Troy King's Ba Xr6t

[proprod]

Ok Guys, thought I would start a project thread on my BA XR6T. I bought it back in June of this year as a pretty standard thing (had 18” wheels and lowered springs).

It didn't take long for me to start playing with it, so I got a bit of a stereo installed, which helps with the driving entertainment and I also found a set of 20” wheels from a mate who had them on his Typhoon.

More recently though I have been looking around at doing some power upgrades with the intention of getting around the 350-400kw at the wheels area. I figure this should be pretty achieveable and I wouldn't exactly be the first person to do it, but should make driving the old taxi a bit more exciting.

In my line of work, I have supplied numerous photos and articles to Street Fords, and when I was discussing my planned upgrades with the Editor of the mag, he was keen to follow the progress of the car and run regular articles in each issue tracking its development. Now, not wanting to wait until each mag comes out, I thought I would post up progress here on the site so you guys get to see it unfold as it happens and my trials and tribulations along the way.

DAY 1 – Initial Power Run, Valve Springs, PWR coolant surge tank, GFB BOV

I had the car on the dyno at Mercury Motorsport who are undertaking the mechanicals during my project. To my surprise, the car made 276rwhp on 5psi boost!! I thought this was a great results considering we ran the car on the dyno with my 20” wheels which would have to be costing me some horsepower. Mercury have had cars lose up to 10% with bigger wheels on, so I guess my engine is making some good grunt!! :D Obviously the most important thing to do was to get a baseline for the car before we went about doing the modifications.

After the dyno, we put the car up on the hoist, gave it a thorough check over and then got to work on the valve springs. The guys at Mercury were using the Atomic valve spring tool which looks like a good bit of gear.

I didn't take a real good note of the time, but I would say about 4 hours or so had the valve springs all installed and the rocker cover back on, looking like we had done nothing to it at all. :(

The next few items we installed were just some tidy up parts in the engine bay that I have wanted to get done. First up was the PWR coolant overflow tank which fits real well.

Last off we installed a GFB stealth fx BOV. It mounts in the standard position, and I chose black to help it blend in.

We will be doing more work on the engine bay towards the end of the project with some custom painted covers and highlight parts, just to make it a bit more individual.

Well all in all it was a fun day at the workshop. I am really excited about the progress and it should all happen very quickly as more and more of our parts arrive and the boys chrun through the countless hours of fitting and dyno tuning. There will be plenty of opportunities for me to thank those involved, but I gotta say I am very impressed with progress so far.

NEXT STAGE – Dyno tune using a CAPA Ford Flash II at Mercury Motorsport. Then the car is booked in for a CES exhaust system with more dyno and tuning to come. Will keep you all posted!!

Troy

[senna_T]

Sounds like a good project mate - I assume you are going to be putting some stronger internals in down the track?

[proprod]

Yeah it something that is on the cards. Mercury Motorsport have built a lot of nissan engines, many making over 600rwhp, so when the time comes, I will get them to put some pistons and rods in and spend a bit of time on the head.

I am really keen to find the limits of components as we go, eg find out first hand at what hp do I need to replace the injectors etc. That way we can document it the whole way along and it creates a bit more value in the stories for Street Ford magazine.

[MiKa]

Good onya mate, will be good to follow th progress, by the way, love those wheels.. Im not biased at all...

[senna_T]

Sounds good mate, I've seen a bit of the work Mercury has done with Silvias and the like (I think they have a S13 running 10.50's on street tyres?) plus their work with tuned roms is supposed to be quite good!

[proprod]

Yeah that was the silvia they built a few years ago. Their latest toy is an R32 skyline, makes 675hp at the wheels on 30psi. Trent (the owner of Mercury) competed in Drift Australia this year and I travelled with the team producing their team videos which we put up on youtube. Check them out!! Just search for "Mercury Motorsport Drift" and the videos will come up. Trent ran his DRIFT car at the drags and it went 10.357@138mph.....with only 480rwhp. The boys are expecting a time into the 9's with the current power. He took me for a ride and HOLY CRAP it is fast.

[RAP1D]

Good stuff mate, great way to swing more XR6T readers over to Street Fords mag.

Getting 400wkws is easy as pie on these cars, your in for some fun!

[Mercury Motorsport]

Hey Troy!! Great to see you have posted up some pics!! Can't wait to see some of the results after we dyno your bad boy!! I am really looking forward to this project and LOL at you in my drift car!

Trent

[typhoon_freak]

I must say.. your engine bay looks smick! real clean.. really should go out an clean mine... yeh keep posting your progress!

[Dirty32]

Be good to see of the gains for the CES... Supposedly one of the best exhausts around, just cost a packet so not as many people run them as say the Xforce...