XR6 Turbo Budget Build

[lemonton]

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

 

1. 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.
2. Would I get away with not doing the valve springs at least for now?
3. 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
4. Are there better inexpensive intercooler options?
5. Any ideas or experience.

 

Thanks for reading.

Edited 06/09/16 02:15 PM by lemonton

[BAXRTUTE]

Good luck with that!

 

Id do some more research mate and invest in some better gear.

[skidxr6t]

I just went through all of this and ended up buying a modded car when I was looking for a stock one.

 

Double your mod/maintenance budget I'm lucky I had plenty of leeway for this as you're going to need some money for things.

 

You're going to spend way over your budget if you do multiple rounds of mods. Do it all at once. Would recommend speaking to XFT and Monsta Torque to see what they can do for you.

 

9 hours ago, lemonton said:

Couple of questions

 

1. 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.
2. Would I get away with not doing the valve springs at least for now?
3. 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
4. Are there better inexpensive intercooler options?
5. Any ideas or experience.

 

 

1. do it right or not at all. Spend some time sourcing quality parts. You'll find people with cars like mine which have been wrapped around a pole and all the reasonable quality mods for sale.

 

2. do the valve springs. hire/buy the tool to change them out yourself. part of the reason I say to double the mod budget is with those KM's the timing gear could be worn out.

 

3. bigger is better haha. the cat is the main restriction in the exhaust I thought? but if you go too free flowing you'd want a ported turbo exhaust housing. (I think mainly if combined with 4" dump, but I am not an expert).

 

4. apparantly some good brands use chinese cores and weld them up here. I would still use a reputable intercooler brand. my plazmaman 1000hp cooler was surprisingly light when I removed it for paint the other week. After a good thrashing, one end will be blazing hot and the other end is cold!

 

5. yeah as I said, double your budget for mods and you should be sweet. Don't stray from the norm. I am in the same category of 'budget build' but I would not be a pioneer and order parts that aren't tested with reasonable results by others.

 

6. come for a cruise, hopefully you are south of the river hahaha

Edited 06/09/16 11:15 PM by johnxr6t

[BAXRTUTE]

Well written Johnny boy! 

 

[masda74]

just out of curiosity would a FG Venom 100cpi cat fit his car?

[ROB83R]

John nailed it with number 2. 

You don't want 300rwkw and sh*t starts breaking. 

I'm in the same boat as you. 

I've gotten rid of the heat exchanger, doing the oil feed line today then I'll get my timing gear looked at. After that I'll decide where I'm going to go budget wise. Valve springs would be a good idea above 300. 

 

Bolt in 4 inch cat so you can add the dump later. I'll be going 4 inch dump and cat and upgrading the flapper on the wastegate cause I like a challenge. 

 

Instead of buying that wog cooler buy a fuel pump. Pull the standard cooler off and service it. It'll be clogged up with all sorts of sh*t. It'll do the job up to 280rwkw. Have a look at the HDi coolers on eBay. They look like a decent kit for the price. I'll use one when I get there. I can't justify $1k plus on a setup when I drive 15 mins to work at most and it'll probably never go to the drags. 

 

Have a look in Jets tuning thread. The last ba he tuned is very similar to what you want it was @Box stock T. car. 

 

The cat should fit masda just don't think the dump lines up. 

Edited 07/09/16 12:50 AM by ROB83R

[BAXRTUTE]

Look over my thread and see what a 300rwkw auto does when not done right, I did almonst 20k to get a blown motor.

I leant the hard way, so take some advise,

Dont go cheaps shight and expect 300rw cause it will cost plenty more in the long run

[gaz097]

Exhaust to intercooler is where these things need the help. Go the biggest exhaust you can find, 4" dump into 5" cat (aka xforce) into stock catback. People sell these weekly on gumtree. Also big exhaust will help the stock valve springs hang on a little bit longer.

Monza cooler will get you to 280-300kw with nothing left. Hdi will have a little left in it. Best thing about the monza cooler is it will restrict your setup enough to not need a wastegate port.(hopefully)

Then walbro intank pump plus some nice injectors then go for a tune.
I would say you would make 280kw. Maybe a touch more .

After this , nice intercooler setup, valve springs and wastegate port, and aim towards 330-350kw. (Plus the 10 other things that will fail like diffbushes, turbo etc)

[gaz097]

First MOD round plus it already had a twin 2-1/2" catback.

Manual as well so take 20kw off this

[Box stock T.]

As john was saying the minimum times you take it to the tuner the better your budget will work out for ya.

But this is 2016 and in a perfect world we all would love to  have $12,000 to throw into our turbo'd toys. 

So take to path you think your wallet can handle. One thing I will say is find the right Tuna, I've heard John West is the best.

But in all seriousness decide whether you want a stock F6 or a modded BF XR6 before you start down your journey because its very hard to turn back after injectors / retunes and numerous mods. 

P.S. I have owned both stock BF F6 typhoon and a XR6T both manuals and I will take my Jet tuned xr any day for the fun factor alone.

Still miss me F6 though.