KWIKXR's EF Fairmont Turbo

[kwikxr]

Took this down to Hamilton All Ford Day at the end of last month. Good to see there was a decent E-series turnout, even caught up with 'Bob LablawWas a pretty good day considering I missed the majority of the show as I rocked up about 2 hours before it closed up, lol. The Fairmont had a good run there and back (about 1hr 20min's each way). As expected, it used much less fuel than it did last time I went down back when it had the old cam, haha.




After AFD was over, I had a bit of motivation to get a few things finished off on the Fairmont... Started with the intake manifold swap.

Started off with this spare BBM, pulled it apart, got it soda blasted and then went to work with it.


Finished off porting the intake manifold, gave it a quick coat of flat black engine enamel and spent a good Saturday arvo swapping it over.







With the coated fuel rail


Lined it up against my ported 91AA head + gloss black AU rocker cover, looked quite mad


Pulled the polished upper off my old BBM and gave it a quick clean (already smoothed the runner out when I polished it a few years back) and then gasket matched the ports between the upper and lower halves. The gasket between head and lower was trimmed slightly to make sure no parts of it protruded past the port, for some reason nearly every head-to-manifold gasket I have come across has been slightly smaller than the ports on the manifold

Upon pulling the lower intake manifold out of the engine bay, I saw a pretty awful amount of oil pooled up inside the lower manifold. Decided to put the catch can back in straight away, this time deleting the factory PCV breather setup and blocking off the open ports on the throttlebody and intake manifold. Mounted the catch can, gutted the PCV valve and hooked it directly up to to catch can, along with the rear breather hose so now no oil vapour is recirculating back through the intake.

Manifold off. Was planning to relocate the coilpack at this point, but just couldn't find a decent place for it that wouldn't make it stand out too much


Once the ported manifold was in, I got to work swapping over the Cermakrome coated fuel rail. Pulled the AU injectors apart, hooked them up to a DIY pulsing circuit and flushed some throttlebody cleaner through each of them. Grabbed a multimeter and did a quick resistance check on them first before fitting the new the o-rings, filters and pintle caps. Put it all back together and that was that!

Injectors on the operating table, lol.

Old parts vs new parts..

All freshened up..



All back together..



Seems to run much smoother now, and appears to have fixed a small vacuum leak that I may have had previously. Now idles steadily at 650-700rpm whereas before I couldn't get it to idle lower than 850rpm in drive and that was with the throttle stop screw wound completely off, lol. Ended up having to re-tune the AFR's around idle as they were a little on the rich side.

Now that I don't have oil vapour recirculating back through the intake and into the combustion chamber, I added a little more timing and had some good success. Added another 1-1.5 degrees in the midrange around 3/4 - WOT, added another 2 or so degrees around cruise loads and decel. As a result, it feels a bit more effortless in normal driving conditions and sharper on the throttle which is good. Previously I had timing dropping back a degree around the BBM switchover around 3/4 - WOT loads, but now have leveled that area of the map so that it doesn't dip. BBM switchover point feels a bit more pronounced now, not sure if the manifold porting has had a helping hand with it (probably not, lol) but overall it feels pretty good so I'm happy.

Currently planning to swap back to the AU rocker cover and be done with it. At the moment the cover is with Pro Coat getting sandblasted clean, then I've got a couple of AN bung's to be welded on so I can run some nice fittings and braided hose to the catch can. The old factory coolant overflow hoses I'm running to the catch can right now look a bit boring . Once that's done, I'll respray the cover in gloss black with the lettering and fins blocked back to bare alloy as usual. Will probably get rid of the tacky blue silicon overflow hoses in favour of some braided hose for a better look to match the rest.

Drag season is starting back up next month so I should be getting the Fairmont back down the 1/4 for a bit of fun. Hopefully I can crack a fucking low 15 this time round. If not, I think I better stop kidding myself and turbo it already haha.

