Gazza's turbo build

[gaz097]

I thought I would post a quick(ish) run down of what I have done over the past 4 years of owning my car.

The day I got my full licence I picked up a 2006 September build BF1 manual Xr6 turbo. I had raced

Motocross and an A grade level for the past 4 years and rode for 5 before that. With injuries and what not starting to get the better of me I bought this to keep some thrills going.

The car was stock other than a twin 2.5 cat back exhaust, and had zero options. Didnt bother me as I was going to fit a head deck and not a huge fan of leather.

Never having driven a performance car (Standard turbo wasnt that performance looking back) it stayed stock for almost 12 months. I did upgraded to slotted rotors on the front, done diff bushs and rear end bushs, Monza cooler and BOV, all fluids and got the car running perfect. Done plenty of circle work and loved driving it in the wet power sliding every industrial estate in a 20k radius.

I then attended my first power cruise and had an absolute blast. Rained a lot so had more than enough power to drift all the corners. From this it was more hp time.

First round of mods were 4 dump pipe and cat, Monza cooler from before, 42lb injectors and Walbro intank pump, as well as fitting a second hand cushion button clutch that had a alloy flywheel and pretty large pressure plate. Made 319kw at 12psi and cost me around 1800 for the performance parts and VCM tune, and 400 for the clutch. (Pays to shop around for second hand parts and fit yourself)

Also around now I bought some 20 staggered dark agents and some king springs. Living in Newcastle which is cop city tried the keep the car pretty low key.

This tune lasted for around 3 months before I got bored. Next up I relocated my battery to the front bar, fabed up a turbo side intake, fitted a Rapid cooler and cold side piping. Made 330kw but a load more torque as boost was up to 15 pound in the mid but increased to 17 up to because of standard waste gate. This included the retune was another 1000 odd after again buying second hand and doing all the work myself (looking back I should have bought Hp software and tried to learn some self-tuning). Total cost so far 2800 for Go fast bits .

Around now I went Drag racing down eastern creek. Managed a best of 12.8 at 108Mph on a stinking hot Sunday with a 2.0 60ft. During this day I finally totalled my clutch (12 months was pretty good for 400 bucks) and fitted an extreme single plate button as I was heading back to Powercruise the following weekend. Had another blast at chopping cammed sss and cruising the track frying tyres everywhere.

I got back down the drags again once it cooled back down and went 12.5@118mph on a cool night and on some 17 BFG radials. Best of 1.95 60ft this time.

 

Getting bored I decided to port my own waste gate and fit a 12psi actuator. Had previous knowledge porting motorbike cylinders etc so couldnt be too hard, also decided to upgrade to plazmaman valve springs (Big mistake). Made 360kw at 18psi in the mid and 15 up top. Finally run out of injectors at this stage. Another 700 after I couldnt get my hands on an atomic tool, Brings total to 3500.

Went drag racing again and managed a best of 12.3 at 116mph and a 1.80 60ft.

Went down to Sydneys powerplay again and made it 3 corners before I snapped a CV. Longest day in history but ohwell been lucky so far.

 

This is where it stated going south. Around 4 months ago with a 4Sale sign on it, I was flat out in second and went to 3rd when it lost all power. After finding a valve in the inlet manifold I knew I was in trouble. After pulling the motor down I found the valve spring in 2 pieces and the collets and retainer next to the spring in the head. No damage to anything other than the valve and the spring above the head, but the bore and piston was totalled. Contacting plazmaman they wanted nothing to do with it and claimed they have never had an issue. I got some pretty funny emails around now as well.

