Hi mate, my ute is only an xg with a t5. It has an au motor with bbm,thermos and el ecu. Syntrans B made such a difference i'm sure you'll love it. I've read a lot of your posts and im a fan of your mods. Keep up the good work and thanks for sharing.
Cheers, Ray.

Well its almost been a year between posts. I have had my 3.45 lsd in for a while and all thats going well and my replacement gearbox due to shaft rattle. After I replaced the gear box I realised that the rattle was coming from not having the sacrificial wear plate that goes under the clutch fork. Mine was completely gone so I never knew it needed one. I will get to fixing that this weekend when I pull the engine to swap the sump with the turbo drain in it.

Anyway disaster struck for me about 3 weeks ago. My head gasket decided to start leaking behind the exhaust manifold between cylinders 2 and 3. I decided to rip it off which took only a couple of hours and found that I had a metal shim plus composite gasket as my head gasket. My head gasket had not failed from what i could see. It just appeared that the coolant was leaking from inbetween the too. Maybe due to head bolts not being done up correctly on the recon engine I put in 7 years ago when I knew nothing about cars and paid someone else to do it.... BIG MISTAKE.



So this is when I thought about porting my head out and just be satisfied with hopefully 170rwkw with my cam, j3 chip and extensive head work, but after reading on here it seems that people do that first and then go turbo afterwards because its not enough so I decided to go down that path. I took my head down to the engine re conditioners and found out that it had been machined 120 thou!!!! So that was pretty much useless now. I went to the wreckers and found a tickford head of and ED falcon + xr6 cam for $200. I bought this and went straight to outlaw speed shop and got some crow double valve springs, retainers and colletts and dropped it off at the engine re conditioners. He reseated my valves, pressure tested my head, machined it flat, put on the double valve springs and did the machining to fit them all for a bargain price which only cost me a bit more than the head from the wreckers!!!

I was originally aiming to turbo my car for $3,000 but after I started buying bits and realising the cost of the tune and turbo back exhausts I have now realised I will be lucky at getting it done under $5,000.



Currently my parts list is as follows:

Walbro GSS 294 fuel pump
DSM T70 turbo (rated for 550hp)
Customer log manifold with external wastegate
38mm Wastegate
Turbosmart Boost Controller
BA XR6T blow off valve
Permaseal 1.3mm mls gasket
Crow double valve springs, retainers and colletts
Tickford XR6 head
Wade 1673 camshaft (not sure whether to run this or the standard xr6 cam or the standard cam, I have all 3 lol)
Oil Drain and feed lines (the oil drain line is only coolant hose so I am a bit worried about that, I am just going to replace it every service until I find a permanent solution)
450x300 intercooler with 3" end tanks.
2.5" intercooler piping kit
Various silicon reducers 45degree bends and those clamps that have the bolt head on them.
Sump Gasket

Things I need to buy in the next week before I go to the exhaust shop is:
Fuel management unit???
42lbs injectors???
Aftermarket ECU??
Boost Gauge

This is the boost controller I got


I really don't know what to do in the fuel department, I have one tuner down here that says to buy a 6:1 rising rate fuel reg with the 42lbs injectors, but since I am aiming at 260rwkw I am thinking I'll need 12psi which puts the fuel rail pressure at 45 + (6*12)= 117 psi which is waaaay too much. Even a 4:1 might be a bit much, that will leave me at fuel rail pressure of 93 psi. So I'm not sure what to do, I would love to trust the tuner but he is not keen on putting more than 9psi through the engine, I was looking more like 12psi which due to my mods should be safe. I am going to check with another tuner just to make sure.

The person I need to speak to at the other J3 chip tuner in Adelaide is away today so I will have to wait till monday to find out what he recommends and hopefully I can get my fuel system sorted because I would be so annoyed that due to a bad tune or wrong fuel system I wouldn't reach my target of 250-260 rwkw!

I just got my sump back from the welders, I got it welded on 45 degrees to help with oil flow and some blue engine enamel to make it look pretty



I am unsure of the torque setting needed for the permaseal 1.3 mls head gasket. I am thinking 30nm + 120 degrees like the AU head gasket. If anyone knows please let me know, I would hate to do it wrong!

I will have more pics after the weekend when its all put together!!!

