PhilMeUp

This. Smart move. Much closer to legal as well. Bride seats aren't legal. No big deal, just means a work order if a knowledgeable cop sees them. Fitting a Recaro in a BF: http://www.fordxr6turbo.com/forum/topic/89019-photo-essay-fitting-recaro-seats-to-a-babf-falcon

I've been paying $27.50 inc GST for Timken 2985 bearing kits at Statewide Bearings in Welshpool. Where did you pay get them for $25.99? My photos: http://www.fordxr6turbo.com/forum/topic/88405-photo-essay-babf-ute-wagon-rear-axle-bearing-replacement

Can someone please send me details. Gotta work tomorrow night. Need to sleep tomorrow afternoon. Stuffit. Common sense may need to be postponed until further notice. If I crash and die tomorrow night then it's gonna be all your fault. PS: I am not a cop. But I can do you a really good deal on a cop chip.

That was me - the only time that I can do on weekends is Sunday afternoon. Bugger.

Not a particularly difficult list. If you can't do it yourself then ask around and find a taxi workshop. They'll be quicker and cheaper than other workshops. How I clean seat belts: http://www.fordxr6turbo.com/forum/topic/89678-photo-essay-cleaning-seat-belts

Get a secondhand TomTom 730 or 930 from somewhere and get me to set it up. Mine has all sorts of alerts whenever I get near fixed-location speed cameras.

Yep, Phildo on here is taken so I'm PhilMeUp instead. I'm Phildo everywhere else. I paid $160 each/$640 for 4 tyres for the Federal AZ01 in 235/40R18 size. Dunno how many km I got out of the last lot, put them on back in March so roughly 40-50,000km. You need to swing by here some time and check out my latest FPV ute. Previous owner spent nine grand on engine stuff. Holy sh*t, that thing takes off when it hits 3,000rpm.

1) Make 'em laugh. 2) Make 'em orgasm.

Women are fun. Test drive as many as possible. See how they handle under particular situations. Just be polite and reasonably honest about it. It's not about using them; quite the opposite. Make a contribution to their life of some kid. A fun outing of any kind is a win for both people. Women tend to be very co-operative if you're fun to be with.

First date went superbly well, but make sure that you don't put pressure on yourself to repeat it (ie overthinking it). It's too cold now, but a trip to the nudist beach late at night is always fun.

Achilles tyres are crap in the wet. Go see Jimmy at Eurotyres in Carlisle, 202 Star Street. I'm currently using Federal AZ01 tyres on my taxi. Holy sh*t, these things grip in the wet. Best wet weather tyre that I've come across so far, even better than the Neuton NT5000s that I used to rave about a few years ago. I'll have to put the taxi wheels on my 353rwkw Tornado on a wet night and see how they handle with that much power in the wet. For reviews on tyres, look at http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk and http://www.tirerack.com

Problem: Now there is too much anticipation, which creates pressure and too much expectation for next time. The challenge is to calm down, chill, etc, and not obsess about the one good date too much. This is smart dating. Do things like you've been together for years. Cruisy stuff like this means no pressure. No putting up walls or facade. Just being each other's natural selves. I used to take women to Beatty Park Aquatic Centre in North Perth. Go sit in the sauna and spa. Avantages: - Cheap. $11 each to get in. - Relaxed. I do a good massage, so once I get my hands on her shoulders in the spa then she's all mine. - How often do you get to check her out in a swimsuit the first time you go out together? I've never been into the formal dinner type of stuff. Conversation is what gets things rolling along - if the communication is going well then there's no nervousness.

Nup, no pics of the test drive. I know where the speed cameras are in the area. We kept away from them. Thus, no pics. And I still have a livelihood.