[SnipeZ]

My personal favourite e series. It is so fucking mint.
Can't wait to see it with a snail on the side


Cheers

[Frodo]

I love your engine bay. O so clean!

The drags should be great, as apparently they have finished resealing the track.
So no more bouncing down the lane.

Might see ya down there. Apparently the Winter Wars are on in a week or two.

[kwikxr]

My personal favourite e series. It is so fucking mint.
Can't wait to see it with a snail on the side


Cheers

Haha, cheers man! Yeah should be sweet with a basic turbo setup, it'll probably be a fair way away, but I'll get to it one day. I decided I didn't want to turbo this a while back, but have quietly been tempted after seeing a couple of mates turbo their E-series with good results. So now it has to happen

I love your engine bay. O so clean!

The drags should be great, as apparently they have finished resealing the track.
So no more bouncing down the lane.

Might see ya down there. Apparently the Winter Wars are on in a week or two.

Cheers Frodo! Your username sounds familiar, guessing you drive the mercury silver BA XR8 with the FRODO plates? Haha, I remember seeing it at Meremere, sounds and looks great!!

Yeah man, can't wait to try Meremere out again after the track has been redone, it's been a long time coming! The bumps around 3/4 track were pretty horrible, with how firm the suspension is setup in the Fairmont right now, it used to bounce all over the place on the old surface

I'll keep an eye out for your XR8 when I'm down there next, I should be down there for the Winter Wars rounds for a bit of a play and see where I'm at now that a few things have been changed. Good way to get some practice in before Night Speed Drag Wars returns too

[Frodo]

Yeah mate, that'll be me. The plates always get some funny remarks from people.

Going off the results from the Father Day drags, the track may be a bit quicker this time around. Got to get that 13 somehow!
I had the same problem bout 3/4 track, when I'm not wheel spinning the whole way. Haha!!!

I won't be able to make it to this weekends meet, but I might have someone to take it down for me. I have a set of semi slicks which need to be tested.....

[TechXR]

Looking great as always

Where did you get that Ford Built Tough sticker from btw? Wouldn't mind having the same sticker on my car

[kwikxr]

Yeah mate, that'll be me. The plates always get some funny remarks from people.

Going off the results from the Father Day drags, the track may be a bit quicker this time around. Got to get that 13 somehow!
I had the same problem bout 3/4 track, when I'm not wheel spinning the whole way. Haha!!!

I won't be able to make it to this weekends meet, but I might have someone to take it down for me. I have a set of semi slicks which need to be tested.....

Hope so! I'm still stuck in the 15's lol, would love to see that dip into a 14 so it's a little more respectable

Semi slicks should definitely help a lot, lower 60' times seem to pay off nicely in lower ET's. I'll keep an eye out for it this weekend, no doubt I'll come across it again with Night Wars etc coming up soon as well

Looking great as always

Where did you get that Ford Built Tough sticker from btw? Wouldn't mind having the same sticker on my car

Cheers mate

I had that sticker made up through a signwriting/custom decal company. Was looking for something pre-made, but couldn't find anything so had to go custom. I made a rough design up in MS paint and emailed it to them telling them what font, colour, size I wanted etc and they came back with a pretty decent design. If I find the original design I got back from them, I'll PM it to you (was quite a while ago when I had it made, so chances are I might have deleted it)

[TechXR]

Ah fair enough mate, I was hoping it was an eBay sticker or something Stress less if you can't find it I can get something made up at Autobarn!

[MNTXR6]

coming along nicely mate, im really liking those ROH wheels, might have to look into them for my el, its so hard to find decent wheels in the proper offset!

[kwikxr]

Cheers mate! Yeah was a bit hard trying to find some decent wheels that would bolt straight on without needing hub adaptors. These wheels will most likely be gone soon, just not aggressive enough and sit too far inside the guards for my liking. Saving up for a set of matte black Varrstoen ES2's in staggered widths, with the right offsets I should be able to get the look I'm chasing.

