FG XR6T Build Details Unopened EFR 9180

[absmith]

Hello all, I have been on a journey of around 8 years with my FG. I penned the information to a mate a while back who was considering an XR6T,  but recently thought it might be worth sharing.

 

Here is a list of issues and modifications with my FG. It has something like 130,000km on it now. Mid 2008 model. Bought it with 20,000km’s on it from a dealer. It was owned by the Church before (no joke) I actually called the original owner as his name and number in the service book. He was an older guy and he didn’t have any issues with it, said he liked it for overtaking.

 

I have done all of the work on the car myself over the years. It was my daily driver for most of this time and the intention was to put together a good street package, this included handling and braking. I also wanted it to look as subdued as possible to not attract any attention, first thing I did was peel the turbo badge off when I brought it home. Set at standard XR6 ride height with stock rims and no tint, intercooler is also black. The only give away is the Harrop brake package.

 

Issues,

 

• A/C is pretty unreliable these days, I think there was a HIM issue but it isn’t helped by the intercooler in front of the condenser. The cooler is 3’’ thick so airflow is pretty poor across the condenser. If anyone knows about a fix for this please let me know.
• Pretty much all of the suspension bushings standard are too soft. Early days the diff used to sound like it was hitting the floor pan if any wheel spin occurred. I replaced shocks and springs but it didn’t help. In the end I put super pro polyurethane diff bushings in it and it was sorted. All three bushings were done, it requires the entire rear cradle to be removed. Under warranty I got the dealer to put them in for me, they were going to put new standard ones in but I just handed them the polyurethane ones on the day. This resulted in more drive line noise but it was worth it.
• Front upper inner control arm bushings are a bit soft, I replaced these myself with super pro polyurethane as well. This is not a must but I guess it helps to get a better feel in the steering.
• Front caster camber kits, I put Kmac ones in that allow for a lot more adjustment than the shim ones. I was unimpressed with the quality of the welds on the Kmac kits, so much so that I ground all of the welds off and re welded with my mig at home. I was hesitant to throw it into a corner very hard with the bird sh*t welds they had. I am happy with them since my modification and I would still use them again because the design and adjustability is good.
• Brakes, absolutely hopeless stock, not a fade issue for me. It was just shudder as soon as they got hot, definitely never experienced any fade and I was pretty hard on it (twisty/hilly country roads) every day, this said I backed off early because of shudder which certainly detracted from the driving experience. I tried Ferodo pads with DBA slotted rotors, (not cross drilled as I believe the cross drillings lead to cracking). Still developed brake shudder after 5,000km, it was a bit different to the factory rotor issue, with DBA is was a higher frequency shudder but still crap. I actually hit DBA up under warranty, they were very good about it and actually took me on a factory tour in Silverwater when I returned the rotors, they gave me a new set straight off on the day, I tried with these again, same issue developed. There are so many theories as to why the Falcons suffer from brake shudder but none are proven that I know of. Some say it is because there is a small amount of rust scale on the hubs that means there is a little bit of runout on the rotor which then causes the rotors to wear unevenly (thicker and thinner areas around the circumference) however my measurements never showed this. I would also expect the shudder to be there all the time if this were the case, not just when hot, which was not the case. Others say it is incorrect pad transfer to the rotor, apparently the pads lay a layer of material on the rotor and if this is inconsistent then shudder will occur, don’t believe this either. I recon the rotors are not thermally stable and warp when hot and then return to shape when cold. I can pretty much confirm it wasn’t my hubs because my Harrop brakes are on the same hubs and have done around 30,000 km without any issue. More on the Harrop brakes later.
• Rear control blade bushings were very soft as well, I replaced these as part of my efforts to get rid of axle tramp, I think it was never just one specific fix for the tramp, it was a combination of diff bushings, control blade bushings and shock and spring rates helped as well. End of story was it was fixed in the end and I could drop skids anywhere dry or wet without the issue, not that this was a daily occurrence but at least I could take off from a standing start without it feeling/sounding like I was going to break something.
• Glovebox lid wasn’t square, common issue replaced under warranty.
• Manual gear knob is leather wrapped from factory, this stretched over time. Replaced under warranty. It has stretched again but it isn’t really an issue.
• I have replaced one front wheel bearing and one rear needs doing now, not all that noticeable unless really pushing in a corner, bit a a click can be heard.
• Stock tyres are not great, don’t get cheap tyres either, it makes a big difference to grip and stability. I had to run high pressures in cheap tyres to get the thing to be stable at speed because the sidewalls are too soft, this compromises traction so it is not the best way to approach the issue. Better quality tyres is where it is at, currently Nitto NT 05's 245/45/18 on standard rims.
• Clutch, stock this held OK until 90,000km which was around the time I was pushing more power. It was OK at 300 RWKW but once I was at 350 RWKW it started to slip a little in 5^thand 6^th gear WOT.
• Shocks and Springs, too soft stock. Mine might have been an earlier model which had softer rates in it, I recon some of the hire car ones I drove in later years were pretty good in comparison. In fact, remembering back the brakes on those were fine with regard to shudder but fade was an issue although it took quite a bit to fade them (and they were smaller than the turbo ones).

