Hi All, I have an Fairmont Ghia and like to do almost all work myself. She's pretty stock for the time being as the misses is learning to drive. Its a 1997 model and only has 160,000 on it (original head gasket). Someone had stolen the Tickford CAI from it.. I couldn't find a replacement so I bolted up an BA snorkle, does the trick and it was $38 brand new. She rides quite well apart from a small ticking sound which is almost definately lifters on 3-4. Lifter free and a good oil change sorted that. 3 quick questions if I may.

1. When you replace lifters, do you have to remove the head? My Haynes repair guide is vague about it, first picture shows head on block, final picture doesn't (as its in the full pulldown rebuild section) mechanic friends of mine say yes 100% head to be removed to change the lifters.

2. When you drop the oil on these things, is a full engine oil flush mandatory? I was always tought not to do oil flushes on cars over 150,000 until they are rebuilt. Again mechanic mates claiming that the i6 needs one every single change.

3. Anyone know for sure where the air bleeder bolt is on the FG? I was told on the plenium but when I examine it there are typical bolts (hex style bolts) and 2 on top to secure the intake to the TB. Are these to bolts on top the bleeders? I see no water movement in them when removed. I want to completely flush the cooling system and I don't want any air trapped in the system.. is this engine capible of getting rid of its own air?

Cheers.
Will

They didn't have them. The snorkel I assume your talking about is the Tickford Snorkel, it was fitted to AU V8's. Yours should just have had the same standard snorkel as an EF GLi etc would.



No, just remove the rocker cover and unbolt the rocker gear. Put rags over the oil holes first as the lifters tend to fall out of the rocker gear when you lift it up and you'll be f**k if one goes down the oil hole.



Not sure what you mean? Undo the sump plug, put a pan under it and let the oil drain until no more comes out. Redo sump plug, fill up oil. If your talking about running that engine oil flush (the stuff in the small bottle), personally I always do, and my bottom end is soon going to clock up 700,000kms. But I've always been told not to use it in vehicles over 100,000kms (it says so on the bottle even).



Ummmm, if your car is an FG then how is it a 1997 model? FG's are new? It would also explain why there was no Tickford parts since Tickford died at the end of AU's.

Before FG's I knew Fairmont Ghias as a FG. My bad. So I'm asking for the bleed bolt location on all Fairmont Ghias. (I'd presume the same thing for any EB to AU falcon as well). From what I'm told they are the XR6 tickford engine, but I don't think they changed this items location?

re: Air
And the was no snorkle at all from the front of the air box to the top of the radiator when I got the car. It just got air from the back of the 2nd thermo fan.. which is almost the opposite of cold air intake. The engine bay even had 2 bolts located in it with the screws in it.. I'd presume the 2nd hand car dealer stole it as he had 2 other non-ghia monts on the lot. My previous ford was a Fairmont Ghia EFII and it had the tickford stamped snorkle on it when I got it still in new car warranty, so not sure if someone had changed it. The BA snorkle $38 did require a modification to fit so I was sharing the discovery as when I rang around it appear the $200 odd snorkle was the only thing people were selling for the Fairmont Ghia's and XR6's.. There was a stanard EL snorkle but its $78 and none in stock in 3 dealers I rang.

As twr7cx said, there is no need to remove the head to do lifters. Make sure you do block the 4 oil galleries though, dropping one down there will really piss you off lol. Unbolt the rocker cover (13mm bolts), unbolt the rocker gear assembly (many 10mm bolts), when you remove the rocker gear though, start from the bolts in the middle and work your way out (in a spiral) to either end gradually loosening each bolt so that the rocker gear assembly doesnt flex too much. Once the bolts are all loose take the rocker gear off, remove lifters from the rocker arms, clean out the bores where they sit as there may be broken plastic retainers as i have found with some lifter jobs ive done on falcon 6's, fit the new lifters, use tape to hold them in the rockers or use retainers if you want as they will just fall back out without using either method, bolt up the rocker gear and your all done.

With regards to the oil flush, its not mandatory at all. The way i see it, its only for engines which may have a bit of sludge and other deposits that need to be flushed out before new oil goes in. Ive never done one in my life, dont think i'll ever do one either lol, as long as the oil and filter is changed on a regular basis you should be fine but its all personal preference.

As for the tickford snorkel, only tickford AU's got that. Of all the ef/el fairmont ghia's ive seen, they all had the normal falcon snorkel. XR and EL GT models got the larger snorkel. Besides the BA XR6T snorkel is basically a tickford snorkel without the tickford wings

Im not to sure if this is the right method but ill just put it up so someone can confirm it. To bleed air from the cooling system you take the cap of the radiator, set the heater to full and run the engine at idle for a while to bleed air out of the system?

to bleed the cooling system take the 10mm hose off the top of the thermostat housing and fill bottle up untill there is a solid stream of water coming out of the thermostat(where the hose was removed from) when there is a solid stream put the hose back on and top up water in bottle as required.