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Hi all, it's been a while.. I couldn't get the VN ready in time for Rockynats, so I put some time in to the old girl and got her mobile again. As I had to pull the IRS to replace the outer diff support bushes, I decided to finally assemble the Try Trac that has been sitting in the shed for the past 4 years. While I was at it, I put a new set of Dana gears, so that I didn't have to cannibalise the centre that was being removed. Having missed all previous Rocky Nats due to work, I decided that I was not going to miss another. I have a great time, met many wonderful people and checked out some really cool rides. I didn't take any pics of the car, but I found some on the Nat page that I have shared below. I have also included a current pic of the bay. It has changed somewhat and looks a lot neater. The car was running really crappy, which is why I haven't really been interested in it. My tuna (Joke) installed the latest firmware update and utilised the new manifold pressure predication vs fuel table, car now runs like factory, no more hunting at idle, or stalling. For the first time in a while, I can honestly say that I really enjoy driving the car again. I have also started to make some carbon parts again, although it has been somewhat of a learning curve. I am currently toying with a new rocker garnish to suit the FG rocker cover (1st attempt failed due to air leak in the bagging, so I laid up a new one in the mould tonight) and will soon start on a modified version of the radiator sight cover. I will also have to find some time to remove the dash, as the dreaded mixer shaft failure has finally eventuated. FML Until next time... 🍺

Slight update, not that I'm planning anything right now. Fully disassembled the head, it's all good, just needs valves and valve guides. Fully disassembled the bottom end and results are mostly good. Good news is all the bearings look great, there's some pressure marks on a couple of them but that is normal when you have it cranked up. The oil film has stayed intact on all of them and there is almost no wear so happy days. The crank looks as good as it ever has so yerp. Pistons all look good except number 5. The second ring has a small amount broken off it and has deposited itself onto the ring land. Again not a big deal cos I can file the sh*t off the piston and it'll be sorted. I have some spare rings there so if I use the pistons again I'll just chuck the spare ring in it. I haven't measured them but they had minimal work since last time so should be ok still. The small ends are all still moving fine so all good there. The block looks the same as last time so not much to report there. All in all pretty good except the ring issue. I'll open the gaps up a bit more as I did have it up over 40psi a few times. It'll be fixed one day boys

The ute, along with many other things, have been completely neglected the last 12 months. Decided to finally do 'a little fix up' to my first home. Had been fixing bits and pieces around, under & behind the house over the years, but I bumped the send button this time. Within the span of 2 weeks, plan went from a cheap, simple bathroom Re-do & replace the kitchen cabinets. - To ripping half my house out, moving walls and an entire interior fix up. Done basically everything myself except for the tiling. Still the last 10% to do; finish flooring, splashbacks, kitchen pannels & shelving, laundry bifold doors ect. But family member needed secure housing so I limiter bashed the last month to get it habitable for them. Can plod along with the rest whenever. Also included the entirety of my architectural drawing (singular) to show just how organised I am. Smash first - plan later! Sent from my SM-G781B using Tapatalk

All done. Had a few issues to sort at the time/later: -One of the rocker cover bolts was snapped. I didn't have time to sort it and presumably has been a long time like that, so just put some gasket goo under it to make sure it sealed and went again. Have ordered a replacement ready for when the cover is ever off again but will have to extract the broken bit obviously. -As above the breather elbow split coming off so replacement stuff coming -One cam solenoid connector broke on the way out and another on the way in. No big deal but will repin new ones next time I do spark plugs - Dopey me didn't check the seal was seated properly. At least I thought to check the next morning. Had caught up the back so had to undo it all and reseal. Plus wait 24 hours again for the silicone to dry at the top of the timing cover. All running and leak free. I changed my intake manifold gasket too as it was soaked in oil. Fark doing that job again in a hurry.

