2006 Fpv Tornado F6 Ute - Cleanup & Resurrection

[PhilMeUp]

Definitely will be keeping a eye out for the brembo photo guide you do, I read on a Mitsubishi evo forum that they all have the same issues with thier brembos and peeling and there was a guide someone did where they just peel off as much as the old clear as possible, give it a light sand and spray high temp clear over and it didn't look to bad, I was going to do that but obviously pulling apart and powder coating and rebuilding with new seals would be way better. I just assumed it would be very difficult.

Are you going to do the pwr transmission heat exchanger ? I'm thinking that will be the next big job I do, it's doing my head in with the standard heat exchanger on it

Pulling the Brembo calipers apart for repainting or powder coating is surprisingly simple. The bolts are done up tight, so you'll need the right size allen key socket (8mm). I pulled six calipers apart in one night, although I was thorough with making notes about what bolts go where, etc. There are heaps of videos on YouTube showing how to do it. The mistake that I made was poking holes in the dust boots when removing them with a sharp pick tool.

I'd love a PWR heat exchanger, but the cost is too high for the km that the Tornado will do. The standard heat exchanger does the job to a point... then it wears out and fails. I might look at buying a new standard heat exchanger (I get them wholesale). Both the standard heat exchanger and PWR one keep the transmission fluid at the same temperature (ie it's not like fitting a larger intercooler) so the requirement is long term reliability, not day to day performance.

If I see a secondhand PWR unit for a couple of hundred dollars then I'll snap it up straight away.

I also missed out on an SCT Xcal 4 last night for $300. Bummer.

Sneak preview of some Brembo stuff that I've been doing:

[FiftyOne]

Awesome thread

[Vallidium]

All those brembos :O im always on the look out for some 4 pot rears but every set I find looks so thrashed ! I actually had a good look last night and found some of the disassembly vids and guides you mentioned and yeah it doesn't look too bad at all especially now that I know where to buy the dust boots, that's given me a bit more confidence about it all.

Mate im 100% with you on the price of the heat exchanger, I know PWR are great and the quality and all is top notch but I really cant justify $800+ for such a tiny basic item especially when im never going to race or drag mine so a replacement stock item might be the go. I say this now and tonight ill probably end up with the dreaded milkshake haha.

Anyway looks like you've definitely got your work cut out for you on the brembo front !

[Ralph Wiggum]

800+ cooler > less than a trans rebuild and loss of use of the vehicle.

[PhilMeUp]

Monday, 12th January, 2015

As part of getting the Tornado into proper working order I booked both it and my taxi in for a cooling system flush.

A few weeks ago I bought a new thermostat for my XR6 Turbo ute. This is the higher flow version, and was relatively expensive. I had kept the original as a spare (there was nothing wrong with it), so put it back in the XR6T and put the new thermostat in the Tornado.

I removed the thermostat cover with a 13mm socket.



The old Tornado one is on the left; the new one is on the right.



The good thing about the o-ring seal is that there is no scraping off or messing around with gaskets.



The thermostat cover was put back on.



As I was getting two cars flushed at once, I put my KTM enduro bike in the back of the ute. That way I could ride it back home again and then take the taxi to the radiator place.



Arriving at the radiator place.



The cooling system was flushed.



The passenger side sideskirt that I broke last week.



The driver side sideskirt isn’t as badly damaged.



Old coolant frothing out of the taxi coolant tank.



Once the Tornado was flushed I was able to finally fit the new Dayco DET0003 coolant tank that I bought a few weeks ago.



Filled up with new coolant and looking better.



Someone sent me some new badges to replace the ones on the damaged sideskirts. I picked them up from the post office on the way.

[PhilMeUp]

Tuesday, 13th January, 2015

I had a bunch of stuff to do around town today. Before driving the Tornado I’ve usually been able to let it idle in the carport for a few minutes to warm up so that I can accelerate up the nearby hill straight away.

I was tight on time today, so got in the ute and left straight away.

I had gone less than a kilometre when the dashboard beeped at me and I noticed that the temperate gauge was indicating that the car was overheating.

I figured that maybe I hadn’t put enough coolant in yesterday, so turned the car around, got to the top of the hill and then let the car roll down toward home with the engine off.

I poured a bunch of coolant in and then had a look around in the engine bay area.

That’s when I noticed the green puddle underneath the radiator. This was obviously fresh - anything from yesterday would have dried up by now.



A closer look showed that coolant was dripping from the corner of the radiator. I was getting pretty pissed off at about this point (that’s putting it very mildly). Actually, I was raging.

All of the coolant had drained out overnight. Thus, it was lucky that I hadn’t left the car idling in the carport before leaving - it would have cooked within minutes and damaged or wrecked the engine.



Replacing a radiator on a normal Falcon is a quick and easy job to do. I started poking around, but couldn’t get the upper grill away from the bumper. I tried a few things, realised that this job was going to be much harder than on a normal Falcon and left it until later.

Amongst the job, there are four bolts to be removed that bolt the the radiator and condenser together. These can be accessed on a normal Falcon reasonably easy once the upper grill is removed.