[kwikxr]

Not much has changed recently, haven't really had much in the way of funds to put into the Fairmont, but have made a couple of changes..

Picked up an alloy driveshaft out of an AU XR6 for fairly cheap. Decided to weigh it up on the scales for a comparison to the factory steel shaft; was almost exactly half the weight (steel being a touch over 10kg, alloy was just shy of 6kg). Steel shaft is 3" diameter, alloy is 3.25". Can't really feel any difference in performance, but it did seem to eliminate a driveline vibration I was getting on decel from 100kmh which I'm happy with.

Got a bit of motivation over this Bathurst weekend (epic win for Ford, btw) and swapped over my recently finished AU rocker cover. As I may be looking at boost later on for the Fairmont, I wanted to try get the breather setup improved a bit while I was at it. Noticed that the AU covers have little baffle looking plates under the breather ports with very small openings, thought that this might be a bit of a restriction for vapour to get through so removed them altogether.

Sent the cover away for blasting to get rid of the old gloss black paint so I could get a -8 bung welded into the PCV hole, ground away the rear breather port flat and drilled and tapped a M18x1.5 thread for a screw in -8 fitting. Picked up a couple of 90 degree swivel pushlock fittings from the local hose and fitting shop along with some suitable rubber Parker pushlock hose. Also grabbed some braided -8 hose to replace the coolant overflow hoses.

Sprayed it in low gloss black engine enamel with a couple coats of clear, and blocked back the lettering. Swapped her over along with the new breather hoses and coolant overflow hoses. Just need to get rid of that blue upper radiator hose, looks tacky as **** and out of place


Ordered a pair of Rollin's AU upper control arm adaptors which is a mod I'm looking very forward to getting done. Once they arrive, I'll grab some AU arms and get stuck into it

[SnipeZ]

Absolutely epic engine bay. Will look better with a snail


Cheers

[kwikxr]

Haha, cheers mate! Fingers crossed next year will see that empty void filled with a decent snail

[khodeer]

Where did you get the J Pipe for the air flow to the pod filter and how much did it set you back
if you dont mind me asking, thank you

[kwikxr]

J-pipe? Are you referring to the piping between airbox and throttlebody or the ducting that runs through the guard?

[khodeer]

Ummm i dont exactly know how to explain it sorry :/
The pipe going from the motor part (dont know its name :/) up over it and ends in the bottom right with
the pod filter, the chrome pipe

[khodeer]

The silver pipe on the right leading to the pod filter

[SnipeZ]

Air induction pipe


Cheers

[khodeer]

Yes that
thinking of getting it for my AU,
any extra details on it? power improvements, cost, etc thanks!

[kwikxr]

Oh, I see now. Sorry lol, I saw 'airflow to pod filter' and thought maybe you meant the CAI ducting I'm using; my bad.

The piping in that photo (has changed slightly now from what it was back then) was pieced together out of random 3" diameter alloy bends and sections I had laying around from old jobs. 1 of the bends is a hacked up 90degree bend, the rest was just a couple of left over straight sections I had laying around. 90degree 3" silicon joiner off the throttle body, couple of 3" straight joiners and that's pretty much all there is to it. No ideas on the actual cost as some of it was pieced together from random bits I had left but I'd say it would have cost under $100 easily. Similar piping can be bought from Supercheap Auto and joiners can be picked up cheaply from Ebay.

Performance increase was pretty minimal in all honesty. Made induction noise sound a bit louder and nicer, and felt more responsive on the throttle with the slightest hint of pulling stronger in the upper revs. Definitely nothing massive though. Seemed to work okay with the other mods like cam upgrade etc I have done.

[kwikxr]

Well, things have been going pretty well for the Fairmont lately! Haven't really done anything to it apart from get it all ready for this season of Night Speed Drag Wars, but had a few gremlins in the way beforehand. Fuel pump slowly started dying on me a couple weeks back, so swapped that out for a 2nd hand unit to get me by (aftermarket pumps here are stupidly overpriced). Have been in talks with Tuff Car Parts so should have a Walbro pump on order once I get some money together.