I do think it’s particularly interesting though that this was your initial take. It aligns with certain reactions I’ve had from people I know. Something I’ve found super interesting is the shift in people’s perceptions of me and their “willingness” to comment on my body (not obviously when I post images as that’s welcoming commentary, but when I’m just going about my day). I am by far treated way better by people in general now I’m thinner. Girls in shops insist on being lovely instead of ignoring me, my hairdresser and lash tech all ask me to have photos done for their socials, constant comments on how nice my outfits are or compliments in general, men treat me far better in general… but… people comment A LOT on my appearance or training/eating habits unsolicitedly. In the last week alone I’ve had three people comment on what I was eating (not enough, complaining I wasn’t eating the garbage lunch they all had, or just about my protein based diet). I’ve been told I’m too thin, I’m getting too muscly and men don’t like that… and the list goes on. I’m eating and fueling my body arguably better than anyone I know currently in terms of macronutrient balance and vitamins and minerals. I lost all my weight naturally by relearning skills around moderation and discipline as well as fixing my negative relationship with food. I’ve got the best cardio vascular performance of my adult life, my muscle percentage is extremely high and my body fat is fairly low (aiming for additional fat loss still but within female health tolerance levels), but people seem to think that not drinking alcohol, eating healthy and watching your intake is absurd and you’re the weird one because you don’t want hungry jacks in the office for lunch with your coworkers and would rather eat your packed lunch or because you order a soda water instead of a beer at the pub after work. I find it so presumptuous that people assume you are modifying your body, in any fashion (body building, tattoos, hair, etc) for the benefit of others or their judgement or to be found attractive. I started this journey with a health focus around my illness and the same motive remains where my illness is my primary motivator for being strong and fit… but… I have grown a love and passion for body building at the same time. My nutrition, training routine, daily habits and supplementation/vitamin routine is all oriented around achieving a body builders physique. I am completely aware this isn’t everyone’s “cup of tea” and that has zero effect on my motivation and goals but others perceive it to be an issue/less attractive/desirable… which made me giggle slightly reading your comment and assumption that “losing breast fats” was a negative when it was actually intentional on my behalf. it’s made me realise during the last few months just how ill informed people are around the sport of body building and also how cavalier people can be around commenting or assuming when they perceive it to be not offensive because the person isn’t “fat” or they’re fit/muscly so they must be fine with others commenting on their body/lifestyle and it’s up for public discussion. TLDR- when you’re skinny the world treats you way better, but everyone feels they have licence to tell you what you should be doing/eating and judges you for having a health/physique focus.

Bit of progress context which made me feel pretty accomplished on top of my 8 x 60kg bench this morning 🥰

Managed to get out today briefly. Warmer temps in Canberra made a huge difference to traction. Managed to get 2nd and 3rd gear down, on the 3/4 setting (around 20psi, maybe 550kw or so). She's pretty quick when it hooks up haha. The G35-900 is pretty epic for a street driven manual. No waiting for boost, and still on like a light switch at lower load in 2nd gear, which is what makes it fun in my opinion.

Engines going in tomorrow mate, won’t be a few weeks till it’s going as need to get some piping done.

Screw buying a house, what a sh*t market. We bought land instead that's CSYJB right? 375m2 block, not bad to build our first home

Keeping it out of the OT thread. It's official!! Mr and Mrs IMPULSIVE. Had to have the cars there. So keen to see the rest of the photos from the day when they are ready

Righto I did my thing and here's an update. I did a comp test and one of the cylinders was low with others being out of spec too. Turns out the head was leaking like a mofo out of the exhaust valves...so I rebuilt the engine. I used stock turbo pistons, Spool I beam rods, upgraded piston pins, Cometic 3 layer MLS, ARP head studs with OS washers, new hx bearings with 360 thrust, inconel high pressure oil pump spring with adjustable relief, oil pump gears and backing plate, Ross balancer, Plazmaman intake and maybe more I forgot. I got hectic with the valve grinding paste and the head is passable. I relocated my trans cooler under the car and wired in the fan with a relay and a switch. I painted the rocker cover with Black Velvet Cerakote, it was sh*t before and now is a bit less sh*t. Haha I still gotta fit the catch can, I'll do that later I suppose. I've had a successful test drive or 3 today, no leaks etc so happy days. It still runs the same boost, it makes 300awkw on about 14.7psi. This should tide me over until I can afford to rebuilt the actual turbo territory. The only thing I really want to do with it now is to have electronic boost control, the na pcm doesn't have that so I'm in the gutter using a boost tee. Here's a pic, hard to believe I did it all in the span of 1 week, in the driveway, while still having family commitments.

