DFB's Garage

Friday Tinkering..................

While I wait for the replacement dust shields, which were supposed to turn up this morning, I pressed on tying up a few loose ends.

First, I decided to swap out the K&N air filter for a new one. I've had one in this car from very early on, having a second one allows me to swap it for a clean and dry filter straight away rather than having to wait for it to dry before re-oiling. An extravagance I suppose, one that somewhat negates the point of having a re-usable filter and supports the idea of just using throw-away OEM filters. But then I wouldn't benefit from the extra 40hp the K&N brings to the table....................:laughing:




For the record, early on I tried removing the intake restrictor but immediately put it back in. At the time I remember searching for information on this apparent "free mod" only for me to discover what I felt was actually true.

That intake insert was intended to increase air velocity, in the process bolstering low-end torque and further tuning intake sound quality. So, while it has the potential to deliver more air to the engine and increase the volume of the induction note, the benefits are only felt at the top end of the rev range, while also delivering less favorable resonance. If you were racing the car, fine, take it out. But driving the car as it was intended, with the occasion run to the red line, leave it in.

This is a more technical description of what's happening I found on another forum -

"......more velocity = better atomization = better mixture distribution in the combustion chamber = better combustion = better volumetric efficiency......"

Strangely, there doesn't seem to be much imagery online about this part of the car. I lifted these shots from the video I'll post below -







Next, onto something only the truly deranged would do............de-nibbing the tyres on the XR6.




A completely absurd exercise and one I even question the point of, but for some reason, tyres look better with them removed.

After adding some additional rubber lining to one of my cabinets, I decided to tackle the deteriorated primer bulb on my Victa MasterCut.






While this wasn't leaking, the rubber bulb had started to perish. The bulb is not replaceable on its own, so the whole cap must be swapped for a new one. Because I had two in stock, I thought this would be an easy fix.................

But no, after replacing the primer cap with a new rubber o-ring, I turned the fuel tap back on and ended up with fuel pouring out of the primer bulb. I removed and re-seated the cap to the same result. I then removed it again and replaced the float needle and put it back together again. Same thing happened. I then pulled it back apart and discovered the OEM float was not pivoting freely on this aftermarket primer cap. So, after cleaning the original cap and re-installed with the new o-ring, the problem stopped.

Clearly the aftermarket primer cap doesn't play well with the OE float. I'll order a couple of aftermarket floats and an updated primer cap that comes with a metal, rubber tipped needle which is supposed to prevent chamber flooding.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/264209167805?hash=item3d8417f5bd:g:BVsAAOSwoPVkPoW 1

So, that was a wasted 30 minutes, only to have to do it all again when the parts arrive. :doh: I'll just write it off as a learning experience.
 
Years back I did the equivalent air box mod on my VZ SV6, it was called the 2 hole mod. Basically make a second hole close to the same size as the first and put a tube in to make it look the same. Most people used PVC pipe sprayed black. I remember using some type of black rubber pipe so I didn't have to spray it, and it held really tight without glue. I had similar results, made the most difference at high revs, but the induction roar was good at hiding the V6 Alloytecs rattle, why they were often called the Rattletec.

I've had K&N air filters in all my cars since the early 90s, even those that were unmodified in any other way. Last time I cleaned the one in the FJ I found quite a few more dead insects in it, a result of the snorkel I believe. I'm thinking of getting a "sock" for the snorkel head.

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Big Dave said:
Years back I did the equivalent air box mod on my VZ SV6, it was called the 2 hole mod. Basically make a second hole close to the same size as the first and put a tube in to make it look the same. Most people used PVC pipe sprayed black. I remember using some type of black rubber pipe so I didn't have to spray it, and it held really tight without glue. I had similar results, made the most difference at high revs, but the induction roar was good at hiding the V6 Alloytecs rattle, why they were often called the Rattletec.

I've had K&N air filters in all my cars since the early 90s, even those that were unmodified in any other way. Last time I cleaned the one in the FJ I found quite a few more dead insects in it, a result of the snorkel I believe. I'm thinking of getting a "sock" for the snorkel head.