 

From the above description, I don’t think there is much there that is a genuine warranty issue except the bushes and axle tramp and brakes. The rest is just a personal thing chasing a better handling package.

 

Modifications,

 

I tried a fair bit of stuff to get to where it is now, not worth listing it all though. The bit I would like to do extra would be tune for E85, bigger injectors to go with it and a second fuel pump. I just stayed with BP 98 because I like my country driving.

 

• Started with a PWR stepped intercooler now running a Nizpro intercooler and piping.
• Process west surge tank and bosch 044 fuel pump, likely to run 2x 044's in future if I play with E85.
• Plazmaman battery relocation kit
• K&N pod filter (the largest I could fit) hidden under a home fabricated stainless air box where the battery used to be. Bead blasted stainless, it looks a lot like the colour of the car (Lightning Strike) 
• ID 1000cc injectors- Might need to go to something larger if I go E85.
• 4’’ dump pipe from turbo to cat, I fabricated this myself at home
• 3.5’’ exhaust from cat back
• 5’’ 100CPI cat (kind of a token gesture of a cat, to me there isn’t much in the 100CPI cat's really)
• Started out with the GT3576 stock FG turbo, this ran 300rwkw at best, it then developed a bearing noise. I believe this is common so I changed to a GT3582 and installed an Earls oil feed line to prevent the issue happening again (oil starvation due to clogging of the stock filter screen, although I didnt see anything on my screen when I removed it). The GT3582 made 350 rwkw and certainly livened the car up. Finally, I went with a Borg Warner EFR 9180 turbo installed on stock low mount manifold. I like keeping the cars looking as factory as possible. I can't say what power this is making because I have never put it on a dyno since the change.
• Turbosmart fuel pressure regulator, this was a must, the stock pressure regulator couldn’t relieve the full flow of the Bosch 044 pump which resulted in all sorts of idle quality issues due to the fuel pressure being too high at idle.
• Mal Wood clutch (Option 5) It is a twin plate with billet flywheel.
• Atomic engine oil pump. It is common (mainly manuals) for the pump to shatter with high HP applications. No limiter bashing or free revving the engine if you are still running a stock oil pump in a manual falcon.
• Tuning is being done by me with HP tuners VCM suite
• Harrop Monoblock brake kit front and rear, these are 355mm rotors all round. I chose these instead of their ultimate kit because they fit under my factory 18’’ wheels (only just). If you get the ultimate kit from them you need to run different wheels. Very happy with these, I have found them excellent in all conditions, quiet never squeal work well hot or cold, importantly no shudder.
• Tein EDFC Super Steet coilovers, these can be adjusted from the cabin for damping rates. If you feel really tricky they can be set up to change damping rate depending on G forces force on accel and decel and lateral automatically but I don’t use it. They can also adjust depending on speed, again I don’t use it. Mine are just set to middle setting and that is about right for rougher country roads. I have been very happy with the Tein set up. It really transformed the car. I was running Bilstein front shocks, with Koni adjustable rears and king springs. It was better than stock but I was never really happy with it. A side note here, I think lowering these cars much below standard XR6T ride height is actually detrimental to handling, this might be due to me being on rougher country roads but I have never been happy with any of my cars handling if they were too low.

