Ando81

Thanks for all the input lads, tonight I gave it a quick rub with wd40 and wet & dry. The scratch is now gone

I was thinking maybe it could have been from heavy acceleration with bad timing and pinging. I'm thinking I need to polish the piston up and inspect further and if it's still inconclusive I'll have to pop the piston out to double check.

Thanks mate, the engineer at my work has a kit like this and I was wondering how it worked. Great explanation, it sounds like a good way to test it for sure

If you flog it too hard, somethings gotta give! Where is unfamiliar when you need him

^^^^ thanks for the positive input lads, Ando I'm not very confident about pulling a piston out. I've always thought i would stuff something up. I think that's the best way to go though just to make sure that it doesn't shatter under acceleration. I think the fella that owned it before me used to thrash it pretty hard so it's a wonder it hadn't let go already if it is a crack.

I only saw a video of it running and basically only bought it sight unseen coz it was a good price. Seemed to be fine but I have bought a better cam to put in it and after seeing the bores in very tidy condition I thought I'd leave the pistons & rings. Till I saw this I must say.

I got talked into going with the Clive cam. I've been told Clive has many years experience in the game and is a legend at his craft. And he's an owner operator so I'd rather give him my money than to a large company, just my old fashioned values.

I've fitted an alloy cover on an old xe I had years ago. I just used 2 base gaskets between the carby and standard manifold. It lifted the weber up just high enough to clear the rocker cover.

I think the fella from Clive said his cams were about $280-$300 so I guess he's on the money. Just waiting for info from Camtech before I make a final choice.

Dave, you can't keep teasing me like that. I may just give in to peer group pressure one day

Yeah, a mate of mine is trying to convince me to use the bunch of bananas manifold and use an impco mixer straight on the manifold.

Thanks fellas, I've sent my details through to camtech and they are going to send me some suggestions

Dave......... I'm trying to do a cheap power upgrade. If you keep tempting me like that I will be broke in no time

Ok thanks, yeah I'm not after something that's gunna rev to 6000rpm, I just want a bit of torque for pulling power. Thanks again for the help.

Thanks mate, I really appreciate your knowledge on this. I was hoping to eliminate the air box if possible but not sure if I can. I reckon I'll look for a 300a to put on the bunch of bananas and I'll port the manifold to suit. Thanks again for your input.

So I've been talking to my local ford mechanic and he said he put an impco mixer onto efi crossy using the efi induction pipes. It was used in a 5 tonne truck and he said it pulled quite well with an impco 225 mixer. Can someone remind me the downside of using efi induction pipes again, I remember something bad about uneven flow or something. This would be a simpler fix for better towing performance in my xf ute but is it going to be restricted in some way. Thoughts????

Hi all, am wondering if anyone can recommend good air shocks for the rear of my ute. It's got air shocks at the moment but 1 has a hole in it and lets the air out of the system within minutes. I need to pump them up now and again to carry extra weight. Am wondering if air shocks or an aftermarket airbag kit would be better.

I had considered that option too but my dad used to have a na fairlane with that on it, only downside to it was if an air shock got a leak then the compressor kept running all the time to fill it up. Happened to us on a long road trip once. Thought it was gunna burn out the compressor motor after a while.

I love the idea of tank and compressor under the fuel compartment but just can't be stuffed fitting it up. Ideal setup though.

It is pretty high, it doesn't look great that high but it's practical for what I do in it. The airbag kit came with 2 car valves to pump the bags up. I just mounted them either side of the rear number plate so I can either pump them up at the servo or use my 12v compressor to do it outside the car. You can buy an onboard inflation kit to do it from the cabin but I don't think it was worth the extra expense to put one in. I keep a 12v compressor behind my drivers seat for emergencies so I can just take it out when I need to inflate the bags.

Awesome mate, I could prob get it to run but would definitely get it tuned properly to be safe.

That's all great help mate, thanks for that. I'm leaning more to straight gas with say a 4 barrel impco setup. Don't really want to run efi induction. I know stuff all about gas so bear with me here, if I bought a gas research setup off a 302v8 could I put it onto a 4 barrel crossflow manifold?

Just bumping this thread again as I scored a cheap efi crossflow the other day. I'm thinking of putting a better cam into it and open to suggestions to better towing performance. My current carb fed crossy goes reasonably well on petrol but just does nothing on gas. Am wondering if it is just the standard camshaft that restricts the gas power or could it be the r90e converter and gas ring mixer on top of the weber carby. I had my local mechanic tune it to suit the gas but it's really sluggish. It's doing average 16litres to 100km so I don't think there is any restriction getting gas into the motor. I don't know a lot about the impco mixers, are they for straight gas setups?

So this photo is standard height without bags inflated. And this one with about 15psi in each bag, inflated separately to avoid body roll. Hopefully next time I put a load in the back it won't look like this

I've been told that air bags are better for carrying weight as they are made from more heavy duty material. Also, I've got xh xr6 springs in the rear which lets my ute sit a bit lower to the ground at the back so I thought I might be able to run a small amount of air in the bags all the time to keep the ride height level and when I load up the tray I have the ability to lift it up level again. Depending on how much weight I have in the tub of course.