BARRA INTO COMMODORE
ADELAIDE’S MUSCLE GARAGE AIMS TO BUILD A 10-SECOND BARRA-POWERED COMMODORE UTE FOR $10K
Building a XR6 turbo-powered VS ute for under $10K
IF YOU want easy power at a bargain price, it’s hard to ignore Ford’s twin-cam turbo Barra six. Jason Waye, the man behind Muscle Garage and Tuff Mounts, certainly sees the appeal. He set out to build a Barra-powered VS ute for $10,000 that would run 10s at Street Machine Drag Challenge, and found the engine swap comically easy.
“The VS had been sitting in front of a mate’s shop for about a year and was being used as a dump,” Jason says. “I geed him up by saying I’ll put a Barra in it, and one day he rang me and told me to come get it.
“The ute was a roller with no motor or ’box, but at some stage it’d had an RB30 in it so the original loom and dash had been hacked into. It was a real mess. There weren’t even globes or fuses in it!”
With the Panther Black ’96 VS ute in the workshop, Jason went out and bought a complete engine and transmission package from Falcon Spares in Lonsdale, including wiring and ancillaries. The 103,000km-old wrecking-yard donk copped 1500cc injectors and Plazmaman valve springs (a known Barra weak point), and Jason had Bill at Adelaide Turbo Services modify the wastegate on the stock Garrett turbo – a unit known to be good for way more than the 240kw the big six initially put out in the BA XR6T.
“Literally all we did is the flapper valve mod where we enlarged the internal wastegate and ran a bigger actuator on it so we can control the boost and run up to 16-18psi safely,” Jason says. “Everything we’ve done we could do more of, but we’ve made it to be safe and reliable.”
The front-mount intercooler was pieced together using bits of pipe and silicone offcuts lying around the CK Racing Developments shop, while the four-inch dump pipe was a freebie from Graham West Workshops as it was no good for their use, so Jason modified it to suit his ute.
“We can get a three-inch dump past the steering, but any bigger and you have to route it elsewhere,” Jason explains.
The Muscle Garage boys knew the VS would need more fuel, so they picked up a used swirl pot off Facebook and plumbed it to a Bosch 044 pump.
“We want to make 350-360rwkw, which is more than achievable, and we’ll be running drag radials,” Jason says. “The second stage of this car will step it up with more boost. We’ll throw an aftermarket plenum on it and go for over 400kw for Drag Challenge and aim for low 10s, and then get it engineered and drive it daily.”
Being the creative brain behind Tuff Mounts, Jason had no problems coming up with engine and transmission mounts. The Barra swap has proved so popular, however, that he is now selling kits that include the engine and ’box mounts, along with the gearbox crossmember and sway-bar. The Tuff Mounts allow the four-litre to fit into the Holden K-frame using the BA-BF front-hump sump, which differs to the Fg-on sumps that have a rear-hump pan.
While LS swaps often require messing around with crossmember spacers and moving steering and starter motors, Jason was surprised at how easy fitting the Ford motor to the Holden chassis was.
“We used the factory Holden temp sensor and oil switch. We’ve plumbed up the original Holden heaters. I’ve got the standard radiator overflow and we’ve removed the forward expansion tank,” he says. “We’ll go through the Supercheap parts bins for the radiator hoses to suit the six-cylinder VK radiator, which lined up beautifully.
“We clearanced the firewall with a hammer just to clear the starter motor, and I cut the tunnel and welded the Ford shifter mounting plate into the tunnel so I could use the factory console,” he continues. “We used an AU extension housing and AU rear output shaft so that the speedo drive plugged into the BA Falcon loom, plus we have had to run an Auto Meter conversion box
to switch from digital to analogue output for the tacho.”
Grant from Dynotronics wired the ute with a BA Falcon ECU, and Graham West Workshops will flash-tune it using HP Tuners software, like a regular XR6T.
As the aim was for 10-second quarters, the wrecker-spec converter and transmission were never going to cut the mustard, so Jamie from JRM Transmissions modified the stock torque converter for 3000rpm stall, and the four-speed Borgwarner auto ’box was rebuilt to handle the extra power. The Commodore tailshaft has been lengthened 10mm and fitted with a Ford yoke to connect the BTR auto to the Commodore’s Borgwarner live-axle diff, which has also copped 3.45 gears and 28-spline axles. In the rear end, adjustable upper arms and Panhard bar are combined with strengthened lower arms to prevent everything twisting on take-off.
Inside, Jason modified the Commodore console to go around the Ford BTR shifter, as it has a sports-shifting gate that the stock Commodore auto never did.
With a $10K budget, Jason opted for 15x4 and 15x7-inch steel ‘chaser’ wheels, wearing 165mm-wide front and 235mm-wide rear rubber, while the brakes and suspension have also been left alone.
“I need to do fuel lines, trans cooler lines, fluids, radiator hoses, and a basic tune in the computer; then we’ll take it to Drag Challenge and aim for the first 10,” Jason says. “I expected nightmare after nightmare, and there just wasn’t. The wiring wasn’t easy but it wasn’t difficult for a qualified person; the part that made it harder was the fact we were going to a late-model car with body control modules and security issues.
“If we don’t hit the $10,000 mark, we’ll just barely sneak over. It’s just the tune that will kill it for us, because once I finish these next few jobs, it’s only the tune left.”
EVERYTHING WE’VE DONE WE COULD DO MORE OF, BUT WE’VE MADE IT TO BE SAFE AND RELIABLE