Thought it would be appropriate to thank the people most responsible for the successful completion of this project. * This bloke needs no introduction. Aaron aka JETURBO for all the engine and fabrication work. Words are not enough to express how grateful I am for the time and effort that Aaron put into this car. The result is something to behold. Thanks mate. * Paul @ PE Customs in Brisbane for the paint job which is perfection personified * Mike @ Mike Savage Custom Bonnets at Bargo in NSW. It’s a hybrid design we cooked up that actually works. It’s that heavy I had to get new bonnet struts to hold it up lol.

This thread is about my territory adventures so may as well do a consolidation post here. I bought another territory, 7 seater, cloth interior, non turbo 2009 model zf awd, 360xxxkm, lightning strike same as the turbo one, trans in limp home mode, clunks and bangs galore, busted tailgate, no oil showing on the dipstick, farked lifters, overheating, slightly missing, $1500. I probably paid too much for it but considering I can do all the work it ain't that bad. So far I've chucked a reco tailshaft in it, new rear shocks, new front diff bushes, new front wheel bearings, new front lower ball joints, front sway bar bushes and links, a second hand set of trans solenoids to fix the trans issue, an engine service, a trans service, fuel filter, thermostat, rocker cover gasket kit, external trans cooler, a front mount intercooler, 1500cc injectors, 255 fuel pump, drop in adjustable fuel reg, valve springs, anti pump up lifters, roller rockers, spark plugs, genuine coils, billet wheel gt3576 with flapper mod, stock dump and stock turbo territory exhaust, engine tune obviously, trans tune, a second hand tailgate to replace the trailer hit one, 4 tyres, brake pads all round and I reckon that's about it. No doubt I'll remember something else once I hit post. I've still got the rear sway bar bushes to install and also rear diff bushes. I'll get to that in 3 months when my arm is better. It started out at probably 130awkw as an na beast, probably went up to 145awkw with a tune and now is sitting at around 275awkw with the turbo stuff installed. Anyhow there is that, now people can read about it here instead of it being spread out through the forum.

Valve springs are going in, Plazmaman Pro

Shoulders today … the last couple shoulder days I’ve managed to DB shoulder press the 25kg dbs for reps so pretty stoked… also took a pretty cool photo and realised how much back gains have been made May 2023-Feb 2024

I always have a niggle in my right shoulder… it’s balls… Been getting the gainzzzz lately only thing is in baggy shirts I’m starting to look like a square 🤣🤣