Got it all running fine so took it down to the first round last Friday for some fun.

A couple pic's from some photographers




First time back at the drags with the new mild cam so was good to test it out and see how different it performed compared to the bigger cam. Results were night and day, lol. Was getting much better 60' times and managed to get a new PB for the Fairmont. 15.19 @ 91mph (slow piece of shit, lol). Still getting the same trap speed at half a second quicker, so I guess this cam is much better suited to everything else I have currently.

Quick vid made of the night at the drags. Made a quick feature at about 1:30 hahaha
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OIzM1d6oOc

Managed to get the low 15 I was after, so next up is to get it into the 14's

Currently in the process of looking at another cam option, something with slightly stronger midrange but nothing too aggressive with a stock stall modded for a 2500-2600rpm stall speed.

Scored some AU upper control arms on the cheap from Pick-a-Part a couple weeks back in preparation to do the AU upper arm conversion into the EF. My upper arm adaptors from Rollin arrived pretty quick so took the arms and adaptors into work this week and made use of the hydraulic press . 

Rollin's upper arm adaptors (some very well made units IMO)


Popped the balljoints out of the AU arms and pressed the adaptors in to allow fitment of the E-series balljoint into the upper arm as per normal. The adaptors were made to be a very tight fit into the AU arm bore, so there is absolutely no way these suckers are coming out hahaha



Fingers crossed I'll fit these up maybe Wednesday night after I get some new bushes and try get a wheel alignment sorted out hopefully for either Thursday, Friday or Monday whichever is free.

It's only been June 2008 since my last wheel alignment was done . The suspension has changed a fair bit since then and even more so when these AU arms go in, so it'll be a bloody good time for a decent alignment

[kwikxr]

Swapped the AU upper control arms in last night..

Ended up taking out about ~5mm worth of shims from front and rear of each control arm as I ran out of room on the standard AU studs. Even with less shims, the amount of negative camber seemed less than it did with the standard EF arms with more shims. Tried to eyeline the front end to keep the camber fairly even before taking it in for an alignment (turns out I did a pretty good job as I later found out, haha)



With standard EF upper arm


With AU upper arm + Rollin's adaptor


Full lock outside with standard EF upper arm

The same again, but with the AU upper arm


Full lock inside with standard EF upper arm


The same again, but with the AU upper arm



Took it down to 'Racelign' for an alignment this morning. Had a quick chat with the technician to discuss what sort of characteristics I was looking for out of the alignment and what work had been done to the suspension, he played with it for about 30min's and came back with some good results. Essentially, all it needed was a toe adjustment as camber and castor were already where we wanted them to be.


When it went in for an alignment both sides were almost bang on -1 degree so we left that as is . Castor was already at around 9 degrees so we left it there as well. Toe was out so far it wasn't funny! Just driving down my driveway, I could feel the tyres trying to scrub across the surface. The technician said the same thing and ended up making some adjustments before evening beginning to do the alignment. At a guess he said it would have been around 8mm toe out either side . Managed to get that back down to a nicer total of 1.2mm toe-in to start with and see how that goes.

So in short, the fitment of the AU upper control arms are brilliant! They have given me about 9 degrees of castor (I was previously running 3.5 degrees with the EF arms), alignment has been set up with -1 degree of camber and running 0.6mm toe-in each side.

Feels great all round, turn-in just feels completely different to before, it's awesome! Steering is nice and responsive, even more so when you come into a sharp corner. Feels like it has much more front end grip (could punt it around a round-about a couple of times slowly building up speed and it was hanging on beautifully, lol) and just generally feels nicer to drive in all conditions. Extra castor + the wheel alignment seems to have it driving a lot straighter, I use to have issues with the car tracking with the contours in the road, but can't feel that anymore.