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How did you fare with the Alloytec?

I know I'm Ford biased, but how did GM screw that engine up so badly? I remember in 2004 when they launched that engine, GM were waving their hands around claiming they benchmarked V6 engines from Honda, Nissan and Toyota. Honda for refinement, Nissan for performance, Toyota for fuel economy. The Alloytec didn't exhibit any of those qualities, although the later direct injection versions did have decent performance figures.

If you think back to that era, say 2002 to 2008, a era when Mitsubishi, Toyota, Ford and Holden offered six-cylinder sedans. Having driven every iteration of the Ford inline 6, the Magna V6, Holden's 3.8 Ecotec and Alloytec, and marveled at the refinement of the Toyota V6, I would easily say that the best of those engines was the Mitsubishi 3.5 and 3.8 V6's, for being smooth, powerful and sounded great when thrashed. Most people liked to hate on the Magna, but engine in them put the other locals to shame.

I would probably rate them as follows -

1st - Mitsubishi 3.5 / 3.8 V6 (smoothness, sound quality)
2nd - Ford 4.0 Inline 6 (effortless torque, nasty sounding when revved out)
3rd - Toyota 3.0 / 3.5 V6 (on paper, these are better than the Ford, but do lack a bit of character)
4th - Holden 3.8 Ecotec V6 (I rate this over the Alloytec because of the reliability and relative economy they delivered)
5th - Holden 3.0 / 3.6 Alloytec V6 (unrefined, poor reliability, sound terrible)

(Not meaning to offend anyone who has/had those Holden engines, just my analytical brain at work. You also have to remember these cars, the Holden and Ford's in particular, were built to a price to and sold into fleets, so having the best engine tech or refinement was not a priority compared to cost-per-unit pricing.)
 
Deyon, surprised you didn't just save the old, paper filter as a kick stand when cleaning/re-oiling the K&N

Wonder if the S650 has the same airbox?

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DFB said:
How did you fare with the Alloytec?


I would probably rate them as follows

1st - Mitsubishi 3.5 / 3.8 V6 (smoothness, sound quality)
2nd - Ford 4.0 Inline 6 (effortless torque, nasty sounding when revved out)
3rd - Toyota 3.0 / 3.5 V6 (on paper, these are better than the Ford, but do lack a bit of character)
4th - Holden 3.8 Ecotec V6 (I rate this over the Alloytec because of the reliability and relative economy they delivered)
5th - Holden 3.0 / 3.6 Alloytec V6 (unrefined, poor reliability, sound terrible)
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So we're talking the sixes here, this how I'd rate the ones I've driven:

1st - the RB30 Nissan motor, I had this in my VL, very high mileage, but ridiculously smooth revving out to the 6200 redline. I had extractors and a 2.5 inch exhaust with a single straight through muffler, obnoxiously loud, would set off car alarms in car parks. My Mum later got one with much lower KMs and it was just as smooth, but much quieter. The VLs only weighed 1350 kg, so plenty of power for something so light.

2nd - the 1GR-FE 4.0 V6 in my FJ. It is smooth and I love the torque from this thing, off-roading requires no heavy throttle inputs, it cruises so relaxed. But if you give it a bit, especially above 70kmh, you can get the dual VVTi to kick in, and you do actually feel it push you in the seat. Standard exhaust is 2.5 for this, with only a single big muffler, which I changed for a smaller, louder one, although I've been toying with the idea of the muffler delete, but that might be to annoying.

3rd - the Ford inline 6, I only drove a couple, my brother had them as loan cars a couple of times and he always threw me the keys, he didn't get the whole car thing but he knew I'd appreciate them. What I remember is them being smooth and torquey, honestly didn't like the cars they were in, the blue gauge lighting in the XR6 really annoyed me.

4th - would be the Mitsubishi V6s, we had them as company cars for a while where I worked, so I randomly got to drive them over a few years, they were good motors, but I didn't like that much power driving the front wheels, but the 380 was better than the Magna.

