2007 Fpv Tornado Ute - Tinkering & Setup

[PhilMeUp]

Thursday, 7th May, 2015

Regular readers will be familiar with my previous Tornado build thread. I bought a very untidy 2006 BF FPV Tornado at auction and went to work on cleaning it up.

http://www.fordxr6turbo.com/forum/topic/89684-2006-fpv-tornado-f6-ute-cleanup-resurrection/

Some history - the timeline:
July 2014: Bought a crash-damaged 2005 BA XR6 Turbo ute and got it licenced in September. Figured I’d try it out and resell it if I didn’t like it, but got hooked on the turbo 6 power and wanted more within weeks.
November 2014: Found a 2006 BF Tornado at auction. Saw it, obsessed about it for a week and bought it. Endless hours and huge amounts of effort went into getting it into the condition that I wanted.
April 2015: Endless amounts of fun with the Tornado, but saw a modified BFII at Pickles Auctions on the other side of the country. Watched the auction via internet but didn’t buy the car.
May 2015: Saw the BFII Tornado listed on Pickles again. The previous buyer didn’t have the money, so the car was listed for sale again. Just like the previous Tornado, I obsessed and bought it.

I’m always looking through different web sites to see what’s out there and saw another FPV Tornado on the Pickles Auctions web site a few weeks ago.

I thought about it, but I hadn’t finished the current one yet. I wasn’t really in a position to buy another car, but registered to bid via web site and watched the auction anyway. I figured if it went stupidly cheap then I’d grab it.

On the day it sold for $15,000. I didn’t bid, and that was that.

A few days later it was back on the Pickles site again. This time I thought about it some more and started looking into it.

This one has almost $9,000 of engine modifications and produces 353kW at the rear wheels.

There’s an aftermarket stereo console in there, although I don’t yet know if there is anything else added to it (ie amplifier and speakers).

Within a day of it being relisted I had decided that I wanted it. Oh dear. Here we go again.

I got the auctioneer to email the original full-size photos to me, and I kept staring at them several times each day. I went to performance workshops and got advice about the engine modifications.

The obvious conclusion was that this had to be the next step for me. I was hooked.

Software problems on the day were franticly sorted out and I bought the car.

Unlike my past two cars, this one won’t require a huge amount of immediate repairs before I can drive it.

This car had a bunch of modifications done in 2012:
- Plazmaman Pro Series 1000hp intercooler, inlet plenum, revised piping and custom under headlight cold air intake
- Plazmaman 4" stainless dump pipe
- High flow cat converter
- Plazmaman Billet surge tank with Bosch 044 fuel pump and wiring harness
- Bosch Xspurt 1000cc fuel injectors
- Custom dyno tune to suit new setup, tuned to 353kW at the rear wheels

So why a build thread? I’m going to get it maintained and ready for long-term use - I intend to have this one for a while. Actually, I said that about the last two cars, so I’ll see if I actually mean it this time.

Things that I’ll be doing - the usual initial maintenance and setup stuff:
- Replace engine oil & filter (Gulf Western 3000X and Mobil 1 filter).
- Replace diff oil - Penrite Pro Gear 80-140 (heavy duty synthetic).
- Coolant flush & new coolant tank.
- Wheel alignment.
- Replace indicator globes with new ones (the orange coating peels off).
- Flush windscreen washer tank.
- Clean the seat belts.
- Replace rear axle bearings.
- Replace the shackle bushes in the leaf springs.
- Flush the brake fluid.
- Replace the upper and lower radiator hoses.
- Replace the engine drive belt.
- Replace the fuel filter.
- Check/replace centre bearing.
- Clean the air filter (pod filter behind the front bumper).
- Flush power steering fluid.
- Flush transmission fluid.

Other things that I’ll be doing:
- Check/repair the spare wheel winch.
- Heat-proof o-rings on coil cover bolts.
- Fit a Parrot MKi9200 phone kit.
- Remove the hard lid & hinging - I’ll be keeping the back open but using a soft tonneau cover if required. I’ll keep the hard lid for future possible use.
- Fit turbo oil filter return kit (ie Earl’s kit). The same one that I didn’t get around to fitting to the previous two cars. One of these days...
- Replace the front 4 piston Brembo and rear PBR brakes with Brembo 6 piston front and 4 piston rear calipers.
- Fit a PWR heat exchanger.

I’m guessing that it’s going to be at least a few weeks before the car makes the trip from Dubbo to Perth. Good, I’m going to need to work non-stop to pay for what I’m going to get up to!

Photos:

[PTR_NITRO_FG]

Looks nice and tidy Phildo!

Do you mind telling me what you paid for it and how many kms? (feel free to PM)

Also...looks like it needs an earls turbo oil feed line thing pronto! Also follow Luke/Arron and get one of those Nizpro coil covers one day

I actually love that colour....looks like Breeze? Even though you don't like the pastel types

Be prepared for heaps of people checking it out....my mrs keeps having a whinge cause apparently "heaps of people just constantly stare at your (my) car....like they've never seen a nitro blue before"...the bright colours stand out amongst the sea of boring white, black and greys

[PhilMeUp]

Looks nice and tidy Phildo!

Do you mind telling me what you paid for it and how many kms? (feel free to PM)

Also...looks like it needs an earls turbo oil feed line thing pronto! Also follow Luke/Arron and get one of those Nizpro coil covers one day

I actually love that colour....looks like Breeze? Even though you don't like the pastel types

It’s got 131,577km on it now, and had 95,282km on it when the engine modifications were done in August/September 2012 (ie difference of 36,295km, or 13,546km per year).

