Hey guys,

I own a manual BA xr6 turbo which I bought about 2 and a half years ago.

The car currently has 170k on the clock and it has been serviced regularly.

About 6 months ago I chucked a solid chunk of cash at it and had RPM Dyno in Morayfield QLD run his fine tooth comb over it.

The car already had a full 3 inch X-Force exhaust, Front mount, BOV, Bigger breaks etc...

He changed the entire air intake system, build a screamer pipe for the exhaust side of the turbo, rebuilt the turbo, did the plugs and changed the oil then flash tuned and dyno tuned it to get 411hp at the rears with a rev limit of 6,500rpm.

The thing ran mint for 6 months until I took it for a squirt at xmas time.... heres where the problems begin.

Was running perfect for over half an hour and didnt get hot at all but when I pulled into a car park to turn around the engine cut out.

It wouldnt fire up so I let it cool down completely and then it fired up and ran like sh*t but I was able to drive it home.

Im aware that the coils can give trouble in these cars from time to time and to me it seemed like it was not firing on number 6 cylinder.

I came to this assumption when I pulled all the coils off one by one and noticed no change when I pulled off number 6.

I ordered 6 new VDO coils and a new set of plugs and when I changed them all I cranked the engine over with the injectors unplugged to clear out any un-burnt fuel.

Then I put it back together,, cleared all the fault codes from computer with the flash tuner and fired it up.

It ran fine for about 20 seconds then starts to run lie poo again.

Next thing I do is have it towed in to the Ford workshop only to find they knew no more than me after talking up there diagnostic equipment.

I then have it towed to a torque n tune in Caloundra as he seemed to know his stuff and drives one himself as well as building and tuning these cars for a living.

He, also stumped as to what the problem is goes over all electrical components and then decides that the computer needs to be sent away as that's the only other thing it could be.

When we get the computer back all the tune work done 6 months ago is wiped from the ECU and still no solution.

After all this he notices that plug 6 is damaged each time he replaces it with a new one... so it seems now that there is an internal problem and a bearing is starting to let go and the engine will need a rebuild.

Im now left wondering after already spending over $1000 just to get to that point, if anyone has any other ideas??

He has priced a rebuild with forged pistons and rods at around $7500 provided everything goes smoothly with the build.

Have built engines before myself but never one of these.

Would be pretty crazy to have a solid block like that but I'm having a hard time justifying it so thought id throw it out there to see what you guys would do.

Cheers.

if you can't find the problem don't rebuild it

Why was your turbo rebuilt?

First thing wack GENUINE coils and plugs in it

Vdo are chit house !!

Another think to check is the wiring harness at the back of the motor, its for the cam sensor, what happens is the turbos heatr burns all the insulation of the wires an then they start earthing out, causing all sorts of dramas.

When you say damaged spark plug, how is it damaged? Broken, bent ?

If its melting the plug you might want to check for a intake gasket leak on the no 6 runner of the manifold making it run lean on that cylinder.

Don't VDO make coils for ford anyway?

Checked wiring at back of block, was aware of this.

Its not melting plugs it just had a bent electrode on the end like a piece of carbon or worse had come through the engine. I had replaces the plugs and had them in and out since then and they looked fine.

It runs non iridium plugs regapped to .7mm

The guys that looked at it last said it was doing that every time he put a new plug in cylinder 6 hence why he was suggesting a rebuild. I want to see that for myself as when its running you cant hear any metallic noise or anything irregular to suggest that there is bearing problems. as well as that I didnt see anything like that when I was working on it.

wondering if he was just trying to stitch me up for a rebuild.

Any other suggestions?

Bore scope? have a look around in there and see if there is actually anything in there that shouldn't be.

I agree with above or maybe even a dial guage with a rod to check afew bores to see if its majorly different to the others all while its till together ie coming up higher then the other

Yeah they had a bore scope in there apparently. digital gauge is a good idea.

It now had a flat battery but I'm thinking ill get some jumper leads and swap the plugs around to see if it is doing as the mechanic suggested because I'm it sure it wasn't doing that when I was playing with it. :/