It's not, but if you've got 7k to spend regardless, and the turbo option gives you a quicker, easier to live with car (ie no stupidly lumpy cam, drives like a stocker off boost etc), with heaps more potential, then why not?

I've been quoted roughly 1k on top of the purchase price of a snort kit, to get it installed and up and running. Yes the kits aren't 100% complete, but it's still achievable. Granted unless you are doing most of the work yourself, you aren't going to get an aftermarket ECU in that 7k budget, but plenty of people have had success running the standard ECU with a rising rate reg, running low boost of course.

My car, has the standard (factory) EB T5 in it, with well over 200k on the clock, and has survived with 200rwkw for the last 2 years behind the few last P plate owners, so they can last. I'm sure luck has a bit to do with it too!

www.raptorsc.com.au
Another viable, easily done option. Run a switch chip or similar, thats another 1300-1500 installed with a custom, tune.

putting it on a house deposit out of the question ? :p

can have your cake and eat it too!!!

$3000 for mods... headers/catback/cam/diff/intake
$4000 towards a deposit...

for just under $2000 you can run N/A mid/high 14s. and have a car that idles like a stocker, has an exhaust system that will pass a DB test and gets better then stock fuell economy.

spend the rest of the money in the right places and an N/A car WILL run in the high 13s and remain a true daily drivable car. the problem is, every one gets so hung up on power figures that they loose sight of what needs to be done to run the times.

take a look the quarter mile registry. there are people running mid 14s but pushing almost 100mph. the power needed to run 100mph is more then enough the run in the 13s but people go about it the wrong way. if you can't get the power to ground you wont run the time.

interesting reading some of this, for once its not an ea driver who bought something for $500 and wants to beat holden v8's for another $500 in mods.

Firstly 180rwkw out of an na6 is not possible unless you have a very happy dyno after spending lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of money, or you've got some magic setup on ya engine, top and bottom.

Secondly, the ecu is perfectly fine and getting a dyno tune for $1000 is a complete waste of money, buy mods that work with the ecu.

Decide what you want, a decent turbo kit fitted properly to hit 200rwkw will be about 10g, i was looking at the kit and talking to Joe at CMS about it on Saturday (was being fitted this week and I'm going back on Saturday ). the T5 will handle punching up to 250rwkw on the strip doing a hard launch, before that there is nothing wrong with them if they've been looked after.

Alot of what is being said above is true, diff (with lsd) is needed to get the power down, but dude work out what ya want, you want turbo or NA?? na will get decent figures, and for 7g most definitely. Freak has said the best so far.

do some thinking in what you want first mate, then research the products, then get it done. i recommend talking to Joe at CMS dude, he will answer all ya questions.

Why hasn't anyone suggested selling it and buying a BA XT

Unless you're going to keep it for 10 years spending 7k on an E series is a huge waste of money and you'll barely get any back when you go to sell it.

*wishes I could find 7 grand to spend on the falcy*

mate if it were my cash on my car it would see a brake size upgrade, a t5 conversion, a 3.23 lsd conversion, exhaust and headers (to spec), cam to spec, (already done the intake), and a capa flash custom tune.

If there was enough room Id drop the car a couple of inches on firmer suspension, but I doubt there would be room for that in 7 g's. since Ive worked out about 10 grand for all that mentioned with suspension and a custom front and rear bumper. Then I would spend a few bucks and get a custom badge made up and make the first ever Falcon "GT-6". (patent pending)

the below line of thinking is what make the above statment true....




By buying mods that keep the ECU happy you are holding back the power.

Build the engine the right way and get a tune to suit and you will make more power

Best f**k investment ever!

remember peps, houses aren't as cheap as they use too!

you hardly ever get money you spend on cars back unless its a classic/rare

Cars in general are a huge waste of money. BA's certainly havnt really held their value well, so I dont see the relevance of your point.

with 10 grand you could make a faster EL than your 10 grand BA. on a bang for your buck basis an EL XR6 is the best buy in the ford range at the moment.

are u going to be doing any of the work yourself?? if so, what will you be doing??. I would go NA if i were you.

Cam, Springs, Port job, Headers, 2.5" straight through exhaust, after market Computer. 180+ rwkw easy. And a nice lumpy idle.

hey i was in the same boat as you a few months ago with my wagon, wanted to make some power figures while keeping a daily drive. Then i got rearended nd used my insurance payout plus savings to get a ba futura wagon.

Things i was considering were turbo, supercharge, or engine conversion.

Was gunna go down the road of ba xr6t conversion, but didnt have the resources to do myself. so that was pipe dreams.

In the end a low boost turbo or super kit was gunna be the go before the crash.

I preferred the super charge option as it was different to what every one was doing at the time (turbo) however you realy need to decide what it is you want to get.

Turbo allows you to drive off boost at low revs, however unless yo change your diff you may not be the drag warrior off the line, but you will be a passing lane hero.

Obviously supercharging allows boost all (most) of the time, however there are issue, such as in most cases it is blt driven off the crank, so you do get power losses, cos your engine drives the compressor as opposed to the exhaust gasses in the turbine.

With a limited budget and wanting to keep it daily driven, comfortably, id say go for bolt on low boost products.
You wont get too much wear on your drive train and in my opinion an NA rebuild for a EF is a waste of money, but like i said at the start, you need to decide what you wanna get out of it, and, then do the research of different products. Whatever you end up getting, you will enjoy it that way.

sorry for the essay by the way. Have just finished exams so it must be engrained into my brain.
But hey, now i'm a graduate mechanical engineer

My point is that if you spent 7k now on an EF in 2 years time it'll still be worth SFA. Spend the same on a BA and you've got a nicer, newer car in the mean time and you'll still get 5k odd for it in a few years.

I spent $1000 to get my stock EF into the high 14s and another $5000 to drop into the mid-low 14s. $5k for 0.4 seconds off - good value ?