KWIKXR's EF Fairmont Turbo

by **Michael (HYPOEB)** » January 5th, 2012, 7:33 pm

The bay is looking shit hot! Your interior<3

by **sikwags_218** » January 6th, 2012, 8:34 am

Shit hot there Kwikxr. Looks like you have done a top effort, so much win in your engine bay. :good:

On the note of your cam, my daily EB has a crow cam in it and does the same thing at idle. Constantly hunts and I believe this is due to the quite large cam overlap, which slows down the combustion chamber burn, which results in unburt fuel and air, thus giving you the hunt. It will clear up when reved as the volumetric efficiency of the motor is quite large and the ingested fuel and air can be completley burnt giving full combustion. Mine needs a propper tune to fix this but as a band aid solution I raised the idle on mine to about 1000rpm and can somewhat get away with this even if its not ideal.
So with a good tune no doubt it can be fixed

Cam will be sweet when al good and can be driven should give a good increae in power and torque :yahoo:

Cheers Scott :drinks2:

by **kwikxr** » January 6th, 2012, 8:58 am

Michael (HYPOEB) wrote:The bay is looking shit hot! Your interior<3

Cheers Michael

. It's getting there, just wish I could pull the engine out and do a similar job to what you've done with EB engine bay, looks smooth as!

sikwags_218 wrote:Shit hot there Kwikxr. Looks like you have done a top effort, so much win in your engine bay.

On the note of your cam, my daily EB has a crow cam in it and does the same thing at idle. Constantly hunts and I believe this is due to the quite large cam overlap, which slows down the combustion chamber burn, which results in unburt fuel and air, thus giving you the hunt. It will clear up when reved as the volumetric efficiency of the motor is quite large and the ingested fuel and air can be completley burnt giving full combustion. Mine needs a propper tune to fix this but as a band aid solution I raised the idle on mine to about 1000rpm and can somewhat get away with this even if its not ideal.
So with a good tune no doubt it can be fixed

Cam will be sweet when al good and can be driven should give a good increae in power and torque

Cheers Scott

Thanks Scott

That's exactly what it sounds like. I tried playing around with the idle screw and managed to get it to not stall whilst trying to idle, but even then it's constantly hunting between 500 and 1500rpm and blowing black smoke out the exhaust, fouling plugs, the usual. Was an absolute mission trying to adjust the idle whilst the engine was shaking about lol.

Gonna have another play with it today and see what happens. Since it's my daily driver, if worse comes to worse, the cam will come out and I'll put my old one back in and maybe have another go with it later on down the track. Thank god for the OHC i6 motor :lol:

by **kwikxr** » January 6th, 2012, 11:35 am

Well after a quick chat with the old man, I've decided to pull the cam out and put my old mild grind back in. Should go a bit better than before anyways, now that it has a non-leaking headgasket, a bit more compression and a ported head.

Heard back from Jason/TiPerformance and the base tune has had alterations with fuel, spark and base idle to help it idle, this seems to be working fine for guys running cam's like the Wade 1521a so in theory should have worked to a similar degree. All I can put it down to is the cam's valve overlap, maybe a bit too much so is affecting the vacuum by a great deal - when it tries to idle, vacuum is down around 5-10 in-hg, no wonder it's dumping heaps of fuel :lol:

Anyways, here's a last video of it before the cam comes out, lol.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guljG0LH ... e=youtu.be

Seems to rev out nice and smooth above 2500rpm (actually feels heaps more responsive than my old cam), anything below is a different story haha. It's a shame though, won't get to see how well this cam could have gone, but I'll keep it and maybe have another go with it in the future. Since the Fairmont is my daily, I want/need it running soon.

I guess we'll have to see how it goes with the old cam for now. Might just end up sticking with it and getting the J3 chip re-tuned to suit

by **sikwags_218** » January 6th, 2012, 12:33 pm

Gee that does sound rich as man. Thought the pre programed tune would have made it run a bit nicer than that :shock:

Can anyone in NZ tune the J3 man? Could just get a custom tune suirted to your rig

by **kwikxr** » January 6th, 2012, 2:17 pm

Yeah that's what I was thinking too, maybe the cam is a bit more aggressive than it seems

. Had a chat with Jason and he offered to take some more fuel out of the tune at idle, but shipping times back and forth across the ditch take a while due to how slow NZ post operates and I need the car running by next week as it's my daily and need it to get to work lol

Modding a daily FTMFL!!