Piston damage

Carnage

Plazmamans people skills ^^^

 

Eventually decided to have a crack and build the motor myself. Bought a second hand head with very low kays and had it checked out. Pryce engines balanced up all my parts and rotating assembly as wells as reboring and decking my block. Fitted a spool kit as well as Arp studs, atomic oil pump gears, timing chain, timing gear, and atomic valve springs. Cost me around 4500 by the time it was back in the car running. Up to 8000 now :

At this time got a custom surge tank with twin 044s and hosed, and wired it myself running an fpr1200 and such. Also fitted a GCG turbo as well which has a modified front wheel, 0.7 housing and its own rear housing. This was 800 for the surge and 900 for the turbo as well as 300 for a set of five o 1000cv injectors. About 10k total now I guess.

Got it tuned a few days ago and made 425kw on eflex now, and at 20psi in the mid but tapering to 18 up top as the front wheel is sh*t house. (Shoulda waited for a GTX to come up)

that's about it really. Plenty more photos and such but its long enough. Big thanks to Paul at PBE dynotech helping me when I was trying to do stuff on the cheap. Was always criticised by others of why do you make your own stuff and not just buy PW stuff and such. Well I can tell you now my knowledge of cars and how fuel systems, engines are built and anything else is 10 times others that just walk into the shop with 10k.

Future plans, GTX and 22psi (480kw hopefully), do diff bushss again . Drive it hard until it stops lol.

[JVK]

Top job Gary and a nice write up aswell. Hands on is the best way to learn .

[xr6tnv]

Nice right up mate, interesting read on what you did and all the ups and downs each stage had. Post some more pictures up if you have them.

[JETURBO]

Gaz great build mate well done

Far from supporting plaz did u get a technical rundown of possible senarios to the damage done ?

What u may or may not know is the valves used in typical production engines are actually a 2 piece item "fusion" welded right where yours let go, the head is typically made out of a higher grade material and the shaft a lesser

With boosted engines and any engine retarded ignition advance can increase valve temp by monumential amounts, to give some kind of insight EGT's can sit around ( this is a gide ) 800 degrees c at say 19 degrees advance at 6000rpm retard that by only 1 degree so 18 degrees advance and EGT's now skyrocket to 950 degrees c. On the face of that valve

This is why a tuned engine is more than just creating power but a safe balance for an engine

Tuners sometimes retard advance alot to stay away from knock ( to much advance timing ) but then have no idea what they have infact created a just as bad situation damage wise

Whats happened to your engine is not very common with our cars as the abuse they can take is very high but from what u have does look like it could be more than just the spring letting go but the valve first and in turn damaging the spring

Just food for thought as u may not of had it explained the potential damage could of been done from effects of "other" parts failing

Cheers

[Ralph Wiggum]

Good gide J@

[ms700]

thread needs moar gide

[arronm]

Bloody cars, money pits. It seems there is alway something that needs fixing

The clincher on the failed valve was the fact others had touched to pistons, probably when the weaker springs were fitted and valve float.

Plazmaman got it correct. I used to do all the work on my cars. Now I mostly drive in and drive out. These days I also have more money.

[MattyP]

Have you thought about b just changing the wheel on your high flowed turbo? As that wheel is bigger than the gtx3582r but isn't a billet

[gaz097]

The clincher on the failed valve was the fact others had touched to pistons, probably when the weaker springs were fitted and valve float.

The problem with this is they only got the photo of the pistons that I posted above which has no signs of clipping. The mark on number 6 pistons is where I found the second half of the valve.

I have actually done a whole bunch of research and have sent the broken parts to my tuner, Brad at atomic as well, and have sent the photos to nearly every ford specialist around that I talk to on facebook and here.

I have over 20 emails back and forth with Brad and he even tested all my valve springs and they all tested out with solid seat pressure. The broken one was alright as well.

The thing is still struggle to rap my head around is if the valve head broke off the piston would have struck the valve stem and caused damage to the lifter and cam assembly. But there was absolutely no damage.

And no I hadn't thought about the bigger wheel. I think I will just sell off this turbo and go the GTX option.

[turbotrana]

But think of it this way, if you did not do what you did yourself, it would have been a hell of alot more expensive.

You seem to know what you are doing. For some guys they are better off paying someone do it.