hi all this is my first post so forgive me.I have a 93 eb ii fairmont 4.0l in as new condition 170,000 ks. Recently I fitted a Tickford head [full reco] it had DT94 stamped on the front with the big T cast on it. My problem is it made NO difference whatsoever to performance, maybe just a little more pull in the upper rev range. It idles really smooth. Someone could have snuck in the middle of the night,fitted it and I wouldnt know the difference. .Is this to be expected .Am looking to fit some pacemaker 4480 headers with 2.5 inch exhaust but dont want to spend another grand or more for no result. Motor is otherwise stock with auto.Any ideas or info greatly appreciated.

sounds about right.

There isn't much difference in performance between an XR and a std head.

Likewise with the cam, they make a little bit, at the top end, but thats about it.

Cam would have a better effect, then theres fuel management.

Maybe Exhaust system will wake it up a bit? How far can you go with cam,inlet etc before you have to change ECU.

Hey mate, that's not suprising but still a little disappointing. I'd reccomend running an XR6 ECU but really even then that wouldn't provide too much of a benefit (it's debatable if at all but many people seem to notice a slight difference). If you can find one cheap it's worth trying to see if there's an improvement but I wouldn't count on it. You can rest assured now though that at least you have a fully redone head which is a great building block for future modifications

An exhaust and a good set of extractors would provide a much more noticable immediate power increase and would've been a better starting point but you haven't really done anything wrong by recoing the head first up. But still, don't go expecting too much to come out of your car with a few mods, just gradual (and often expensive) improvements. As long as you realise that your car isn't going to be a v8 supercar you should be fine and pleased with the eventual outcome

Were the valve seals and piston rings replaced at the time of the head reco? I'm theorizing thats the problem for lack of go in my car but I cant be too sure. It definately wouldn't have hurt to have been done though.

Thanks for reply.The car drives great, I do regular trips from melb to warrnambool and with cruise control,climate control and ABS,I dont need a later model or anything. Just want a bit more reliable power.

Did you put the standard cam back in? If so, that was your first mistake.. get an XR, or better yet wade or something, if it has XR valve springs, so much the better.

I have an ED with an XR6 cam, and I noticed a huge diff when I put the cam in.

I had an EL Futura which i fitted an EF tickford head to (94DT)

It made a noticable improvement from 2,200 rpm through to about 4,000 then a little extra through to redline. My mods at this point was a catback only, so stock EL cam. The difference wasn't huge, but definitely noticable. It pulled much better in 2nd getting up to speed in that 2,500 rpm range that the auto likes to sit at

With extractors, zorst, 3" inake and an auto i made 129rwkw @ the crescent motorsport dyno. The head makes a difference, i dare say the fault is elsewhere if you can't notice it (unless you've been gipped and it's not really a tickford head??)

Sam,,,,, if you want to part with the head......