Nah, there's no one in NZ who tunes these things that I know of. The closest I could get to a custom tune was a piggback ECU (Map2 ECU or something like that) and would cost me about 2k installed and tuned :shock:

. The modded e-series scene in NZ is nearly non-existant though so that's why.

by **Bob Lablaw** » January 7th, 2012, 4:21 pm

kwikxr wrote: The modded e-series scene in NZ is nearly non-existant though so that's why.

At least its a bit unique here, your car stands out at the shows already with that interior. Bring it down to All Ford Day in Tauranga

by **kwikxr** » January 7th, 2012, 5:27 pm

Bob Lablaw wrote:
kwikxr wrote: The modded e-series scene in NZ is nearly non-existant though so that's why.

At least its a bit unique here, your car stands out at the shows already with that interior. Bring it down to All Ford Day in Tauranga

Yeah mate, that's one upside to it for us. It's definitely something a little different from the dominant Jap import scene up in Auckland thats for sure.

I'll try get it to Tauranga for AFD, would be an awesome drive down and be great to catch up and see your boosted EF again. Haha, still can't believe I saw it at Hamilton AFD last year, was a bit of trip when I saw it drive in after we parked up :grin:

Anyways, while I'm here..

Put the old cam back in yesterday so the car is back up and running again. A little gutted that we couldn't get the cam to work with the tune, but at least I know that now and know what's needed if I ever decide to try again with it. I have my other ported '91AA' head which I've decided to keep away for a bit more extensive work, so I guess I could always rebuild a decent AU bottom end, bolt it all together and see what I can get out of it - but anything like that will be a while away yet.

Haven't driven the car yet, but it feels a lot better than it did before. Rev's out a lot harder and just sounds stronger probably from the extra bit of compression and a non-leaking headgasket :lol:

. Will be interesting to see how much of a difference the ported head makes. Plan is to try get it on a dyno soon and see how it goes, maybe plug the J3 chip in and see how well it runs with the tune that's on it (currently the chip is unplugged). Depending on how AFR's are with the chip, it might get sent back over to TI for another custom tune to suit.

Just found the cam spec's for the cam that's in it now, pretty small profile but goes okay

Cam lift: .240" in / .253" ex (valve lift .480 in / .506 ex based on 2:1rr)
Duration @ 50thou: 195.6deg in / 195.1deg ex
Overlap @ 50thou: -27.1deg
LSA: 111

by **kwikxr** » January 8th, 2012, 9:27 pm

Sorted out the intake this arvo and managed to take it out for it's first drive in like 5 days :lol:

Made a few changes to the intake as the old one was rubbing on the bonnet and one of the silicon joiner clamps was cutting into the BBM upper

. Seem to have fixed that issue now.

Gave the rocker cover one final coat of wax, got some autosol onto the thermostat upper housing, BBM upper and PWR coolant tank so it should look all good for a while.

Couldn't get a decent drive today as the roads were pretty greasy from the rain we've had over the weekend. The engine definitely feels a lot stronger though, nothing extra noticeable down low, but it seems to pull a fair bit harder coming up to 3krpm and upwards. Midrange feels a bit more responsive too. Nothing staggering overall, but a bit better than what I was used to before. But since it was wet, it was hardly a good test though, really only managed to play around in 1st and 2nd gear when having a bit of fun.

Only downside so far is lifter tick, I'm running the same extra 1mm shim's I was running before but now it sounds like my lifter to valve clearances may be a little excessive so will have to check that properly during the week.

by **kwikxr** » January 8th, 2012, 9:28 pm

Whoops, double post..

by **TechXR** » January 8th, 2012, 9:29 pm

VERY nice car! Where did you get the blue radiator hoses from?

by **kwikxr** » January 8th, 2012, 9:36 pm

Thanks mate! The radiator hoses are some Gates Racing ones, got them through Repco. It was on clearance since a customer ordered it in, but never paid for it or something.