Getting there… just got to put the splashguard back on underneath the bumper. I was rapt to see the car back in one piece. I had been assuming that the recent lack of power was going to need a $1,000 dyno tune. By now it was almost 1am, and time for a late night test drive. The car was warmed up and diagnostic codes reset. Sure enough, the Tornado was making the power that it should be, along with plenty of wheelspin in the lower gears. This thing really gets up and flies. After spending the last few weeks trying to learn about registration requirements and what it’s going to take to get it through an inspection, my interest in this car had decreased a lot. Not after tonight - my enthusiasm for it is back. When that turbo kicks in, particularly at 3,000rpm, all hell breaks loose. Absolutely nothing like my previous (standard) Tornado. Wow. Massive thanks to Dave for his help tonight. Even if I had have spotted the problem with the loose pipe, I wouldn’t have known about the problem with the parking light mount simply not being able to fit back in place. I would have spent hours cursing in rage if I had have tried this task on my own. Instead, it was a pleasant night of teamwork, concluded with some… test driving… to confirm that our efforts had successful in getting the car to run how it should.

Tuesday, 18th August, 2015 A member of the XR6Turbo.com forum, FiftyOne (Dave), sent me a message last week to say that he would be in Perth for a few days on holiday. He came by my place and we got talking about the usual car stuff. I know a fair bit about general BF Falcon stuff but I know very little about turbocharger setups. I am the Mr Bean of the turbocharging world. Absolutely clueless. So, when Dave mentioned about the boost solenoid I didn’t waste any time paying attention. I’d read about it, knew that it needed some sort of maintenance, but didn’t even know where it is. Within seconds the Tornado was in the carport with the bonnet up. I wasn’t going to waste any time learning something new. The boost solenoid is the grey coloured thing in the middle of the photo, with the black cable in front of it. It’s attached to the engine bay with a bracket. We removed the bolt so that we could move the solenoid and remove the two rubber tubes that connect to it. We sprayed WD40 lubricant into each tube. Dave mentioned to be careful with one of the tubes - there’s a risk of breaking off the plastic mount. However, each rubber tube slid off quite easily. Me, putting the boost solenoid back in place. The car has been way down on power for the last few weeks. Dave noticed that one of the pipes had come loose. After a couple of seconds of thought, and despite having an early flight back home, Dave suicidally offered to help me remove the bumper and reconnect the pipe. That offer was accepted before he even finished the sentence. The bumper was removed within minutes. After spending so many hours late at night on my own in the carport trying to fix things and come up with solutions, it was one hell of a novelty to have someone help out for once. This was actually fun. You can see how the black tube has come off the bottom of the metal pipe. For the last couple of weeks my thoughts have been on how to get this car through a licencing inspection, so hadn’t looked particularly hard through the engine bay. As we peeled the bumper back we could see that the tube had come completely off the pipe. We tried getting the tube back on without completely removing the bumper. No chance, that headlight was in the way. The front bumper was then removed. You can see the pod air filter on the left, below the headlight. I don’t like that location because of its vulnerability to water (eg puddles). But there isn’t any space left in the engine bay because of the various piping and full-size battery. I’m not keen on relocating the battery into either the cabin or the rear tray. Fitting a small Odyssy battery is an option, but an expensive one. I also like the idea of having a normal battery available to use in one of my taxis if required at night or on a weekend. The headlight was also removed and slid forward so that we could access the pipe. The tube was eventually put back in place, and the hose clamp was put on reasonably tight to prevent it from coming loose again. Then there was the challenge of getting the headlight back in again. The problem is with the parking light mount - it pokes out below the headlight, but there isn’t room for it because of the tube. After a few failed attempts at forcing it all into place, it was obvious that it wasn’t going to fit. And I didn’t want to risk not getting the car through an inspection because of a non-functioning parking light. However, there wasn’t any other option. The mount was left out of the headlight and zip-tied to another cable in the area. Some day I’ll go to an auto-electrician and see if there is a shorter mounting that can replace this one. With the tube and pipe in place, we could start the reassembly process. We noticed a bolt missing behind the intercooler. I put a generic bolt in. Time to get the headlight back into place - not an easy task. You can see in this photo how there isn’t enough room to fit the tube between the headlight and car body. There was a bit of wrestling involved, but eventually the headlight was forced back into place. The tube and pipe were now as they’re meant to be. Because of the upward pressure from underneath the headlight, it didn’t quite align properly with the fender mudguard panel. Tough luck. Putting the bumper back on. Dave putting the screws back in on one of the mudguard splashguards.

