Barra E-gas - any sense dabbling with it?

[Wojtek]

Hey all. My first post on the forum. Ive been into modyfying cars a few years back (all N/A), but this is my first ford and have done absolutely zero with it. Its about as stock standard as they come, for the sole reason that work, kids, home and a gazyllion other things simply dont give you much free time on your plate.

Anyway, about a year ago I bought this little beauty. I needed, and still need, something fairly big, reliable and inexpensive to run. I whack a lot of kms and so managed to get the green motored E-gas ford. Cheap as chips to run and extremely hassle free. I managed to buy it from the first owner with a full service history from day one. This thing takes absiolutely zero oil (in writing zero, I mean zero. After 15Ks and time for an oil change, its right on the dot where it should be on the dipstick). And its a wagon. Hey, wont win first prize in the pagent for sexiest on the block, but something I need with work and kids, where you simply open the back and throw in the work stuff along with the bikes, scooters and fishing rods.

So my question, and I know that there will be an avalanche of comments saying that if its an egas than sell it and get a turbo, or just open yourself a beer and leave it alone as its completely pointless. But sometimes just worth to ask for a few opinions, maybe someone has been or knows of someone whos gone down this path.

Any point in these? Simple mods and probably wouldnt go further:

- headers (after low end grunt - so Pacemaker 4490? theyre about 400 bucks online)

- catback exhaust for a decent note, or have read about catback exhaust from XR6T?

- K&N

- have read about the underdrive kits but have no first hand experience with them.

 

Im not looking for something which will give me star trek enterpirse acceleration down the 1/4 mile, but something which will be a little more pleasurable to drive. Because the car is in such good nick mechanically, dont want to sell up but rather improve and keep.

 

Any opinions and feedback?

 

TIA

 

Wojtek

[k31th]

 

headers make your engine bay look good and add a tiny bit of acceleration noise, but hardly make any difference to the power output unless you also get a tune with it and then it still does bugger all for power, realistically. If you want just a sound change, a cat-back exhaust is ideal for that.

 

K&N is pointless.

 

underdrive isn't worth it unless you're also tuning.

[FiftyOne]

Welcome mate.  I'm assuming you're wanting to go NA just with a bit more pep?   In my humble experience the best way to ruin a good car is to mess with it by putting aftermarket exhaust parts on.  The fuel economy goes to hell whether you realize or not and the drone comes in.   

If you were going to go down that road, if you can find quality parts cheap second hand maybe that's an option?  The petrol barra's do liven up with 98 fuel, an exhaust and a slight tune, but you might be talking less than 0.5 over a standing qtr at ~16 seconds to begin with.   Being gas you are maybe power limited again, don't know enough about that.  

 

If you really wanted to give it a shot, you could try a set of cams with an exhaust & tune but then 100% kiss goodbye any fuel economy you may have had.

[Wojtek]

Thanks guys. yeah, will be wanting to keep it NA. I know its a car I will be keeping for a few years yet, so thought might as well liven her life a little.

With aftermarket I was thinking Pacemakers, and some sort of exhaust. Maybe for the engine note. Really Id probably even be keepibng the standard cat, so going probably rear muffler. I have had very good experienc with Magnaflow when I was mucking around a bit, but have read somewhere (I think it might have been on this forum actually) that a good option is a factory exhaust fromn the XR6T. Truth is that the exhaust is slowly on its way out, as living close to a beach the salt in the air gets to everything. In this case, the exhaust being one of them. I think Id be changing exhaust within the next few months anyway, whether it be for a ori setup in good nick, or something with a sports note. Dont knoiw, all depends on what info I can get dig up on the forum which will put me in the right direction. As to what K31th wrote, that the underdrive isnt wiorth jack all unless I tune. Well, if I would be putting in those bits, ie headers, exhaust, underdrive and air filter, it would be finished off with a tune. That would probably be all that I would do engine wise, only question is, all that mumbo jumbo, even with a tune, will it give anything?

[k31th]

even with a tune on 98 fuel only and all of those mods, you'll be lucky to gain 15rwkw. It's just not worth it, overall. If you want it to just sound just a bit better either a middle or rear muffler replacement will do the job.

[Wojtek]

Its not really the rwkw Im on about but the bottom end, that it picks up and goes straight from the word go. that's why I was considering the headers. But its what I suspect. Maybe simply not worth the 2-3K it will cost overall. Maybe better to spend that money to lower it an inch or 2 and maybe put an xr6 front bar on, as the BA front is the definition of the word "outdated".

Thanks everyone for your input. If I do though decide to do anything stupid I'll write about it here on the forum so people can have a good laugh about spending a couple of K to get 10KW at the wheels.

Edited 05/11/19 11:06 AM by Wojtek

[FiftyOne]

No worries.  Sorry we couldn't give you some better options.  Be sure to hang around the site though, there's heaps of falcon related tech write ups, particularly from PhilMeUp on Utes & taxis which are an absolute gold mine to the community.  They'll be really helpful for you

[Wojtek]

Absolutely no problem FiftyOne. I didnt write the post with expectations to get feedback telling me to go do all the mods, but after honest opinions and I got them, so far from dissapointed. Dissapointed would be if I would have thrown a few grand down the line, did the mods and it would turn out worse then the factory setup! 

I will end up doing some basic stuff, more exterior dabbling then anything else, but this is a turbo forum where everything is from 250KW upwards, so wont be bragging about any egas mods down the track

Will definately be following the forum. Cheers all and thanks for feedback once again.