Price was cheaper than buying new normal aftermarket hoses so I thought I'd grab them lol

by **apoc** » January 8th, 2012, 9:40 pm

Rocker cover looks mint! I picked up some of the red duplicolour for cheap, and painted mine. Came up pretty nice, not quite as good as yours though

by **kwikxr** » January 11th, 2012, 8:48 pm

Hey apoc, cheers mate! The Duplicolor red is a mint colour, spray on enough coats and it almost looks candy red. I did one a while ago and it was pretty wicked, looked candy red in the shade, but had this orange look about it under sunlight. It's awesome stuff straight out of the can though :cool:

Anyways, have got the J3 chip in at the moment and it's feeling a little extra stronger now. Easily the best it's felt all round performance-wise to date lol

Definitely doesn't feel as doughy as it used to down low (under 2500rpm) compared to before, and definitely feels a lot different between 3-5krpm which is good. Too bad the diff gearing is so tall, it really winds out

I really want to get it on a dyno asap though, just to see where the AFR's are at with the chip and see if it'll benefit much from some changes. Not overly concerned with actual power figures at this stage as I know it'll still be fairly low. It feels a lot stronger than when it got dyno'd last time though, but probably lucky to have mid 140kw at the wheels lol. As long as the AFR's are in check, that's the main thing, which means it should be safe to thrash a bit :lol:

Fingers crossed I can get it on a dyno by Saturday (preferably Protune again as their AFR vs RPM readout sheets are quite good) and see how it all goes.

Took it out for decent drive today and gave her a wash for the first time in a few months lol - managed to grab a quick video of it at home with a few little rev's..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bWcf_zkEJ0

by **dannysebxr6** » January 11th, 2012, 8:59 pm

looking good kwikxr,
the engine bay looks mint.
good luck at the dynos heres hoping you get a bit more than you expect.

Cheers
Daniel

by **LUVSIT** » January 12th, 2012, 5:20 pm

loving every single bit on this car, looking real good, keep it up

by **kwikxr** » January 21st, 2012, 5:12 pm

^^ Cheers guys

Well, still waiting to get dyno time. Back to work now, and all 3 workshops with dyno's that are local are booked out for a few weeks in advance. Will most likely get it done in Feb sometime, however trying to get a place that will run it on a weekend is a big ask it seems :scratch:

Anyways, nothing much has changed lately. Just driving it/enjoying it at the moment. Decided to put my normal rear wheels back on and finish the tyres off properly today. Bought a suction mount camera bracket (similar to those GoPro ones) and had a play around. Seems to work okay and sticks pretty well, just need a decent camera, a tightly shimmed LSD and obviously more power

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06rVX2UZBWs

Tried doing some in-car video's but that was a fail since there was so much wind noise as I left the front windows down and then the camera batteries died :banghead:

After a few decent pulls and then hard on the brakes, it decided it had enough. Had to pull up for a set of lights a few minutes later and when I got on the brake pedal it almost hit the fkn floor! Not fun at all, had to limp it back home with a brake pedal that needed to be pumped a good 3 or 4 times before it had any pressure in order to stop. Haven't had a chance to look yet, but I'm guessing it'll be air in the system no doubt, just have to find the source.

by **nvdbyu** » March 9th, 2012, 5:33 pm

wish my engine bay and interior looks like that

interior i will be doin something simialr in the next few weeks, but really interested in the engine bay and how much it all set ya bak

by **kwikxr** » March 9th, 2012, 9:33 pm

Haha, I wouldn't have a clue/want to know how much I've spent in the engine bay. For the money I've spent in there from the start, I could probably have a decent budget turbo setup right now :lol:

While I'm here may as well make an update I suppose. Not much to update on unfortunately lol..

Got stuck back into work and lost motivation with the Fairmont for a bit. I bought another spare cam last month in hope of sending it off for another profile that was a bit less aggressive than the cam that I done last. Looked through profiles from Auckland Cam's again and saw their 'mild sport grind', which looks pretty similar in spec to a Wade 977b. I'm pretty much decided on that profile as it would best suit what I have at the moment, but with my lack of motivation, the spare cam is still sitting here in the garage lol. Hopefully I get my A into G and get it sent off within the next few weeks so I can get that done and swap it over.

The engine is still going strong, still running my old cam. Never bothered to put it on a dyno as I want to upgrade the cam to something better before I get the J3 re-tuned to suit. but had a few niggling issues over the last week. Car started running rough randomly on random start up's, whole car shaking, blowing black smoke out the exhaust, idling like it had big **** off cam in it etc. Turn it off, start it back up and it'd run fine again

. Then one day on the way home, it started spluttering randomly whilst driving and then cut out twice when coming to a stop in traffic. Got it home, took out the J3 chip and the problem hasn't come back since. I'm hoping it's not a problem with the J3 chip itself, but possibly a seating issue on the port; it's something I'll look into this weekend anyway.

