turbotrana

Now this ones a hard one. If you answer it I will personally kiss your ass/es. What are the internal differences between a Turbo BA 4speed auto and say an ED or EF 6cyl auto 4sp. What parts would I need to buy to upgrade to turbo specs (it should be possible). If that's too hard just tell me what a new turbo 4sp valve body is worth and part number (there is an upgraded valve body that was just released recently to fix a shifting fault I believe). I will pay you 50 ass kisses and a couple of ass licks for this info. Thanks heaps (I must warn you my face is covered in cold sores at the moment so I might have to sign a IOU till it clears up) Reason I ask : that turbo auto seems to be taking alot of abuse and it would good if older boxes could be upgraded for rev heads like me.

Have you guys at Nizpro modified anything to do with the auto.

Quote: Unichip installer " we make heaps out of this thing, it takes no time to install, we put it on the dyno, lean it off and bump the timing up a bit, give them (the customer) the dyno print that shows a bit more power and they are happy as chips, we make 450 to 500 bucks out of them in a couple of hours". Now Unichip: I cant say forsure how good/bad your product is cause its not available to me, but I have a big problem with the amount you and your installers are charging for installation and unnecessary tuning time on the dyno machine. I modify cars as a HOBBY. However it is clear to me that this product is well marketed at a huge $ premium and the arrangement you have between yourself and your installers seems to be orientated around alot of money making. You say you cant release a Generic tune for the Ford Turbo however this is not true. The aftermarket chip market has been doing this from day one. Good luck to you as your making heaps of money at the moment off alot of guys who have minimal knowledge about modifying cars. Quite plainly I feel its not a value for money arrangement (although what the Unichip does is good). I'm just glad that finally theres some competition, namely the exede at a great price which allows ANY dyno tuner or competant backyarder to tune. I hope this will bring your prices down to something more realistic for what is being supplied and done.

The Chiptorque Exede is better than the Unichip product in my opinion. The Chiptorque Exede is programmable by yourself (if you have the inclination) where as the Unichip is only programmable by the workshops that distribute the product, and they charge an arm and leg for it. I know someone who installs the Unichip product who reckons its a money spinner. He reckons it takes bugger all time to install and tune but then they slug ya so much so they make about $500 in a couple of hours when they factor in how much they pay for the Unichip. The Exede is really a new up to date product whereas the Unichip is really old in comparison. I know this site advertises the Unichip, but I reckon your mad if you dont choose the Exede.

Lucas 550cc disc injector in my opinion the best street injector for idle quality and economy on the street. They are not cheap as they are made entirely out of stainless steel. I wouldn't go smaller than 550 but 550 are the the biggest lucas make.

Completely agree with WBT56. On a stocky turbo the trans will last forever but once you put 400 plus whp it fatigues the gears and they just let go without warning. With the turbos it will be third gear because the turbo has heaps of torque. If you like to play just on the dyno (not drags) with a modified turbo, do power runs in 4th as its direct drive. This will take 1000+whp with no problems. With over 500whp in a turbo 6 I love taking off in 4th and when boost hits its wild. You really feel what torque is all about. Nevertheless I'm surprised no-one has blown the Turbo T5 as yet or the auto.

You might be lucky and get a G-tech that's calibrated well. My experience is that they are favourable by up to half a second and a few mph. Nevertheless they are a usefull tool. But really you shouldn't be saying my car did this and that on the Gtech cause it dosn't mean alot. If you said my car did this stock and did this with an exhaust then that means something. For qtr mile times on a stock car just read your Wheels or Modern Motor Mag

At least we live in a democracy and we can chose how we want to live. I spend it on what makes me happy. Namely T66 turbos, Tial wastegates, programable engine management systems and 50+ grand worth of workshop equipment. I hate looking after cars so I prefer a basher and modifying them at my home workshop with heaps of power. For fun I do normally drive a 500whp turbo torana. Nevertheless a BA turbo is on the shopping list, I'm just waiting till they get the weight down a bit and sort out the niggly problems they have before I get one.

