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Did some tuning today. Apparently gapping the plugs did the trick cos straight away it ran up 605awkw with no tune changes. I frigged around with fuel and boost and this and that, and managed 685awkw at 39.5psi. I brought it in gently as the trans wasn't happy to take much more than 30psi on the hit. There was some trans truncation going on at that power level on the road, so I've turned it back down to about 640awkw for now.

Couple of pics in the sun, after paint sealant applied.

So yerp pulled the 6r80 down today. Nothing looks too rooted in it, not that I'm a seasoned trans builder or anything. All of the steels are in good condition and all of the shafts/gears etc look and feel alright too. I'll get to measuring later in the week to confirm stuff. The car that the trans came out of had a torque converter failure and had put some metal into the trans which is why I only paid $50 for it. I pulled the trans pump apart to have a look, as that will be where the metal starts it's journey into the trans. Sure enough the small inner gear has some damage and the pump cover has some damage too. It's not so farked that it wouldn't work at all but I'd rather do things more proplyer so will address it. I reckon I'll swap out the stator shaft from the 6r80 into one of the zf pumps and use that, otherwise I can get a 6r80 pump for about $500, or there might be something else I can do with parts/gear swapping etc. The bushes in it need replacing so I'll go for a bronze bush kit, along with a couple of other bits to recon the zf valve body, replace needle roller bearings as one had fallen apart, and whatever else needs replacing apart from seals, as they will all get done anyway. So yeh that's about it really. Will drop off the input shaft and converter on Wednesday and see how we go from there. I was thinking about cryo treating the output shaft too just for more peace of mind. I'm leaning toward keeping the stock converter now as it has a better lockup than a single disc gm converter but I'll see what the trans guy reckons, as it might not be up to the power level I'm going to throw at it. Haha one part of me wants to just buy a built trans but I'll have a crack at it myself first and if I fark it up, I'll reevaluate then.

Here's the graph. I had to run it in 3rd to get a number as I was hitting a speed limiter in 4th and was too tardled to work out how to remove it. I disabled it in the vid block, changed it in the tune as well and zeroed out the ETC cut. Still didn't work but oh well. Also don't have the boost control dialled in so it's a bit wavy. Today was a fuel/sd map tuning day

Latest upgrade - custom catch can! Super happy with it. Made by AT Performance https://atperformance.com.au/ here in Brisbane. It's 3L capacity (CAMS spec) internally baffled with an AN6 drain and replaceable filter. Was 3D scanned, laser cut, perfect tig welds. If anyone is interested, get in touch with Adam, he's a true professional. So much better than the standard catch can that bolts up behind the drivers side strut tower, or the Empire one.

And finally to the same spot I took the comparison pictures in my lowering thread: And the comparison with stock rims and lowered in both: And the "start to finish" comparison - stock height & stock rims, compared to lowered with 20's

Yes yes it is a happy Sunday keifffyyyyy

Ima just leave this here ….. Pretty excited 😍

711awkw at 31.3psi. Ran a bit more out the back but ran out of gate spring.

Here's a quick video

Been a while since anyone posted on here but I’m excited to break the silence with some good news... Got offered a fairly awesome job yesterday. I’m now a Senior Project Manager (construction sector in government). It’s a job I’ve been dreaming and working toward for a long time now and stoked to have worked hard enough that an engineering degree wasn’t required due to enough proven experience and results. Pretty excited to say the least and ready to take on the new challenge! 😝🥰

I just thought that I'd drop in and say "hi". I've been a bit busy with the SS and I haven't really done much to the car. I've installed the 52 mm radiator and deleted the header tank. And the rocker cover has been sent for chrome.. That's about it. I had a few spare parts floating around, so I decided to put them to use. I used a FG series one block. It sonic tested the best that I have found - 0.125" was the thinnest section in any bore. The others were very meaty. We offset bored that cylinder , to help keep it as thick as possible. The block has also been surfaced and machined for 14.3 mm head studs. Crank is the same as the current engine. Factory, with nitride and stress relieving. I put some ACL bearings with 360 degree thrusts. A short time later I decided to install a torrington bearing. As I'm unsure as to where or how I might use the engine, I thought it best to cover both bases. Just in case I use it with the 4l80... Same Atomic Phat rods and thick wall gudgeon pins as the last engine. The JE's have had the full coating treatment (Crown and skirt). The mains have the regular main stud, girdle and windage tray. Atomic Heavy duty timing chain kit takes car of the timing gear, with Atomic also supplying an oil pump and lifters. I managed to get a good deal on some parts for the head. This one will be the same spec as my current unit. Unfortunately, there is a bit of a back log on the head porting. I can't see it happening for a few months. 😞 A bit of topic, I found out that these are the same as those used by Spiro back in the day, and I believe that Atomic also use them in their stage 5 heads. They certainly flow a lot of air... Well, that's about it for now. The blower for the SS will be arriving while I'm away at work, So I can't see myself getting anything done on the XR and time soon. It'll be full steam ahead with it. I'll pop back when there is more progress...

