trist4nn

legend, helpful as always. old thread but just curious, do you generally use that gasket between turbo and manifold that comes with that kit? mine never had one oem but curious if it helps and is worth chucking in.

@Puffwagon point is taken, ive got enough mixed signals about this already that I am tempted to pay someone I trust to do it. with the turbo line tap, theres a few parts im uncertain about. I think get the basic layout youre describing, I'd be effecitvely replacing that feed hose to the turbo (one with with the inline filter) with a connection straight out of the cooler. I'd intended to use an oil thermostat to avoid overcooling, but tapping in there (at least how I remember things) is a tiny line, which might preclude me from using existing oil thermostat and existing oil cooler, as they're expecting a -10 or thereabouts. maybe I could step that up to an10, but it feels like ive taken a wrong step if im adapting whats probably 1/3 the size hose up to a giant one. ill have to go stare at it in the morning. it's definitely giving me a lot to think about. I regret already buying parts.

gotcha that makes sense. I might have to double down on trying to find one.

ahh I see that's a totally different piece than I was imagining. so it must plumb to an external heat exhanger somewhere? cant quite see from the photos but does it divert *all* oil flow through the fittings out the bottom and back in? if so its basically just doing the same job as the sandwich plate ive got here. whatever it is plugged in to heat exchanger wise might be the key, if I can find that part. also yes sorry this isnt trans cooler related now, I've a standalone thread that would keep it out of the way.

@Puffwagon makes sense conceptually but I cant quite get my head around how id physically tap and return the oil flow there. been a while since I looked at it, but I remember it being a mess of banjo fittings stacked into each other, cant really remember clearly though. all of the external oil coolers ive seen for this car are sandwich plates that pick up the oil post filter on its way back in. @hjtrbo wish I could answer. far as I can see BA does not have an oil temp sensor. was in the process of installing one when I went down this wormhole. all I can say is the car has had issues with pretty much every other liquid in it. radiator was at its limits, power steering gets so hot it comes out the res, diff overheats. I know I shouldnt upgrade things without first measuring it, but this car gets a fairly hard time and I cant easily run my oil temp sensor without the sandwich plate that needs an oil cooler plumbed into it haha

that does make some sense, I'd rather cool it *after* its done its most important work but conversely, I want to put some sensors on the car (oil temp/pressure) and was planning to just stuck them on the sandwich plate. its chess not checkers this cooling business.

thought I'd make a standalone thread. would like to add oil cooling to a tracked ba xr6t. got as far as ordering some bits (aeroflow competition cooler, oil thermostat, -10 an lines) all seemed good to go, but some posts have suggested that external oil cooling might cause too much of an oil pressure drop. I'm a little bit stuck there, as it seems like plenty of people have ran external coolers in the past, PWR used to sell a kit etc. I would have fit an oil pressure sensor at the same time to keep an eye on things, but I'm getting cold feet about it now. far as I can see, the f6 style sandwich plate heat exchanger is not very easy to obtain now, so I'd really prefer to make the above work. appreciate any input. dont feel right charging ahead without getting some more clarity.

ive just been sleuthing around that and the factory fpv style cooler (which you arent allowed to buy without an f6 vin now! limited release) I might be mistaken, but it seems like an older BA engine lacks the mounts for either of the above. I have the old style with larger oil filter, certainly cant see any way these type of sandwich heat exchangers would mount.

I'd not really considered that, I reasoned that if the factory style water to oil cooler worked then why wouldnt an air to oil cooler. can you tell me any more about the differences? is air to oil cooling simply not possible without oil pump work? looking at the f6 assembly it seems there is a lot less distance to pump it, if I understand correctly the heat exchanger comes right off the block where the oil filter goes, is that the key difference?

know this is an old thread but worth a crack! can anyone provide pictures or instructions for how the 'rear mount' coolers fit on a BA (or possibly BF..)? I'm running a massive radiator and intercooler, there is functionally zero clearance between them. I've also made a slight mistake and gone slightly too large on the new cooler size, so im not super confident about fitting it behind the foglights. From what I can see, the old PWR kits (I say old, I certainly cant find them anymore) used to mount somewhere under the car, but I'm not having much luck finding any good documentation about exactly where that went. for what its worth im using this for oil cooling, not trans, I just noticed that gearbox cooling is much more often discussed and they're broadly the same job. cheers.

