Fireside

I just put a new mustang exhaust on the ute... Didn't quite fit :/ I know I know.... I'll get me coat. P.S. I grabbed it out of a bin to cut up and practice tig welding

Hey all. Sorry for going dark there. Just thought I'd give a little closure to my turbo shopping fun saga. The short version is, after making my decision to rebuild with a GTX core, MTQ stripped my turbo to find the exhaust housing riddled with cracks and beyond salvage. So for all reasons incl time and wallet damage, I stuck with what I know works and ended up with a complete new GT82 with the flap mod done. And I haven't been online because I've been working my ass off to pay the unexpected bill. Good news is, car's going great. Actually, to my surprise, It feels like it pulls more strongly than before. Thanks for everyones input along the way.

Just out of interest, I never got as far as requiring aftermarket support from Precision. But I did call them and had a conversation that could only be described as unhelpful and mildly bizarre.

Well the plot thickens.. apparently my turbine housing is full of cracks and not worth reusing. So now I'm being quoted on full replacement turbo options. And apparently those housings are made of rare prescious metals.

Yeah I'm happy with most of it.. just something about the ladderbar up front doesn't really suit. But it is functional. that's the turbo refurbished and wastegate mod done.

Well, I'm just back from dropping it off to have the work done. At the end of the day.. all factors considered, incl cost and time. I decided to go with the rebuild using GT core, and have the wastegate mod done while its apart. With the bill a bit over $1500. My inner hoon died a little inside. But my wallet is happy. lol. That $650 one is a bargain, will let someone else pick that up this time, but thanks Bizket I did read your thread. Hope yours is all sorted soon if not already. Fives, that's it exactly. I used to think there was no such thing as too much wheelspin. But cheap 245's on the back of one of these changed my mind. It was at the point where I couldnt actually enjoy the engine because I was constantly sorting out directional issues. I stuck 275's under there and that did bring things back to fun. By which I mean still easy enough to spin, but now it's optional. Barnz, you make a very good point. And I guess the thing is I'm trying to be sensible here. lol. This is the most sensible car I've owned in the last 20 years. So I guess it's responsiveness rather than earlier power delivery that seemed attractive. Spin in 2nd and 3rd.. Well that's just fun. If it breaks loose at 5kRPM in 4th, it's just plain sketchy. On and yes Im sure you are correct, that live axle and leaves is well.. a bit agricultural. I've got koni's and air bags so I don't have to compromise on spring rate. But still. yeah. that's a pick of the tray.. No it's not pretty.. but it is very functional if perhaps a bit light. I have plans to get some under tray work boxes on there and maybe even a water tank.

Short ver of a long story... car lost a fight with a tilt tray. Driver pocket dialed tray with his remote and picked car up by front bar. While waiting for full repairs, IC pipe rubbed and split.. While sorting that, found all the exhaust side bolts were loose (again) While sorting that, found dings in the compressor wheel. Not much lateral but a fair amount of end play. I'm really thinking seriously about that GTX 76 option Jet. I pretty much have to make a descision this arvo and it's not proving easy.

I've been happy to keep an open mind regarding other brands. But I just couldn't find enough information to make an informed choice to change brands right now.. And unfortunately, I'm coming down to a time crunch as well.

lol, you leave a thread for one day...... But this isn't the only thing that came off the rails.. Yesterday, confident I had done my research. I felt certin that a GTX supercore was the way forward for my car. But the tuners and mechanics I've spoken to all say otherwise. My mildly tuned ute has a tray on the back and makes 310kw atw. Which is about right.. Much more than that and the 275's out back will behave like the 245's they replaced.. The internet says GTX all the way.. Quicker spool and earlier boost. Real world people I speak to say that's BS. The comp wheel is heavier and takes longer to spool, but results in more boost up top. Further reading shows very few back to back comparisons with dyno charts. :/ Reading between the lines, what I'm getting is that the GTX will only really shine if I plan to push more boost. And the more boost I run the better the GTX will be over the GT. What graphs I could find showed that if anything the GTX is a little bit slower to build pressure.. but only by 50rpm or so.. So not noticably. But over 20psi it really shines. So to upping the boost. If my engine has been happily putting down a bit over 400hp at the wheels with 12-15psi (incl creep) Do I really want to shove 20-22 in there? I mean sure, I'm a card carrying hoon like the rest of you. But the ute already makes me giggle like a school girl. And it's pretty rare that I actually do keep the boot into it long enough to see max power sorts of rpm. The part of me who would love to have another 100 ponies at the treads is at war with the part saying things like yeah, when are you going to use that and is bump induced wheelspin at $160+ actually fun or just sphincter exercise. (I live in the bush.. these roads aren't good.) Mods are walbro in tank, intercooler, oil feed, valvesprings, injectors, F6 airbox. And I love having the stock plumbing visible under the hood. The local blueshirts would love to find something "wrong" with it. But it all looks factory in there. Unless someone tells me I'm crazy, I will probably just have MTQ rebuild the GT and flapper mod it and go back to enjoying what I have some more.

