That is awesome dude.. you seem to have it in hand.

I have FG seats which have the airbags in them so I put the side sensors in too.

I didn't grab the parking module though.. kicking myself for that oversight.

As for SA, just visiting some rellies..

On an unrelated note..
I just bought this:


My trailer is falling apart.. so I bought the whole back of a BA ute. I'll bolt my axle to the springs.. wire up the lights to the factory loom and weld and bolt a tow hitch and bar to the front.. instant awesome trailer.. then I'll add XR skirts and paint it the same color as the car and put my cage off the old trailer on it.. should be a very nice addition.

Stupid idle problems persist.

I bought some Drifter coils.. advertised as being much better than standard..

I also bought a spark plug tester and set it for 1cm gap and tested 3 sets of coil on plugs.

1. Factory BF.
2. cheapie aftermarket.
3. Drifter coils.

the drifters were more expensive than the factory coils and the tests showed that while they were not noticeably brighter than the factory BF coils, they were more consistant.. their didn't seem to be any spark variation from the drifters, whereas there was slight variations with the Factory coils, and huge variation from the cheapies.. which were noticeably duller also.

So I bought a brand new set of factory ford motocraft sparkplugs (AGSP22Z11) and put them in with factory gaps.. Now I have a more rubbish idle than before and a bit of breaking down under hard acceleration. I suspect I choose poorly with the spark plugs since I'm not running factory boost or tune.


So far I have tried the following to fix my idle issues.
1. Swapped the entire throttle body/TPS to that of a 2007 BF.
2. Installed Oil Catch can on spotlessly clean TB.
3. replaced all vacuum hoses and put brass fittings where possible. (and a good PCV valve)
4. new plugs and coil packs... (choose better coils to allow me to run higher boost with standard plug gap.)
5. Had tune changed to add 50rpm to idle speed.

None of it gave me an idle I am happy with.. so now I'm taking matters into my own hands.


I've taken the ISC off an old EL throttle body I had in the shed. I am going to install it on my spare BA TB.. should be able to make it fit easy enough, it's not brain surgery and I have access to some pretty advanced tooling at work...

After it's installed, I'll use up a variable resister in the car that will allow me to step control the motor in the ISC so I'll be able to manually dial up or down the idle as I see fit.

Later on, I'll automate it using my arduino which is hooked into the ODB2 system anyway so it can already look at the idle speed.. so it will be able to basically use the ISC to keep the cars revs at 750rpm if it drops below that......regardless of what the car is doing.... I just want to be able to stop at the lights and not have to put the car into neutral to stop it shuddering...

I did toy with a variable resister in the fly by wire throttle to allow the revs to be dialed up and down.. but I think that might be a risky system to mess with.. Adding the ISC is easier I think...

ok, has anyone tried Brisk spark plugs?

I've been reading reams of info on plugs regarding bosch, NGK and Denso and last of all Brisk..

thinking I might give them a go.

http://www.brisksparkplugs.com.au/products/index.shtml

They have a big presence in the US so it's not a little AU only company and they are rigth about Silver being way higher on the conductivity and thermal transfer than Iridium or any of other *ium's that the plug makers tout.. Silver is softer so they don't last as long, but should be better for my purpose.

Guess we will know soon enough.

I've also given the ISC problem some more thought and I won't be adding one to to the BF TB.
I've got a spare pedal mech at home as I'm adding electric pedals to the car also.. so looking at the pedal design, I should be able to hold the pedal from returning to the fully released position.. basically a mounted bolt that the shaft hits as it returns that stops the pedal from returning to it's fully released position.. that way I can set a minimum idle without changing anything in a non reversible way.. and I already have 3 spare pedal boxes.

I worked on another hot BA XR6T recently and he's had trouble getting his idling well too.. perhaps it's not that uncommon.

In other news, I got a new set of FG XR6T front seats, these ones with cool blue stitching and whole the seats still bolt straight in, the plugs for airbag and stuff appear to be completely different to the BA ones and also to the early FG ones, I suspect these seats come from a FG2 or something?

I also just got the parking module from a fairmont and plugged it into my BF left side loom under the rear shelf and I now have working factory reverse sensors with the full factory trailer loom (the one that disables the reverse sensors when you have a trailer hitched).. yay!

Last edited by frankieh on Tue Aug 18, 2015 2:01 am, edited 2 times in total.