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Cant wait for this thing to be turbo! The old XG has scrubbed up quite alright

Use a AU or BA Fuel rail with the XR6 Turbo fuel reg and you will be fine. Troyman used that set up with an AU Rail on his ED and he has 260RwKw and I am useing a BA rail on mine with 42Lb injectors.

Thanks for the replies guys.

SWC I did think of using the AU or BA turbo fuel rail with fuel reg but they have a screw type fitting for the fuel hoses in and out where as mine are only push on fuel hoses with a hose clamp. I am guessing my standard XG fuel pressure regulator isn't rising rate 1:1 and only the BA xr6 Turbo fuel reg is. I will have to look at seeing if I can get some fuel hose with screw on connectors on one side and the other side that connects to the fuel lines from the tank with just a normal push over hose type with hose clamp.

I guess the question is, is it going to be cheaper to get a rising rate fuel reg 1:1 with normal hose clamp fittings, or will it be cheaper to get a BA XR6T fuel rail and then source the fuel hoses as well.

Also are these a direct replacements as in, if I get a BAXR6T fuel rail with a regulator on it, will it bolt up fine to my EL manifold or will I also need to get an additional AU fuel rail and swap the regulators over?

So if I get the BA XR6T fuel rail which has a rising rate fuel reg 1:1 plus my 42lbs injectors and find someone who can tune my j3 chip with the boost edit I should be able to reach my goal of 260rwkw at around 12psi providing all my turbo bits are up to the job?. Or will I need like a megasquirt or ems or wolf system to tune it right? I know the standard ECU has boost cut at 10psi, but I have heard you can use a bleed valve on the map sensor like axeman did to get way over 10psi?

I was kind of hoping to stick with the j3, I just hope the tuners in SA are as advance as they are in the eastern states with the boost edit and the bleed valve on the map sensor. They are all pointing me towards rising rate fuel regs at the moment using standard injectors and are saying if you get bigger injectors it will help a bit :S I may have to buy and aftermarket ecu and ditch the j3 and get bigger injectors so I have a wider range of tuners available.

I guess I'll worry about that next week after I have everything fitted up ok. In the mean time, tomorrow will be pic day. Should hopefully get the sump changed and the head back on, hoping to get the turbo manifold on too along with the inlet. I think I am going to need help with all the vacuum lines from the waste gate and stuff to make sure I get that right, I dont want to overspool my turbo to death lol!!

1) SWC I did think of using the AU or BA turbo fuel rail with fuel reg but they have a screw type fitting for the fuel hoses in and out where as mine are only push on fuel hoses with a hose clamp.
A) AU & BA fuel rail hoses are push on with Hose clamps. You are thinking of the EF/EL Rail.

2) I guess the question is, is it going to be cheaper to get a rising rate fuel reg 1:1 with normal hose clamp fittings, or will it be cheaper to get a BA XR6T fuel rail and then source the fuel hoses as well.
A) Standard reg is 1:1. BA Turbo is not. Turbo Rail and NA Rail are the same. Fuel regs pop in the same. Troyman had an AU Rail with Turbo Reg, I have a BA Rail with Turbo Reg.

3) Also are these a direct replacements as in, if I get a BAXR6T fuel rail with a regulator on it, will it bolt up fine to my EL manifold or will I also need to get an additional AU fuel rail and swap the regulators over?
A) You can use BA Rail or AU Rail, they bolt straight up to the EF/EL BBM.

4) So if I get the BA XR6T fuel rail which has a rising rate fuel reg 1:1 plus my 42lbs injectors and find someone who can tune my j3 chip with the boost edit I should be able to reach my goal of 260rwkw at around 12psi providing all my turbo bits are up to the job?.
A) Not sure on that, 42lb injectors will be getting up there but with the Turbo reg you should be OK. FG F6's use 42lb stock.

5) Or will I need like a megasquirt or ems or wolf system to tune it right?
A) ? No sure. Ask Troyman.

6)I know the standard ECU has boost cut at 10psi, but I have heard you can use a bleed valve on the map sensor like axeman did to get way over 10psi?
A) It will cut out before 10psi. Fit a T piece before the Map Sensor and fit a Turbo one way valve to the T off section. It will bleed off boost but show vacume for the MAP when on normal cruise. Works on Mine.