It's been running without the J3 chip all week and the car just feels sluggish as compared to when it was in. Feels like it has no pull down low and is chewing through fuel a fair bit faster. Can't wait to get the chip back in so I can re-gain what I've lost, can't believe how noticeable it is, the extra few degree's of timing and trimmed fuel were working wonders for it :shock:

Here's the only recent picture I've got of it. Went out to watch the latest round of D1NZ drifting and it looked quite dumped in the car park lol..

Front suspension has been giving me the shit's a bit lately. At the moment, the lowest part of the car at the front is the swaybar which is about 90mm off the ground at present. Ever since it got lowered again when the Koni's went in, it's bottomed out the swaybar numerous times on carpark speed bumps, scraped the K-frame a few more times to add to it's previous scars, extractor/exhaust flange and centre muffler have been getting scuffed daily on the speed bump on my street before my house lol - bloody annoying! It handles mint and looks good at that height so I want it to stay that way. Has a bit of negative camber, but haven't bothered to take it in for an alignment unless I get new tyres. Not sure how much more adjustment there is in the camber kit, it already has 6 shims fitted lol.

The rear needs to go lower, which will happen soon with some new springs (most likely King ultralow's) but I think I'll be needing to look for some XR upper trailing arms to help correct pinion angle which seems a bit off at the current height right now causing slight vibration.

Currently, I'm working on a master cylinder stopper to help with brake pedal feel and reduce flex from the booster. Got the idea from SNR's build thread and after recently bleeding the brakes, I actually saw how much the booster flex's with pedal depression. Got some 6mm aluminium 'L' plate from work and whole heap of stainless bits and pieces to make something up. Basically it'll be a fixed bracket on the upper strut mounting points, with a bolt used to adjust/limit the travel of the master cylinder. In theory, this should give a better pedal feel too, which is what I'd love seeing as I've always had a relatively soft feeling brake pedal with this car. Plan is to get it looking like the cardboard template but with a triangular support bracket in between the 'L' to prevent it from bending in on itself when the booster/master cylinder moves. Unsure of how I'll finish the L bracket once it's done, was thinking of painting it anodized blue to match the rocker cover but I'll decide when I get to that stage.

Not sure how well it's going to work, but we'll see how it goes when I get back to working on it lol..

Got Auckland All Ford Day coming up in the end of April so I've got a few more weeks to get the Fairmont up to scratch

. Fair few things I need/want to do before then..

Engine bay is pretty much set, just a good clean up and a quick once over with metal polish on the alloy bits will bring it up nice. I have noticed a few rust bubbles up around the driver side shock tower so that's something I'll have to sort out quick smart. Apart from that, everything else will be straight forward with a bit of luck, the exterior will get a good detail (it's first proper detail since the last AFD back in July last year) and the interior a good clean.

Bought a set of 17x8" CSA Gladiators for it which I'll hopefully be picking up tomorrow. Apparently they've got the usual curbing marks so I'll probably fix them up and repaint them, not sure what colour, but I want something dark-ish as I'm over silver. Just need to find some suitable tyres and then they'll go on, hopefully with the right tyres, they'll give me a little more ground clearance.

Bought a new headunit too, just an old school Pioneer deck (DEH-P8450mp), but one that has some nice tuning features like time alignment, which I've longed I muck around with. The current one is only good for it's USB input, but just doesn't have the tune-ability I need/want so it has to go.

Should be getting the windows tinted soon. Paid for a voucher to get it done cheap back in July last year, still haven't taken it in to get done lol. So much CBF right now :lol:

by **kwikxr** » March 19th, 2012, 7:28 pm

Alright, brake master cylinder stopper thingo has been put on hold for the time being. CBF with it right now, plus I have to take it somewhere to have a support bracket TIG'd in place and I just don't have the time or know anyone that can do it for me lol.

