2007 Fpv Tornado Ute - Tinkering & Setup

[turboknapp]

20 minutes ago, -Stever- said:

Are you saying my laminated engineering certificate is worthless???????????

Laminating would be worth something.

 

End of the day, it doesn't matter if you have a glovebox full of Engineering tickets. The police can still sticker the car, then it is up to you to prove otherwise. This means taking time to go and see the pits, depending on the reasons that you were stickered they find something else with wrong with your car and you have to fix that list.

 

This misconception that being engineered means your car mods are legal/untouchable is false. 

 

As the Big Al's poker run from 2014, police sat at the meet point in Burswood and slapped yellow stickers on 75% of cars coming out of there. No interested in hearing the enthusiasts or reviewing any engineering docs presented.

[Tocchi]

that is good news phil... but regarding the stock cat, I'm pretty certain people (here) were mentioning putting the stock cat convertor to pass emissions ... could of saved some time and effort by listening to people here.

 

did you use a BA dump or BF dump in the end? the BA has 1 o2 sensor, the BF has 2 of them... easy way to check the "age" of them

[skidxr6t]

1 hour ago, turboknapp said:

This misconception that being engineered means your car mods are legal/untouchable is false. 

Why do you speak so negatively about this? the car that is engineered will pass the pits fast, it doesn't have to be re-engineered as far as I know.

 

If I had engineering certs for a fully road legal car and was getting a yellow sticker I'd enjoy asking the copper if they got bullied at school. cop probably knows car has hi flow car re fitted if they know about these cars haha.

Edited 25/05/16 07:56 AM by johnxr6t

[PhilMeUp]

7 hours ago, turboknapp said:

Holy snapping duck sh*t Batman, a standard CAT will meet emission requirements!!!!!!!!!!

 

Regardless of having the car engineered, the 5-0 can still canary it. 

 

Yep.  It might pass first go.  If not, then rev the engine and get that cat as hot as possible.

 

Surprised the hell out of me.  

 

The car could still get stickered, but at least it's less likely to.  And, if it does get stickered, it would just be a matter of putting the standard dump pipe and cat back on for an inspection.  

 

If a cop pulled the car over and asked for the bonnet to be lifted then I won't be crapping myself.  A cop can sticker any car he/she wants to, but at least now I'll have some degree of defence.  And, with the car being engineered, it would just be an inspection the next day (with a standard dump pipe and cat put back on), instead of the nightmare that this project end up becoming.

 

1 hour ago, Tocchi said:

that is good news phil... but regarding the stock cat, I'm pretty certain people (here) were mentioning putting the stock cat convertor to pass emissions ... could of saved some time and effort by listening to people here.

 

did you use a BA dump or BF dump in the end? the BA has 1 o2 sensor, the BF has 2 of them... easy way to check the "age" of them

 

The problem was that I was getting different answers everywhere, and I wanted consistency before I spent the money on an emissions test.  Most things that I was getting told were theory, but I wanted to hear it from people that had actually done it.

 

Everyone had an opinion, but no-one had the actual hands-on experience and had done this before.

 

One person would say one thing... I would ask somewhere else to confirm that... and get told no, that's incorrect.  I got fed amazing amounts of bullsh*t from workshops in Perth.  I'd driven to most of them with the Tornado and asked politely for solutions (ie face-to-face instead of frustrating phone calls).  Everyone was too vague with their answers - they expected me to give them a sh*tload of money, but with no guarantee of results.  Except for one place, that quoted $1,500.  

 

I think that one of the problems was that no-one knew for sure how to get the car to pass an emissions test, but instead of just admitting that they didn't know, people gave me vague responses.  Which is why I'm documenting it here - hopefully a few other people can benefit from my dramas.  

 

I eventually spoke to Shannon at Plazmaman.  He was the only one that explained things in the right detail.  He explained about the effectiveness of the standard Ford catalytic converter, but also made it clear that I might need to get the cat as hot as possible.  He did say to drive the car hard just before doing the test.  Instead of trying to gloss over things, he actually knew what the process was, and how to get through it.  I wish that I spoke with him at the start.  

 

One thing that Shannon pointed out was that a custom tune would actually be more efficient than the factory tune, which is why it would most likely pass with a factory cat.  

 

So, it turns out that getting a modified turbo Falcon through an emissions test isn't anywhere near as difficult or scary as most people believe.  It had me freaked out for ages.  