7) I was kind of hoping to stick with the j3, I just hope the tuners in SA are as advance as they are in the eastern states with the boost edit and the bleed valve on the map sensor. They are all pointing me towards rising rate fuel regs at the moment using standard injectors and are saying if you get bigger injectors it will help a bit :S I may have to buy and aftermarket ecu and ditch the j3 and get bigger injectors so I have a wider range of tuners available.
A) I use SCT Chip with the Turbo Reg. Find a good tuner, or you will regret it.

List of SCT Tuners in SA

Adelaide Performance Engineers
668 Marion Road
Park Holm SA 5043
P: 08 8277 5688
F: 08 8374 3431

All Make Motor Repairs
8/1387 Main North Road
Para Hills West SA 5096
P: 08 8281 4412
F: 08 8281 4412

Aussie Dyno Tune
373 Port Road
Hindmarsh SA 5007
P: 08 8340 0584
F: 08 8340 0555

Classic Performance Dyno Centre
33 Chapman Road
Hackham SA 5163
P: 08 8384 2899
W: www.classicperformance.com.au

Fisher Performance
12 Elm Street
Hampstead Gardens SA 5086
P: 08 8261 3922
W: www.fisherperformance.com.au

Heinrich Performance & Tuning
26 Donegal Road
Lonsdale SA 5160
P: 08 8186 2163
W: www.heinrichperformance.com.au

KPM Motorsport
257 Goodwood Road
Kings Park SA 5034
P: 08 8299 9998
W: www.kpmauto.com

LMG Performance
Lot 35 Highway 1
Warnertown SA 5540
P: 08 8634 3118
F: 08 8634 3118

Thanks SWC for your very detail post.

Thanks for clearing up my misinformation about thinking the fuel regs were screw type, that helps alot and definitely gives me another avenue of questioning and more options.

I will give some of the local wreckers a buzz and find out what I am looking at for a BA Turbo fuel rail and fuel pressure regulator. Any idea though on if its a 2:1 or 4:1 something rising rate?

Thanks also for explaining how the bleed valve works on the map sensor as now I can ask a few more questions to my tuner to find out if he really knows his stuff or not. I would hate to have lean mixtures from a bad tune or even worse, "here you go, 170rwkws"

Its good to hear Heinrich performance also do SCT chips aswell as doing j3 chips, I am already leaning towards taking my car down there even though its over 70kms from my house. I just need to speak to the owner on Monday as he was away when I rang. Lucky I work for a towing firm so I get cheap tows lol

I'll post back hopefully with the avenue I am going down on Monday arvo once I get off the phone to the tuners.

I really appreciate all your help mate

You don't need a Turbo rail. The fuel rails are the same for NA and Turbo. Just ask for a BA Fuel rail. Use a second hand reg if you want but I would recommend getting a new one from FORD.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/New-GENUINE- ... 1c2bf80cd1

I have 2 AU Fuel rails here if you are interested. Still fits the BA Reg. Mounts the same.

Thanks again swc, your a legend mate. I'm sitting here in the dark and you just keep flicking that light on I really appreciate it mate.

This might be the way I will go I reckon, the more I can make my car the same as a BA, BF, FG turbo hopefully the easier the tuner will have it and the more chance of getting a decent tune, especially when he has a name for tuning ba, bf and fg turbo's. Hopefully if I run this regulator and maybe some 42lbs or 65lbs injectors they will just be able to slightly alter the tune with the j3 chip or sct chip and away I go, rather than just start at square 1 and have to spend more time on the dyno.

What do you guys think about leaving the wade 1673 cam in there or should I use the standard cam or the xr6 cam?

hey saltezs great work man pat on the back for you i have huge respect for those that hook in and tear it a new 1.you my man are a great example for this kind of car guy and i wish i could do half the paint and body work that you do it makes it a whole new car well done.

hey saltezs great work man pat on the back for you i have huge respect for those that hook in and tear it a new 1.you my man are a great example for this kind of car guy and i wish i could do half the paint and body work that you do it makes it a whole new car well done.
and dont forget the old rule,if it go's fast it needs to stop even faster

Thanks for all your support guys, it really helps to have people backing you especially when your doing everything at home yourself. I pride myself on being the type of person to give something a go and when I get stuck to teach myself the skills I need to keep going

Well my plan of getting everything bolted on over the weekend kind of failed! I ended up going off to work on Saturday so I only had Sunday to work on it.

