Hey guys

been lurking for a while but first time poster! :P first of all I'm from Australia, when I first got my license I had a bit of money saved up and my parents paid the rest and I bought an xf, now here in Australia we have weird laws compared to you guys in the US - basically for the first 3 years on my license I'm not allowed to drive anything above 160kw (any v8, turbo, supercharged all disallowed even if less power than the xf lol ..) luckily I have been able to drive the xf without any issues regarding the law thus far.. however in about 2 months I will be attaining my full license and be able to drive whatever I like and am rather keen to make some sort of modifications in order to achieve greater performance.. which I will legally be able to do he he

NOW! I know what your all thinking I've read over 1000x do the SRT-6 swap.. the problem I have with this is that in Australia the crossfire is still a rather expensive car.. I picked my LTD up for about $25,000AUD at an auction (I was pretty lucky!).. currently only has 16,000 km on it.. it's pretty much untouched and I love it!... the SRT's over here (pristine) can fetch from $40,000-$60,000... and believe me when i say they are extremely rare.. (Only 3 for sale currently Aust wide.. all over $40k)

I guess now you can see my dilemma.. I was told by a mechanic (pretty much the only one I am willing to trust) who tunes & maintains cars for the Bathurst v8's races here in Aus that he could make the swap to an m113 v8 (100% fit) for about $8,000-$10,000.. (thats just the labor, engine must be bought separately by me.. - which is fine they arent all that expensive) but there was no gaurentee that the electronics would function properly.. and since I don't think it's been done here in Aus before.. I'm not sure if I should go for this either!..

I really do love this car, I'd prefer the manual ltd over an SRT (which is another reason why i want to keep the ltd) however the other option I have is to part with this car and buy something that is more easily modifiable.. This is something that I really don't want to do and to be honest I don't think I would, even if the power is limited to where it is right now I'd probably still keep the xf.. just love the car too much.. (so does the girlfriend lol)

At the moment I have saved up about $15,000 - $20,000 that I am able to spend on the car but now I'm not sure what to do as my options seem rather limited! - Just want to hear from you guys see what you think.. No one's done a turbo kit on a limited yet.. what would you do? I mean I could grab something like an R34 GTR for about $40,000.. but that would be 1999-2000 model (My xf is 2006 model) and a v8 crossfire would probably make more power than it! The main thing here is that the car be street legal.. so I would be overly satisfied with 350-450hp.

I go to university and I pretty much have about 3-4 month break from November through to Feb/March.. this is probably the ideal time to do the swap although I'm not going to rush into it - as long as I know it can be done I am willing to wait till next year. (I guess the question is would you risk the no guarantee that it would run? no ones done it in Aus before ..)
Sorry to bore you guys (i wrote an essay) lol.. really would appreciate opinions!

 

well my young lad you have hit gold!!! this is how you do it..... have your mechanic do all the physical swap of the m113 into your xfire. then you send a first class ticket to rcompart and he flys down under to handle all the electronic work. after all he IS the demon god of s/c v8 xfire swaps!!!
now of course rudy being a tadpole himself he shouldnt fly so far without adult supervision so you better make that 2 first class tickets so i can chaperone this whole affair!

 

zupp, surely you have read thru all the threads...Rudy is doing v-8 conversions...there's at least 4 out there right now...we have a person working on turbo charging a limited right now, and another supercharging a limited....just check out their respective threads. But, as a young, just getting started driver, and me being an old fart, I would just drive and enjoy what you have for now, as it is. Modding doesn't have to be immediate. Get some time under your belt, and watch the mods take place with these guys. Once the perfect their builds, there may be some kits come from it. The v-8 conversions that Rudy is doing look just like factory...he cans answer questions for any builder down there if you decide to go that way...per hourly rate...I am sure....good luck, welcome aboard...