5th - is the Holden 3.8 V6s. I had a VN, but it was a 91 so it had the VP motor which was more refined, whenever I got low on fuel that thing would get very tail happy. My Mum also had a 97 VS, more refined again, and they got rid of the loose rear end, mostly.

6th - would be the Alloytecs, the 3.6 in my SV6 was quite good for cruising and accelerating, but noisy at idle. I put an exhaust on it and if I'm honest now, it probably made it worse. I drove a couple of the lower powered 3.6s, they weren't much fun. The 3.0 in my VEII Berlina I was smart enough to leave alone, other than a K&N air filter. It put out almost as much power as the VZ SV6, more if I ran it on E85. It sounded good at higher revs, almost European, but sounded like a washing machine at idle.

Last is the old Red Holden 202 inline 6s. Carburettor, manual choke, glass fuel filter, running through a 3 speed auto, Nuff said.

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Klasse Act said:
Deyon, surprised you didn't just save the old, paper filter as a kick stand when cleaning/re-oiling the K&N

Wonder if the S650 has the same airbox?

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For clarification, the K&N filter pictured above is for the XR6.

On my S550, I have a non-oiled AEM Dry-Flow filter -






For S650, Ford went to a dual throttle body and enclosed dual cone style filters.






Ford Australia used the same filter on the 2002 T-Series, 2003 - 2005 5.4 Boss V8's, and all 2010+ 5.0 Miami V8 FPV's and XR8's...........safe to say Ford got their return on investment with that filer.









 
Big Dave said:
So we're talking the sixes here, this how I'd rate the ones I've driven:

1st - the RB30 Nissan motor, I had this in my VL, very high mileage, but ridiculously smooth revving out to the 6200 redline. I had extractors and a 2.5 inch exhaust with a single straight through muffler, obnoxiously loud, would set off car alarms in car parks. My Mum later got one with much lower KMs and it was just as smooth, but much quieter. The VLs only weighed 1350 kg, so plenty of power for something so light.

2nd - the 1GR-FE 4.0 V6 in my FJ. It is smooth and I love the torque from this thing, off-roading requires no heavy throttle inputs, it cruises so relaxed. But if you give it a bit, especially above 70kmh, you can get the dual VVTi to kick in, and you do actually feel it push you in the seat. Standard exhaust is 2.5 for this, with only a single big muffler, which I changed for a smaller, louder one, although I've been toying with the idea of the muffler delete, but that might be to annoying.

3rd - the Ford inline 6, I only drove a couple, my brother had them as loan cars a couple of times and he always threw me the keys, he didn't get the whole car thing but he knew I'd appreciate them. What I remember is them being smooth and torquey, honestly didn't like the cars they were in, the blue gauge lighting in the XR6 really annoyed me.

4th - would be the Mitsubishi V6s, we had them as company cars for a while where I worked, so I randomly got to drive them over a few years, they were good motors, but I didn't like that much power driving the front wheels, but the 380 was better than the Magna.

5th - is the Holden 3.8 V6s. I had a VN, but it was a 91 so it had the VP motor which was more refined, whenever I got low on fuel that thing would get very tail happy. My Mum also had a 97 VS, more refined again, and they got rid of the loose rear end, mostly.

6th - would be the Alloytecs, the 3.6 in my SV6 was quite good for cruising and accelerating, but noisy at idle. I put an exhaust on it and if I'm honest now, it probably made it worse. I drove a couple of the lower powered 3.6s, they weren't much fun. The 3.0 in my VEII Berlina I was smart enough to leave alone, other than a K&N air filter. It put out almost as much power as the VZ SV6, more if I ran it on E85. It sounded good at higher revs, almost European, but sounded like a washing machine at idle.

Last is the old Red Holden 202 inline 6s. Carburettor, manual choke, glass fuel filter, running through a 3 speed auto, Nuff said.

