Benny Mac's xr6

[benny_mac]

I'm new here (From aff).
Just thought i'd post a few pics of my car and a little about it. Tell me what ya think.

Its a 96 ef xr6, Mods are

Rebuilt engine
wade 1673 cam
head ported and polished
vernier cam gear
high volume oil pump
upgraded valve springs
cold air intake
pacey comps
high flow cat
cat back exhaust
And a couple of cosmetics things.
Its not boosted yet but its on the books. I'd like to run in the engine first and and do a few other little things first like a histall and ecu etc.
Btw i done everything my self other than the head work.

[XRated]

Looks good mate, just needs some different wheels.

[benny_mac]

Thanks buddy,
And yeah it does need different wheels but every time i look at buying some i think to myself i'd rather spend it on go fast bits then wheels, but wheels will finally be coming soon.

[benny_mac]

Its been a long time since i updated here so here are some pics to get ya's up to scratch.
A pic with my bro's car

My new dvd screen, and i have made my centre console for the shifter but haven't got it trimmed yet

Engine bay all cleaned up

Mounted my shifter display

Shift kit switches and bypass for screen on dvd player

Dash lights, was going for Ba look. and didn't like having everything light up blue so i just put coloured vinyl on the back of the standard dials

HID lights conversion (compared to my high beams

New addition after figuring out previous owner put non abs rotors on


Also fitted a high stall convertor and some fatter tread on rears. Launches good now but not great, still have traction issues and would like it to stall higher.
Should be getting my capa eliminator chip/tune in the next fortnight, can't wait for that. And fitted cruise control aswell.
Tell me what ya's think.

Thanks for ya time
Benny Mac

[benny_mac]

[tezza bear]

dam benny all that good cash gone to waste on that nice xr u should be spending it on ur cuzzzzz's xr

[benny_mac]

Ha Ha, Maybe but then that would leave me a bog stock XR. At least yours is all blinged up.
Funds are cleared, definately getting a tune of some sought in the next 2 weeks. I'm tosing up between an Ems stinger and a capa tune. So hard to choose, ones cheaper and will give me what i want for now but the other is twice the price and over kill for now but will have provisions for further mods at a later date (BOOSTED ).

[benny_mac]

Can't wait, i'm booked in for tuesday morning to get my tune done. I chose a capa eliminator chip. Price is a little steep but still worth it i reckon. Can't wait cause rather under powered at the moment and running extremely rich. hopefully this tune fixes both issues. Plus i'm using the same dyno as i did before so it should be a fair (but not 100% accurate) match up a and able to show me how much of an increase i'm getting for my money.

[makvaiielles_xr6]

neat looking xr there fella , just wondering about your bonnet ports (since they are flared forwards does it help disperce heat in engine bay?)... keep the rims they look ok

[benny_mac]

Cheers.
The flute on the passenger side is mainly for my CAI, pushing outside air straight through a hole in my airbox to the pod filter. I don't think it does much for heat as about a month ago it got that hot under my bonnet, it melted the rubber or my accel cable.

[rhys]

hey man, do u have an approximate figure of how much you speant on just the engine mods?

Cheers, Rhys

[tickie]

looking very tidey bro well done

[benny_mac]

PARTS PRICES
Oil pressure sender $38.50
Oil pan gasket $16.50
Timing chain kit $77.00
Rear main seal $16.17
1.9mm valve shim $42.24
High volume oil pump $125.14
Head bolt set $27.50
Manifold intake gasket $18.15
Manifold exhaust gasket $14.30
Rocker cover kit $30.25
Valve stem seal set $35.75
Au metal head gasket $55.00
Head reconditioned $450.00
-Faced
-Pressure tested
-Valves grinded
-stem seals replaced
-Coolant jackets re welded
Head ported and polished to
suit cam $400.00
Upgraded valve springs $95.00
Vernier cam gear $145.00
Wade 1673 cam $135.00
Crankshaft linashed $45.00
coolant hose pack for $35
Main and conrod bearings, de glazing of bore and various little bits $283.50
Radiator, thermostat and various related parts $261.00
pademaker 4480's $396
2.5'' high flow metal cat $230
Air pod and pipes for fitment $70.00
AU XR snorkel $22.00
High stall convertor $381
Fitting of high stall and trans service $250
Capa Tune is costing me $1390