Picked up the new wheels. Surprisingly, they were in pretty decent nick for wheels that hadn't been reco'd before and came with all centre caps which is awesome. Minimal curbing and deep scratches, although the previous owned did grind/file down any curbing on the outer edge of the rim so that made my life a bit easier. Decided I want to do them in gloss black so got stuck into that tonight. Having a bit of shit weather here at the moment, so only got one done for now, hopefully the weather clears back up so I can try get the rest done after work during the week and then save for tyres over the next 2 weeks or so. I'm wanting 235/45's up front and 255/40's in the rear to fill the guards a little better.

Cleaned them down with brake cleaner and a high pressure hose.

Sanded the entire wheel back with 320grit wet, primed it with 3 coats of VHT grey filler primer and then wet sanded the surface smooth with 600grit wet

After 4 coats of Duplicolor Gloss Black engine enamel, followed by 3 coats of VHT clear coat wheel paint, I have 1 down and 3 to go lol

Finish looks pretty decent I guess, not bad for something straight out of a spray can :lol:

by **nvdbyu** » March 20th, 2012, 5:13 pm

atleast you new not to paint in where the wheel nuts go, lol so many ppl do that and wonder why there wheel nuts keep slowly loosening lol

by **kwikxr** » April 7th, 2012, 9:35 am

Wheels are finally finished now :mrgreen:

Ended up getting some 2nd hand Bridgestone Potenza RE711's in 235/45/17 for the front, still have heaps of tread and the tread pattern is just sexy. The rear's are some 2nd hand but near new Maxgrade SIII's in 255/40/r17, not sure how well they perform, but they were cheap enough so if they are shit, I'll use them up and save for some Bridgestone RE002's

Managed to get the wheels finished yesterday/this morning and dropped them off a few hours ago to have the tyres fitted. Just got to give them a quick waxing before they go on

by **kwikxr** » April 7th, 2012, 6:59 pm

Chucked the wheels on this arvo, pretty damn happy! Even Mike Tyson couldn't knock the smile off my face right now lol..

Sits pretty damn low up front, scrubs on something on full lock, assuming it's just the plastic guard lining as it clears the guards no worries, but I'll look into it.

Noticed a massive improvement in handling and just the overall feel of the car. The ride is a fair bit more firmer (feels a hell of a lot more firmer when driving on rough roads lol), and sits nicely on the road. Steering response has improved dramatically thanks to the hard as Bridgestone rubber on the front. The rear shocks definitely need to be revalved a little softer though, it's quite harsh now that there is less sidewall, especially for backseat passengers.

I have a bit more ground clearance now, can manage to get over the speedbump outside my house without scraping with passengers, whereas with the 16's, it would scrape the centre muffler with only me in the car.

I also can see the slotted rotors better now, looks quite cool haha.

by **TechXR** » April 7th, 2012, 7:26 pm

So much win! Good job with the rims mate!

by **apoc** » April 7th, 2012, 7:29 pm

Wow! Looks awesome

no issues with tailshaft rub? Mines gettin it chronic now lol

by **kwikxr** » April 7th, 2012, 7:47 pm

TechXR wrote:So much win! Good job with the rims mate!

Thanks mate :drinks2:

apoc wrote:Wow! Looks awesome no issues with tailshaft rub? Mines gettin it chronic now lol

Cheers mate! :drinks2:

Haven't had any issues with the tailshaft rubbing the underbody yet, probably will once I lower the rear another inch or so lol, so I'm still deciding on that. I have a bit of vibration due to pinion angle, but it's nothing major. Only real problem I've had apart from the usual scraping, is the small muffler on the rear/tail pipe section hitting the underbody of the car, every little bump in the road cause it to knock quite loud.

by **NOEXQS** » April 29th, 2012, 10:42 am

Nice ef man, where in auckland are you - im out west got a slammed ef wagon, and looking to do the cam and J3 chip thing so id be keen to know what tune and cam works best for you. I can TIG weld too if that helps you out?

by **sikwags_218** » April 29th, 2012, 10:50 am

Man that looks mint so much win. I love the look of it :cool:

Well done keep up the good work
Cheers Scott :drinks2:

by **kwikxr** » April 29th, 2012, 3:34 pm

NOEXQS wrote:Nice ef man, where in auckland are you - im out west got a slammed ef wagon, and looking to do the cam and J3 chip thing so id be keen to know what tune and cam works best for you. I can TIG weld too if that helps you out?