I got up at 8am and unbolted the starter motor and bell housing, unbolted the aircon compressor and a couple of coolant hoses, undid a couple of bolts which held the loom too the block and I was ready to lift out my engine.

My brother and nephew turned up with the engine crane and after a bit of persuasion we took the engine out...... Only to find I had a broken engine mount.... Good old fords hey

I spent about 20 mins scraping off the old sump gasket and making the surface squeaky clean and then mounted the new gasket on and attached the sump. It was only after I did this I realised that I left out the factory magnet which sits in the sump to attract bits of metal. I thought $%#@ it and left it out. I went and checked the sump I just took off for the magnet and there wasn't one in there either so I didn't worry about it too much. I might just stick a hard drive magnet to the outside of the sump or get a magnetic sump plug or something in the future....



I then decided to have a look at why my clutch fork had been rattling around and why I was getting shudder from my clutch. The sacrificial metal plate was pretty much worn away and I went to ford last week and apparently they couldnt order them in and I couldnt get one from the local parts shop. I ended up drilling a hole in some 3mm steel and putting that in there instead. I'm now kind of thinking which will wear quicker now, the fork or the new metal plate as they are made out of the same stuff..... Oh well, when it break I'll just fix it again

I also noticed that the clip that holds the thrust bearing against the clutch fork had broken and was just sitting on my gear box shaft. This meant that the fork would not be pushing on the thrust bearing centrally so I am pretty sure this is why I had clutch shudder. As the thrust bearing has only done like 10,000km's I decided I would just weld the clip onto the thrust bearing and clip it into the clutch fork. This worked very well and its definitely not coming off now.



I got the engine back in, put 2 new engine mounts on and bolted the bell housing back up. I then started work on putting the head back on. I cleaned up the block with scotch bright, some 320 grit wet n dry and some petrol and degreaser to wipe it all clean. I then buffed everything off with a dry rag. I was pretty happy with how the block turned out but there seemed to be a bit of a low spot on the back of the block closest to the firewall where the back of the head sits from corrosion I am guessing. It hadn't leaked from here previously with my old head gasket so I figured it would be okay. I also had a small chip around the edge of cylinder number 1 but as it was only small and didnt connect to any oil or water galleries I figured it would be okay. I reused the old rubber seal around the front timing cover with a heap of gasket good as the one in my vrs kit was wrong (was the really thin seal not the fat flat one as I got an EL VRS kit) and put on my permaseal 1.3 mls gasket. I didn't use any copper spray as they say not too and as the gasket is apparently coated in a thin layer of rubber to help it seal I figured it wasn't a good idea.

I torqued up all the bolts in the correct order to 30nm and then 120 degrees, I didn't realise how tight this would actually be and decided to crank out my extra long bar to make things a bit easier. I used an angular torque gauge to make sure things where pretty much spot on.

As it stands I am still thinking I didn't clean the block enough and that my head gasket is going to fail after reading some of the stories about mls gaskets failing after not being installed properly. I guess I wont be happy until I run the engine and all the coolant and oil stays where it is meant too! My only comfort is knowing that my previous gasket had a metal shim which sealed against the block as my old head was machined 120 thou. The metal shim then had the composite gasket on top of it between the head and that seemed to seal pretty well for 50,000km's until it failed, so obviously the block must be clean and flat enough for that to work considering the metal shim wouldn't really crush at all to shape. I think I am just getting a bit to pedantic now...

I put my wade 1673 cam back in along with my XG rocker gear on the ED tickford head and then drowned everything in oil. Did all the bolts up to about 22nm as I heard 25nm can cause them to strip out and I did the front camshaft bolt up to just over 50nm with some blue locktight on it. I also got the timing chain tensioner set up, I remember last time screwing around with it for like 40 minutes trying to get it to unlock properly and sit on the guide the right way. This time it only took like 5 mins, I must be getting pro lol. I also found my grinder tool I use to change discs fitted the 2 holes on the tensioner which made life a bit easier.

Yesterday I managed to get the turbo exhaust manifold on minus one bolt which wont fit due to the welding on the manifold (I might have to get a smaller bolt or an allen key one or something) and I got the turbo and wastegate bolted on. I had to do a bit of googling to find out what the metal ring was for in the wastegate but I soon found out that its the fire ring and that bolts up against the exhaust manifold to seal the valve which opens after a set psi.