 

I don’t know how much power it makes these days with the EFR turbo on there. I have just tuned it myself on the street. Running about 25 PSI boost from 2500 rpm to redline. It can build boost earlier, say 10psi at 1900 rpm, 15 psi at 2200rpm. Something like that anyway, so for highway cruising it can make plenty enough power in 6^th gear to not worry about changing gears while on cruise control. My guess is around 400rwkw as it certainly has a lot more top end than it did with the Gt3582, the old Garrett seemed to nose over at about 4500 RPM. Again only a guess on the power number.

 

The good things stock,

 

• Diff, the M86 diffs are plenty strong enough and the LSD has copped plenty of abuse. 
• Tailshaft has been fine in mine, again I dont drop the clutch on it or abuse it too much. Normally put it in a gear and them put the foot down.
• CV shafts are fine, I think this is the case unless drag racing with slicks and auto trans, street tyres just act as a fuse to protect the tailshaft and CV's.
• Tremec TR6060 transmission are about as good as you can get, no issues whatsoever
• Stock unopened engine, no issues there (although I am surprised it has held in there), still stock valve springs at 25psi boost, no issues. I think the issue with valve springs is if trying to run high boost with small turbos the back pressure from a small turbine can hold the exhaust valves from closing causing a miss. It even survived an oil pump failure, just shut it down immediately at the time, pulled it apart and picked all of the chunks of metal out of the sump, a little depressing really. Shot some petrol up the main oil gallery leaving the oil pump with a clean white rag ready to catch what flowed back at me, no metal pieces up there so all good. It has done at least 60,000km since with no issues. I did put together an insurance policy after that experience in the form of a second engine ready to go. It started as an FG N/A engine out of a wreck with only 700km on it. New exhaust valves, some mild port work and better valve seat angles, Atomic rods, cosworth pistons, main girdle, new bearings ect. Ready for the next phase of the cars life.
• Interior is good
• Seats are good

 

Words of wisdom, if I was building from scratch again I would have skipped all the intermediate steps along the way and gone straight for the best components I could get first time around.

[k31th]

Very nice write up, mate. It's only missing some pics to go along with the story.

[arronm]

Yes and no.   25 psi is 25psi.  All 6 cylinders are firing at different times. There will be times in the cycle when the high boost , with weak springs,  will lift the valve off the seat and cause miss fire. 

[hopper8]

Great write up mate!! So do the harrop brakes fit inside the snowflake 18's? Or do you have different stock wheels? I just fitted DBA T3's to get rid of some shudder, will be interesting to see if it comes back :/

[espoig]

Great write up mate, would love too see some pictures of the engine bay with a 9180 tucked away

[absmith]

Thanks for the replies,

I wanted to put some pictures in however couldn't work out how to do it without using a link, I would like to just embed an image in the body of the message.

 

I think mine are the snowflake rims, once I work out how to put a picture up....

 

Harrop sent me some sweep profiles for the brake package, these were just some paper cut outs which I could hold up inside the wheel to check clearances. I fit the brakes up and they are bloody close, say 3mm clearance to the inner side of the spokes. Been on the car for a few years now and done maybe 30 or 50,000km's absolutely fine. 

 

I tried everything to fix my factory brakes, meticulously torqued the wheel studs every time, cleaned hubs, two sets of DBA slotted, machined factory rotors, different pads, polyurethane upper control arm bushes (there is a thread about brake shudder on Brembos being related to these bushes somewhere). None of it fixed the issue for more than around 7,000km before the shudder returned. Gave up on factory and went with $5k of Harrop package. 

 

On the valve spring issue, I have been told by a reputable tuning house that they have seen up to 60 psi back pressure in the exhaust manifold when pushing high boost with turbine housings and or wastegates that are too small. This said, with good set ups they have seen less than boost pressure in the exhaust manifold. Their angle was that it was the exhaust valves that were being held open rather than the inlet, I guess it could be both....

[k31th]

here's some instructions on how to post pics ->

http://www.fordxr6turbo.com/forum/topic/92470-how-to-put-images-in-your-post/

[HI PSI]

You certainly don't muck around, do you....   Well done mate, I look forward to reading more about your experience. And the pics too...

[absmith]

OK, I think I have worked out the picture side of things so here we go. Images of the car, as explained about as boring as it can be, just looks like a stock hire car which was the intent. It is about an inch higher now since I put Tein coilovers in it. On close inspection a couple of the shots are from a long while back so have factory ride height. At least one of the shots has a clue to its location in the background.

 

Will post some pics of the EFR as a second installment.

 

 

[k31th]

looks the goods, buddy