Ba xr6t extremely pitted cams.

[Glenelg15]

I bought a ebay wrecker motor and bolt ons for a na to turbo conversion on my xr6. Ill start off saying I don't want this thread to turn into to going into the cost etc involved with such a conversion. I know what I'm up for, I can do all the work myself and the car is something I have owned for a long time and taken very good care of so its worth it to me.

 

I took a gamble on this engine as for the price I paid I've already done well just for the turbo and the ecu alone so if the engine is good then I've walked away with a bargain. I've never heard it run and I only have the sellers word that it was a good runner so I will find out how true this is in time. The engine is filthy, oil leaks and silicone everywhere, ill be stripping it down and giving it new gaskets, water pump etc. I dumped the oil last night and took the rocker cover off to have a bit of a look. Everything is about how I'd expect except the cams are trashed, there is tons of deep pitting all over the lobes on cylinders 5&6. Some of the pitting is on the nose of lobes, some of the lobes its only the heel. The rollers on the lifters appear undamaged so I don't know really whats going on here. Perhaps the hardness issue that some people are reporting on the fg's applies to the ba as well?  Engines allegedly done 190,000, service history, probably occasionally? lived its life being thrashed? probably. 

 

Either way I'm going to have to factor in a set of cams now while I've got it all apart. Are the na 6 cams the same? I'm hoping they are because I can buy a whole damn na engine for $200 if I can't find any cams. Other then that the oil had nothing weird in it, feels to have plenty of compression turning it over with a breaker bar. Plugs all came out the same, no excessive oil residue in the intake indicating excessive blowby. I've yet to take the sump off to check out the bottom end.

 

Photos will come soon.  

Edited 02/02/19 07:58 AM by Glenelg15

[Glenelg15]

Edited 02/02/19 10:08 AM by Glenelg15

[4321]

Unfortunately normal, FG cams are supposed to be better, NA & turbo are same. Try & get a FG NA engine should be lower k's & better head, just put the turbo exhaust valves in it (they have a O cast on them & are supposed to be harder) Turbo's have stronger valve springs but not strong enough. BA's have 'glass rods' ( as jet described them) so maybe some second hand FG turbo ones if you can find them. A decent set of oil pump gears if the budget allows wouldn't go astray either. Use the timing assembly out of the FG engine it's a bit better. 

[Glenelg15]

that's good news to me that na and turbo run the same cams. That gives me the worst case option of just buying a whole na motor if I need to for the cams without having to spend a bucket load. Id take the ones out of the motor currently in the car but I want to be able to have the turbo motor ready to just drop in and go since I am doing the job in my mates shop which makes for a time limit.

 

As for stripping down the motor I don't plan on giving it a full rebuild, just taking off the sump, timing and rocker cover. Doing all the gaskets, mains seals, welsch plugs, water pump, thermostat gaskets, a timing chain if the guides are badly worn etc. Just an overall freshen up. Its never going to be a high hp build this one, probably no more then some minor mods and a tune around 230-250rwkw. I have to keep in mind the driveline is still NA spec with an m78 lsd which will be a major power limiting factor although a m86 rear end from a xr8/turbo is on the cards for the future if I find one nearby.

[4321]

Just remember that wreckers can't sell NA motors, nobody wants them. When my mate was wrecking them (he had a taxi workshop ) he used to get $50 each for scrap complete mtrs , he only ever bought low km cars  & in the end he just left the mtrs in the wreck & took the body to scrap.Like he said why have 60 mtrs when you might sell 2 a year

[Glenelg15]

I wish the wreckers in Tassie were like that. Down here they seem to hardly have any falcon parts and what they do have they want stupid prices for. A 300,000k barra with oil leaks and all the accessories stripped they would probably ask $700 for.  If I end up needing to buy a motor for cams I'll probably ring a few wreckers around Sydney/Melbourne and see if one will sell me an engine and remove the cams and send them to me.