long story short:

1997 el flacon i bought a few weeks ago ($1000), driving from bundaberg to brisbane, on the way back the automatic gearbox gave up. ($1100).

now doing the same trip on the way there the car stopped dead on the highway. auxillary shaft had been chewed out by the distributor gear (aftermarket one fitted around 18 months ago). ($120 for mechanics time to diagnose)

the engine has been neglected in a previous life and you can see that by the sludge in the pictures i am posting up.

anyway, had a mate tow me back to bundy so the car is here now.

i know i have a few options here and there is no rush to fix it and i have more time than money.
i can get a 2nd hand engine from the local wreckers for about $500 ($550 if i dont exchange mine)

a few thoughts i have are:

1 - is it worth replacing the aux shaft and distributor assembly in the engine with new ones?
2 - should i just swap it?
3 - should i swap it and keep the old one and rebuild it over time so i have a spare (if the block isn't worn from the aux shaft being sloppy) maybe do a few performance mods while i am there too?

judging from the sludge i would say it didn't have oil changes done on time or a really poor quality oil was used (store brands come to mind - woolworths homebrand comes to mind.)

i also have *most* of the service history here too and i know the cylinder head was done before it hit 100,000km and it was maintained by a few different mechanics, one of which had performed an engine oil flush every service, or so the invoice says.

the engine has 265,000km on it. imho the aux shaft failure was caused by the aftermarket distributor assembly (unmatched gears) or the alleged oil flushes blocked the oil feed inducing excessive wear.

anyway that's my rant done and i am wondering what other peoples opinions or suggestions are.

rocker gear and cover:









aux shaft, nice sharp metal filings in there:





sorry if the images are poor quality, i used my phone to take them.

thank you all in advance.

From what I've heard, replacing the aux shaft is a big, s**t job, and by the looks of it, there's no point even bothering on that engine.

IMHO you should just put a newer tickford engine in.

This has scared me i have a cheap dizzy in my E series block

go AU block alloy bottom end well so they say and the first ever ford engine to get balanced well they say

How much would a tickford long motor cost, how hard are they to find and will I also need the tickford ecu to go with it?

there is a bit of sludge but i have seen much worse on healthy running engines.lol.

to be honest, i wouldnt bother fixing the engine as heaps of fine metal has been drawn through your oil pump before it failed and some of the finer particals would have made it through the oil filter and run through the bearings ect...

best thing is to just swap the engine with a good used one..

i believe around the $400-800 mark depending on location etc

ECU ehh stock one will run it just fine , it only comes with a slightly more aggressive cam and "larger" valves which is not much oh and a slightly different fuel pressure regulator big deal

its upto you if you find one for cheap go for it

LOL same here i just do a oil change every half a tank of fuel for about 4-6 times then wonder why they piss out oil

this is my 2 cents.

i completely tore down and reassembled a ed tickford engine. between buying it shaving head buying all bearings gaskets all the gear. it ended up costing me roughly 2 grand and a month of frustrating fun all done and went into an nc II fairlane. well worth it and not hard if you take your time and think before you do.

I might just go with another stock engine and pull the old one apart and keep the good bits like the cylinder head, for spares. Then if I want I can do work to the spare head in my own time. There's no rush on this vehicle as I have another one here. Unfortunatley this falcon is the missuses car. And to top it off she just spent 1100 on the auto 5 days ago because the original box died

I wonder how well it would go getting a stock AU block and doing the head gasket plus valve stem seals a head job wonders if it would make it any better

do you mean using the existing head and just replacing the block with an au block?

i am thinking for reasons of simplicity that i just get another working engine, hire an engine crane for the weekend, pull the engine and box, bolt the box to the new engine and slide it all back in.

thoughts? suggestions?

IMO, get a second working engine and keep the old one. Work on the old one slowly and put go fast or better parts in there. Collect things as you go and when you're ready, put it all together and wack it back in the car. It is quiet enjoyable if you are patient and do research before you start breaking stuff . Good luck.

thank you phongus, you appear to be one of the leading authorities on e series fords here and this is what i was thinking of doing. i am not discrediting anyone else but this to me seems to be the best avenue for me. the fact being that i have low budget and high time makes this seem like a sensible choice.

the go fast bits aren't really a priority here but some extra power and reliability are what i am aiming for. my missus loves this car and i don't mind the fords. i find it heartbreaking because i have owned an ef wagon and el wagon and both were bulletproof in regards to the engine. i am chalking this one up to bad maintenance and the aftermarket distributor assembly. also according to the service records the cylinder head was done before 100,000km, and at one particular mechanic they ALWAYS did an engine flush. I am not interested in starting a debate but as far as i am concerned an engine flush treatment can cause problems and imo is usually unnecessary. i flushed my isuzu diesel with kerosene added to the engine oil when i first got it but after that i just use el-cheapo oil to flush with then fill with the good stuff.

cheers

By the time you bugger around changing the aux shaft and gasgets you still have metal shavings in there going through everything, just as easy/ less stuff around in the long run if you chase down an original dizzy gear and change the whole engine.

no one says that cos it's dribble.