It's been a while since I have posted. Unfortunately, I have been busy with other things and have not had a lot of time for the car. In saying that, the build has not stopped, only slowed due to waiting on suppliers - Clutch and drop tank... I have dummied up the Reidspeed kit and accessories. If fitted well, and I had to remove it all for the engine to be run in on the dyno. We could not run the blower at the time, as my wiring guy was unavailable. So, I made a plate to fit on the blower manifold and we ran a 650 Holley on it. We weren't chasing a power figure for it. We pretty much ran it up, just to check the lifters were receiving adequate oil, bed the rings and check for any leaks before it gets installed into the car. The standard air conditioning compressor brackets looked ugly as, so I has it nickel plated. Afterwards, I decided to paint it black, so that it will not stand out... I'm currently waiting on my wiring guy to do his part before the engine is installed into the car. The engine will go in without the Reidspeed serpentine kit installed, as it is wider that the area between the chassis rails. Still waiting on Mal Wood for the custom twin plate clutch for the ZF S6-40 transmission. this might delay the engine install further, as I'd like to pull the front cross member and install this from underneath the car together. I have ordered a new alloy drop tank for the car. The manufacturer doesn't actually make tank for this model, nut I have managed to persuade him to do so. He does amazing work. He has promised to send some pics of it's assembly, so that I can provide some input. I had to go with the drop tank, as I could not fit 2 x Walbro 525 pumps into the standard tank. It will be put aside, in case the car ever has to be put back to standard. I've made a plug/mould, so that I could make some carbon fibre brake backing plates, for the bigger Group A brakes. I have some pics of it somewhere, I will post them up when I find them... I'll try to make the parts some time this week... On another note, I managed to buy another VN Group A engine, that came to my area in a VL Walkinshaw. The guy spun a big end bearing in the rod and never put the engine back together. Given the components in it's build, it would have been a very tough engine in its day. The heads have nice porting, with top quality components, The engine cam with a Auscrank 3,4' crank, KB pistons, A9l rods, solid roller, straight cut cam gear set, bid $$ sump and a set of Morrison ITB's. I've already stripped all components out and have started to rebuild it bigger and stronger. I had the ITB's vapor blasted. the picture speaks to the results.. Anyway, that's enough rambling for now. I'll try to get back an post more updates soon.

Timing cover seal 100% needs a built engine.

Picked this up at the powder coater this morning - came up even better than I was expecting

Some progress...

Gainzzzzzz Last Weeks Results Hack Squat PR - 200kg DB Chest Press PR - 25s DB Shoulder Press PR - 20’s Deadlift PR - 125kg

My old girl is still going. This pic was at a winery the Ford Performance Club of ACT went to for lunch last Sunday. The weekend before we were at Sydney All Ford Day with the club as well.

Went clamping over the weekend, what a fkn cracking time - of course I had to get some shots. Sunrise, and first time trying to take photos of the milky way

Think I was still pissing the bed last time someone posted to this thread.

Spool'n...

Sounds like the car is already modified and then they were taken out and it was sold to you... I'd be asking the previous owner some serious questions.

May as well add in here what we're looking at building. Block is 375m2, 15x25. We will be building with Home Group WA. The design we liked the most is called "London", a 4x2 with a scullery, theatre and "activity" room which would likely end up being a sort of small office. The master is also at the back which is a big win. Its a double garage, and we can only extend it by about 300mm wider due to the block size. This design should give enough room to put a shed in the back though, that is 3.5x4m (as mentioned before). This one isn't on their website unfortunately so you'll have to live with this sh*tty pic of a print-out. Its about 220m2 in total and will fit just fine on our block. The other design that I really like is called "St Louis". Also a 4x2, scullery, theatre. No area that will work well as an office. But being young and having no kids (yet) we could sacrifice a room to make an office. The issue with this one is it is 270m2, and requires 15x30 block as its 28m long. We can make changed to the design though. Having a meeting either this Thursday or the 6th of June due to the long weekend here in WA to discuss building plans. We need to suss out the price of this one too, because it is the "luxury" range it is way more fancy. But we are hoping we can adjust it to reduce the cost. For example, this one has 2 wall mounted ovens. Bit over kill lol. I really like the idea of having the workshop in the garage and not a shed in the back, can also widen it a bit for extra room to put shelving in and not sacrifice car space. It will, like always, come down to the cost. You can check out their other builds too if you're interested at all, keen to hear what you all think Will this bring back @Mrs Jeturbo to the forums 👀👀

I would build the motor with a super simple spool H beam/cp bullet piston deal with the necessary timing, oil pump, crank dowelling mods etc. I would leave the rest as it is for now because you will get a lot more power out of the bolt ons than it's currently making. It will save a lot of money while you enjoy the car with a fair bit more power and decide how much power you actually want. Numbers are good and all but if you add another 100rwkw with the current mods, it'll be a totally different car. Just a couple more minor mods and you'll have mid to high 400s which is ample for a rwd on the street and also the limit of a single 460 on E85. Don't go straight to 600rwkw cos that is overkill for a street car, will cost an arm and a leg and although you may end up there eventually, I would enjoy it with the current bolt ons, maybe bigger injectors etc, for a while. That's just my 2c, 450rwkw is very fast and you might not even want more. There are obviously a bunch of specifics when it comes to building the engine that can be gone through some other time, cos it's quite in depth and takes a long time to sort out with online posting.