Yep, iPhone person here. The cruise that I led back in February: I figured on a local lap of the river. I: - Used Google Maps to pick a bunch of points along the way. - Got the GPS co-ordinates for each point. - Used some software to create a POI (Points Of Interest) file for my TomTom GPS with the GPS co-ordinates. - Labelled each point numerically (ie 1, 2, 3, etc). - Drove to each point, with the other cars driving along behind me. A bit of stuffing around setting up the TomTom stuff, but it all worked well.

This has been part of the learning curve for this particular project. Modify the exhaust in any way and the car is required to have an emissions test (ie 5-gas test). Start talking with workshops about how they get cars through inspections and the "5-gas test" phrase comes up again and again. I was naively hoping that there was some clever way of getting through the 5-gas test (eg using E85) but in reality the only cost-effective solution is to put a completely standard exhaust back on just for the inspection. Bugger.

Would love to wash the taxi now so that I don't have to do it this afternoon. Pretty sure the neighbourhood wouldn't appreciate the petrol-powered pressure washer at 5am.

If anyone's got any cruise maps... please email them to me... phil at phil dot net dot au The cruise that we had back in February (that I led): I figured we'd do a basic lap of the river. I used Google Maps to figure out a bunch of points that we'd go past and then put the GPS co-ordinates on my TomTom GPS.

Is there any reason why we don't have cruises at least once a month?

Have both. My Valentine One saved me a ticket a couple of hours ago on the Farmer Freeway. FFS, the camera staff were racking up the overtime tonight.

Any modification to the exhaust system requires a 5-gas test. Most stuff in the engine bay is just a matter of paperwork (eg pod filter). The engineer isn't sure if the Plazmaman intake will require more than paperwork (ie 5-gas test). If the Nizpro car had a non-standard dump pipe, cat and mufflers then it should have gone through a 5-gas test. Sounds like they might have found someone who turned a blind-eye? Plenty of dodgy inspections were going on a few years ago, but Dept of Transport got onto it and kicked various arses. All vehicles that were inspected by certain people were then recalled to be re-inspected by someone else. Maybe I'll have to go through a country drive one afternoon through some country towns and see if I can find someone who's not as fussed as Perth workshops.

He did a rough measurement with a tape measure at 1410mm. It's meant to be 1515mm, but the car is allowed to be 50mm lower. That still leaves me 65mm too low. I'm wondering if Ford's specified height includes the optional sports bars in the back of the ute tray. They go a little bit higher than the roof.

Done. Let me know when you're in Perth. There shall be some wheeling and dealing! Yep. I'm getting the hang of what I need to do to get this thing through a rego inspection. Bit of a learning process for me... what can be engineered/certified, and what can't (ie need to put standard stuff on just for the inspection). It's all about the 5 gas test. Modify the exhaust in any way and the car needs to pass a 5 gas test - it will fail with the aftermarket cat. I need to avoid the 5 gas test by putting on a standard dump pipe and cat for the rego inspection. I've got an automotive engineer onto it to certify the plenum intake and pod filter. Helpful guy. Problem is that he also wants to cover the Bilsten shocks that I put on. He's measured the height of the car (ie at the roof), and it's 105mm lower than it should be. Got me stuffed - it's got almost new rear leaf springs and new Lovells XR8 springs on the front. The distance from the centre of each wheel to the wheel arch is also way too short. Again, got me stuffed, I've got this thing set to original Tornado height. He's looking for some other measurements that he can use. I haven't done anything with this car since replacing the suspension a few weeks ago (sick of working on cars). Time to get back into it.