greetings all - member from the dark side(s)

[MattyT]

Hi guys and girls........didnt know if this was the appropriate place to start a topic, but hopefully it works

My name's Matty. Im from Adelaide, mate of mine (Lukey - SLY-347) referred me here for a peek and a place to ask questions for some upcoming plans i have.

Current rides (theres 2, track and street).

Street (awaiting massive flaming for owning one): VR S pack ute. Yeah, practical to a point, came up at the right price when i needed a replacement daily / tow car, but just theres something irritating bout that Holden badge every time i look at my keys hahahaha. Was looking at Ford utes at the time, but nothing matched. Hoping once this car is tidied up a bit i can make a bit of $$$ on it to get what i really want

Track: Turbo R31 Skyline...........was a daily, got the 5-0 approval, now had a few bucks more spent on it for skidding the living shit out of it. Miss driving it on the street, but id get into too much trouble at the same time.

The reason i joined (as i hinted to before), Im semi investigating my options of trading up from my commonwhore ute. Ive decided that the ute isnt practical, so its time to look at a wagon, notably a BA. Why a BA? Im wanting a comfortable, modern car that has had a reasonable track record and looks half decent inside and out. Also having been passenger in a mates BA sedan whilst towing a similar car to mine last weekend the difference was noticeable. My ute struggles sometimes, and you notice that you have a car and trailer behind you. With the BA, it was only occasionally noticeable that there was a car there. Looking at a wagon over a sedan purely for the live axle rear end (i believe that the wagon has that setup right?) and practicality (can hav mates in the car or just take one mate and fold the seats and take other stuff too).

You're all probably saying by now "Just buy the damn thing". Theres one more key to the puzzle. I miss my boost from the Skyline. Ive also been in a couple of XR6T sedans, and the smoothness of power delivery (and power even at stock) was impressive. I am thinking if and when i get this wagon to either

a. Replace the NA motor with an XR6T engine
b. Use the XR6T Turbo gear / ECU etc and turbo the NA motor

I know its not likely to be cheap either way, so its going to be tinkering here and there beforehand and likely saving for the most reliable option.

Wanting advice as to what to look for when hunting for the car itself, then what is going to be my best option to achieve the craving for boost

Cheers all

[BI6TIM]

Awesome, a new guy who understands spelling and grammar!

The easiest way, I would think, would be to buy an XR6T that's been written off in the back and transfer all the engine bay contents over to the wagon.

[Commando]

Welcome mate,

Yes the BA wagons are awesome for haulage. I'd go option B, there's a bloke in bseries on AFF who turboed his XR6NA with relative ease. I'm trying to find the thread at the moment

Cheers

PS R31s are where it's at!

[stevo]

Welcome to the forum. Post up some pics of the R31, or is that the one SLY has already posted?

[MattyT]

cheers for the tips so far its definitely worth investigating (so when the option / cash comes up in 6 months time i know exactly what im looking at)

heres a few pics of the 31..........im not sure what ones lukey has posted LOL






and on track

[Commando]

hah! awesome!

Sorry, no luck in bseries, I couldn't find the car I was after. It's somewhere in there though

Cheers

[slo_sprint]

http://www.fordforums.com.au/showthread.php?t=80694

FTG Autosalvage did a Typhoon motor into a BA wagon, might be worth a look?

[[Sterling]]

Awesome slide pic's!! id put the F6phoon engine in the wagon, that would be awesome!
welcome anyway's mate!

[91ebxr8]

cool pics and its great to c a brother from another adelaide mother on here

[G3R3N]

Well those photos seem like evidence that this R31 rips!
Great work. Love the handbrake u have goin there too, seems like a serious piece of hardware.
Scott engine pics?

[MattyT]

engine pics of the 31.......she's nothing special (still reasonably stock) - RB20DET using stock turbo (13psi), front mount cooler, exhaust, GTR fuel pump, makes 158rwkw. Oh, it does have a change - instead of using the coil packs on plug for spark, ive had an AU Falcon coil pack wired in and a set of high temp leads made up. Wasted spark setup, but works the treat

[AaronEF8]

Welcome to the forums. Very nice lookin 31 you have, love the (lack of) interior and Japanese plates

Don't worry too much about the Commy ute, IMO they look better than a Falcon ute of the same vintage, and you can always sell Commodores to uneducated people for massive profit.

You're right, BA wagons still use the leaf sprung live axle rear, they are a decent setup though. If you wait for a few months until the FG is released, I'm sure BA/BF wagons will come down even more in price, as they won't be 'current shape' any more. (I know about BF3 wagons, but look at VZ3 wagons, $24k brand new). NA BA's respond pretty well to the usual basic NA mods anyway, so if you decide boost will cost too much for some time, you can still modify it a bit to be a better tow car. Just remember, BIG TRANS COOLER!!

Don't worry about the XR6T motor into a BA, put it in the Skyline! That would haul arse.