Here's a short video of it in second gear. I didn't use the antilag much otherwise it would have just smashed the limiter

May as well post while the postings good. 766.6awkw or 1028awhp on a roller dyno through an unlocked high stall converter and a built zf. Made that power at 38psi. Here's a run down of the build; Engine It started life as a NA Territory engine, machining by Chris Milton's in Adelaide and assembled at home by me. Stock block decked, torque plate honed, line honed Stock crank ARP 12mm head studs and ARP main studs Hp junkie OS head stud washers Ross Race Series harmonic balancer Atomic flex plate Custom tooled 10mm 6 dowel pin install into crank Spool Drag Pro I Beam rods w/ 7/16 rod bolts Standard size CP Bullet Series pistons w/ OS pins, Cerakote Micro Slick on the skirts and their V Series Piston Coat on the crowns Atomic timing chain kit w/ crank sprocket and posi lock tensioner HP Junkie 10mm girdle w/ main caps machined to fit Stock windage tray minus side supports HP Junkie billet oil pump w/ high pressure relief spring 2006 BF Turbo head, ported Athena split ring head gasket Atomic 0.5mm OS intake and exhaust valves Atomic anti pump up hydraulic lifters Atomic roller rockers Kelford 218-C cams Kelford KVS40-Extreme valve springs w/ titanium retainers Modified stock VCT phasers for limited movement FG rocker cover FG coils Some kinda catch can w/ dual -10 to can and single -12 to intake pipe Hot Side 6Boost exhaust manifold 6Boost 50mm progate into 2 inch screamer pipe, now plumbed back Pulsar 7782 turbo w/ custom 5 inch intake Custom 2 piece 4 inch dump pipe Custom 4 inch exhaust w/ Hooker high flow muffler, resonator and Venom 5 inch cat Cold Side Stock lower half intake manifold w/ Plazmaman top half Plazmaman Territory specific intercooler Custom 3 inch in and out cooler piping Turbosmart Race Port BOV Fuel Stuff Quick Bitz 2200cc @ 4 bar injectors Stock fuel rail modded for dual feed and centre return Turbosmart FPR 2000 2 x Walbro 525 intank pumps w/ dual relay setup Goleby's billet fuel filter Currently on E85 Trans Stuff Modified stock converter for 6r80 input shaft and 3500rpm stall RVO built ZFR80 stage 4 trans w/ billet intermediate shaft and Bluestreak billet planetary Big arse Aeroflow trans cooler Tuning Stuff PCMTec custom operating system w/ launch control, antilag and various other features Custom engine and trans tune by yours truly 4 bar boost sensor

Got her back finally! I'll clean it up tomorrow and take some pics. So much dust everywhere. Installed the new rocker cover, I'm happy with how it's turned out, for now.

My daughter turned 18 and we bought her what she wanted, we’ll closest to what she wanted as that was the car like dad’s one apparently lol (Which was my VF R8 Clubsport) but on P’s these days you can’t drive V8’s and turbo’s so it was the next best thing I suppose 2017 VF SV6 Black edition, Pretty decent bus for an 18 year old but a fairly safe one too. Should meet the criteria for “Cool” stuff bought

3hrs of meticulous work later, the cams are repaired and the journals in the head along with the cam caps are nearly there. Just a few more trial fits and adjustments then both cams will be spinning freely. Very time consuming job by hand and important to get right, but you do what you gotta do when you don't have a line hone at home. Got the block cleaned and painted earlier and finished the crank too.

So I’ve wanted a running buddy and unfortunately our bulldog is already on the wrong side of the life expectancy for a dog of her breed, not that she runs anywhere anyway hahaha... After much convincing, and he’s still not convinced LOL, j@ finally agreed to drive me out to a farm yesterday and get this little gem. I am fully aware how insane border collies are in regards to needing physical and mental stimulation which is why I chose her. great running buddy and a good family companion and super smart. She’s already doing super well with toilet training, whines when she needs to go, and we started with come, sit, down and paw today and she’s got it sorted. She’s also learnt (in only 3 meal times) she needs to sit before she will get her dinner. Very clever for 8 weeks old! We’ve decided to call her Fly ❤️.