[Rollin]

Love the shots on lock, looks awesome

[kwikxr]

Cheers Rollin . Yeah man, does look pretty mad on lock! Was stoked with how much more camber is applied as a result of the extra castor. Straight after the arms went in, I sat in the carport turning the wheels lock to lock and hopping out to admire hahaha

Ended up taking this down the drags on Friday arvo/night for a few skids.





Best I could manage was a 15.2 . Couldn't crack a 14, was doing pretty shit 2.3x 60 footers so was still getting low 15's all at 92mph. Might try advancing the cam a couple degrees before the next drag day and see if it'll give me that little extra bottom end to get off the line quicker. Have been leaving in ECON mode so it's shifting at 4500rpm, so shouldn't really effect top end anyway.

[kwikxr]

A couple more I just stumbled across..

[kwikxr]

Had a drag day on Saturday hosted by the Ford Muscle Car Club of Tauranga. I got a few things done beforehand to see if I could better my times. This seemed to pay off fairly well, haha.

First thing was a change back to my EL Fairmont grill for a slightly different look. Got a little tired of the front end looking the same old same, so the chromed EF one is back in the garage until I get bored of the EL one  

Ended up touching up a few areas of my tune on Thursday night, playing around and experimenting with shiftpoints. I tried to go for a nice medium between the ECON and POWER mode shiftpoints to start with. Also played with line pressure/shift firmness as I was pretty limited with the electronic shiftkit. It shifted fairly hard with the shiftkit turned up full, but felt it could easily be a lot sharper, so increased WOT shift firmness in the tune by about 20%. This combined with the electronic shiftkit turned up full is brilliant, spins the wheels shifting into 2nd and chirps on the 2nd to 3rd shift . Never used to chirp at all previously.

Also bumped timing up a fraction more in the low - midrange revs at full load to try get a bit more go once it gets off the line and try get the trap speed up a little bit more too. Seemed to take it fine with no pinging so that was a win.

Swapped out my Bilstein rear shocks for some much softer Pedders short-stroke GSR's to help with weight transfer to rear as I've taken out the entire boot install to relieve excess weight.

Anyways, hit the road yesterday morning down to Meremere with big intentions of getting closer to a 15 flat or possibly break into the 14's given good circumstances. Was getting a bit boring getting 15's every fucking time.


The day was a bit up and down in terms of weather (lightly spitting with rain, then the sun would come out strong, following with some really strong wind towards the end of the day, so the track was a bit slippery at the best of times for most of the drivers today.

Didn't get as many wins as I would have liked in the first 4 runs, 3 out 4 runs were all 15.2's at 93mph which was pretty consistent. Managed to beat a stock S2 or S3 AU XR8 220 which I thought was odd. Other than that, I kept up with a BA XR6T till just over half track. Then got my ass handed to me by a F6X Territory and a modded HSV Monaro GTS once it caught traction at half track, lol.

Still had plenty of fun but.. 



This was the end of practicing for me, so parked up for a while, then got first in line for DYO eliminations. Got lined up against a mint 1967 Mustang with a 15.6 dial in. I dialed in a 15.2 which I thought I probably wouldn't go faster than. Pulled a decent burnout to get the tyres grippy and felt like I got off the line quite well this time round and ended up putting a little margin on the Mustang. Probably could have lifted at the top end to make sure I didn't break out, but was pretty keen to see if this was going to be a new PB. Ended up breaking out by a lot and running a 14.95 @ 94.7mph. Finally into the 14's

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=app68CMi ... Ub6NzZDK4w

So with DYO over, lined up for a bit of grudge racing. Had a run with a stock BA XR8 and just managed to beat him. Time was also a 14.95 @94.5mph

Final run was another grudge run with probably my favourite car of the day, "L0 T0Y" KE30 Corolla with a pretty heavily worked and turbo'd 4AGE. Was running mid 13's on 15lb's boost and street tyres, but was pretty much spinning 1st, 2nd and 3rd up to half track in every run I watched. Has run a 10.9 on slicks and 26lb in the past .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEK8Gz1E ... Ub6NzZDK4w

So all in all, a great day!!