Cheers that sounds good, it felt a bit funny running almost entirely water, I'll go with the ratios above and use 33% glycol. So far all I've done is fill and drain with demin water and some radiator cleaner to try and purge as much old sh*t out as possible, haven't done a proper fill with real coolant, Id say she's taking a bit over 10l after a drain (just draining from radiator bung) regarding the wiring, I cleaned/sanded both the main chassis ground and the ground strap. From what I could see those grounds actually make contact through the bolt threads, the chassis (was) completely painted. Mine didn't seem in bad condition but not sure about the design haha. My old Toyota's ground like this and its almost constantly goes wrong. What I'm thinking is I'll get it bled up on a real coolant mix with inhibitor, then if the readings are still sh*te I'll bring more grounding work.

another question @JETURBO, when you say use a coolant inhibitor: ive picked up some penrite green coolant inhibitor, would you recommend running this additive & deminerailised water and that's it? this is what the box suggests, but its for cars that dont 'require' antifreeze/antiboil. im not necessarily sure if I do or not.. or would you 'add' this inhibitor into a traditional glycol/deminerised water mix, like a 30/70 or whatever. thanks again

thanks heaps for the help mate. im having a poke around the earthing systems and working through the points you mentioned. car has had a little bit of electronic work done on it that I wasnt involved in, battery reloc behind front bumper, but it all seems high quality using premade process west cables, ill voltage drop test it all when I can run the car again. just want to confirm if im full of sh*t here, but ive traced out my negative circuit going: battery post (behind front bar) -> inside airbox post -> under fusebox -> single ground ring terminal bolted to drivers side chassis rail, right near the chassis to engine earth strap and drivers side engine mount. is that seriously the only ground point from the battery to the chassis? I've got a workshop manual somewhere here which ill try to confirm with, but to my eye its that single terminal is it and its tiny. also I might again be wrong, but theres no hard connection from battery to engine block, that's done via the chassis and the ground strap? If so, I'll definitely upgrade it to some thicker wire, you mentioned preterminated, is that an off the shelf product or should I just measure the length of my old one and get one made up? again much appreciated. shame youre in adelaide or id just bring it in to you haha.

have put the big rad in, was a bit of a song and dance to make the factory shroud fit but it seems ok! what I'd really like help with is how much electrolysis is too much, and how I should go about finding it? I took a volt reading between neg battery post and my coolant with the old rad, showing about 0.18v idle to about 0.2v with all accessories on. at least according to the pwr owners manual this is too much, could anyone tell me what readings theyve found to give an idea of mine is out of ordinary? and if it is, where should I start looking to try and eliminate it before I run this expensive rad. old vs new and the tightish fitment. hope my engine mounts are good

Thanks mate, I took the plunge and ordered it. Do you recall if running the OEM thermostat was ok on these? I've heard the higher efficiency rad will mean the thermostat opens prematurely on the street and keeps it too cold.

hey all im looking to upgrade my radiator to something that will more readily survive track sessions. I'm running an oem replacement right now, which works fine on the street but will try to creep above half temp if im really pushing the car. I'd prefer to just do this one and not worry about it again, so I was considering getting a 'PWR Radiator 55mm – Ford Falcon BA-BF Manual'. two questions: 1: is this generally the best of the best for these cars? im really pushing the limits of heat on this thing and I dont want to half-ass this. 2: its a slightly thicker core, but pwr have told me they've never heard of fitment problems when running big front mounts. any experience fitting? ive got some medium level process west frontmount in there that takes up a bit of real estate but im hoping I can cram it in. I'm open to other ideas as long as it keeps this car cold. cheers!

Fortunately the leak is just the cap. I imagine theyre not truly oil tight since you're never meant to let the fluid that high. Probably better it leaked rather than over pressurized haha.

Maybe it wasn't truly boiling, I'll just say what I saw without trying to be smart. Mid session I developed a new supercharger whine, at the end I inspected the reservoir and found it to be leaking a decent amount of fluid. Inside the reservoir was full to the brim of brown oil, it wasn't bubbling or anything but I touched some and it was hottttt. So maybe it didn't boil, it just got hot enough that it expanded beyond the reservoir size, then sucked air back in...

honestly I have no idea what ps fluid was even in it. it looks brown an old, I never changed it because im a moron. I might just do a full flush with some better fluid (recommendations welcome) and see if that's enough by itself.