So yeah the money wasting continues... After spending nearly 10k between the trans and the water meth kit, the car lasted about 3 weeks before the oil pump exploded it's *beep* all through the timing cover and sump. This round of stuff I've ordered to get it up and running again lists thusly; Horse Power Junkie High Volume Barra Billet Oil Pump Atomic Heavy Duty Posi-Stop Barra DOHC Timing Chain Tensioner Atomic Barra Heavy Duty Timing Chain Atomic (Barra BA-FGX) Atomic billet steel crankshaft sprocket Atomic Solid Checking Lifter - Ford DOHC 6 Cylinder, DOHC V8 and V10 DOHC Modular Engine Dyno-Mite Performance BA-FGX Barra Fire Ring Gasket Kit in 39 thou Atomic Roller Rocker Set The billet crank is gonna have to wait cos I ain't made of money. Also gonna order bearings once the motor is apart cos I might not even need them, but also it might have farked a crank pin in which case I'll be using a ten under crank I have here. Will drop the head off to fix the cam journal and a quick skim and also pick up some strong ass acid to clean the cams. Gonna re-ring it while it's apart and close the second ring gap a teeny tiny bit from 28 down to 26 thou, leave the top at 22. Should help a little with blow by....maybe?! Anyway enough waffle, more updates will come eventually.

Hey mate, thanks for sharing your research with us. Sounds like this green top is pretty impressive. What are your plans for the car, and what is your budget? I've heard 10s for $2k is pretty easy if you know what you're doing.

Was changing wiper blades, instructions where unclear so I cut the floor out

All farken righty then... Cams Vernier gears Finished porting the head and the exhaust gasket. I didn't go all out and cut down the exhaust guides cos I cbf. You can see where the previous gasket was pushing water when the boost was wound up.

Well we’ve just been doing some finishing touches... waiting on curtains and shutters and some furniture but we mounted the TVs on the weekend.... loving the living area and the built In cabinetry is now also. (don’t mind the alfresco which is a junk area) Completed bar... other than the holes in the ceiling which need patching. Bedroom cabinetry looking good also

I got the head off today and there's not a lot to say really. The head and valves are still in the same condition as they were when I first assembled it. The block has minimal wear and there are just a couple of little scratches where the porcelain from the plugs got stuck, when the plugs broke. They barely pick up with the finger nail and are so small that they won't affect anything. So yerp there we go. I'll slap it back together and farken send it.

Bit of building to do this weekend. Grabbed a 5800X (was about all that was available), X570 motherboard, 1TB nvme and a couple of 16gb sticks of ram. I've got the waterblock for the GPU already, but now need to order one for the CPU so will wait to plumb thus build - air-cooled for now.

Kitchen and floors all done. Laying floors was a bigger job than I thought it would be, but well worth it. Painted the kitchen and laundry last night but can only see that in the shot of the cedar window. Managed to colour code the kitchen to the cat...

A few members have shown some interest in one of my other projects and Have asked me to post some pics of it's progress. Now, I know that it's not a Ford. But I hope that you appreciate it anyway. Here goes.. I purchased this tired old girl just in December 2019. I'd had during me 20's and unfortunately it was stolen and burnt out. I really loved the car and I decided to bring this old girl back to life.. The car was purchased for Emerald in Queensland. She was really rough, but she was all there. Engine and box were in an unknown condition, so I got it for a reasonable price. Unbeknown to me, some time around three months before Hol-den went to the VP model. Hol-den trialed the VP colour (Alaskan White) on some vehicles. This makes it pretty rare. I had a bit of time off around this time, so I start to strip the old girl. Remember when I said that it was rough.... LOL And I kind of got a bit carried away... It ended up being completely stripped and a rotisserie installed.

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

Engine is ready to go in the car now. Re used my valve springs, head studs and oil pump. New guides and tensioner, head gasket. Drilled and tapped a spare na sump for the oil return.

Rods, pistons and rings assembled, fitted and torqued up. Next steps will be fitting the girdle and windage tray then onto the oil pump etc. Ok pics here, don't mind the crap on the deck of the block, it's mainly just sticky tape jizz. It'll get a final clean when the head is ready to fit. Also looks like there is a decent amount of deck than can be removed for next time...

Speaking of Subaru's.... Have an 07 Impreza as my daily since the XR6 is consigned to the odd weekend run. Just did an upper engine clean on it also. Like working on these things - have done all the usual maintenance tasks such as timing belt kit, water pump, plugs, cam cover gasket, all fluids etc. Was my sons car till he wanted a manual. So he now has a 09 RX and a box of bits ready to be installed. Looks like I have a busy weekend ahead....