I'm worth well over a million bucks (have heaps of properties mainly inherited), my wife several million, 37 y/o and I drive a $2000 EA falcoon. I still dont feel I can afford a new BA turbo (million bucks not much nowadays). I suggest you do what I'm doing now. I'm spending about 10 -15 grand on my turbo system for the EA for about 550 to 600 whp. I just luv whipping quick factory cars with a modified sleeper. In any case I'd wait a few years till a series 2 BA turbo drops in price and out of warranty. Then I'll modify the BA for 550-600whp.

Turbo6man, I'm one of those who knocked the T5 but I'm starting to wonder about the T5Z. It seems to be holding on OK with 400whp, but it does take time to fatigue (wear) a box till a gear lets go. . Alot of the guys who had turbo EA 5 speeds also had 2.92 rear ends. that's murder on the box and will take it out with 350 to 400 hp. However with 3.45s on the rear it is alot kinder. Your US box may be stronger than the domestic box.

MY Brake shudder theory is as follows. I own a VT Commode that has brake shudder and I have olden remachine the disc several times with the shudder comming back after one hard stop. At a trade show I spoke to someone at DBA who gave me a Tech Bullitin that stated in basic terms that the wheel bearing hubs are the problem, not the disc. If you take a look at the GEN 3 hubs as they are know as, they have the bearings very close to one another and I would think it does not take much wear so that they are not true. In older cars the bearings are far apart and the wear situation much better. (I'm assuming the Ford BA is using the new GEN 3 type hub, not the conventional type disc hub in one, I'm not sure) It may be that the new design GEN 3 hubs is causing a problem for both Expensive Daewoo and Ford, but because the front pair cost $700 they wont replace it and even then it may be an engineering problem where it really cant be fixed permanently. Under hard braking the hubs trueness is really tested and then it affects the Disc variation thickness DVT. I wonder whether this applies to the Ford BA.

Who gives a rats ass as to how "pretty" it looks. Its the engineering part that matters. APS has retained the TB in the middle for equal air distribution reasons and Nizmo have gone their way cause the plumbing is a bit more efficient. Both have adv and disadv which we will end up sorting out at the dyno. But to you guys who like it because it looks good, your just suckers. Its whats on the inside of those parts that counts, not whats on the outside. Big chrome tips dont make the car go faster.

I had the brake shudder thing with my VT Commodore. This was a known common problem and Expensive Daewoo just said they would machine the disc and put different pads on. Brakes still shuddered after having had this done a few times. A few weeks ago I spoke to a DBA guy about the problem and he said that DBA traced the problem not to the disc or the pads or calipers but the disc HUB. As per what he said, a batch of hubs didn't run as true as they should have and then eventually cause brake shudder after heavy braking. Each hub is $300 trade which would explain why they would not want to replace them under warranty. However this does not explain why the premium brakes in the BA remain good.

That Exede piggy back is the way to go. At least you can make changes to it yourself at a latter date. That Unichip stuff is not as good from what I know (from a hardware and software point of view) and to make it worse you are not given the software to reprogram it.

The best way to see how good those pistons and rods are is to do what NIZPRO does. Load it up on the engine dyno with big turbo and programable engine management system and see where it lets go. I've got the complete turbo kit and a stock EF engine to do this if anyone in perth wants to do this but no engine dyno. I dont think its worthwhile trying to do this with the engine in the car. BA crank rods and pistons are stronger than EF series. Check out the EL turbo on www.fullboost.com. Hes got 550 rwhp on stock EL series rods and there are a few others around with this horsepower with stock rods. Personally I would be worried more about the rod bolts once I hit 500rwhp.