Knock-down price was $15,250. Plus auction fees of $659 for a total of $15,909.

That's an ok price for a standard 2007 Tornado in that condition. With $9,000 of engine modifications and likely a bunch of money in the stereo then there's not much more to spend on it - it’s just the right move for me. There's an extra power cable coming off the battery, so I'm assuming that’s for a good amplifier and speakers in there somewhere.

When it was sold two weeks ago it went for $15,000, so the pricing was consistent.

Being in Dubbo (400km from Sydney), it might have gone cheaper than it would have sold for in a large city such as Sydney or Melbourne.

I've had an Earl's oil line kit here for about six months. This will be the third car that I've intended to fit it on. I'll get around to it one of these days.

[k31th]

looking forward to see what happens with this one

[PhilMeUp]

Tuesday, 26th May, 2015

In NSW, cars must pass an inspection before the transfer of ownership can take place (ie pink slip or blue slip). I want the NSW registration to remain in place for now, but the rear tyres on the ute didn’t have enough tread left.

I had some wheels and tyres for sale here, so removed two suitable tyres and freighted them over. They were then fitted by a Dubbo tyre shop called Hannaford Tyre & Suspension. They picked up the ute, put the tyres on at their workshop and then returned the ute to Pickles. They do this sort of thing regularly. The freight cost me $95 and tyre fitting was $40. That worked out cheaper than buying two tyres in Dubbo.

Then I bought another set of wheels for it. With 353kw at the rear wheels I’m going to want to go as wide as reasonably possible for the back tyres. I found a set of 18x9 and 18x10 rims on Gumtree in Hervey Bay, Queensland. It’s possible that they don’t have enough offset to clear the suspension on the front, so if they don’t fit then I’ll have to resell them and find something else. The rear wheels should fit on the leaf spring back-end of the ute.

They are an Advan AVS Model T7 The Model F7 is forged and replaced the T7 in 2008. I’m looking forward to seeing how the gold colour looks against the Breeze green background of the Tornado. The seven spoke design is different to other wheels, but still easy to clean.

Freighting the wheels to Perth will be expensive, so I’ll probably have them sent to the ute in Dubbo. They can go in the back, under the existing hard lid.









I’ve already got a Parrot MKi9200 bluetooth phone kit here that was meant to go in the current Tornado. That job has been sitting on the list of things to do for a while, but procrastination on that one will pay off because now I won’t have to uninstall it.



Radar detectors are still legal legal here in WA (the only state in which they are) so I’ve been looking on eBay US regularly for a suitable Valentine One. This is the best choice for use in WA, but the trick is to get the correct version (ie 1.85). So far all the eBay ones have been 1.8 or earlier.

Radar detectors are fairly obsolete these days. Police are using laser (ie light wave based) instead of the old radar (sound wave based). Laser doesn’t bounce around anywhere near as much as radar does, making it difficult to detect in advance. Radar detectors are useless for rear-facing cameras - the detector will sound an alert as the car goes past the camera (ie no previous warning). However, there is still the occasional warning of a few seconds for a front-facing camera.

If nothing else, it will make me more aware of the regular locations where mobile cameras are set up, so that I can remember for next time.



I also bought a secondhand PWR heat exchanger. At $480 delivered it wasn’t the bargain of the year, but was still cheaper than paying $700-800 for a new one.

[PTR_NITRO_FG]

Those rims are sweet. Should be lightweight hopefully. Why didnt the guy know offsets? You can measure it easily enough too.

It will look good on a nitro blue if it looks sh*t on breeze

[PhilMeUp]

Those rims are sweet. Should be lightweight hopefully. Why didnt the guy know offsets? You can measure it easily enough too.

He said on the phone that they're a +7.

Neither the front or rear wheels clear on his FG. The front rims are touching the suspension strut, but only just.

The rear ones also don't clear (sedan).

However, they do clear his Brembo calipers.

I like the look of them, so took a chance. I'm hoping that the BF front end is different enough to fit the front rims, and that the leaf spring back end on the ute will fit the back wheels.

I've paid $350 for the wheels. I'm hoping to spend around $150 on freight (either to Dubbo or Perth).

If they don't fit then I should be able to resell them and get my money back easily enough.

[PTR_NITRO_FG]

Yeah some jap bloke will take them worst case....I would say worth way more than the $500 anyways.

Dont want to burst your bubble but 18x9 +7 will poke (or be very flush at least). Not sure if you remember the front of my car....but I have 18x9 +29 ... so yours will have 22mm more poke than mine. I rekon just outside the gaurd....so not sure how he claims it hit Suspension? Cause the lower offset means rim is moving away from suspension lol

Rears will work on ute I think....but you may need to roll?

Take pics when you've done it...I still rekon it will look full jap spec and 'hella flush' good in my eyes, but not sure how you'll like it lol

P.s. they look bloody mint from the pics....no rash? Maybe they have already been restored?

Edited 26/05/15 10:14 PM by PTR_NITRO_FG

[bamk2f6tornado]

The fronts should poke about 10mm more than my fronts. Will have heaps of room from the strut. Rears will fit no problem will poke approx 6mm Less than the rears of my ute.

[bamk2f6tornado]

Just seen that the rears are 10" so they will poke approx 10mm more on the rear as well. Will definitely need a roll front and back with a bit of tyre stretch. Will look sick though. My Guards are rolled on the rear and tyre only just fits with a 275 on. You might have a bit more room only being 18's as my rears are 19x10.5+22 and fronts 19x9.5+22 with 235's

If you punch in my rim size into one of those rim calculators and your wheel specs to compare you will get a pretty good idea of how they will look compared mine