Thanks man! Good to see some more NZ'ers up on here. I'm from South Auckland

Slammed EF wagon sounds mint, gotta love a low wagon! I'm still experimenting with cam's at the moment (have only used one's from NZ based cam companies, but there's lots of proven profiles from various companies in Aussie. J3 chip from TiPerformance are a must I reckon, especially if you start getting into engine mods and want to get the most out of it. I noticed a definite increase in torque pretty much all over the rev range just from trimming some fuel out of the map and adding some timing. Jason @ TI does an excellent job with tunes :drinks2:

It's good to know you can TIG weld, have been looking for someone locally who can do cashie jobs for some small things I usually need done haha. Might be hitting you up about some stuff in the future dude!

Seeing as you're from NZ, you should come register on http://www.nzfordforum.com/forum

Just an NZ based forum for us Ford nutters haha. We have occasional meet ups every now and then, cruises etc. Funnily enough, we just had one today for us Aucklander's and a couple of others from Whangarei - was mint!

sikwags_218 wrote:Man that looks mint so much win. I love the look of it Well done keep up the good work
Cheers Scott

Thanks Scott! :drinks2:

. I'm pretty stoked with how it looks now

by **kwikxr** » April 29th, 2012, 8:41 pm

Well nothing much has changed lately.. Although my rear brake pads did give out a few warning signals on Friday after work, and then started making some odd grinding and squealing noise on Saturday on the way home from work..

Had a bit of a 'lol' when I pulled them out. Luckily the old man had a few spare sets of Motorcraft pads which he brought over when we moved from Aussie a good 10+ years ago. Thank god he brought over a massive storage box full of various Ford parts :mrgreen:

Our Auckland All Ford Day was cancelled 2 weeks out from the big day, which was today. So instead, a couple of us guys and gals from the New Zealand Ford Forum got together for a mini meet/ford show of our own, and then headed out for a cruise. Was an awesome day!

by **superhuS!** » April 29th, 2012, 8:46 pm

This looks absolutely stunning. You've inspired me to dress up my engine bay when I get my car back.

Thought about a ticky kit at all?

by **kwikxr** » April 29th, 2012, 9:01 pm

Thanks mate! :drinks2:

Yeah man, I have definitely thought about fitting a kit to it. Always loved the look of the ticky kit on a nice EF/EL, with your's and Wolfblass' being prime examples. Wasn't much help having it sitting next to that 5.0 Ghia all day in the same colour with the kit either lol.

Main thing holding me back is practicality, which is ironic since the front end is borderline stupid in terms of ride height and suspension travel right now. I know the front lip at least would last less than a week before it got smashed/scratched/fucked on a driveway or speed bump or something.

by **superhuS!** » April 30th, 2012, 1:48 pm

Lol. Koni's to stiffest setting, and faster than 10km/h over a speed bump and it's suicide. You learn to live with it

by **LUVSIT** » April 30th, 2012, 10:56 pm

looks good to how you have dressed the grill up. The chrome surrounding looks good agaisnt the dark green

by **kwikxr** » May 26th, 2012, 12:28 pm : **galapogos01 Likes this post**

Cheers LUVSIT :drinks2:

Anyways, while I'm here, may as well update with the good news :mrgreen:

Had another cam done for the Fairmont from the same company that ground the previous cam I trialed and didn't have much success with.

This cam is a lot less aggressive, would be a bit similar in spec to the Wade 1521a judging by duration specs. Had this profile ground on a 114deg LSA to give it a bit more of a broader powerband and little less grumpy down low. Powerband is roughly 2200-6000rpm.

Profile: Auckland Cams #840
Lobe Lift: In .254"/Ex .254" (so .508" at the valve with the 2:1 rocker ratio)
Duration @ .050": In. 216deg/Ex 217deg
LSA: 114deg

I first fitted the cam 2 weeks ago, and it was much like the previous Auckland Cams #268 profile. Wouldn't hold idle, would hunt between 500rpm and 1500rpm constantly, mainly because the ISC would **** around trying to get it to return to idle before trying to stall lol. Dumped fuel out the exhaust for Africa, seriously it wouldn't have surprised me if AFR's were in the mid single digits lol. Was going to just pull it out and chuck the old mild cam back in, but decided to stick with it and make it work.

So I persisted with the Auckland Cam's #840 grind, managed to borrow a J3 programmer off an awesome mate, and with a bit of research on tuning guides and some guidance from Jason @ TiPerformance, decided to give tuning the chip to suit the cam a go...

