Cresta Tech Q&A

Questions by Mighty Car Mods Fans; Answers by Turbo Yoda & Marty

Why Cresta?

We bought the car from Mr Sato a while back as it seemed more fitting to cruise through Japan in that thing than in a hire car.

How could you import a Cresta but not the Mira ?

The Mira is an early 90’s model, the Cresta is from 1985, and in Australia it has to be Pre-88 to import it whole.

Why Barra?

The later (FG) engines are strong and well built and can make good power for minimal spend. Early models were a bit prone to Uncle Rodney coming to visit but that's sorted after BF2. It's a stock engine that makes 600rwhp and did a 9.

Does it have power steering?

No, not entirely necessary for when you’re on the drag strip. There is room to make it fit and we may still do so.

Is it going to be shedding any weight to make it faster ?

It weights around 1350 wet with no driver, thats fairly light considering the equipment that is in it.

What kind of flex plate and converter is in it?

Yella terra flex plate and TCE off the shelf converter. The stall is around 3000, we may experiment with this going forward to get it to launch harder.

What did you do about thermostat after removing the original housing?

We had to delete the housing due to the close proximity to the radiator outlet. The head outlet is tiny so we deemed a restriction unnecessary and it works perfectly

How much fuel pressure did you run behind the 1500cc injectors and is it a rising rate fpr?

4 Bar and rising rate GFB reg.

Wouldn't it have been beneficial to take the head fully off?

We did this entire build in around 9 days time, so we had to save time where we could.

Why not stick with the Ford trans?

You mean the ZF 6 speed? It needs a factory ecu to run it, it needs upgrades to not break, it's huge, it's not suited to the application like a TH400 is.

What gauge wire do you use when making your engine harnesses?

The wiring is original FG mostly with some recycled Haltech loom wires for the added sensors. The ford ecu plug was cut off and Haltech pins crimped on.

Any issues w/e85 collecting moisture from the air?

Yeah it can be an issue, mostly with fuel cells that are vented to atmosphere. This also takes a considerable amount of time so if using the car weekly it will not be an issue. 

All ethanol blends are not equal either, our fuel is made from cane and I believe in the USA it’s more often made from corn

My question is how on earth did that thing stay on the ground planted firm?

It has a ladder bar rear end set up by a pro and has 295 drag radials.

May I ask why you didn't put forged internals into it?

Lowering the comp ratio on a turbo engine is only to allow detonation free tuning on a specific fuel that is prone to knock. If you are using E85 then leave it as is, compression and turbos are are good combo.

Any more in info on making motor mounts?

Every application is different, but that is usually how we do mounts on a performance engine. They are shackle bushes from an old Mitsubishi ute.

Why is it the worst sounding turbo Barra around?

Because it has no mufflers, they all sound like tractors. Big stroke big bore 6's don't tend to sound great, it is just how it is. Up the compression, add cams and rev it hard and things change.

Why did you use custom manifolds for intake and exhaust?

FG manifold is meant to be a good thing, the engine did not come with one as it had been sold off so we used a Hypertune manifold.

What turbo? what manifolds?

It's a hypertune intake manifold, std falcon fitment. The turbo is a GTW3884 67mm on a 6boost manifold with GFB EX50 waste gate. Fual rail comes with the manifold. Valve springs are Crow.

Are the internals still stock in this motor

Yes they are std internals, it is straight from a wrecking yard.

Why the barra240 and not the barra 270 ?

The statement of starting at 240kw is simply general information for most of the people watching the video who have never heard of a Barra.

I want to put one in my Mustang!

There is a Mustang in Australia with one fitted, it's in the 8s if i recall correctly. The engine is fitted in NA form to 100s of thousands of Ford Falcons. The NA engines just have small rods that tend to break. NA engines are $100.

Will this fit in my Honda?

Of course.

What coil packs are being used?

Standard FG with Haltech I6 ignitor box

What ECU is in it?

We used a Haltech Elite 2500T, it’s got torque management which is why we were able to turn the power up and down at the strip. We’ll be using more and more of its features as we chase better times later on.

Where there any other engines you guys were considering? LS or 2J etc.?

Toying with Japanese V8s but we wanted to fly the Aussie flag given the end of production of these engines.

Why the turbo 400 and not a glide?

Both TH400 and Glide are 1:1 top gear. A glide would likely be fine but a 3 speed tends to suit a smaller capacity engine a little better and doesn't need as elastic a converter.

What was 60ft when it went 9.9 . Does it have a transbrake?

Getting it off the line was difficult on the footbrake, the 60 foot was around 1.6, no transbrake as yet.

When converting the wiring harness to run the car what are you changing? What are you adding and subtracting from the loom?

I had to add a lot of engine protection sensors for the Elite 2500T mostly. The engine is setup entirely seperate from the rest of the cars wiring, there is only an igntion input and starter input going to the engine loom.

Why didn't you change the headgasket if you did head studs? 

Headgasket didn't need changing

Why was the safety blanket only around the gearbox but not the bellhousing? 

The bell housings are SFI approved normally, so only the factory casing needs the blanket.

Why a 6 point cage instead of a few stealthy chassis supports?

Because you can't race it repeatedly without a cage.

Could any more power be dialled in ?

Yes it is on relatively low boost.

Why not add more power?

The limit in it's current state will be bottom end strength, at the moment it is at the safe point, it can be upped to 500kw atw but that is not sustainable on std bottom end.

With a BA series Barra motor, at what point do the rods go with pushing more power? I've heard 240-250rwkw is their limit?

BA series is around 300rwkw safely. Anything above that is unknown territory. BF series built from June 06 onwards got the forged conrods from the FPV F6 Typhoon. Those bottom ends will see 400rwkw all day every day.

Why do you get kicked out of the drag way at 10.5?

Because it has not been tech inspected yet. We built the car to a specification that can be passed, we just didn’t have the time available to do it before the drags

How much torque did it make, and did you have drivetrain issues because of that?

It has a Hughes TH400 and a sheetmetal 9", it can handle a lot more torque than it currently has. The car drove spot on straight off the trailer.

What was it like to drive?

Very well behaved, Pauly did a great job on the rear end. We spent extra time on this part to make sure it would drive straight as an arrow and be stable at high speeds. Making huge power is one thing, putting it to use and not wasting it in a cloud of smoke is another!

Who owns the car? 

We do

Will it be kept or sold?

Kept - we have only done a few full passes in it!

What are you going to do with it next?

We have a few other projects that we need to get back into, but we reckon there is more in this thing too! The idea of 8 second passes seems pretty exciting!

Keep an eye on the Mighty Car Mods Facebook Page for more updates.

If you haven't seen the episode? watch it here:

Want more tech awesomeness? Turbo Yoda's Facebook Page, Tuned by Dale, Wired by Dave, Tuning Fork, Benny's Custom Works & Haltech

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