2010 FG NA Barra to Turbo Conversion

[Ashyl]

Hey guys, so I'm considering to purchase a FG Ford Falcon XR6 here in the Fiji Islands. It's one of very few and I'm trying to strike a good deal on it. 

 

I'ts the NA Barra, and from what I've heard even the NA ones are fairly strong plus there are a few converted examples on the internet.

 

My question is, how good of an idea is it turbocharge the NA motor. I do understand the work that goes into it. But my issue is power and reliability.

Here in Fiji we only have one grade of fuel and that's 95octane, and I know of a few XR6 Turbos that run fine here but they're all factory XR6 Turbos. I understand that the NA engine has a higher compression ratio with different pistons, Will I still be able to make XR6 Turbo levels of power (or more) safely with it's current compression ratio?

 

And does anyone have any tips or real world experiences they could share with me?

 

Thanks

[k31th]

 

the short answer is it's not worth trying to turbocharge a N/A Barra motor nor is it worth purchasing an N/A variant if you're looking for a decent level of power (even equivalent to a stock XR6T is a struggle with an N/A motor).

 

yes, you can do it.

yes, it will cost a lot of time and money to get right.

yes, the compression ratio can be compensated for by a reduction in power production in the tune.

[Ashyl]

Thanks for the short and simple answer. The issue is, I don't have a choice. No one is selling a XR6 Turbo here in Fiji and this is a very neat Low KM Unregistered unit which happens to be the only one for sale, and our import laws won't allow for me to import one anymore either. What I intend to do in the future is buy a F6 and do a full FPV F6 Conversion on this (it already has the full FPV F6 Bodykit), but that's currently way out of budget for me.

Edited 07/03/20 11:32 AM by Ashyl

[k31th]

really? they wouldn't let you import one? did something change to allow the previous examples you speak of versus the ones you might want in the future?

 

well, if you're stuck being only able to purchase an N/A, then you basically need to have a read of the conversion threads pinned to the N/A section of this forum (here -> https://www.fordxr6turbo.com/forum/forum/142-ford-40l-na-discussion/) and see what you're up against and make sure all of the steps can be done in-country or via somebody who can help you remotely. It's going to be a massive undertaking as doing it properly here in Australia is bad enough, let alone in a place without known tuners and dealers etc.

[Ashyl]

The other ones were imported some time back. Even the one I'm looking at has been unregistered for about 5 years now just driven once in a blue moon by the owners of the dealership. All the examples were either privately brought in by their owners a long time back or like this one were brought in by a used Japanese car dealer. Down here no one really pays heed to Australian cars as much as Japanese ones, hence the lack of demand. But yeah back to the point. I wanna see what I can do to get a turbo on it.