Alrighty all, here's the update: So, I finally got around to fixing the engine. As I mentioned earlier, I slapped a new head on, all the bells and bigger whistles put into it, blah, blah, blah. Now, on Sunday just been (9th of Jan 2022), I pulled the rocker cover off to see if I had somehow placed the cams in the wrong way, I didn't, next thing I checked was the timing, I rotated the engine over 34 times to get it bang on. On inspection of the crank sprocket, the mark on the chain was one tooth out, so it had skipped. The second thing I noticed was the intake cam was in the correct position at 12 o'clock and the exhaust cam was at the 11 o'clock position. So this explains everything, fixed it and guess what, the car runs like it did prior to the inept mechanic who put three valves springs upside down ( I text him once a month asking, "How?" HAHA). So, the timing retarding issue has finally been fixed and sounds like the former glory. Next problem, when the thermo fans come on the car would either switch off or run real rough not like in the lame ghost cam way - worse. The Haltec was throwing all kinds of codes mainly cruise control codes. Couldn't work out why. All by accident, I placed my hand on my Haltec and f**k me, I could cook bacon and eggs on it. Found the setting on the laptop and it was telling me the Haltec was at 80 degrees. Got an air blower straight onto it and it cooled down rather quickly. After four hours of trying to get the car stated it, just wouldn't. Continued drinking and had a good night. The next day on the phone to Haltec and well, the legends they are, are the legends the are. Fixed everything via remote login. The Haltec is being sent back, they're do their magic and once I get the Haltec back then bammmmm straight onto the dyno for a tune. Once again, thank you for everyones input over the time/ length of this post. I took all comments in and it reassured me, everything I was doing was correct and believe it or not, it pointed me in the right direction when I took your comment on board. A long and costly process, but never-the-less, great outcome. Thought I would update and hope this post and comment/s helps those that are ever chasing a similar issue/ problem.

Bought a steak for J@ and the boys for tonight.... Seasoned.... Steaming hot pan and seal the sides... Wrap the bone and oven for about 16 minutes... Medium Rare / Medium cook the whole way through... Garlic Butter corn, mash taters and a home made mushroom sauce on the side... (Was gonna do roast honey carrots but forgot them so quick carrots peas and corn got the call up 😂😂)

Pulled the finger out cos there's only so many cat videos you can watch. Got the head off and it's better than expected. No valves have hit but the intake cam journals are fairly galled. Edit: the exhaust valves have touched but still look ok...will find out soon enough New theory... Pump body exploded, lost oil pressure, cam galled, timing chain snapped, car said yeah nah bro. Bottom end is looking alright. The usual nicks from broken porcelain but not enough to rebore it. Minor thrust wear but there's still hone marks so happy there. So yerp, get the head fixed, r&r the bottom end for a clean etc and farken send it again! Happy days

Water meth system arrived today...should keep me busy for a while

Update on the sous vide beef cheeks! Letting them dry age for 24hrs wasn't enough time, but not the end of the world. They're getting slow cooked for over 8 hours anyways Seared all the cheeks to get that sweet maillard reaction happening (browning the meat). In the same pan I put in 2 cloves of garlic, 2 onions, 2 carrots, and some sticks of celery all diced. Let those cook for a bit to get some colour into them and then dumped just over a cup of red wine into the pan. I let that cook off for a bit while scraping all the fond off the bottom of the pan. I added some stock to the mix too and let it reduce for a bit. I realised after that I didn't put nearly enough wine and stock into the pan for the amount of cheeks I have. So I'm going to have to make some more once I get home. Basically redoing the whole veggies and wine steps again to double the amount of sauce I have. I vac sealed two cheeks into each bag along with the sauce all evenly spread between the three bags - this is where I realised I didn't have enough sauce mixture. The three bags barely fit into the biggest pot we have atm, kinda stuffed in there like stacked pancakes and the pot is just about filled to the brim with water 🤣🤣 Sous vide is set to 81c for 12 hrs, I'll be home before its finished and I'll probably turn it off before the 12hrs has be completed. The recipes I've found in my research has shown that anything over 9hrs is fine. I.e. min time recommended is 9hrs. Will give another update later tonight or tomorrow on how the dish goes 😋

Ordered me a wideband sensor so should have that sorted by next weekend. Really couldn't be farked doing much this weekend so just went and picked up a 5 inch pipe for me intake, a dash12 weld on for the intake pipe to suck the catch can off and a couple of dash10 fittings for the rocker cover. Pulled the finger out and after a few beers decided to sort out the FG rocker cover. Cut off the thing, pulled out the rubbermajiggy and welded both fittings to it for the catch can to attach to. Farken forgot how to weld but fortunately remembered halfway through so got it done. Cleanliness is next to weldliness or something. I would fit it all this arvy except I forgot my dial gauge again so will swap the rocker cover, wire in the FG coil plugs and do the cam timing next weekend.