Wow good progress everyone! Good point about the scales. I've done about 6 weeks of not losing a thing, but can visibly see I've reduced fat. Body weight exercises and running obviously adding muscle mass. Weight started coming off again over the past week.

Been hitting some goalssssss Current PBS Bench Press - 60kg Lat Pull Downs -72kg Dead Lifts - 100kg - no straps ^^ that's av video if it’s working Also … been smashing footy and basketball too 🥰

Pulled it halfway down today and it looks about what I'd expect to see. I pulled one piston out for a look, the bearing is nearly perfect and can be run again and the crank looks good. The ring gap hasn't changed, the skirt coating has taken a bit of a beating, the crown coating is fine except a bit of a mark where the valves hit, pin is still fully floating so the pin bore is good. The bores don't look much different than when it was assembled but need measuring. I've gotta do some measuring on the oil pump to make sure it still has the right clearance and the front cover hasn't been squished. It looks fine inside however. The head looks good from what I've seen so far. I haven't got the valves out yet so will see what the seats look like when I get to that. All the valves are bent except a a couple. Cams are good, lifters/rockers are good, cam tunnels are good. Nothing is too terrible all things considered. I'll need to get a bit more organized to get stuff further apart, measured and cleaned up, so will do that whenever.

Layed some grass and a garden, poured a slab. House builds really test the patience Jealous of you barra owners watching prices go up lol Mine would have rusted away by now lol

Holy crap that was the best euphoric feeling I've ever felt... It was non-describably amazing wow, just wow.

Haha, if the pics match

You might have to look at Force Performance in Toowoomba man. When I was in Brisbane, East Coast Customs did a lot of work on my car, and they deal with barras a lot. Not sure if they have a ZF transmission specialist though.

WMMFGT Rise Against were bloody fantastic, shame the crowd weren't there for them (they were there for blink) and didn't know enough of their shit to really get into it, but it was still a damn enjoyable front band (will go to see them next time they're headlining). Blink-182 just know how to entertain fantastic atmosphere, sound, crowd work, crowd dancing/moshing/head-banging; just an all around fantastic night 🤗

I literally couldn't floor it and get off the throttle quickly before cos the diff would smash into the bush hole and sound like the arse of the car was gonna fall out. Still gotta fit the rear diff bushes, rear sway bar bushes, rear sway bar links and new blade arms. None of that is causing an issue so I'll get onto it when we have another day under 30C.

This should answer your question keefy In other news the missus just arrived with a big mac, fries, cheeseburger and a large chocolate thick shake. Just in time for me to finish my workout and sit down

I thought a built engine was the going fix for engine leaks on this forum

for anyone else looking he's available on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/WhitefordTech great guy and got my sorted with a new dash in about 10 minutes. definately +1 for Whiteford

LOL I was thinking about that yesterday. Would there be some interest to do another Snowy Cruise in November later this year? Here's the vid from last year's. Sorry I took so long to do this one. Just so busy earlier this year with work and other things, and I also took a month's holiday as well overseas. I tried to represent 4 days of a fantastic fun and enjoyable trip with good and trusted mates in less than 7 mins But there is honestly no way I can do it justice - you have to be on the cruise to fully appreciate it My special thanks to Rab, k31th, YLD127 and El Andrew Anyway, hope you like it (see link below)

