KWIKXR's EF Fairmont Turbo

[the sam]

Looking sexy mate!

[kwikxr]

Cheers guys

Well not much has happened with this recently. Just been driving it on the odd weekend, taking it out to a couple of car meets and snapping up the odd photo here and there..



Couple of weekends ago I took it out to a muck-around track day at Pukekohe Raceway for a bit of fun, first time out on a track so was good to get out there. Completely different adrenalin rush to drag racing, hell of a lot of fun too! It had a bit of a 'powercruise' type feel to the event as you could take passengers out with you, have a bit of friendly racing down the straights etc. Had some good fun against a couple of Skyline's, some awesome side by side runs coming down the back straight with a 250rwkw 13BT RX3 there (he started pulling away after about 170kmh though haha), and chopped a VZ Clubsport R8 every time he tried to pass me down the straights which was a good feeling lol. Struggled something chronic to keep up with some of the FG FPV's and the new VF GTS though, fark those things can move!

Did 3 sessions then called it quits as oil pressure started dropping real low coming into the pits, didn't want to risk going back out it as I had to drive it home which is about 40km away. On my last session I had some pretty bad smoke issues, would pull hard through 2nd and 3rd gear down the back straight up to 180kmh, jump on the brakes for the upcoming corner and there'd be smoke everywhere when it was under full vacuum, was quite a sight apparently

Ended up jumping in a couple of mate's cars for the rest of the day and get taken for some awesome laps around the track. First up was a 320rwkw FG F6 with the 6 speed manual which was a massive amount of fun. Love how instant these things come on boost and how smooth they pull; they stop equally as good too! Next up was ST220 Mondeo which was probably the most fun I've ever experienced in a FWD car lol. He thrashed this thing through the corners hard and it just held on and handled it beautifully, he has had a fair bit of experience doing track days in Mondeo's so he definitely had some skills. Last ride to top the day off was in a 420rwkw FG GT335, holy motherfuck that was insane! Felt and sounded so raw under WOT, loved it so much I went out for 2 sessions in the same car

Haven't found many photos of the EF yet, probably because it was one of the dodgiest looking cars there lol. Weather wasn't the best in the morning which probably scared photographers off a bit..




Took it out for a bit of a thrash over Bathurst weekend and after a fair few pulls down some quiet industrial roads, the engine finally started to let go. So it's parked up now awaiting some love. Just need to buy an engine crane, another engine stand, and then the motor is coming out for a rebuild and some more work to hopefully get it to around 400rwhp.

In the meantime, started piecing together the 3" exhaust so I can take the 2.5" system off and swap it onto the daily driver. Picked up a mandrel bent 'Rage' e-series V8 rear section, a X-force 3" straight through muffler and some piping to join it up from the dump pipe back. Need to get a couple of flanges, and some more 3" bends etc and then get the screamer flanged and that'll be all good to go.



Will probably start pulling it apart over the next few weeks and slowly get things done. Can't wait to get stuck into it and get boosting again!

[Michael (HYPOEB)]

Looks so tuff mate! Good to see your getting it out and enjoying it.

[Jayedxr6]

Love that you USE your car!
Is the engine just getting a standard re-build or forged?
Dam gearboxes. 400 will get slow quickly lol

[the sam]

Yeah, Jay's right - aim for 600whp and if you get it, awesome, if not it'll still tear balls.

Still looking mickey as always mate. Any footage at all?

[kwikxr]

Cheers fella's

You've gotta enjoy what you spend all your money on. No fun otherwise haha

Jay - at this stage, probably just a standard rebuild with ACL race bearings and decent rings. Have to wait till the motor is pulled apart, then go from there I suppose as I have no idea on the condition of the pistons, bores etc.

Did consider going AU bottom end so I could go the Spool rods + CP piston combo, but I think that's a little out of budget for me, and overkill for 400rwhp. Will stick to the 400rwhp mark for now to keep the BTR happy mainly lol


Sam- yep, it will probably end up that way lol. Hopefully I can get it to a reliable 400rwhp state, then get back into doing drag events and possibly Powercruise if it goes well enough. Don't really want to aim too high as I'll have to spend more money than I want to. Was hoping to get this done, then start moving onto a V8 project. I've got a 351w motor sitting on a stand in my garage that I'm pretty keen on building. It's only been sitting there for about 3 years




No footage of the EF on the track at the moment unfortunately. My mate did strap his go-pro style action cam on my windscreen for one of the sessions, but unsure if it captured anything lol. Will check with him and if there is anything, I'll link it up.

