At Athol Park Wreckers we are seeing an increased number of BA Falcon XR6 Turbo vehicle presenting with damaged conrods and catastrophic engine failure, It is easy to blame a tune or engine abuse but in a number of these cases we are finding that the evidence is not compatible with this hypothesis. Freeze Frame data is showing us that typically engine knock and failure is occurring at around 3000 RPM. And customers advise that the engine breaks down under load and typically sounds like a rev limiter is being hit at this speed. Investigations of the Powertrain control modules logged faults indicates that the a lean condition is being created in the cylinders and detonation is causing the failure.
On testing the wastegate accuator we have found two that have in stuck in the wastegate closed position and one that had a damaged diaphragm causing the wastegate to be stock closed, this has resulted in the engine maintaining full boost and the resulting catastrophic failure. Wastegate accuators have no failsafe mechanism and for a relatively inexpensive item can cause heavy expenses to the consumer.
At Athol Park Wreckers we can test drive your vehicle on a factory data logger and check the boost pressure ensuring it is as it should be standard factory boost appears to be around 5.569 psi in stock xr6t turbos and closer to 7 psi for BA FPV f6 Typhoon, the same rules will apply to later specification with varying amounts.
If you experience these faults, please contact us and bring your vehicle down to have the turbo boost pressure checked.
Happy Driving
Stuart
Athol Park Wreckers