The turbo pretty much sits hard up against my metal power steering return line and the high pressure hose which I will have to try to bend out of the way. I have managed to get the high pressure hose about 5cm away and the metal one about 2.5cm away so hopefully thats enough. I do have a power steering cooler on the front of the car so that should do the trick. My only other concern is that the turbo only sits about 2cm below my bonnet!!!!!! I am going to have to do some mega heat shielding or else I can see my acrylic paint on my bonnet melting and catching on fire. Since I am new to turbo's I don't really know how hot they get and I am kinda hoping a turbo beanie might be enough along with some exhaust manifold shielding stuck to the top of the bonnet.

Tomorrow morning I hope to get the inlet manifold back on and everything on the loom reconnected before I have to go to work.

Before I put that back on I need to find out where the bolt I have left over comes from!!!!!!!!! Its the same type of bolt as your rocker gear bolts and the bolts that hold the timing cover on at the front of the engine but its not from there. I remember taking it out from the side of the block (I think???) when I was undoing the loom. It definitely came from the inlet manifold side and it definitely came off when I was unbolting the air con compressor, loom and starter motor so I could lift the engine out. I have had a few good looks trying to find out where it goes and I still can't work it out. Its driving me nuts.

Any of you guys have any idea's???? I can take a pic if you need? but its just just one of those 10mm long bolts (same as rocker gear and timing cover) and no its not the one the holds the guide on at the front of the head

All that is left now after tomorrow is to get the radiator and thermo fans in, mount the intercooler and intercooler piping which includes removing the front bumper so I can take out the mounts for my nudge bar so the piping can go behind the headlights. Drop the gas tank which I dont use anymore from underneath the tray so my new exhaust wont smash on my diff all the time and fit my walbro fuel pump.

Then off to the exhaust shop to get my dump pipe, 3 inch hiflow cat and 3 inch cat back exhaust done. I am hoping the 3 inch hiflow cat shouldn't be too much of a restriction. Also are the turbo guys on here getting mandrel bent exhausts or just the normal pipe bent exhausts? Should I just get a 3 inch hiflow cat or a 3.5 inch due to the restriction of the honey comb effect inside?

I will upload some more pics tomorrow of my progress with the turbo and inlet manifold on.

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Well I have been busy since my last post. I have managed to get all the turbo bits on, mount the intercooler, do all the piping and sort a cold air intake.
My car has gone from this.


To this






I am very happy with the outcome. I am booked into going to the tuners this wednesday as currently it only has a safe tune of 202rwkw with just under 6psi due to having to iron out some fuel supply issues (I bought a high volume low pressure fuel pump instead of high volume high pressure). So I changed the fuel pump and changed the fuel filter. Checked all the fuel lines were in good order as in not kinked or anything like that. So hopefully I will be able to get it dialed up to 9psi which will most likely be the max I will go to due to 10psi being the cut for the j3 chip without some sort of bleed valve and my bottom end being a bit suspect (lots of blowby). I think the bottom end blowby was just due to my pcv not closing properly as it was initially dumping a heap of oil out but now doesnt dump any out after I cleaned it out... And yes my sump does have oil in it lol.

My target is 250rwkw. I would be extremely happy to get over this figure at 9-10psi but I am figuring I will be more around 240rwkw which I will still be happy with. No point blowing your bottom end over 10rwkw. I will be hopefully sourcing a cheap second hand bottom end somewhere and maybe re-ring and hone it with some aftermarket pistons in the future to take the extra boost. It will also be good to have a bottom end on standby.... just incase. I also in the future hope to get some sort of fully customisable ecu like a wolf or ems so that I can dial up the boost even further.

The only thing I need to work on now is to rewire the thermo fans as for some reason on some occasions the temperature gets up to half on the gauge when it normally sits on a quarter. I am going to try to alter the factory EL loom I installed to bypass low speed and just go straight onto high speed so that it won't overheat. Everything in my cooling system is new so it must just be due to the intercooler blocking the radiator. I have thought about using a davies craig thermo switch but I will see how my high speed modification goes on the el loom. Has anyone done this before??? How did it work out????

Anyway I will post back on thursday with the dyno results!! That is if my car doesnt blow up first...... (my boost controller bolt fell out so I was overboosting for around 500km's before I figured out the problem)

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Nice!!!