Just to update progress.

I bought some 180 dollar Drifter coils off Ebay and some Brisk spark plugs (Brisk are the designer/supplier of Lamborgini plugs among others) the plugs I bought have a silver inner core, (the best conductor of electricity on the periodic table) and 4 outter wide and curved outter terminals that wrap around the core and the insulator is designed so the spark flows across it.. see this photo:



My fuel economy and throttle response on LPG and petrol rocks on this.. previously I had brand new Denso/ford factory XT6T plugs and the economy was crap and performace was nowhere near as good as with the NGK's I had before.

Anway, the drifter coils are supposed to be significantly better than OEM coils so I bought a tester to see if they were, the tester only allowed gaps of a little over 1cm..so it can't simulate the difficulty of a combustion chamber under boost.. but still.. it gives some indication... The drifters are marginally better than the OEM ford units in consistency and arc brightness, but less than I was expecting.. They were both way better than the cheapie aftermarket coils I bought ages ago and I can see why people don't recommend the non name brand cheapies. They were rubbish.

I'm still having blow out spark issues on boost over 12PSI.. so I've just arranged to sell the drifter coils to a mate with a naturally aspirated falcon and I've bought a shiny new set of WeaponX 80,000V coils. If they don't do the job, nothing is going to.

In other news, a girl with a lightning strike silver BF2 came by..... she said she wished she had a back spoiler on her car like mine.... I said I wish I didn't.. so we swapped.. I have nice clean lines now... very happy. can't find a photo I've taken of it so I'll add one later.

Oh yes.. I've also turned my manual pedal box that came with the T56 into one of the electrically adjustable ones from a Ghia.. swapped the clutch mech over and merged the wiring on the plug... I have a second electrically adjustable box too, so going to chop that up and see if i I can use the motor assembly from the brake to raise and lower my clutch pedal too. Also planning on grafting the fully electic undersides of my ghia seat into the underside of my FG2 XR drivers seat.. just because why not? the rest of the cars wiring is fairmont ghia now so might as well add the bling too.

I've also made a new AUX in module for my car stereo (as a temp measure till I put the alpine system in my cupboard in the car.)... It has a noise filter, a line amplifier and a small external panel that provides USB/SD/Line and Bluetooth to the car.. so the signal comes in loud, clear and via bluetooth from my phone.. I also build my own car phone cradle that does wireless charging for my Note Edge and also allows me to slide the phone into it without taking off my leather flip cover which is actually the back cover of the phone.. (so I had to do this as I can't take the phone cover off without replacing the back plate. I hate pluggin cables into my phone so now I just slide the phone into the new cradle and it wirelessly changes and pairs via bluetooth to the car stereo..

Anyway, very happy with the result.. especially the bluetooth aux-in stuff.

In other news.. the BA falcon ute trailer I built is friggen awesome.. brought a huge ride on and drove it home on the trailer at 100kph it was as smooth as.. leaving the shockies etc in there was a good idea.. it has no bounce unlike the old trailer.. and because I cut the wiring on the ute in the drivers kick panel and pulled it though the cab before I cut the ute in half.. all I had to do was put a trailer hitch plug on the end of the factory loom and plug it into the car... nice and simple.. (put all LED globes in it now too).
I picked up a checkerplate box from repco during a one day sale.. $230 instead of the price you see on the sticker here:


Trailer still needs some mags and to be lowered a bit.. (looking for some cheap lowering blocks) If I can get it low enough I'll put my polished Jellybeans on it.

for humour.. I bought an 18HP V-twin Husquavana ride on with a 50 inch cutting plate.. got it for $400 because they couldn't get it running and were selling it for parts.. turned out to be a faulty safety switch and a clogged carby.
Got it running and discovered the headlights didn't work.. so looking around for some globes for it.. only to find a set of HID's that I had originally intended for my EL. So I installed them.. The result is pretty cool I think..


anyway, done lots more than that but those are the cliff notes.. I also have all FG II seats in the falcon now and an FG column and I have the bits I need now to also put in the FG wheel, indicators, airbag etc.. so I'll be looking for an FPV FG wheel next I suspect... (got some re-wiring to do first.)