So now hopefully onto boost in the new year, only feasible way of going faster really. Just have to decide whether to do it to the Fairmont or go down the road of a lighter base model E-series and set up right for drag use and slowly work away at a turbo motor.

[1990eafalcon]

If you don't mind, where did you get your shifter from and is it a straight fit
Cheers Jack

[kwikxr]

Hey dude, this shifter was bought of from a local auto accessories shop which is no longer around. Was designed to be a universal fit over most factory shifter shafts and came with grub screws that were supposed to secure it to the factory shifter shaft (they don't work well at all!).

It's basically an exact copy of this Momo shifter, but minus the leather. http://www.vividracing.com/catalog/momo ... 44077.html

I ended up ditching the grub screws completely as they just would just come loose after a couple of drives and the shifter would just sit there flopping around. I had to shorten the rod extension inside the shifter shaft to allow the aftermarket shifter to sit down onto the factory shaft completely. I also ended up stuffing a whole heap of o-rings on the shifter shaft and then forcing the new shifter down over it to secure it in place and it hasn't worked loose once in the last 2 or 3 years. Not ideal, but it's tight enough on there at the moment that I can't actually get it off without a lot of force

[1990eafalcon]

To change from say Drive to Park do you just press down on the top of the shifter?

[kwikxr]

Yep, it's just a push down style button.

[kwikxr]

So... I've had enough of NA bullshit. Almost put the Fairmont on nitrous a couple weeks ago, until I found out it was going to cost near on $300 to fill a 10lb bottle . Ended up putting the money into the only option I should have considered.

Should be turbo'd in a couple of months time. Just need manifold and injectors and it'll be all good to start working on it.



Parts collection so far:

Jap Race Supplies T70 style turbo, T4 flange (.7 front, .84 rear, unsure of wheel sizes but they look decent)
600x300 cooler
Turbosmart Comp Gate 40 - 7psi spring
Greddy BOV
Walbro 255lph pump
T.I Performance 4 tune selector switch for the J3
Fresh set of Bosch ignition leads with heat proof boot socks
Custom built 2800rpm-3000rpm stall converter



Have got old mate 'bob lablaw' working on a nice bottom mount log style manifold for me currently, can't wait to see how that turns out! Other than that, a set of 42lb or 60lb injectors, whip up the cooler piping and get exhaust sorted and that's about it. Hoping for some much better times down the quarter and good midrange torque, should be interesting

[SnipeZ]

About time


Cheers

[misk]

look good bud, will be good to see another turbo falcon from NZ

[TechXR]

You won't be disappointed with boost!

Shameless plug but I've got a set of 60lb siemens deka injectors if you're interested and can't find any over in your area.

[efxr6wagon]

Good stuff! You've already hit 14's N/A, so I imagine you'd be comfortably into the 13's with boost - especially leaving the line at 3000rpm. Should be awesome.

[Rollin]

Exxxxxxxxxxelent

Get the bigger injectors, don't **** around with little ones.

[kwikxr]

Cheers fella's

Ended up stripping the turbo down for a good look this morning, took the chance to measure up the wheels and do a couple calculations to see what it was comparable to.

Good news was that the turbo was pretty clean internally, definitely backed up the seller's claim of it being a low km unit. Was told it was strapped to a RB26 which made 512rwhp @ 1.35 bar, hit full boost at 4000rpm. Did about 5000km's before it came off, and a similar sized Borg Warner turbo with a billet comp wheel went on for better efficiency.

Both wheels look to be in great nick, no chips or anything like that which is good.

Compressor:
0.70 A/R compressor housing
4” inlet
2.5” oulet

69mm inducer
91mm exducer

57 trim

Turbine:
0.84 A/R T4 turbine housing
3” exhaust outlet

73mm inducer
63.5mm exducer

76 trim




Sizing seems pretty decent, should be interesting to see how it spools on the 4.0 when it goes in.