Tonight I had another look at it and realised that unlike non-turbo Falcons, the bumper was going to have to come off. Having not done this before, I did some Google searching and eventually found a PDF guide that showed how to replace the intercooler with an aftermarket one. This included photos showing how to remove the bumper, so I printed this PDF and took it out to the carport.



Various bolts were removed and eventually the bumper came away from the car.



I disconnected the fog lights and moved the bumper away from the car. However, I was still unable to access the four bolts that attach the radiator and condenser together. These bolts are hard enough to access on a normal Falcon, but with an intercooler in the way there was no way of getting to them.



One of the headlights had to be removed. At least now I know to replace headlights - something else that I haven’t done before.



It took some time with a 10mm ratchet spanner, but eventually I managed to get the upper bolt removed on the driver’s side. I have no idea how I’m going to get it back there when it’s time for reassembly.



Eventually I realised that the intercooler was going to have to come out.



Out of the four intercooler mounts, the two on the passenger side were easy to access. However, removing the two on the driver’s side was difficult.



Eventually the intercooler came out and was put aside with the cooling fans.



All this just to access this one bolt. What a nightmare.



Eventually I managed to remove the four bolts, and the radiator then lifted out of the car. There were signs of damage to the bottom of the radiator from hitting a bump or speed bump previously.



Signs of leakage from the bottom corner of the radiator.



When I rotated the radiator around remaining coolant leaked out. I couldn’t see a crack or hole, but will be replacing the radiator with a new one.



The battle zone. Time to knock off for the night.



Getting both cars flushed yesterday has turned out to be a nightmare. The radiator on the taxi popped when being pressure tested, which meant a last minute dash to borrow a new radiator from the workshop that I normally go to (there wasn’t enough time to go to the place where I got that radiator from). Then a trip home to collect my toolbox and a frantic time in the carpark putting a new radiator in.

The Tornado got home ok, but pressure testing the radiator has obviously created a leak. As much as I appreciate the testing process, it will be quite some time before I let anyone pressure test a radiator on any car of mine in the future.

What was meant to be simple maintenance has turned into quite a drama. The radiator in the taxi was only six months old, so was covered under warranty. However, this still resulted in a verbal argument at the radiator supplier - I wasn’t going to leave until they replaced it. At least that didn’t cost me any money.

However, replacing the Tornado radiator will cost me money. And I’m pretty sure that putting it all back together is going to be a hell of a lot harder than it was to pull it apart.

Very frustrating day.

[PhilMeUp]

I also stopped off at a Ford dealer today to get pricing on new sideskirts (ie the ones that I cracked last week).

I knew that they'd be too expensive (I'll be getting mine repaired) but someone at Ford really has a sense of humour.

$1,017.65. Each.

Edited 13/01/15 06:32 PM by PhilMeUp

[CHLAXN]

But cheaper then 1k but only the R/h side FTG salvage

Edited 14/01/15 12:43 AM by CHLAXN

["Captain Retard"]

So what your saying is the Radiator mob popped both your radiators during pressure testing?

If so I'd be a little pissed!!!

[PhilMeUp]

Thursday, 15th January, 2015

I needed to replace the radiator, and whatever I got had to be of a reasonable quality and last a while. After making time consuming phone calls trying to get something at the right price, I ended up ordering a genuine Ford one. The part number is BA8005G and it retails for $347.56. I also ordered a new air filter at the same time (part number AFA1050, which is different to the usual AFA101 and AFL101).

The new radiator, all shiny and new.



The old radiator had a slight curve on the bottom of it.



The new radiator, about to go in.



All this hassle and disassembly just to get access to these four bolts.



You can see where two of the bolts go in this photo (on the far left and far right). The condenser is in the foreground, with the radiator sitting in behind it. The bolts attach these two together.

On a normal Falcon these are fairly easy to access, but on a turbocharged Falcon the intercooler blocks access.



The left and right lower bolts went back in easily enough.



The left and right upper bolts then went back in.



Then the fun began - putting the intercooler back in. This ended up not being too difficult, but getting the nuts on to each of the four bolts wasn’t easy. With this one, I put the nut in a ratchet spanner and lowered it into place. I then had to jiggle it around until the nut started to rotate on the bolt thread.

It would have been easier to remove the intercooler and mounting bracket together instead of removing the intercooler and leaving the bracket in place. Next time.

And of course, I’ve just realised that I forgot to plug the wires back in to the sensor on the intercooler, which means I’ll have to remove the bumper again just to reconnect those two wires. Bugger.



The intercooler, back in place.



Then I put the headlight and bumper backing back on.



Time to reconnect the radiator hoses.



Lining up the bumper to go back on.



It took some encouragement, but the bumper went back into place.



Each side of the bumper clipped back into place easily.



The bumper, fitted. Getting somewhere now.



Putting the screws back in on the plastic splash guard.



Inside each wheel arch there is one metal screw and two plastic screws (ie scrivets). The scrivets were in poor condition so I’ve left them off the car for now. I’ll order some new ones on eBay and fit them when they arrive.



Having done all the hard stuff, I could finally do the easy job - replacing the air filter.



The old air filter and new one, side by side.



There are several different versions of air filter for late model Falcons. I’ve learned to make absolutely sure that a new air filter sits in the airbox properly before putting the lid back on.