Thread: P38 HSE: Powered by Ford

It's all too common I'm afraid. That's why I DIY wherever I can. If it's a crap job, I've only got myself to blame!

Mate had a radio install done in Newcastle by some 'professionals' and it came back to him withthe head unit installed ass-about, and the amp tek screwed in the most stupidest of places, despite direct instruction of where it needed to be mounted. Puts a bad taste in your mouth when you pay good coin for a sub-par job.

I have my local exhaust bloke well organised: I bend up a piece of rod to follow the exact path of the pipe, mark it out on a length of new pipe with copious texta marks, then assist him to run it through his bender. After that I take it home and weld it in and do minor adjustments with either an ordinary pipe bender or cut and shut. 99% of the time I get it right where I want it and the bloke at the shop doesn't have to think outside of his comfort zone, which is assembling stocky exhausts from catalogues.

Yeah, it's all very disappointing when you pay good money for the little things to get done but they can't even get it right. If I invested in a pipe bender and flarer, this task would've been completed here at home.

Anyhow, when I brought it back, I told them to keep it until it was fixed. It's been there for 2 full days.... Taking the wee wee anyone?

Good news is that AAMI has told me that they will still insure me so that's a bonus. It meant that my insured value doesn't go down and my premium stays the same. Happy days there.

Quick update.

So far I've done 650km with the overfuelling issue and the dodgy exhaust work.

Average fuel economy is 18.5 l/km or 15mpg. I've got new O2 sensors because it won't switch to closed loop but I believe once I've installed the adjustable fuel regulator I'll be able to sort out the closed loop issues.

All up, at this stage, I'm pleased with the fuel economy which is a mix of freeway/back street/stop start driving. The motor is freeing up slowly.

For anyone who doubts whether this conversion was worth the work involved, the major increase in low to mid range torque is addictive. The ZF gearing is perfect for this engine.

I've got the engineer booked in next Monday so hopefully he will like everything. After that, I'm getting a twin 2.25 exhaust for that V8 burble.

More videos to come.

Well, time for a small update.

I had a meeting with the engineer where he inspected my work and chatted for about 2hrs.

Bad news is I needed a weighbridge ticket. Good news is that he likes it!

I managed to get the rangie weighed. 2200kg. Not bad.

Now I'm waiting for the certificate to be sent to the RMS and then everything will be legitimate.

For anyone out there who is curious about exhaust sound readings, I've got the stock Land Rover single exit exhaust on mine but with 2.5" cats and shorty headers and the sound meter thingy said 86 decibels. Surprised us both

Today will be a test of sorts. 42degrees will certainly test out the cooling system and we'll see if it's up to scratch.

Originally Posted by banarcus

Bad news is I needed a weighbridge ticket. Good news is that he likes it!

I managed to get the rangie weighed. 2200kg. Not bad.

Did you lighten the load by going with an empty fuel tank and removing the spare wheel and/or rear seats?

I left the spare out. I didn't get a lock nut adapter with the rangie so I removed the spare and threw in a compressor and a tyre repair kit. I'll be going to a vapour injected LPG system this month with a donut tank in the spare wheel well so the kilos will come back.

I meant to get the weight down for rego. I'm sure part of the fee is weight based.


Years ago when I was working for a well known hire company, our 3t pantech was found to be overweight & needed a truck licence to drive it.
We removed the passenger seats (side & centre), the spare wheel, the outside wheels from the dual axle, drained the fuel tank & removed the roller door for the weighbridge ticket. It just scraped into the car licence weight limit so the boss was happy.