Got it together and after a bit of tuning to get it to idle and start halfway properly I went for a drive. Farken thing is a bit ridiculous now that is has the extra legs, even though it's only on 23psi and 98 octane. I did a bit of logging and it easily pulls to 7 grand. I accidentally went 7150rpm but don't tell anyone! It seems like it would keep going but I guess the dyno will reveal if and when it falls over. Anyhow here is a quick video of it idling.

Had some stuff arrive.

Well this is an interesting one. I decided on the development 3-4 years ago and spent 6 months drawing preliminary plans, went out to builders who would let me project manage (which wasn’t many) and then started the paper work 3 years ago. Unfortunately there was a massive delay in regards to my father passing away and red tape which meant delays and additional costs due to paper work, as well as mentally shelving the project due to being over it lol. Demolition happened in March last year and we had to let the block settle due to there being a previous cellar. Actual construction started in May 2020 and it was technically ready last week. The timeline was quite good for the sheer size and nature of the build (dispute what j@ insists lol) and we had a lot of customisation and I made changes to design during the project which is also something to consider. I think, all things considering, it has gone well for the most part and I am happy with the finished product. There are a lot of hidden gems and some additional cabinetry is going in as we speak so I’m going to do videos on each component. I wouldn’t really change much, maybe a few minor things, but all in all I’m fairly happy 😊 Thanks everyone for following the journey!

I thought I might do an update on this regarding reliability. I've been happily daily driving for the last 5 & 1/2 years on a 500rwhp tune running the aquamist system. I've only touched the system once to upgrade the spray injectors to a larger size and to solder part of the circuit board to increase the flow. The latter was done by an electronics shop in accordance with the aquamist manual. It was quick and easy, the shop didn't even charge me but I wouldn't recommend doing it yourself as the solder point is 1-2mm with no room for error. To date, I've had one of the plastic push line fittings fail a few years ago (a 1 minute $5 job) and today the gauge sh*t itself after a few weeks of slowly losing LED lights off it. It's $250 to buy a replacement gauge. I still must say that I'm still very happy with the systems reliability. I'm not sure why the gauge failed. My car is rarely parked in the sun but when it is it's fricken hot in Darwin! Like you get back to the car and the entire centre roof light fitting has dislodged and is hanging down by its wires because of the heat. When the new gauge arrives, I might relocate it off the windscreen.

So I went about finding a tuner last few weeks. Called a few shops to touch base, go through my setup and see if it feels right. First up was autotech, busy place, very glitchy I call them they call me I call them we could never really find a chance to talk. Eventually got through to spiro but he was too busy to talk. Then I tried empire, jeremy was very positive and enthusiastic. It felt right so I towed the car to them. Early reports are the car made 398rwkw at 16psi and they wanted to hold the car to check cold start. Pick up tomorrow so should have a graph to disect. I see a transmission upgrade in my future.

So yerp, literally only had an hour this afternoon to get it setup, tune it and get it off to pick the kids up. I only wanted to check the fuel and it was hella rich. All I did was pull a bunch of fuel out of it and give it a couple of degrees. I left the boost alone for this session as it takes time to sort it out properly. I didn't want to get too hectic as it still has some 91 in it, so I left a couple of degrees out of it from the usual e85 numbers and left the fuel in the mid 11's. The knock detection was showing no sign of knock so I'm sure it would have tolerated more timing. In saying that, only picking up 13kw from 2 degrees tells me it is close to the edge of what it wants anyway. It started out out 425awkw. Then it picked up 25kw just going from mid 10's to low 11's. I pulled some more fuel to mid 11's and it went 462awkw. I added 2 degrees of timing and it went 475awkw. So at the end of all that I made 475awkw on 23 and a bit psi. Obligatory excuses...I'll get over 500 at the same boost level by pulling fuel out and adding timing, but that will wait until next time and more ethanol content. Haha don't mind the wobble in the graph aka sh*tty wg tuning, it is set up to run 20psi as per the previous graph, and just changing the desired boost to 23 the other day made it chuck a fit! I'll dial it in better, along with the timing and fuel when I get the time

Just did a few days away camping. Impact driver and screw in tent pegs are my absolute best friends.

Did some beef stroganoff tonight. I tried it non traditional and cooked the rump seperate. Put together the sauce

Bacon fried, butter basted ribeye. Even Homer would say "WTF"