Hey all.. I've been hunting all over the web for GTX35 supercore prices, and I'm seeing a huge variance in results. Published prices from $1750 to 2500+, and people in here talking about much cheaper offerings that I'm yet to find. I've already started calling around some of the places people have mentioned on here. But I'm open to any suggestions. And interested in prices on both the 76 and 82 variants. Cheers, Fire.

I know it will depend on the officer and the mood they are in at the time. But in Qld, I've only ever seen them be sticklers for the plate on the rack rule. Because I have a tray and live in the bush, I have been known to leave a fair bit of mud stuck up under there. Sadly, after washing my car, I got my first ever small speeding ticket a couple of months ago. 5k's over on a quiet straight road with not even a driveway to be found. It was my third ever ticket and it really pissed me off because I am do damm careful these days. At least on the first two occasions I was having fun.

Not a great pic, but you didn't get any other replies so I thought I would share. They are XHP Jet Chromes. 20x9.5 front with 245's on them. 20x10 with 275 at the back. No idea how they would sit under a sedan. But they do clear the brembos and fit nicely under the lowered front with no rubbing. Just posting mainly so you can see how it sits. Haven't had them long enough to recommend or not. Sidenote: Hope you have better roads than I do.. You feel everything with these rubber bands.

Just thought I would quickly wrap this thread up. Long story short is the company that fixed the bent housing put the center back in poorly and caused further wear on a crownwheel and pinion with previous but usable wear. This caused swarf to contaminate the oil and bearings. The insurance co recognized this based on the report I had done, but dug their heels in regarding replacing the cogs, so I negotiated a deal where I replaced those bits and they paid for the rebuild with new bearings throughout. As an upside to the whole scenario.. For whatever reason the car had 3.23 ratio gears in it. (XT ute??) and I took the opportunity to fit 3.73:1 (BFII F6) which made a massive difference. So I'm happy. Case closed.

LoL wasn't the first thing that came to mind :/ I got a written quote for $1096+gst for the crown and pinion today. Does that sound closer to the mark or still steep? I've had the diff apart now and it seems clear that it just wasn't set up right. The backlash is way out of tolerance. So now I have some fun back and forth with the insurance co to look forward to.

that's a very good question and I will put it on the list of things that just don't add up. I get the feeling people aren't being entirely honest about what has been done. I'll have it out today and hopefully start to make sense of it all. Either way it sounds like its going to be expensive. I have ppl telling me a new ring gear and pinion could run as much as $2k+ :/

Hi all, I need some advice on an issue with my diff. Car is Mk2 BA turbo ute. I purchased it about 4 months ago with under 90k on the clock and drove it home from NSW to Qld. The diff was quiet. The LSD probably not very tight but otherwise everything felt/sounded fine. Regrettably, a week or so after having it checked out and tuned up. I slapped a gutter hard with the left rear wheel. I knew the back end would be light with an alloy tray on it, but it whipped hard on me and I just didn't catch it. Anyway, I won't make excuses. Car went into have the minor repairs done. The diff was removed and sent to a gearbox/diff shop in Brisbane where it was assessed as having a bent housing and axle. They also were not happy with the bearings and so I was told it had been straightened, had new axle (possibly two) new bearings inner and outer and something else done with the spider gears (lsd?) Long story short, I got the car back the diff whines.. Badly. like a retired million k taxi that has been doing circle work. I alerted the insurer and repairer immediately, and the diff shop has stated that any noise is a result of previous non accident related wear. And the insurer are sticking with that assesment, telling me to sort it myself. So I'm here wondering what the heck went wrong. I know for a fact that the diff was silent before I whacked it. And I know for a fact that the car has not been hammered either before the incident or after. I'm told it had just under $4K sunk into it at a diff shop, and yet it sounds completely fubar and I'm left holding the bill to fix it. I've changed many a diff center over the years, but always had the internals worked on by experts. So I just don't understand why a quiet diff would get noisy after axle and bearing replacement. Can anyone shed any light as to the likelyhood of poor installation or fitment? The diff is in being taken apart for a full inspection at my cost, so I hope to have more info soon. But I would appreciate any thoughts/opinions you guys might have about it. Have I been screwed over by the diff shop or lied to by the smash repairers or what? Did they swap my diff for some old tired 2nd handy.. So many questions.. too much mystery.