[the sam]

Why not just build the V8 now and dump it in the ef haha. Then build another wicked turbo motor later... Or V8+boost

[kwikxr]

Started working on this thing again over the past couple weeks. Lost motivation with it towards the end of last year and had it parked up for over 3 months without touching it. Saved up a bit of $$ and got a few things ticked off the list.

First up was a much needed wash, clay bar, polish and wax, lol. 3 months of sitting out in all kinds of shit weather caked a crazy amount of dust on the paint. A good part of the day working on it and it cleaned up pretty nice.


Changed the cam back to one of my older profiles in hopes of getting a bit more top end pull. .508" lift, 216/217deg duration @ 50thou, 114LSA. Seems to pull a bit harder on boost even with the tune suited to the previous cam. Pretty sluggish down low though much like it was when it was fitted back in it's N/A days, so should be able to pump some more timing in off boost and do a bit more fuel trimming to get a nicer AFR on boost. Will be interesting to see how it gets off the line with the 3000rpm stall converter that's soon to be fitted.

Upgraded to a better oil cooler, ditched the old 15 row cooler for a nicer 28 row cooler


And finally got the exhaust done, massive credit to No Cams Performance for the fabrication work. 3" from the turbo back, single 3" Xforce straight-thru muffler before the diff and then straight pipe to the rear bumper. Still running the 1.75" screamer pipe, but has been set up with flanges to have it dumping to atmo or plumb it back for legal purposes



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xLz7G3ycdE

With plans to eventually rebuild the bottom end sometime this year and aim for comp in the low 9:1 region, I have started gathering bits and pieces to set this up for a bit more boost in the near future. Initial aim is 12psi, so bought a Turbosmart boost tee and a Turbosmart FCD through TI Performance to get around the factory MAP sensor. Hopefully that will be all setup next week sometime, then I can start working on a base tune to kick things off.

[TUFEF]

excellent choice of sticker haha... Hoonigan is awesome!

[kwikxr]

So things have been a bit quiet with the Fairmont for a while now. Couple months ago now, it got to the point where one cylinder was down to 90psi, lol. Was going to pull out the original motor, re-ring and bearing it providing everything was in good enough condition, but bit the bullet and decided to source a low km AU motor instead.

Kept an eye out for a while for a low km AU motor, finally found a S2 motor with 103,000km on it so snapped it up quick. Had no real major plans for the motor just yet, basically just wanted a healthy motor again so I could get back to driving it. Initial aim is around 280rwkw, should be enough fun for a street car anyway.



Got it home and mounted it up on the stand. From here I pretty much spent any spare time I had stripping it down, and inspecting everything.


So far, the block has been degreased and washed, then sprayed in Duplicolor satin black engine enamel. Fitted new brass welch plugs all round. New water pump, new tensioner/idler pulleys, new A/C delete pulley. Bolted on the ported 92DT head from the EF motor with a 1.2mm thick, ACL race series headgasket. Pinched the Crow vernier cam gear from the EF motor and also the .508" lift, 216/217deg duration @ 50thou, 114LSA cam it was running . Also picked up a new Powerbond Street harmonic balancer to go with it, thanks to Justin @ Tuffcarparts


Bottom end has been left untouched. Don't really have the funds for forged rods and pistons at the moment as I need to get this car running by August so I can get it on the track for Chrome Expression Session (pretty much the NZ equivalent to Powercruise). Spool rods + CP pistons, and a 12mm girdle are on the cards sometime next year if funds allow.

Got the sump modded by a local fabricator specialising in custom intake plenums, giving him a few pictures of modded sumps to work off and he put his epic fabrication and TIG skills to work. Also got him to weld in a -12AN bung for my turbo oil return line while he was at it.


Cleaned up the outside of the sump and gave it a coat of VHT aluminium engine enamel to tidy it up. The next day, I got to work on drilling and tapping some holes in the sump casting bosses to mount the baffle back in place.


So this is how she's looking so far. Still need to pinch the rocker gear from the EF and bolt it onto this motor, dial the cam in and then swap the Powerbond street balancer on. Other than that, need to swap over the cam angle sensor, fit the EF oil pressure sender, coilpack and re-tap the hole for the EF knock sensor and she's good to go. Motor swap was supposed to happen during the past 3 days I've had off work, but got tied up with another car. Hopefully it'll be a pretty decent package and ready to rock at Chrome Expression Session in August.