After a few late nights altering a revised tune Jason sent me...

The Fairmont lives! :mrgreen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOEmitJ_e0E

Pretty wrapped with it, considering it could have been so much easier to just pull it out and put the old mild cam back in. It's definitely a nice feeling just listening to the 4.0 motor idle away with a bit of a lope to let you know the cam is there :lol:

.

Had to take a fair bit of fuel out by altering the VE table around the idle ranges (even though it had already been altered to take a fair bit of fuel in the first place!) to stop it hunting constantly and to lean out the mixture so it wasn't dumping mass amounts of fuel out the exhaust. The exhaust fumes have put a giant black stain on the fence behind so that's what I was using to gauge the air fuel mixture, till I can get some dyno time :lol:

.

Starts from cold perfectly fine, don't even need to put the foot on the accelerator to keep the revs up or nothing which came as a shock to me. I have it idle set to around 850rpm in Park (sits at about 1000rpm after a cold start then drops down after warming up) and around 800 in drive. Best I can get the manifold vacuum is 17in-hg in Park/Neutral and around 15in-hg in Drive, so the cam definitely has a hefty amount of valve overlap, probably not the best for a street car, but I'll wait and see how it drives on the road and make a final decision then. Rev limit is set to 5800rpm, didn't want to trust a stock near-on 250thou km bottom end with anything higher lol.

Haven't driven the car yet, mainly because I have a slight problem I need to fix first. I'm getting a bit of chain slap now around the 2000rpm mark. I know I had a little bit of slap at the same speed after the ported head went on (probably due to being shaved and the thinner headgasket) but it seems worse now after the new cam has gone in. Have reset the tensioner numerous times now, made sure the small oil holes weren't blocked etc and can confirm that it is putting tension on the chain, however it seems to be slapping only at that certain RPM and sounds quite horrid. Reminds me of all the Jim Mock cam + chain noise horror stories so many people experienced

I'm going to have a play with the tensioner later on, maybe see if I can somehow 'shim' it to put a little more tension on the spring. Sounds dodgy as fark but apparently a few people with the Jim Mock cams that had problems, fixed it with shimming the tensioner mechanism.

Apart from that.. Happy as fkn Larry :mrgreen:

by **dannysebxr6** » May 26th, 2012, 12:58 pm

nice work mate.
good to see you got the beast running relatively good now.
car looks tops to man and the rims look awesome nice work there.
cheers
Daniel

by **kwikxr** » June 24th, 2012, 10:08 pm

Cheers Danny :drinks2:

Well, not much has progressed since last time. It's been running pretty well actually, apart from some annoying timing chain slapping at around 2000rpm, sounds ugly as fark anytime the rev's hit that region :evil:

Tried shimming the tensioner with a flat washer to compress the spring a bit more/put a little more tension on the chain guide but it didn't do much at all really. CBF with it anymore, I've been driving like that for the past few weeks with zero problems so I'll just keep an eye/ear on it and continue on.

Definitely has a shitload more pull from 3000rpm up to the 5800rpm limiter, actually feels like it'll keep pulling past there, but on a stock bottom end with a fair few km's on it, I don't want to kill it just yet. It does feel quite gutless below 2000rpm though, so would be great if I could safely add a few more degree's of timing but I'll have to wait till it goes on a dyno and buy myself a J3 programmer before any of that will happen.

The idle is lovely, has a fairly decent lope at idle, but the twin 3" tip at the end of the exhaust gives the lope this weird 'putting' sound. Plan is to get that fucker cut off asap and have a 3" dump style tip welded in after the rear muffler, but recessed so it can't be seen, then will have a go at filling the cutout in the rear bar for a 'smooth' look.

Still haven't had time to put it on the dyno to check AFR's. 98% sure it's still running pretty rich from the midrange upwards, as I never really touched that part of the tune at all. The tune doesn't seem too far off though, doesn't have any flat spots, no signs of pinging etc so, so far, so good *touch wood*.

Would definitely benefit from a 2800rpm stall at the very least, just to get it up into it's powerband quicker. Will probably get the diff rebuilt eventually, possibly with a locker fitted and get my 3.89:1 gears put in at the same time which should have it moving along nicely then. After that's done, I'll probably be done with this build, leave it as my weekend car or daily it depending on what I buy next and what I plan to do with it.

Anyways, made a few changes to the audio setup which is about all that's changed in the past few weeks.