So I'm back with version 2 of tracking the b series. wodonga is quite a demanding track on cars (so im told) and we mostly ran 10 minutes on track then 30 minutes rest all day. added a few things: - project mu type HC front pads with 600 series racing fluid - advan ad08r semi slicks - whiteline adjustible swaybars (whiteline links, soft front hard rear) - factory plastic undertray (best 50$ I ever spent) - vented bonnet overall, we knocked about 2.3 or so seconds of the previous best, even taking a 1s off the pb in the warmup session. I'd say I expected a bit more from the tyres. I know its a heavy car, but the other people I was lapping with commented that it looked like a handful. I ran them at about 35psi hot which is what I'd gathered from others using this tyre. I think at this point its my bad driving technique holding the tyre back, I had quite a lot of trouble being brave enough to carry enough speed into the corners. coolant and intake temperatures were better (mostly due to the undertray) but I still struggled with coolant going above the half way point on the gauge unless I ran the car with the heaters and fans on. intake temperatures stayed between 30 and 35, which given it was about 25c and mad sunny maybe isnt too awful. sway bars I am a *big* fan of. running hard rear has kept it from introducing any understeer, but the whole car feels a lot tighter and able to change direction in S bends. now onto the problems, some new some old. - diff overheating - power steering boiled, pump possibly hurt, reservoir leaking fluid - coolant header tank must have cracked, spraying small amounts of coolant around the engine bay and underside of the bonnet. - at least one (probably more) turbo or manifold bolt has shot out. I can hear a gigantic exhaust leak on spool, or my brand new turbo is cooked. diff overheating I expected, it happened last time and I didnt get the time to do anything but replace the oil with syntrax. from reading nelsonians threads, all I can think is running a better diff oil and adding a catch can. power steering is a totally new problem, I've never had that issue before. it appeared towards the end of the day as my ps reservoir having pissed fluid out from the cap. opened it up, and the fluid has expanded right up to the top of the reservoir and is thin as water. pump has started whining *badly* a lot but ive still got steering assist for now, was able to drive it home. unsure what to do for this, I can try to find a higher temperature ps fluid and maybe a cooler? Also I cant be sure, but I'm slightly suspicious that adding venting to my bonnet may have removed some airflow from the power steering reservoir. coolant header tank, I'm guessing that its just a heat problem and I should replace it with something made of metal. turbo I'd pull heat shields off and try to find whats missing. this car has had a habit of losing turbo to manifold studs very regularly, but all I can say with the heat shield on is that its not the front 2 studs. vids probably arent much interest to anyone but me, but this is a low 1:02 compared to the previous best of a mid 1:04 a little more on the bonnet. I did some pressure testing on my stock bonnet with stock undertray fitted. so the above is showing a positive pressure zone of 5mmHg at that front-most redmark. from this I concluded that I would benefit from a vented bonnet, as reducing pressure there would allow more air to be drawn through the radiator and intercooler I also measured a positive pressure zone of 1.9 mmHg in front of the upper grille (near ford badge) compared to behind the fan shroud. this is the final vented bonnet. I did a bit of a hack job on it, hopefully a mate from a panel shop with clean it up and hide my crimes. does it work? well it definitely lets out a lot of heat, but I've yet to perform the pressure tests again. in a perfect world I'd hope to see lower under bonnet pressure at the front and mid area, and a larger pressure difference between the front and rear of the vent and fan shroud. just need to get the car running nicely again to test it.

@gaz097looks like a riot. Perhaps there's something to be said for only changing one thing at a time. I might try a semi slicks with stock bars first and see where I'm at. How much power was that car making btw? Looks stout

Do ya remember what size and were they adjusties?

thanks! it doesnt need to be fast, just faster than last time. meant to be going out again in a month if lockdown lifts, just debating whether to cram some swaybars on before then.

hey all. been reading this forum for years, finally time for some questions. these have been building in my head for 6 months so please bare with me. hoping to get some advice for setting up an xr6t sedan for track work. obviously its not quite the right tool for the job but its the car that currently drives, so itll have to do. setup: 6 speed manual, big clutch. *maybe* 300kw on a lovely cold day on 98. bilstein b6 shocks (pretty new) and lowered king springs. f6 brembos, 'forza' pads from brakes direct (theyre... alright. better than ebc) sway bars are stock, bushes are stock but mostly new. have always run it on michellin pilot sport 4 tyres, these have been a significant limitation. probably nankangs next. about -1.3 neg camber in the front, most I could get with the camber shims pulled out. I'm not looking to go nuts, have another track focused car for that (broken of course), but I'd like to take some mild next steps to getting this thing more consistent around a circuit. my main issues right now are 1: there seems to be an amount of bodyroll + lack of steering precision. something like a quick s bend will demonstrate (start of example video, forgive the bad driving) I've read a million threads about sway bars or not. the situation is getting muddied with fg seemingly having a beefier stock swaybar setup? would like some advice about whether the current available swaybar kits (whiteline 30mm front 22mm rear) actually make these cars faster, or if they just 'feel' less boaty for street driving. 2: im having shocking issues with heatsoak, both intercooler and radiator. I dont have an undertray (buggered if I remember where it went) and suspect that im not getting very good airflow over the heat exchangers. its running a pretty big processwest intercooler but even on a very mild 11c day, once you sit stationary for a moment the heat spikes and takes ages to go down. I datalogged an example of a drive where I did some test pulls on my driveway then sat in a bit of traffic. I saw up to 40c intake temps that didnt go down for ages even after lots of 80kmh cruising in high gear. I've not got any datalogs from the track, but I imagine the situation is quite a lot worse under sustained fanging. 11c day datalog for the curious: https://datazap.me/u/trist4n/11c-mixed-drive-traffic?log=0&data=1-5&mark=12341-7727 given its already a big and overpriced cooler, whats next for my heatsoak problem? I'm considering getting hold of another plastic undertray and building a bit of a shroud from the front bar to the edges of the intercooler to try and force some air into it, but its a bit beyond my experience level. maybe some sort of bonnet vent is necessary? 3: I do seem to overhead the diff eventually, there isnt really a warning until it pisses out the overflow and I get a smoke screen behind me. maybe this cant be helped. that's enough complaining. hopefully somewhere in that rant there are questions that those more experienced can help me with. they got these boats around bathurst somehow afterall. some supplementary happy snaps and examples of my poor driving.