scott52

sorry about the typing dagabond- but the "p" is next to the "o" that's my excuse.

What part of hte country are you in SA?

Don't believe the misinformation being dished out. The photos are being taken and are held for at least six months. I just checked at ford.com.au and it tells me the photo system is being upgraded but the photos will be available. I have already received a few. Once ford have sorted out the website you will be able to get photos. Just go the www.ford.cpm.au and go to the site map. From there - virtual showroom, fairmont (the other model menus are not working), your car being built and enter your details

Don't worry CJF. The photos are held for 6 months. Besides they are not issued until after the dealer has confirmed delivery. You can imagine the drama's Ford would create for itself if the photo's were available in real time.....Buyer grabs the phone.."That bloke was half asleep and didn't do that bolt up properly!"

Did you know that you can access photos of your XR6T being built? Ford will e-mail jpg images to you within a couple of hours of logging into www.ford.com.au. Just enter your e-mail address, name and sido no. I've received three photos so far - one of the interior being fitted, one of the engine, transmission and rear end being fitted and one of rolling of the line.

Ford Talkback is a magazine marketed to company vehicle drivers. It costs nothing to subscribe and any body can join. You can email [email protected] to join up. You get a magazine about three times per year plus access to test drives and specials. I joined about 4 years ago so I'm not sure if that email address is still current. Check with your dealer if it doesn't work.

Following on from my last post............. The bracket is mounted to the right of the aircon controls. it sits just above my left knee and is visible throuh the lower left of the steering wheel. when I get back to work on the 6th Jan I will grab a camera and post some photo's of the installation and also a photo of the unconnected switch I've been carping on about.

I think PSI40L is looking at something else. There is a sensor in the pipe coming back from the intercooler. If you look in front of the battery (between the battery and the headlight) you can see the sensor in the pipe. The switch or sensor I'm referring to is in the hose that goes to the wastegate servo unit. Others have referred to it as a blow off valve but I believe it is a wastegate. I may have confused the issue because I mentioned the air pump (read "turbo"). I was using the purists approach in that what you see when you look at the "turbo" is the air pump. the exhaust gas turbine that drives the air pump is hidden from view underneath all that heat shielding. If you place your hand on the bottom of the air pump you will find a fitting with a 5mm id hose coming off. Follow that hose and you will find it goes to that bloody switch I've been talking about, through the switch and then to the wastegate servo unit. the servo is on the side and bottom of the air pump on the engine side. My understanding of how this system works is that the 5mm hose is on the outlet of the pressure pump. the pressure generated pushes against the diaphram in the wastegate servo which is held closed with a spring. once the boost pressure is greater than the spring resistance in the servo the diaphram pushes a lever that opens a bypass port in the exhaust turbine therefore reducing the drive to the air pump and hence lowering the boost pressure. I fitted my boost gauge today and can confirm 6 psi is the maximum. It builds pressure quickly but also drops off to zero real quick once you get of the throttle. The gauge was simple to fit. I cut the 5mm hose mentioned above and fitted a 3/16" brass tee. I drilled a hole in the oval shaped rubber grommet in the firewall to take a 5mm id rubber hose. I mounted the gauge in a hand made bracket.

See if you can organise a 24hr test of both a manual and auto. If your a member of Ford Talkback, Ford will organise it with a dealer nearby. For total control and performance the manual is the go. For convenience and less stress then the auto. Life is always a compromise and about making choices. If I lived in the country I would have gone manual. But my real world is about commuting to work and doing 90% of my km's in city traffic - unfortunately.

Reminds me of the Chief saying to Max Smart - - "Remember Max don't pull that lever......" I can't see any control on the boost pressure other than the standard method of running a hose from the pressure side of the airpump to the wastegate controller. Boost pressure acts against a spring until it overcomes the preset spring pressure and the wastegate starts to open. There is the valve or switch that I found that connects to the EMS (I presume), but that has been disconnected as I said before. Have you had a look at yours yet CJF077? It looks to me like a bleed valve, or pressure regulator of some sort in the hose would increase the boost pressure, however there must be a sensor somewhere that measures that pressure and tells the EMS. Where is it?

Hi there AMH093. I'm also new to this forum. I collected my auto xr6t about two weeks ago (Friday 13th December of all days!). I'm glad I went for the auto because after driving a manual Toyota Prado diesel for a couple of months waiting for the "T", I'd had enough of changing my own gears. Over here in Perth the traffic is pretty damn thick so I think the auto is the choice if you are going to spend most of your time in traffic. The engine has loads of torque so the 4 gears of the auto seems to be enough. Also if you use the cruise all the time like I do, I think the auto is better suited. With speed cameras hidden every where the cruise is a great device - just set it a few k's above the limit and let the computer watch the speedo so you can watch the road and the verge for the cameras. The sequential auto appears to work well anyway. Last weekend I took the "T" for a spin about 40k's north of Perth to give it a bit of run. If you put it into manual mode you can easily flick it back to 3rd or even 2nd to perform an impressive overtaking maneuver. I've only got 650k on the clock at the moment so I haven't been too heavy on the throttle. I'm not wrapping it in cotton wool either because I think the engine needs a bit of a rev every now and then to properly run them in. I read that Ford and GMH are jointly working on a new 5 speed auto with one of the transmission builders, for the next model Falcon and Commodore. I think that's going to be the trend in the future - 5 (or even 6) speed auto with a sequential manual mode.

Tell me how you installed the gauge and where did you mount it?

I took delivery of my new XR6T on the 13 December and have been looking under the bonnet ever since. The hose running from the pressure side of the air pump over to the waste gate passes through an electric valve or switch of some sort. This switch is mounted to the side behind the battery and is hard to get your hand to because of the turbo hoses. The point is, the switch has a two prong connector that is not connected to anything! :o On closer inspection, tucked away and taped back to the wiring harness is the section of wiring that obviously plugs into this switch. Why would Ford not connect this switch to the wiring harness? I plugged it in to see what happens. I don't think it made any difference, but my son reckons the turbo makes more noise with the the wire pugged in. Any body got any answers or is mine the only one ex factory that is not connected? Also has any body fitted a boost gauge yet? I'm going to put one in just to see what is going on. I was going to put a tee piece into the wastegate hose mentioned above and connect the boost gauge hose into that.