Pulled out my DLS UP6 midbass woofers from the front stage and replaced them with Digital Designs DDCS6.5 midbass woofers for a bit more midbass emphasis up front. Pulled out my Response Precision kevlar midbass woofers in the rear and chucked them in my old man's EF XR6. I bought some Digital Designs CXS6.5 2-way coaxials to put in the rear, but had an issue with one speaker, so they haven't gone in just yet.

Also pulled out the Image Dynamics IDQ12v2D4's in favour of some ID12v3D4's which I had sitting around begging to be used. So far, it sounds a lot better than before. Doesn't have the detail and accuracy of an SQ system (or even as much as it did with the old DLS midbass woofers and IDQ sub's), but still sounds pretty nice overall and sounds like it has the potential to play louder more comfortably.

Didn't bother using the DD tweeters or crossovers in the front, much preferred the Response Precision ribbon tweeters and CS2327 passive crossovers I have been running for the past year or so.

Pulled out the DLS UP6 woofers

And in went the DD CS6.5 woofers

(ID12V3)New sub's VS (IDQ12V2)Old sub's

Boot install at the moment

Bought a Pioneer DEH-P8650MP headunit to replace the Pioneer DEH-P4150UB unit that I installed previously. Only good thing about the P4150UB was USB functionality, everything else was average. The P8650MP is a fairly old headunit now (circa 2005) but was a pretty high end unit in Pioneer's range in that era.

Basic rundown, all the usual Pioneer shit but with some nice features:
3x 6.5v preouts (Front/Rear/Sub)
13 band graphic EQ
Time Alignment
2-way crossover (HPF/LPF - Separate HPF for front and rear)
3-way digital network
OEL display etc
Mic for Auto EQ and TA

Just need to make up a surround piece to fill the gap, but so far it's perfect. Difference in sound quality compared to the old unit is honestly night and day, the extra tune-ability is amazing as well. Only thing missing is USB input, but I will be buying an IP-bus to 3.5mm aux cable and using a MP3 player for music mostly. Don't want to be using CD's as it's a slide down face, and the Pioneer unit's of this design are notorious for wearing out the ribbon cable between the faceplate and unit.

Right now, pretty happy with the audio install. Sounds nice all round, and will probably stay this way, with the exception of a new sub box being built, this time ported for a bit more output

Got a few photo's today, nothing much has changed really externally, not much else is bound to change apart from a drop in height in the rear most likely.

That's about it for now :drinks2:

by **braad** » June 25th, 2012, 7:25 am

This fairy looks so clean and nice. Love the repainting of the CSA's. The stance is great too
Keep at it mate :good:

by **SLO247** » June 25th, 2012, 11:17 am

I still can't get over how well the wheels turned out.

All you mofos are going to make me get another E series.

Has to be Heritage Green.

by **kwikxr** » June 25th, 2012, 4:34 pm

braad wrote:This fairy looks so clean and nice. Love the repainting of the CSA's. The stance is great too
Keep at it mate

Thanks braad :drinks2:

Still trying to perfect the stance, but it's getting there.

The front is about the right height and has just enough negative camber, just need to push the wheel out a bit more for something closer to a 'flush' look as I've got a good 5-10mm clearance from the rolled guard lip. Might try some decent thin slip on spacers, (either 3mm or 5mm ones) fit some slightly longer studs if needed and see how it looks. Right now the top of the front wheels look like they sit too inwards for my liking. Then again, I have been hanging around with a lot of the 'stanced' and 'flush' kunce at park/meet up's which isn't helping :lol:

The rear definitely needs lowering by at least an inch, but that should be sorted out soon.

SLO247 wrote:I still can't get over how well the wheels turned out.

All you mofos are going to make me get another E series.

Has to be Heritage Green.

Cheers Slo :drinks2:

Mate, e-series it the only way to go. You should know that by now lol, how many bloody E's have you been through now? Still got the Ghia at least or is gone too? :lol:

. Heritage green FTW also :thumbsup:

Pretty happy with the wheels too. Picked up another set of 17" CSA Gladiators in e-series offset off my mate for cheap, so will be giving them the same gloss black treatment and bolting those onto the old man's EF XR6. Should look pretty good since it's red and will tie in nicely with the black bumper/door moulds. Will get some pic's up of that once it happens.

Who is online