Did a real quick file, sand and polish job on the comp housing so it ties in with the rest of the engine bay, definitely is a little extra motivation, ha. Can't wait to get this boosting!

[misk]

thats a ripper turbo dude! slightly bigger than a GT4088 slightly smaller than a GT4294

[kwikxr]

Was pretty shocked after measuring the wheels too, lol. Turns out this could probably pull some decent power with some boost up it. Just hope it holds together, never had much faith in chinese copy turbo's, but I'll give it a go on a low boost.

[kwikxr]

Couple of photo's I realised I haven't put up..



A couple of shots of the steering wheel I ended up fitting a couple months back. Never really had much love for the E-series or AU steering wheels, always wanted to do away with it, fit a boss kit and go aftermarket. It would mean having to lose the airbag which everyone will say is a dumb idea, but meh, I'd prefer to drive with a decent wheel than drive with a shit one with a 20 year old airbag.



I had the AU momo in for a few years, but after sitting in a mate's Nissan Laurel with a deep dish Nardi wheel, I fell in love with the feel. Went out an bought this suede wrapped wheel from the local speed shop, 350mm diameter, 100mm of dish. Brings the wheel nice and close, puts the arms in a much better driving position, feels awesome to drive with!

Went down and caught up with boosted member 'Bob Lablaw' a couple weekends back, dropped a couple of flanges and the wastegate down to him as he is making the manifold for my turbo. Got to check out his boosted EF whilst down there, such a wicked beast! Loved the look of the Holset sitting beside the 4L, inspirational

Bought the bonnet he had on his EF Fairmont. Always loved the look of the Boss bulge on EF/EL fairmont bonnets, suits the lines nicely. Even better, this one has been crafted with a 4 big hole underneath the bulge and a decent sized vent at the rear to let hot air out



Nice little heatshield to stop the turbo cooking the bonnet, haha. Will be cleaning up the underside and spraying it matte black.


Plan is to eventually get it painted, looks all reverse JDM spec at the moment . Since the rest of the paintwork is far from decent, I'd rather get the whole car done at once so everything matches perfectly. I have been toying with the idea of blocking the whole bonnet back flat and fix a small section where the paint has cracked, and get the whole bonnet Plasti-dipped matte black. Fair bit cheaper than paint and can be peeled off when it eventually gets painted. Shouldn't look too bad, will probably tie in with the black wheels and all too.

Anyways, last weekend I made a quick start on getting the cooler positioned and piping sorted. Wasn't planning to use so many joiners so will probably get a couple joins welded instead, although I'll probably be fine with just beading the ends of the pipes with the boost level this will see to start with.





My poor front bar


Never really appreciated how long the intercooler would be on the coldside, it's fcking ridiculous lol. Front facing plenum will probably be arranged at some stage I think.

Coldside piping will all be done in 3", hotside will be 2.5" but still need to make a decision on where to run the hotside piping, will decide once I have the manifold and turbo'd positioned to see where it sits. At the moment, thinking of going 90degrees off the compressor outlet, under the coolant tank so it hides the piping a bit, and have a nice length of straight pipe into another 90 degree bend straight into the cooler. That means I can temporarily leave the battery where is for the meantime until I can relocate the battery to the boot and redo the boot install to accommodate that.

Apart from that, not much else has happened, just a bit of parts collecting. Have sorted out a -4an oil feed line for the turbo, tee-piece for the oil pressure sender and oil feed. Picked up a cool little return fitting with a 19mm diameter section of straight pipe, so all I need now is a fitting for the sump and some 3/4" hose for the oil drain and that will see the turbo oil lines finalised.

Should have a set of injectors on order from Tuff Car Parts within the next 2 weeks, which is one of the last main things left to buy. After that, just need manifold, boost gauge, sort out a base tune for the J3, and get the dump pipe and screamer sorted when everything is ready to go on. Getting closer!