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BA XT mk2 Turbo Wagon Conversion


TurboWagoon

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  • Member For: 5y 8m 8d

Hi all,

 

Am a full newbie to the fordxr6turbo forum, or any forum for that matter, and just thought I'd share my experience in converting my BA mk2 XT wagon into a turbo/manual/lLSD equipped weapon.

 

Got a bit fed up with how much choice Expensive Daewoo fan's have when it comes to a quick wagon and was always pretty cut about ford never making a BA or BF (or even FG) wagon that had some poke. Massive missed opportunity.

Also, every new car on the market is a sh*thouse-suv-dog walking- sunday driving-gumby driven poo box, so making a fast taxi was a no-brainer in my books.



 

I've actually had the wagon for 8 years and used it for everything. Ranging from carrying a few hundred kilo's too many concrete bags in the boot through to weekend camping trips in the hills near where I live. It's actually pretty amazing where you can get one if you really try. Especially when it's your bed for the night and is the only car in the group that has a 'banging stezza'.

 

Anyway, I got a bit of inspo from looking at other members conversions on this forum where they'd converted their taxi's into turbo WMD's and thought I'd give it a red hot crack. So I got excited one night after a couple of bevvy's and found myself as being the proud owner of a beaten up xr6 turbo ute.

 

5 months later and I can finally say the conversion is complete and the wagon is running sweet as a nut. Completely stock in every way apart from a cold air snorkel from an FPV typhoon and a Turbosmart BOV and Turbosmart Wastegate Actuator. Have no idea what power it's putting out but it's enough for me at the mo.

 

Am looking to get a tune done at some stage in the future but the bank account won't allow that for a while so I'll just keep it as-is for now.

 

I got some gangstaaaaaaaaa wheels for it too and reckon they set the thing off perfectly.

 

Will post again soon to cover off on the issues I ran into along the way.

 

The reason I joined is to share what I came across during the conversion process cause I ran into heaps of conflicting advice from this forum and others and just thought I'd help clear things up where I could.

Edited by k31th
OP requested to remove some information
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After photo.

 

Lowered on superlow pedders springs (front) (about -50mm) and lowered pedders rear springs (about -30mm) with 1 inch lowering blocks (-25mm). I couldn't find any company that made superlow rear leaf springs to match the superlow front springs, so I chose to go with the lowered leaf springs in combination with lowering blocks. Being in a regional area there wasn't really much of a choice for getting my leaf springs reset.

 

The suspension setup works quite well and has the car sitting nice and level. It actually still rides quite well too (I think so anyway but I'm probs used to the stiffness now).

 

The rims are 19 inch FG-X Sprint Rims that I purchased brand new from ebay. Rims are staggered, being 8 inches wide up front and 9 inches out back. Pretty massive purchase but I'd been eyeing them off for over a year and couldn't find another rim that I liked anywhere near as much. I'm hoping that cause they're off the final falcon model that they'll hold their value if I ever want to sell them.

 

Tyres are 245/35/r19 front and 265/30/r19 rear. I made a pretty stupid mistake buying bigger rear tyres that didn't fit (I bought 275/35/r19). I thought the 275's would be ok but they fouled pretty hardcore on the guards. Initially I thought about rolling the guards but they also fouled on the rear plastic bumper so it was more trouble than it's worth. I ended up swapping the tyres out for smaller one's and it solved my issue nicely.

 

Anyway I found out the hard way so I would recommend using a tyre comparison site rather than just taking a punt like I did. This website was pretty useful cause it lets you compare up to 3 tyre sizes.

 

https://www.tyresizecalculator.com/

 

 

zuoFAVf.jpg

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Righto well here's the fully sick donor ute. Complete with a dint in every panel, every other piece of interior trim damaged, ruined tyres and gutter bashed rims. Whoever owned this thing was clearly into destroying cars, however they could.

 

It was actually a statutory write-off so it couldn't be rego'd again. Not really sure what drugs they were on cause the revs check said 'heavy structural impact, front driver side but apart from a broken bumper, smashed headlight and ruined guard it was all good underneath with no damage to the chassis or suspension at all.

 

However the thing ran and drove ok and it looked completely stock under the bonnet. Buying a stock xr6t was paramount for me.

 

AMu3FPb.jpg08bqeiB.jpgu3pndZy.jpg

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  • less WHY; more WOT
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  • Member For: 15y 11m 18d
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  • Location: Melbourne

:Welcome2FordXR6t:

looks like you've done a good job and look forward to hearing more about the progress and seeing more pics :):icon_ford::turboboink:

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Couple of pics of the engine bay.


Before I attach some after photos of the engine bay I thought I'd provide some before photos. Not too much to see here. Only mod's were a factory Ford cold air snorkel, that came on the FPV Typhoon's I believe, which fitted straight onto the factory airbox with only a few cuts of the grinder and a set of redback extractors and 2.5 inch exhaust. Both of these mods pretty much made no difference to the power output without a tune. But they kept me entertained whilst I saved for the turbo exchange.

 

One thing I noticed with my engine bay was that it was painted black. Not sure whether that's something that came on the MK2's but the ute and a few other wagons I've seen all have the engine bay painted the same colour as the rest of the car. I reckon the black engine bay was a much smarter choice. The amount of oil leaks that come out of the old 6 banger leave a lot to be desired. 

 

 

SwT5Pjl.jpg

 

o8Uadi6.jpg

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After photos!

 

Not too much fancy stuff to see here, just heaps of new gaskets and other boring bits. Which you can't really see :)

 

New powdercoat on the rocker cover was a worthy investment. I got it done at a local powdercoater for $200 which I thought was ok given that they needed to sandblast it back then paint it up. The old rocker cover had really bad staining from what looked like brake fluid or something so getting it coated was a good decision I think.

 

The actual coat isn't heat rated or anything. Apparently the standard powdercoat goes up to about 180 degrees, so it should be pretty safe. Getting the heat treated stuff increases the temp rating up to something like 500 degrees but I only had a choice of black or silver. As I wanted it to look factory I just went with flame red.

 

So far it's held up ok. Might not fare to well in summer but I reckon it'll be sweet. Only time and a few more k's will tell.

 

Oh and I bought the cold air intake from this seller on Ebay. https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/LOWER-COLD-AIR-INTAKE-CAI-SUITS-FORD-BA-BF-CAI-FALCON-XR6-TURBO-NEW-GENUINE-PART/261401727491?epid=1224864114&hash=item3cdcc1d203%3Ag%3AGEYAAOxySE9Q5nNa&_sacat=0&_nkw=ba+turbo+typhoon+air+snorkel&_from=R40&rt=nc&_trksid=m570.l1313

 

Not a bad upgrade I reckon. Once again, it helps with the full factory look but probs adds a couple of sneaky killerwasps with a tune. Which I havn't done yet but maybe one day.

 

Also, I didn't realise for a while, but the factory air intake snorkel on the turbo motor (I.e. the one that runs from above the radiator to the air box) is a bit bigger than the n/a one. There isn't much difference but it's definitely there. Easiest way to tell which one is which is that the turbo one has a small 'dint' in it near the corner of the engine block.

 

Oh and to deal with all those extra horses I decided to upgrade the front rotors to bigger 322mm BF falcon jobbies from the 289mm turd sandwiches that came on the BA's. Which I was obviously in the middle of doing when I took these pics. But more on that later.

 

yPkeS0w.jpg

 

btknOea.jpg

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