Given the expense and scope of what you have planned, I thought I would mention a couple of cheap easy solutions that sprung to mind.. *velcro a block of wood under the accelerator pedal so the missus only has 40% throttle or *Get your tuner to give you a few tunes to play with. I've got a full power tune and a stock boost tune in the Xcal3. I asked for it just in case I found myself lending the car to a mate or relative. Anyway, if you press on with the auto swap, good luck with it all.. If I had an auto and was interested I would want to know what box you were offering (5 or 6spd) age, k's and clutch.

Thanks for the welcomes guys. The tray is an interesting one. I think I like the plain flat platform on the back with the unhidden mechanicals underneath. But I would like to get the tray off again, clean it all up and give it a fresh coat of underbody black. And yes, something about the rollbar/ladderrack/securamesh thing just looks wrong. Practical yes.. Attractive, no. I won't do anything too fancy with the back end for the moment.. Only plans beside the cleanup underneath are some tramp rods and possibly an LSD tightening. One of the things I like most about the tray is that I don't have to be all that careful with it. I want a ute that isn't afraid of a bit of work. so being able to throw things on the back and drag them off without worrying about scratches or bumps is ideal. Wonder how long before Mr Plod has a go at me for no mudflaps though. With the tub, I almost grabbed a carryboy fibreglass canopy off gumtree last week.. But I ummed and arred too long and it sold. The idea of having a panel van style option does appeal however. No rush until I find a way to lift the darn thing.. Fitting it on is not a 1 man job. Oh yeah the exhaust.. Someone took the unusual step of leaving the center muffler and removing the rear one. I'm not overly fussed by how it looks or sounds, so will probably leave it as is until something wears out. It seems to breathe ok. It is a tiny bit louder than I was hoping for. Any plans for having a subtle ute are well out the window by now though.

Hi all, another ute owner for the site. I've been reading up on some of the great info here and thought I should say G'day. I picked up this 2004 XR6T manual a few weeks ago from Newcastle, and drove it home to Toowoomba. The 6spd auto's are great, but I decided to be stubborn and stick with a manual. Hence the distance traveled to find one. As far as I know I'm the third owner, and this is its third different state to be registered in, having started life in Vic. Its far from mint, but the price reflected that, and the k's were reasonably low. Heres how it was when I picked it up. I set out to buy something really subtle .. like a silver xr6t unbadged with a tray.. And as you can see I failed dismally. Its not terribly subtle at all, lol. It came with the tray and tub, stock bonnet and front bar as well. Will probably put the tub on it for a while at some point once I have rigged up something to lift it on my own. Because I can't leave well enough alone, its already been to the dynoshop and had a few things done. Nothing radical. With this car I want to avoid what I usually do which is go too far and turn a fun car into something completely impractical. So I've had the wick turned up as far as might be considered sensible with the factory plumbing with an intercooler. And done a few things for reliability like valve springs, injectors, dump and cat, F6 airbox with K&N, Walbro in the tank and an aftermarket oil feed & filter. Its already got quite the heavy clutch in it so I hope that and the turbo are good for a few thousand k's to come. It achieved 310rwkw and with the tray on it I think that's about all I can sensibly use, short of finding a girlfriend who works at a tyre shop. Its got a few other goodies on it like the brembo's and premium sound. And right now I'm just loving it. Looks like you guys have a great lil community going here, and I'm looking forward to being a part of it.