Broken down it cost me approx:
$2120 for the engine rebuild alone and thats me doing most of the labour
$261 to fix the orignal reason of rebuilding ( blocked radiator led to blown headgasket)
$718 in other go fast bits
$631 for high stall
$1390 for capa tune( which gets done tomorrow )
All together in running and go fast bits it has cost me approx $5120.00 and i'm sure i've missed other stuff but thats roughly everything.

Man i never realised how much it adds up and thats without all the other little bits, I'm gonna have to speak to shannons and up the value of my car.......HaHa

[benny_mac]

looking very tidey bro well done

Thanks buddy

[benny_mac]

Once on the chip is in i think i'll start on the cosmetics, first on the agenda will be to get a boot without a rear spoiler on it and then track down a ticky kit.

[rhys]

wow thats a huge list, i wasnt expecting it to be that long

well done tho. so have u fitted any / all of it yourself or have you had it installed?

[benny_mac]

The only things i didn't do and paid someone else to do out of the whole thing were - reconditioning and porting of the head,linashing the crank, fitting the stall and fitting the chip. they were all done by someone else. I pulled the engine apart, put it back together, fitted extractors and cat, etc,etc. Its much more satisfying if ya do it ya self imo. But there are some things i just don't have the facilities to do at home.

[rhys]

haha yer i know exactly what you mean. As a new owner (ive had the car less than a month and this is my first car) i have only done a few simple things, like changed the brake lights, emptied and refilled the coolant for the radiator and resprayed the rocker cover. My dad is also gonna teach me stuff lyk changeing oil and the filters aswell. So its quite basic stuff, but i do plan on getting a haynes manual for the car and modding it myself, exhaust, air filter just simple stuff like that.

Is that how you did it? with the haynes manual, or did you just start it, think logicly and figure it out

[benny_mac]

Well yeah actually, on my little 1.6 escort, my gregories and my old man were my sources of info. But now i'm a qualified diesel mechanic, so i'm a lot more comfortable at just attacking things i don't know much about and trying to put them back together.

[rhys]

ahh yeh, lol i assume being a mechanic, even tho its not exactly the same as a diesel, would b a huge help. i have also toyed with the idea of doing one of those short courses (1 -2 weeks) on mechanics. i saw an ad for one in my local paper. all i lack is the time and funds. haha maybe ill get round to it one day.

How long did you study for to become qualified?

[FPVEB]

m8 thats looks like a sweet ride

[benny_mac]

Its a four year apprenticeship, but four years of crap wages finally paid off.

Cheers fpveb, Feed back is always liked.

[rhys]

ah ok thats good then. i love the scoop on ur hood, hw much did it cost to get that one?

[ORSMEB]

G'day Benny Mac.

Nice read and a nice XR you have

One thing though...how much power does it have? Out of everything you said, you didn't mention a power reading. You mentioned you had had one, but didn't comment on the reading..

I would be assuming around 135 -140rwkw without the tune..?

[benny_mac]

I think the scoop was around $130 delivered to my door.

Cheers orsmeb.
And i just got my chip installed through kpm and was dissapointed with the results on paper but really happy about how it is to drive. My First run on the kpm dyno before the chip pulled only 127rwkw. I thought it would of been more but i put it down to running very rich and in need of a tune. Then when i got my chip put in Kpm's printer wasn't working but they said before the chip it got about 120rwkw, and after about 137rwkw. Which i thought was still pretty bad but after driving it, the chip has made a hell of a difference leaving the results on paper the only dissapointing thing. I still haven't seen the sheets so i'm waiting for them to see what kind of power or torque curve its got. And there is a dyno day on tomorrow in sa so i'm putting it on there to see what it gets on another dyno. Still pretty crap i'm guessing but ah well, here's for high hoping.