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I forgot about the Nissan RB30 in Holden's, and I agree, that was a very nice engine. My mate had one in a 1990 Skyline GTS, such lovely smooth engine, even at higher revs. Compared to the 2001 AU Fairmont I had, the SOHC 4.0 was smooth and torquey down low but wheezy and thrashy beyond 4000rpm. While it was an economic decsion by Holden, I'm sure there were a lot of people wondering why they chose to go backwards with the V6 in the VN.
 
Oh yeah, the dual throttle bodies, makes sense

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Klasse Act said:
Oh yeah, the dual throttle bodies, makes sense

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It's the engine I'm most looking forward to. My current S550 has the gen-2 Coyote, so I basically skipped the gen-3 upgrades which brought more hp and a higher rev limit. So instead of 410 hp and 6,400 rpm to play with, I'm looking forward to 470 hp and a 7,500 rpm limit. I'm all about induction note, so the updates all right up my alley.

I can't believe the negativity toward the S650 from the wider Mustang community, so much cattiness and defensiveness over a car that some aren't even going to buy. Is it just sour grapes for those who bought a late S550 and now have the old model? I get it, the styling is divisive, and the car is not as all-new as perhaps people were expecting. But when has a Mustang been truly all-new? S550 was probably the biggest step forward in a long time, setting the bar much higher. In this climate of electric car expansion and all the development dollars that is soaking up, we as a car community should be thankful for the likes of Ford, Nissan and Toyota even bothering to invest any money into dedicated sports cars/coupes.
 
Spotted this on Instagram just now, um, no!

 
My biggest beef with the S650 is the dashboard...screens, no more retro look but then again they turned over styling the car to gen Z as said in an interview of some higher up.

Another question I have is why not use the Tremec manual across the range instead of the cheap, Chinese manual

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Klasse Act said:
My biggest beef with the S650 is the dashboard...screens, no more retro look but then again they turned over styling the car to gen Z as said in an interview of some higher up.

Another question I have is why not use the Tremec manual across the range instead of the cheap, Chinese manual

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$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

From what I can gather, the MT82 is a made by Getrag in China to Ford specs/design. As such, because it's Ford's gearbox, the cost per unit would be considerably lower than being a customer of Tremec that makes the TR3160 in Mexico. As a long-term Ford customer, I've noticed cost always rules any decision at Ford rather than delivering the absolute best possible product for their customers.

If the Tremec was offered on the GT, I would have gone with the manual again rather than the 10-speed auto.

I will say, apart from some slight grittiness when cold and it's generally a noisy nature, I actually don't mind the MT-82 in the Mustang for shift feel and precision. I also have an MT-82 in my Ranger, but it has a remote shifter linkage rather than direct, which makes it feel sloppy. Unlike a certain group of Mustang owners, I'm not flat shifting or slamming gears in an abusive manner, so perhaps that has something to do with.

Klasse Act said:
I mean it's bagged, so push the start button and I'm sure it comes up some....I hope

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I hate excessively lowered cars, just looks stupid in my opinion.
 
I couldn't agree with you more about lowered cars just to be low, looks stupid and not practical ️

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I will say this, LOVE that OEM wheel, is it available in silver

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Klasse Act said:
I will say this, LOVE that OEM wheel, is it available in silver

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Yes they do, and gold as well..................





Guess which ones I'm apparently getting..............:rolleyes:
 
Klasse Act said:
I couldn't agree with you more about lowered cars just to be low, looks stupid and not practical ️

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When I changed the wheels on the Mustang, I had people insisting I lower the car. I'm like HELL NO. Never lowered a car in my whole driving life.

Because I live in what is considered a rural area, in other words not in the capital city, the absolute bare minimum is spent of road repairs. An ultra-low car is not ideal in that situation.
 
Used Optimum Instant Detailer & Gloss Enhancer for the first time today.



From what I can gather, Optimum and Opti-Coat ceramic coatings tend to lack slickness, so using this product helps remedy that. Like all quick detailers, I really like how easy this is to use, able to be applied across all surfaces as a drying aid or final step after washing. Another sleeper product by Optimum.

Finally, the replacement dust shields arrived at the dealer today.





What do think, should I ceramic coat these too?
 
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