I put all LED's in the falcon now external lights now.. brakes are so bright that they light up the road behind me.. a little too bright to be honest.. The Ghia BEM objected to the high impediance of the brake lights and screwed them up.. so to get around that, I put a globe in the rear shelf wiring (my BA never had a rear shelf light, but the globe housing was still there) and that lowered resistance allowed the BEM to function correctly and off it went.. the LED' indicators needed resisters to stop the fast flashing.. have them mounted to the inside of the boot for heat dissipation. wish I could find the PID that turned off the fast flash "feature" so I didn't need the resisters.. the benefit of low power goes away if you use resisters to change power to heat so the BEM doesn't object. They look fantastic though.

I have a photo of a high level ICC running on my workbench here somewhere too.. so I'm getting to the point where I have BEM/PCM/ICC/Cluster all working on my bench so I can start coding up my "Can-Verter" and put an FG XRcluster in the BA (which is now mostly BF)

cheers!

How's Things going with your XR frank? progressing well i hope. Mine is in need of a visit to the local Tuner sooner rather than later (i dont think the tunes i have on my x4 will be suitable anymore and ive never used it ), have changed a few too many things.

Robert

Hey mate love the idea of the a pillar gauge holders! How did you do those?

Hi Robert,

I'm getting there slowly.
In addition to getting the WeaponX coils, I've now picked up a boost activated voltage booster for the JTG LPG in tank pump, when I had the JTG system installed they told me that they don't do the second pump in tank anymore and instead just boosted one pump in there and it's sufficient for worked 6 litre V8 commodores in that guise. So I had them wire the system up for a voltage booster in case I needed one, now I have one that kicks in when the boost gets to 6psi and it changes the voltage to the pump from 14 to 17 volts.

I've also picked up a 18 volt ignition booster as the WeaponX coils are drawing more power from the ignition line causing a voltage drop and they are not working to full capacity. The new booster should mean I get the maximum out of my lovely new coils. This means I can run the LPG plugs with their big gaps that give me awesome economy, and a better idle, while being able to boost over 12PSI without blowing the spark out.. Looking forward to that, have to fit it yet.. seems simple enough.

Also, picked up a new set of rims.. got these for 400 bucks.


Going to paint them with 2 pack the same dark charcoal that the inserts on the sideskirts and the bonnet hump graphics are. I also have most of the interior out of an FG XR, skuff plates, kick panels, the pillar plastics etc I've already put some FG seatbelts in and they are much springier.

Getting there slowly.

Hi Toby,

The pillar pods started life as a really ugly all in one pillar pod. looked much like this: {DESCRIPTION}

It stuck out to far and was generally ugly so I cut the pods off the housing and using a heat gun I matched them to the contour of the Falcon A pillar.

Later on I'll finish them off and vinal the whole pillar for that smooth look.

Works well and the guages are much less obstructive than they were before. the gauges are actually recessed as far as possible into the pillar plastic.

Sounding awesome I'm a long way from needing boosters at this point i think, it maybe something to think about down the track for reliability.

Nice score on the Rims, What are your old ones there CSA Shakers aren't they?
Whats your plan with them?

Ive driven mine 5 times in the last 2 months because of the work in progress. have fitted a HDi cooler, under battery CAI and working on re-routing cold side piping to suit Throttle relocation. Its probably pointless on a stock engine but its my car my choice, i IMO it makes the bay look cleaner over the engine, and the shorter pipework got to be a bonus for response.

Rob

Latest aquisition...

found this on a i6 that was about to be wrecked... got it for a hundred bucks.




now installed in the beast.. it's a good bit bigger than the original.. and the idle screw is brass and appears to offer adjustment.. so might solve my idle issues too.



even if it doesn't do much different from the BF TB that was there before.. it looks mint I think so worth the effort.

need to polish it with some solvo I think.. will clean up nicely me thinks.

an update.. the SS inductions intake isn't doing anything much different to the BF one before it.. I didn't expect much at this point because its the accelerator pedal that is to blame for my terrible idle I believe. One of these days I'll put the BF pedal box I have here in.. together with the FG brake booster. The throttle body might be of benefit once the water2air inter-cooler and 3 inch intake pipe from the turbo straight up to the w2a inter-cooler and straight across to the TB.. at that point the other restrictions will be gone, then perhaps we'll see what this is good for.

I picked up some gunmetal grey 2 pack and clear (they used a machine to check the color of the BF2.5 inserts and said it was gunmetal grey. (think K1 was the paint code but I'd have to check)

Anyway, I can now paint my new honeycomb rims.. so soon these will match the skirt inserts.