[rhys]

wow thats a fair increase in power from a chip tho. How much did that cost you to do?

[benny_mac]

Yeah either way its a 10-17rwkw increase which is definately impressive, but........... it cost me about $1400 to do. There are places that will probably do it cheaper but i wanted to use the same dyno as my first run, even though it cost me an arm and leg.

[Commando]

Hmmmm didn't notice the shifter til now!

I've got some questions: why go for hobo 1950s style switches for power/econ & the DVD screen?

Do you have any other shots of the console? It almost looks like you could build it up to the BA shifter & do something simple like cover the entire console in vinyl so it looks integrated. Looks like there's "more room to play with" with an EF-EL console with that cavity behind where the power/econ button normally goes, whereas in an EA-ED console there's a bin there that's in the way, and the ash tray/ciggy lighter... Hence why I cut a hole in the trans tunnel, & boxed & lowered mine so it's almost hitting the gearbox/tailshaft.

[benny_mac]

I've got some questions: why go for hobo 1950s style switches for power/econ & the DVD screen?

Haha, the two little switches are for my shift kit, not power/econ, thats controlled by the shifter now. And for the dvd screen, thats the only one i had lying around at the time, It will be changed eventually.
And yeah there is nothing really around the shifter but it does sit a heap load high than standard. But my surround will look like the height of the console from cup holders to ashtray was meant to be that high. I really must get some pics of it, all i have to do is make a mounting bracket and put my pwr window switches in. But i've been saying that for a couple of months now.

[Commando]

Looking forward to the progress pics Good luck with the power windows too, they'll be a bastard to integrate!

[CRESA3]

nice car man nice and clean. keep it up

[benny_mac]

This is were i'm up to with my console, not finished, but you get the jist of how its gonna look. Then i have to get it trimmed aswell. I reckon i'm gonna get rear power window switches and pu them on the side of my console but unsure yet.

[rhys]

i can see that on the left side u have the sports shift (or what ever it called). is that just part of the piece that you installed or have you got the transmission that works with that. cos i would love to have sports shift in my eb i call it the lazy mans manual, but its better if you wanna go into the city you can just leave it in drive and relax rather than changeing gears every 2 seconds

[benny_mac]

Its fully functional. And yeah its a little fun. Its still the same trans, that sports shift just controls it electronically rather than manually.

[rhys]

thats a sweet idea. was it hard to set-up?

[benny_mac]

Nah not really, just had to splice into a couple of wires going into my ecu. The hardest part was running the cable for the shifter. I got all the electronics off a guy called muzza, he's on ford mods or aff, not sure if he's on here. I can't praise that guy enough, the quality of his workmanship is second to none.

[benny_mac]

UPDATE

My latest addition is a ba intake from air box to throttle body, much more straight forward than the standard ef one and looks neater too. And i also put some self adhesive foam on my air box to semi seal and direct air straight from my sequential scoop into my airbox. It doesnt feel like an increase but may have given me half a killer wasp. Looking at getting a new exhaust and injectors next fortnight then a less conservetive re-tune.
Pics

[rhys]

Your rite man that looks sweet as! Is it possible to change ur rocker cover aswell? Or does that not worry you?

lol killer wasp.

[tezza bear]

Well Benny u take after ur father thats for sure. I heard about the mods they use to do to there cars when they were ur age . Keep up the good work the cars lookin sweet cuz...

[benny_mac]

Yeah i mite put an ELxr6 rocker cover on if i find one at the right price but it doesn't really bother me.

HaHa Cheers cuz, but i'd much rather be playin around with the cars they had