way to go i got in touch with fabre and purchased a pair of trickflows finest 185cc cnced heads.

While i was starting to save some $$ to pay for the engine and go from there it all seemed to good to be true and the engine fell through... (im not upset and there arnt any hurt feelings)

I was constantly changing my mind about what direction i wanted to take this and in the process i picked up a used trickflow track heat intake (awesome).

At this time i was getting jack of the fact that it had alot less low end tq than it did before e85 (diff helped give some back but it still wasnt right).

I ended up switching back to 100ron but id have inconsistency in fuel quality (only with 100ron) as it can have UPTO 10% ethanol content at any one time, i had picked up a fair bit of low end tq at this stage but fuel fill up to fuel fill up it would ping and it was pissing me off.

Enter shell Vpower (98ron)
After retuning for this fuel i picked up even more tq downlow and mid range to the point were now it can wheelspin pretty bad depending on surface and temp of the day.

14.531@93.65mph - being able to lower my 60ft times down into the 2.0's instantly took me into 14.5's, thanks to the extra grunt it now made i was confident of cracking a 14.4.. but as the case always is it was not to be...

So here it is now on the verge of a 14.4 (cooler night, less fuel in the tank etc etc) and im pretty happy with how my tuning has progressed along with taking the car down to the drags.

I guess trying hard to get it near a 13 with what is a stock 175kw motor and auto has made me realise just how hard it is n/a to go faster, i now appreciate how quick the eb was considering most of that build was untuned and i had no workshops backing me like most tuners do with ba's and onward.

And to think this all started with a tiny fork in the road (meeting Sam and lending me his moates j3 chip and program), feeling like ive got a pretty good idea on how my tuning has effect my performance and the types of fuel used and i guess in a way busting some myths about e85 along this journey.

Where to now...

Im at the point where there isnt much more i could do or want to do or can do to go fast and still enjoy it as a reliable road going vehicle, talks of 351's,347's,turbocharging have kept me going when i needed to keep my mind occupied and now ive gotten myself into a situation that has forced me to take a major step back incase of a worst case scenario.

Until my situation here at home is resolved i wont be touching anything on the car, but if and when things do pick up i have a few things here at home that will make her go faster along with idea's of a stally.

Video's of the exhaust at different stages.

Standard 175 motor with genie headers, 100cell cats and dual 2.5'' catsback exhaust.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8AZ5FTPOpY


After i had it running with e85

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFye8B3R4XE

And after i switched back to 98ron and with 1.72 roller rockers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL8AgL1fK5E

Yeah boi

After installing these 1.72 yella terra's (with the help from troyman) i have taken her back to wsid and smashed in a 14.341@95.91mph.

After doubts of if they will even make more power and worries of valve float, its safe to say yes they do make more power and no i didnt get any valve float.

Thanks to dctodd for the roller rocker upgrade, big difference compared to the stamped prezels from the factory.

And also to the dude with the bf2 running the 3v 5.4 and zf6 speed, i seen your run and she's a beast.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2D6sbL9AxeE

That is all...
Done with an engine from a fairlane, still utilizing the factory 175kw cam.

Tyres had been getting really sticky but were too low on pressure (28psi- causing it to bog off the line).