Since the inlet has been getting some work.. I thought the outlet should to.. so I got this:


4 inch stainless dump pipe. (I left part of one of my size 16 clod hoppers in the shot for scale) I've already got a 3.5 inch stainless cat.. after that it splits back to the standard 2.25" dual factory system except that my middle muffler has been replaced by straight pipes.. I don't think my exhaust system is at all restrictive now, but eventually I'll replace the back section with a twin 2.5 that exits out either side because my OCD likes symetricity.

Oh, I bought a "D1 SPEC VSD V Power Ignition Amplifier System Booster System Controller" that boosts the ignition coil voltage up to 18 volts, so hopefully once I wire that in I'll have no more trouble blowing out my spark under boost and I'll be able to keep the awesome Brisk LPG plugs.

Lastly, and unrelated to my car.. my BA ute trailer has come along nicely.. best trailer to tow I've ever owned.. silent and smooth.. why don't all trailers have shockies? I modified my old cage so that it slids into the existing mounts in the ute tray so I didn't have to modify the trailer at all to make the cage quick to add/remove.


oh, I have also been collecting BA/BF and FG looms and modules.. I have all the factory looms from a couple of BA's as well as several BEMS and PCM's and ICC's.. I have a couple of BF looms PCM's and I have the drivers side half of two FG looms together with the BEM and cluster and related wiring.. I plan to see if I can't wire the FG cluster and BCM into the BA/BF system. (keeping the BF BCM as well. The FG loom won't be able to replace the BF BCM, but I can hook up all the inputs so that it can run the FG XR cluster that I have here on my dash, and for any inputs that it needs that don't exist or are in the wrong format on the B series system I have an auduino with canbus shield, and a laptop with permanent ODB2 hookup (not via obd2 port, I have a dedicated CAN to USB adapter wired in. "Pro USB-CAN USB to CAN BUS Converter Adapter") I want to be able to do PATS resets and module programming outside of the car, so I'm going to build a couple workshop falcon mostly complete factory looms.. I've already labelled all the BCM and ICC loom wires, got a couple of PCM's to do next.. and then I'll start hooking them together so I can get all the electrical modules working outside the car.. I suspect I'm following in the foot steps of Lukeyson and auMatt, (and possibly data_mine) but no matter, is all learning right?

my eventual goals are to the FG cluster in and working and a huge touchscreen replacing the ICC. (possibly something like a surface3) but the first step is the cluster and just working with my laptop under the seat outputting to the ICC screen and the sun visor screen.... small steps.

I also think I can use my software to convert a BF2 fairmont PCM into a FPV typhoon PCM if I can get the "as built" data.. so I'm looking into that too.. I also need to convert it to manual so I can put my T56 in.. at that point very little of the car will still be BA as I've even got the full BF engine loom and alternator here ready to go. (taking the turbo loom from one of the spare BA ones and adding it to the BF one as they look much the same.)

duplicate

I'm getting much better at painting with 2pack. I had the inserts on my BF2.5 side skirts tested and discovered that the inserts are K1 metallic gun metal grey. So I bought some.

Did my bobtail and the honeycomb rims this weekend. They came out fantastic if I do say so.

The rims first (no tyres on them yet so they are not on the car yet.) The picture has been compressed to many times.. it's lost the mirror shine these now have.



The bobtail is already on the car.. I wasn't really expecting to like it much.. I'd grown accustomed to not having any rear spoiler ever since I swapped bootlids with a girl who owned a BF who wanted a spoiler on her car.. But this actually works well with the grey sideskirt inserts and the bonnet hump text and will look even better when the new rims are on. (IMHO).. I have not decided one way or the other for sure, but since I didn't drill any holes I can go back to smooth easily enough.



pretty happy with the result. I also fixed the handbrake I've not had in this car since I got it.. for the first time ever I can lock the car in place without using using Park.

Hi Robert,

So do you have a photo of your engine bay with all the changes now? Sounds mint.

regards to the CSA shakers.. I'm thinking they might look good on my two trailers.. but a guy I helped wants them and may have another set of the honeycombs, so I might do him a swap.

cheers

Frank

WOW

impressive dude

car has come along way!

and i agree with you in regards to trailers not having shocks.. no idea why