[MattyT]

NA BA's respond pretty well to the usual basic NA mods anyway, so if you decide boost will cost too much for some time, you can still modify it a bit to be a better tow car. Just remember, BIG TRANS COOLER!!

Don't worry about the XR6T motor into a BA, put it in the Skyline! That would haul arse.

Nice........was thinking down the lines of NA tweaks first then playing around with boost later (pretty much what i did when i bought the 31 as a stocker RB30E

And dont tempt me on the 4L into the 31...........RB's are easy, but too common. Slapping a Toyota 1JZ / 2JZ in has been done by a couple, but i think thered be a STUPID amount of power there.............id have to weigh it up in comparison to building a RB30DET

[Rollin]

Props for the drift31 man, good shit

There is a guy in brisbane who has done a 2J into a 31, the car has tried to kill him a few times, it's fast as fcuck I love it.

I very roughly measured the dimensions of a RB20 and a 4.0 a little while back - they seem to be nearly the same size externally - If you wanted a tuff NA motor you could throw an AU XR motor in with a bit of head work and a cam, it would prob do 170+rwkw without that much drama. I don't know how much the RB weighs in comparison to the 4.0 though, and it's a lot of work for an extra 10rwkw, but you wouldn't have any problems with waiting for boost or trying to keep the motor on the boil.

I'm not to sure on the comparitive strengths and weaknesses/modability of RB20 VS SR20, but I think maybe a worked SR would be the way to go, rather than doing anything with the RB? A shorter, lighter motor of the same capacity, that can be fitted further back in the chassis should do wonders for the handling.

Anyway, back to the wagon - you would have to decide on how much power you wanted out of it, and then you could make a decision as to weither turboing the NA motor is the way to go, or dropping in a turbo motor instead.

I don't know what the N/A motor is good for, but you'd imagine around 270rwkw would be no problem....if you get a BF turbo motor I've been assured that they are good for 400rwkw with an exhaust, injectors and tune

Who am I kidding? Put the turbo motor in!!!!

[private9]

Very nice 31 mate!

+1 for BA XR6T conversion into the 31!

[304-EF-Fairmont]

Hows it going Matty im Josh and in Adelaide to, what and where is the race track you were at?

nice 31

[Malakai]

I like the R31 for sure, the Japanese plates are a nice touch.

[AaronEF8]

I'm not to sure on the comparitive strengths and weaknesses/modability of RB20 VS SR20, but I think maybe a worked SR would be the way to go, rather than doing anything with the RB?

The RB is heaps better, there are a fair few people putting them into S13's nowdays. They're cheaper, more reliable, and easier to find in wreckers. They weigh under 50kg more than an SR20 as well.

Hows it going Matty im Josh and in Adelaide to, what and where is the race track you were at?

It's Mallala.

[MattyT]

I'm not to sure on the comparitive strengths and weaknesses/modability of RB20 VS SR20, but I think maybe a worked SR would be the way to go, rather than doing anything with the RB?

The RB is heaps better, there are a fair few people putting them into S13's nowdays. They're cheaper, more reliable, and easier to find in wreckers. They weigh under 50kg more than an SR20 as well.

exactly, beat me to it. Theres a whole heap of crossmember mods to fit an SR............even though it would take the motor right back to the firewall and leave enough room for a vee-mount intercooler setup it wouldnt be cost effective. SR's are still relatively expensive, and this was my street car. The RB20 was a direct drop in (using the RB30 engine mounts to fit it) and only required a mate hitting 4 wires up to fire the old girl up

When it comes to the wagon, the question of how much power id want will be the question. The other thing that's come to mind is (and its probably more a case of when rather than if) the legalities. Because the turbo motor was available in other BA models (ie the sedan and the ute) does that technically mean i can bolt it in, as long as i use the XR6T brakes? There's the debate with the RB30 turbo motor and RB20 turbo motors into 31s and we can never get straight answers.

This is why im investigating all my options now, especially knowing what Regency are like. Wanting to build a relative sleeper if i go down the path of the boosted wagon, but still have something fun too without costing me a packet, and especially not be stressing every time a cop car is following me too (like i used to be driving the 31). Assuming there'd be some difference in the size of brakes F/R on the turbo models as opposed to the normal NA versions.

[304-EF-Fairmont]

Cheers Aaron

[Rollin]

AFAIK XR6T and normal BA use the same brakes.

There would obviously be some extra sensors etc on the turbo motor/piping that you would need to fit up, but if you get a complete motor it should all go in. You'd piss off the factory cooler piping though, and fit a 600x300x100 ebay jobbie and custom pipes but - the stock one is crap.

[SLY347]

Bout time ya got here ya fool.
SR's are crap, they sound like truck engines. R25DET or Rb30DET FTW.
Clean the engine bay
Wagon should be a good idea, just follow the way of Dec's and and his RB KE71 and Gav's CA18DE Sigma