My equivalent pan is attached to my car so I can't check the inside of it. I looked at a pan from a 6r80 and there is no gap at the sides like the picture. Assuming the pan is stuffed; If the box is still in the vehicle, I would chuck a new pan and filter at it and see if it comes good. The restricted flow may make the trans slip without hurting the clutches if it was driven gently. If it has seen hella slippage then it is likely a couple of clutch packs are burnt. If they've already got it out and confirmed it has rooted clutches, it's just a matter of swapping clutches and possibly some steels. That is a conversation for the owner and the trans shop.

morning all, happy Wednesday 🐡 The best thing about sport is that it's real drama... and it was an amazing experience to enjoy the result of the first Ashes test live last night at 4:30 in the morning with hundreds of others on the bigfooty forums... paying for it now with 2-3 hours of sleep, but absolutely worth it.

FTFY No need to stop driving it, but bringing it onto boost and it have it boost cut all the time isn't ideal. From the post it seems this has an external gate but that doesn't change things much. The wg plumbing needs to be checked first, it might just have a line off or a split in a line. Check from the turbo to the boost solenoid and to the wg fitting. If the lines are ok then move onto checking other things. If it's external gate, open the top of the gate and see what springs are in there. Based on experience I would yeet the biggest spring in there and just run the smallest. It will likely need a bit of a tune and there is also a chance that it will be completely fine. You have to check it though, no ifs or buts, before giving it a hiding. It could be that the boost cut is saving you from a broken engine. Save this step for last. If it's an internal gate then it may have a farked diaphragm and that will cause the issue at hand. You can check this by putting 5psi of pressure to the actuator. Even a bike pump will do the trick for testing purposes. If it's hissing then it's safe to say it's stuffed. It might just need a set of plugs in it that are properly gapped and/or a set of coils. It may well be tuned to 15psi but over time the coils/plugs have worn out and it's only just started missing, hence the owner sold it. Check all this stuff and let us know what the verdict is. It's a very easy thing to get to the bottom of when you know how and I have no doubt we will get you sorted.

Vacuum cleaner sh*t the bed a few days back and the broom was getting a workout around the house. Pulled the finger out today to fix the vacuum cleaner, reflowed a bunch of solder on the board and the farken farker works again. Happy dayz

You know how to twist wires, design a daughter board for the factory pcm that converts it to live tuning.

That bolt also acts as a lathe. I fitted some random wheels to the back of my Falcon and the bolt was jammed into the rim. I just drove it for a bit on the jack with the wheels in the air then reversed the bolt and instant fitment.

Just jack up the car onto stands at the rear and put the jack under the control arm and turn the wheel at various positions in the suspension travel and confirm, if you're worried. Obviously Puff was referring to the picture posting instructions, in hindsight, which are located here -> https://www.fordxr6turbo.com/forum/topic/92470-how-to-put-images-in-your-post/

Just got a Steam Deck from Kogan Got the 64gb one with a 512gb SD card for storage when using Steam/Games and another 512gb SD card to boot into windows anbd use as a normal PC. Another 256gb card for emulatiors - should be able to play old games up to and including nintendo switch games - Zelda here we come I'll throw a 512gb or 1tb SSD in it eventually but not needed yet. Saves me lugging my lappy to work - USB C to the monitor at work and I've got a full windows 11 desktop with mouse/keyboard and all my programs etc setup. Will look at one of the stand alone LCD monitors with inbuilt battery and I won't be lugging so much gear around. Headed into the high country for an extended long weekend next weekend and leaving the lappy home - the deck should give me all I need. Will try a bit of photo/video/drone editing on it to put it through its paces.

not that I built it, but nearly finished cleaning it shed is 24x11 meters we got our farm cheap because old mate had hoarded 19 years of crap including old building materials when he built the farm house and sheds in 2006 we bought in August 2022 and we cleaned up the house first so we could rent it, then we started on this shed which is about 150 meters from the house been a slow process cos farm is nearly 2 hours drive from Clifton Beach, and are up there once a fortnight before after