I'm from Perth so I don't know much about Rob Herrod Motors and I am not making any reference to him here. I personally dont rely on reputations. I can rattle off a dozen stories from the last 15 years where the so called "reputable workshop" ripped of his customer not only in dollar terms but also in workmanship terms. I have a good friend of mine who works for a large name shop here in Perth and he in my opinion very poor at his job as a mechanic doing turbo conversions, engine transplants and engine building. Hes got no idea how sloppy his workmanship is. Nothing ever works the way it should and there is always an excuse. As long as it drives out the door and they get paid, that's all they are worried about. If I ever sniff any possible bad advice from a workshop I certainly will pounce on it. I still cant understand how the topic of rods and pistons was discussed in any detail in the first place. I have had the ACL race series piston in 500rwhp machines reliably for years and those rods will take that power with minimal worry also. that's right, if you dont know how to tune the motor properly then I guess you need forged pistons and steel H beam rod.

I agree with turbo6man. Those pistons are excellent and you only need to change the rods at 500+ rwhp. In my opinion when a shop gives this advice then they are trying to bleed money $$$ out of you. Did he ask you what power level you were aiming for?. There are a dozen more important modifications you need to do before the rods are replaced with stronger ones. To name a first, high flow injectors/high flow fuel pump/ engine management issues/ larger intercooller/larger turbo, better inlet exhaust manifolding and most important in the case of a manual is a stronger replacement box.

After delivery you can hacksaw the spoiler off then go to the hardware store for some no more gaps to fill in the holes left behind. Match some nail polish to the colour of your car to paint over the no more gaps. Voila, no more spoiler.

Cassius, do you know if this Toll discount available to new employees. If it is I think I might be changing jobs for a while.

Stick with the 3.45 if your towing a heavy load because should you go to say 2.92, the computer will not go into closed loop as much because your putting much more load on the engine while cruising which pulls it out of the closed loop parameters. You may well end up using more fuel. I tow about 1100kg with a 2.92 and because of this I am going to 3.27 ratio that I have (this is a ea 6). I have one of those narrow band fuel ratio meters permanently hooked up so I know when its in closed loop or not. On the slightest incline with the trailer, it pulls itself off closed loop and its only on very level roads with the right winds it will go into closed loop when carrying a very heavy load.

Correctamundo with the terminology

Whoever you go with bigger is better. Bigger 3.5" cat and exhaust with twin 2.5" at rear is what you want. Technically it should give a gain at low boost but it will be most beneficial once the boost is wound right up (say 20psi)

Dynosteve, I really wouldn't bother changing the gear ratio on the turbo. The 3.45 ratio is pretty OK. Going any higher may actually make you go slower (esp in a manual). What works in a N/A engine does not necessarily work in a Turbo. Because the turbo create heaps torque and likes being loaded up you are sometimes better off with lower gears. Most of the high output VL Turbo and GN Buick guys doing 130mph+ terminals are sticking with their original 3.45. I know of a few turbo ford 4.1s doing 130mph terminals and they are using 2.92 rear ends with a C4 I once used 3.55 in my trana and found I was only in gear for a split second and could not use the torque of the engine. Both my ET and MPH dropped heaps. I think your money is better spent on the engine.

dynosteve And I was thinking geez that 24 valve head is good. The trana did 481 at about 22 psi but it runs 7 : 1 compression. Have you ever thought about getting rid of the EF type manifold and putting on an EB manifold and cross flow intercooller. You would have to relocate the battery. The turbo only uses the long runners and I've measured both EB and EF manifolds and the EB manifold is only 2cm shorter than the long runners on the EF type. By doing this you would achieve a better flow path. Anyways that's whats I'm in the process of doing.

Dynosteve, I dont think you will have to crack the motor open till over 550 to 600 rwhp. Ive currently got a AU 4l apart and the ACL pistons are brilliant compared to what they used to make say 10 years ago. The ACL pistons will not cause any problems. I used to think the rods were the weak point but there are several guys I am aware of that are using stock rods and are over 550rwhp on the dyno. Since the AU, they are using a triple layered metal head gasget which is another plus. So this motor could go pretty high without touching internals (provided you dont detonate it). The real problem lies with the gearboxes on offer. I dont think your auto will last too long. This will be the first item to go if using slicks. My experience with manuals is the tyres will break traction before they can load the trans enough to break it. If slicks are used with the T5 it will break it.