Search the Community

This may need to go to the modification & workshop section. sorry. Hi everyone. First post but I've been a long time lurker. I'm a proud owner of a MKI BF XR6 turbo and am planning a few budget mods. I welcome a few hard opinions and ideas from you guys to see if I'm close to the right track and I've got a few questions too. The car is going to be kept fairly sleeper by the looks of it. First a bit about the car. 144,000km, Second owner and was owned by a middle aged couple with kids. The guys wife mainly drove the car and I'd be surprised if it's ever popped a skid. the car has a build date of 29 may (05/06) so there is a chance it has the upgraded bottom end after the 06/06 turbos. It doesn't really make a difference for my situation anyway. I've got new genuine spark plugs and coils and an earls oil line for the turbo. transmission and diff are serviced. Anyway I've priced the total build to about $2700-$3000 and this should hopefully net me around 280-310ish RWKW which is my goal... we'll see. Parts include Exhaust: $180 4inch 100cell Venom catalytic converter - welded in place of the stock. Option to straight pipe middle muffler either from a shop or $250 venom bolt on from ebay. The catalytic converter should be enough on it's own but that cat with straight pipes would be pretty nice. Standard dump. Induction: K&N panel filter, XR8 snorkel $80 from eBay and a second pipe from the bottom of the airbox that I'll make myself. eBay intercooler $150-$180... I know I know they are pretty rubbish and I'll get heat soak pretty quickly but worst case I'll upgrade it later on and I've lost $150 and a touch up tune, not the end of the world. I'm tempted to keep the stock one but it's seen better days. Stage 1 tune offered by a few tuners $2300 and includes 1000cc injectors, spark plug gap, cooler thermostat, custom tune and a few other things) So that's about $2700-$3000. And then maybe: Fuel pump - Walbro 255 for $160 valve springs $850 - although they are upgraded from the BA motor the car has done a few km's I'm thinking of doing this a bit later on. Plazmaman stage 2 intercooler for $1400 with under battery intake All in all these modifications are there to supplement the stage one, I can't justify spending a quoted "$7500" for a stage 2 on a car that is worth around the same amount. I'd rather put that money towards a stock F6. If I can pull something decent from this I've successfully built a quick(er) 6 speed ZF falcon for around 10 grand. I'm in WA for now. Couple of questions So honest opinions... is it total crap? call me what you like but from all the research I've done this should get me close to 280-310rwkw. I know a lot of people will say do it right or not at all but I'd rather pick up the tools, take a challenge and do it on the cheap with a few small compromises. Would I get away with not doing the valve springs at least for now? I've been told a 5 inch cat would be better but I figure without doing more exhaust work there's no point, this should give a decent improvement over stock. I can get a 5 inch bolt on for $650 Are there better inexpensive intercooler options? Any ideas or experience. Thanks for reading.