At the moment my EF XR6 is showing the following symptoms, Runs warmer than it should (but not hot) i notice it gets warmer going up a hill and cooler when coasting and im talking about around the suburbs doing 50-60. It moves up and down one letter on the NORMAL within about 1km.
Also the car seems hotter than it should be underneath when i step out of the car for example.

It pings at part throttle even though i always use vortex or vpower 98. I dunno how to test the knock sensor to rule that out.

Also at 4000RPM you feel a kick of power.. (the manifold butterflies ARE working if i rev it and look in the engine bay which rulse that out.) im not sure why its not smooth power. could it be lacking mid range thats why i feel it?

Got new fuel filter
Good coolant
Flushed radiator
Working thermo fans
New head gasket (shaved head 20thou and MLS gasket and run 98 to compensate)
Fixed a slight vaccuum leak with no improvement
ECU has been reset

When i got my new exhuast on about 2 years ago i asked the bloke to check the cat he said it was starting to clog and could go within 6-12 months.

So does this sound like a blocked cat? or a combination of lots of things. Car has 210,000 kms.

Cheers!

Can you hear any rattling?
Check your oil breather valve on the rocker cover.
Check your coolant. Disconnect the bottom radiator hose and let a bit drain out to check the colour and check for contaminents. Check your leads and plugs for carbon build up.
Check all vacuum lines. Check fittings as well for fatigue.
Take off your intake and throttle body and give the tps and iat a good clean with tool cleaner or carbi cleaner.
Check your o2 sensor for build up and damage.
While the car is running, check the intake for leaks with tool cleaner (spray some around all seals and see if it bubbles)
Check all intake manifold bolts and exhaust bolts.
Take the coils off and check the voltage on them for damage.
Does it blow any smoke?
Does it smell funny under load?
Normally when the cat is damaged you will smell it not doing its job.
Have you got a timing light?

Bennomate, i notice your a sydney boy too. Where abouts are you located? Maybe i could lend a hand sometime when ive got some spare time?

Sticky thermostat? O2 sensor stuffed?

Ping would normally indicate too much heat, too much ignition advance, or too lean. In the EF, ignition is controlled by the ECU, so maybe ECU is bad.

It's worth a try resetting the ECU (unplug the ECU for a minute) to see if that helps. The idle will hunt all over the place for the first few minutes while it relearns.

Been done.
Way to check if the ecu isnt looking after the spark properly is to check the ignition timing with a timing light.
Crank angle sensor?
Did the efs have a cam angle sensor?

Not cam angle sensor as such - it's techincally a cam PHASE sensor - the crank toothed wheel has a wide gap at TDC #1 but that doesn't tell the ECU if it's TDC compression or exhaust so the phase sensor is the missing link...

If the phase sensor isn't working I'd expect the engine to just shut down - but would really like to know if that's the case or whether it just goes to some sort of limp mode.