Still running the cheapo T70 turbo currently, not knowing how long it's going to last, I went out and bought something with a bit more quality


This is the Masterpower MP-R6564. From Masterpower's race series of turbo's, has a few little upgrades from the older series turbo's mainly around increasing efficiency. These got a re-designed billet CNC'd compressor wheel, light weight inconel turbine wheel, low inertia bearings etc so should be capable of good spool rates and decent power. Rated to 750hp.

Spec's:

Compressor:
65mm inducer
94mm exducer

Turbine:
74mm inducer
64mm exducer
Twin scroll 1.00 A/R

Probably won't get around to fitting this before it hits the track in August, but should be interesting to see how it goes with 12psi when it's eventually fitted.

Other than that, did a few more suspension upgrades since the last post. Re-bushed the watts link assembly with a SuperPro kit. Also swapped the diff hat over to an AU one as it has a lower pivot point for the watts linkage, I read it was a good upgrade so went ahead and tried it. Haven't really had much of a chance to test it but the rear end definitely feels a lot more settled during hard cornering.


Also had the turbo manifold and screamer pipe off a couple months ago to get ceramic coating. Tidied them up a lot, no more flaking heatproof paint, ha!


Couple of snaps of the Fairmont since the last post..


The tyres on the wheels from my EL Ghia are cheap shit, so will be using these up on the track.

[galapogos01]

Looking sick dude. Watch those bendy rods in the new motor, they don't handle detonation as well as the earlier models!

Jason

[kwikxr]

Looking sick dude. Watch those bendy rods in the new motor, they don't handle detonation as well as the earlier models!

Jason

Cheers mate! Will do, last thing i need is an s-shaped rod in a motor that just got fitted lol, will keep timing fairly sedate for now and probably only go up to 10psi to keep it reliable. The tune is pretty much sorted now, is a little rich coming onto boost, but will fix that up this week and have it ready for the track this weekend

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Motor swap was 2 weekends ago, fired into life on the first turn of the key too which was awesome. Sounds so much smoother now, and goes a hell of a lot better

Engine out


Hi stall fitted up


New engine in


Stacks of sump to k-frame clearance


Making a start on refitting the intake side of the motor up


Engine all put back together



After topping up the auto fluid after getting the oil pumped through into the empty converter, I just couldn't resist taking it out for a quick spin, with no bonnet of course haha. It's so much more fun to drive with the high stall, feels way more snappier than the EF motor ever did off boost and that's on a pretty average timing map so should be a lot more to come. Rev's out so much quicker and smoother too! Stalled it up at half throttle a couple of times and it jumps up to around 2800rpm, smashes the limiter into 2nd gear and just fries the 205 tyres on my Ghia wheels without any real effort. Would hate to see what it's capable of in the wet as it felt pretty scary in the dry lol. Took my brother for a spin and threw the car around a bit and it felt pretty good, so with a bit of a touch up on the tune, should be ready to roll at Hampton Downs race track for Chrome Expression Session this coming weekend.

The tyres on my Ghia wheels are down to the wire on the back now, so threw on a mint set of FTR's my brother bought as spares, turns out they look alright on the EF so will probably use these on Saturday at the track, and swap back to my black 17" ROH RT's for Sunday

[Jayedxr6]

Nice! Love this thing!

[justa6]

The photo with the black wheels looks sick.

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[kwikxr]

Cheers guys

Finally hit the track again this past weekend for Chrome Expression Session (fairly similar to Powercruise) and had a pretty good time despite the shithouse weather.



Rained on and off pretty much the whole day so didn't really get to line it up against anyone to see how quick it really was. Went out for one of the drop-flag drag race sessions, first run went into LHM after I got almost 3500rpm out of the stall, 2nd run I just went half throttle off the line then eased into it and chopped a Mitsi Evo 10. Started raining after that, so parked it up and waited for the cruise sessions.

Couldn't do much in the cruise sessions due to the track still being pretty damp, was skating 2nd and 3rd gear pretty much everytime I rolled it on boost down the straights.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aaczUp ... e=youtu.be

Still had a bit of fun though. Last lap of the final session it decided to burst the small heater hose under the manifold to pieces, so called it a day, waited for my old man to bring some tools, water and some spare hose so I could bandaid-fix it at the track and limped it back home. Will fix it up properly this weekend, then get it booked in for some dyno time so I can get it set up for a few extra psi

[kwikxr]

Couple more photo's I've found from last weekend..