 

This also means that getting a modded Falcon engineered isn't as overwhelming as most of us expect.

 

However, for someone getting a test done, I would certainly recommend that it be done at a tuning place, by people with tuning knowledge.  The place that I was originally going to go to didn't have tuning abilities, so that one would have been a big waste of money.  

 

To ensure a pass, I found a place with tuning knowledge and HP Tuners tuning software.  Turned out that tuning wasn't required in the end.   

[Tocchi]

and you would still cop a yellow, as the police officer just needs to "believe there is something unroadworthy on the vehicle".

permits don't exclude you from yellow stickers, the hassle of having to confirm the car is A1 for pits, $100 inspection fee (approx figure) and half a morning for the inspection.

[Tocchi]

that was to john ^^^

phil, the tuning shops know what is needed to get over the pits and emissions tests ... I'd say they just didnt to do it.
hate to say it but they just couldnt be f*cked doing it.

there is a wealth of info on here, and plenty of people who have modified cars for a long time and know what to do.
but hey, in the end it got done and a nice little story to go with it

[PhilMeUp]

9 minutes ago, Tocchi said:

and you would still cop a yellow, as the police officer just needs to "believe there is something unroadworthy on the vehicle".

permits don't exclude you from yellow stickers, the hassle of having to confirm the car is A1 for pits, $100 inspection fee (approx figure) and half a morning for the inspection.

 

Yep, it can still be stickered, but much, much less likely... and an engineering report makes it real easy to pass the pits the next day.

 

It would still cost $92.55, plus the cost/hassle of putting a standard dump pipe and cat back on, but at least it would be resolved within 24 hours.

 

Which would be just a leeeeeeeeeeeeeedle quicker than how long this project has taken me so far...   

[k31th]

12 minutes ago, PhilMeUp said:

This also means that getting a modded Falcon engineered isn't as overwhelming as most of us expect.

Just an FYI, emissions testing is just one possible regulation of the ADR engineering requirements.

 

In an otherwise factory (already ADR approved) car, emissions may be the only requirement to pass an engineer's report. 

[PhilMeUp]

25 minutes ago, Tocchi said:

phil, the tuning shops know what is needed to get over the pits and emissions tests ... I'd say they just didnt to do it.
hate to say it but they just couldnt be f*cked doing it.

 

Oh, the tuning shops didn't give a sh*t, and that pissed me off.  Despite the mining downturn, they're all still overloaded with work, so no-one was interested in using my car to learn some new skills.  Basically, I found most of them to be pampered princesses.

 

25 minutes ago, Tocchi said:

there is a wealth of info on here, and plenty of people who have modified cars for a long time and know what to do.
but hey, in the end it got done and a nice little story to go with it

 

Yup, for some of us, our purpose in life is show others how NOT to do things.   

 

But hey, on the positive side, if someone on here gets a defect notice some day then on they way home they can at least think of this thread, and how that idiot Phildo eventually got his car through legally.  

 

15 minutes ago, k31th said:

Just an FYI, emissions testing is just one possible regulation of the ADR engineering requirements.

 

In an otherwise factory (already ADR approved) car, emissions may be the only requirement to pass an engineer's report. 

 

Yup, there's a bunch of other stuff to go yet.

 

But the emissions test was the hard one that I couldn't figure out a solution for.  

 

From what I was told by an automotive engineer last year, as well as DOT several times, the rest is basically just paperwork.  

 

It's allllllllllllllllllllllll about that one piece of paper that says that the car with that VIN is emissions compliant.  One stupid piece of f**king paper.  It will be framed, and hung on the wall next to my desk.  

[turboknapp]

34 minutes ago, johnxr6t said:

Why do you speak so negatively about this? the car that is engineered will pass the pits fast, it doesn't have to be re-engineered as far as I know.

 

If I had engineering certs for a fully road legal car and was getting a yellow sticker I'd enjoy asking the copper if they got bullied at school. cop probably knows car has hi flow car re fitted if they know about these cars haha.

Its not negative its a reality....... People think Engineered = Untouchable

 

Regardless of it going over the pits fast, its the annoyance of having to go over the pits for the sake of it. That still costs you money, plus adding to that you take it over the pits and the inspector finds something else that they want to flag as wrong. 

 

My point is for the selective reader, Engineer Permits are not a full proof plan and even with engineer sign off the DOT/police can still make life difficult.