[kwikxr]

Bit of an update.. Haven't had much progress with this, as things have been going backwards lol..

Did manage to get out to a few car meets and events towards the end of last year, had a bit of fun with the car until night drag racing season started up




Ended up taking this to the drags late last year to see what it could do with the new hi-stall and fresher motor.


Turned out not so well and killed the motor. Didn't know what happened at first as it lost power half way through a pass. Got back to the pits and it had bugger all manifold vacuum at idle and ran rough, so called it a night and drove it home. Pulled it down and found 2 melted spark plugs and 2 melted pistons on the corresponding cylinders. Further inspection during a flow test found 2x partially blocked injectors which caused the meltdown on those 2 cylinders, unfortunate but shit happens I suppose

Lost motivation with the car for a few months, then needed to get it running so bought an AU XR6 HP motor and swapped it in.




Decided to convert it back to N/A for the time being while I gather more upgraded parts for the turbo setup, so bought some PH4499 extractors and got a short bolt-in resonator piece made up to join up with the 3" exhaust.





Will keep it N/A for while, so will be ordering a valve spring kit, getting a decent cam ground for it and then retune to make it a little more fun to drive since it's sooo slow without a turbo. New turbo setup will require a new manifold to suit the twin scroll turbo, upgrade to a 50mm Turbosmart gate and new dump pipe and some fuel system upgrades. Have bought a plenum from Spoolinboost and already have a Masterpower R6564 turbo sitting here ready to go so that's half way there I guess, lol. Hopefully that'll be done sometime towards to end of the year/early next year when I have a bit more cash to throw at it.

Anyways, had All Ford Day come up this past Sunday. Was a good chance to get the e-series Ford's in the family out for a cruise and some photo's and check out some cool cars that come out from all around. Was gutted I couldn't get my EL Ghia there as it's being a little bitch with ignition issues currently, but there's always next year.

My sister's EL XR6, my EF, my brother's EF Fairmont 5.0 and my Dad's EF XR6

[kwikxr]

Haven't done much with this as of late, but did update my front speakers to some nice new Morel Maximus 602 components, and scored some new wheels for it to change up the look a bit.




Wheels are Varrstoen V3, 16x9, 0p offset. Currently just have some cheap 225/50's on them, will probably move up to 235 front, 245 rear when I find some that are decently priced lol




Turbo gear is set to go back on shortly, just finding the time and motivation these days is a bit of a problem

[Jayedxr6]

Looks great man, that last photo is bliss!


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[justa6]

Going back na would be depressing. Cars looking good.

[kwikxr]

Cheers guys

Definitely is very depressing going NA after having a lot of fun with boost. Just ordered some new 42lb injectors to replace the old 60's, they should be a bit more tune-friendly with the J3. As soon as they arrive, I'll start bolting on all the turbo bits and get the tune sorted.

[kwikxr]

So this is in the midst of being converted back to turbo now, long time coming! I haven't done the planned upgrades I was hoping to do as I don't have that sort of money to throw around right now, so just using the old 'hotside' I had previously for now. Decided I had been driving it N/A for so long that I was close enough to depression, lol

Currently about 80-85% done. Just need to finish off a few things and then book it in for a dyno tune next month some time and see how it goes!

Took a bit of inspiration from jayedxr6's build, and did the Spoolinboost plenum in wrinkle black. Next thing I know, I'm re-doing all the cooler piping in the same finish, ha! Wrinkle black FTW


Put a bit more effort into heat shielding things better this time round as I suffered from bulk engine bay heat issues last time. Used a better quality Thermotec 'titanium' exhaust wrap on the dump pipe, bought a turbo blanket and heat shielded the heater pipe that runs around the block as that would have been getting cooked from the turbo and manifold that are in very close proximity. Hope it fucken works better this time!


So this is the state of it at the moment


Basically just need to drop the fuel rail and 42lb injectors in, piece together the cold side piping, sort out a new accelerator cable and then it should be ready to fire up for the first time in a few weeks. Still have a few things I want to do such as get another rocker cover modded with 12an alloy weld bungs for the breathers, and get a custom catch can fabbed up to sit to the right of the plenum above the wheel arch. Also need to mount up a vacuum block/manifold so I can run all my vacuum lines to a single source and keep it looking fairly tidy. Can't wait to get it all done and get back to boosting around in this thing!

[Jayedxr6]

Yew looks good brother, wrinkle black ftw!


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[galapogos01]

Looking tidy mate!

Should look into some ACL heat shielding for the manifold itself - you can bend the stuff up to get a nice tight fit.

[kwikxr]

Cheers guys

Definitely considering shielding the manifold with that ACL sheet, its awesome stuff! I used the same thing over the extractors when it was N/A a few years back, combined with heat wrap, it definitely helped keep temps a lot lower under the bonnet

[Gazzajb]

Hey mate did you just drill and tap the au engine for the ef knock sensor did you have any dramas with it.

Looking sick dude. Watch those bendy rods in the new motor, they don't handle detonation as well as the earlier models!

Jason

Cheers mate! Will do, last thing i need is an s-shaped rod in a motor that just got fitted lol, will keep timing fairly sedate for now and probably only go up to 10psi to keep it reliable. The tune is pretty much sorted now, is a little rich coming onto boost, but will fix that up this week and have it ready for the track this weekend

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Motor swap was 2 weekends ago, fired into life on the first turn of the key too which was awesome. Sounds so much smoother now, and goes a hell of a lot better

Engine out


Hi stall fitted up


New engine in


Stacks of sump to k-frame clearance


Making a start on refitting the intake side of the motor up


Engine all put back together



After topping up the auto fluid after getting the oil pumped through into the empty converter, I just couldn't resist taking it out for a quick spin, with no bonnet of course haha. It's so much more fun to drive with the high stall, feels way more snappier than the EF motor ever did off boost and that's on a pretty average timing map so should be a lot more to come. Rev's out so much quicker and smoother too! Stalled it up at half throttle a couple of times and it jumps up to around 2800rpm, smashes the limiter into 2nd gear and just fries the 205 tyres on my Ghia wheels without any real effort. Would hate to see what it's capable of in the wet as it felt pretty scary in the dry lol. Took my brother for a spin and threw the car around a bit and it felt pretty good, so with a bit of a touch up on the tune, should be ready to roll at Hampton Downs race track for Chrome Expression Session this coming weekend.

The tyres on my Ghia wheels are down to the wire on the back now, so threw on a mint set of FTR's my brother bought as spares, turns out they look alright on the EF so will probably use these on Saturday at the track, and swap back to my black 17" ROH RT's for Sunday

[kwikxr]

Hey mate did you just drill and tap the au engine for the ef knock sensor did you have any dramas with it.

Yeah mate, just drilled the hole out and tapped it the appropriate thread to suit the EF knock sensor. From memory the EF sensor is M12 x 1.5 pitch. Have done it with both AU2 motors that have been fitted in my EF, never had an issue either time.

If you have an AU1 block apparently it's not an issue as it has the correct thread already (there is just a stud that needs to be removed), so this only applies to the AU2/3 blocks.

[Gazzajb]

Yer mate I have a series 2 or three block thanks for reply awesome car mate has inspired me to get me arse into gear and do something with mine

[kwikxr]

Progress has been slow on this (surprise, surprise lol), but finally got it running back in April.


Got the cold side piping sorted out, 40mm BOV fitted, IAT sensor relocated into piping before throttlebody, had a spare rocker cover modded with twin 12an fittings and made up a billet alloy accelerator bracket at work. Pretty happy with how it all turned out.



This should really have been fitted with upgraded valve springs and tuned on 9psi with a decent catch can and surge tank setup done, but things did not work out as I ended up buying a house at the end of April, lol. Got heaps of space now and finally have a garage, so no little bitch excuses for not getting work done!


Slowly starting to get somewhere though, did a quick road tune on it weekend before last and got it running pretty decent. Actually drives pretty nice, comes onto boost smoothly and much earlier now with the Spoolinboost plenum, so happy to be back in a boosted e-series Ford . Just needs some finishing touches on the dyno now, which should hopefully be arranged for July/August depending on funds. Still need to get the accelerator cable working perfectly and get a catch can sorted out for it which is first on the list, currently got 2x 12an lines dumping under the car . The car is not road legal at the moment, so that's the next priority. Hopefully it will be certified for all modifications once I have fitted my new bucket seats up front and sorted out some new adjustable coilovers in the front at least.

Also looking at maybe changing wheels eventually too, got given a set of Rota GTR-D's in 18x10 and 18x12 from my cousin after he sold his 1JZ swapped S14 Silvia recently. Just need to get the front centre bores opened up a touch to clear the hubs and some proper fitting tyres for the rear as they currently have 265's stretched over the 12's

[Jayedxr6]

That first photo is soo sexy!

Sounds and looks like it's coming along nicely !


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