Hmm I am confused now, I had a lot of issues with base timing as online it all seems to be over the place, alot of blokes say you wait the 10 seconds til it idles up and then you set the timing, others say you wait 2minutes til it drops the revs. After trying the first and setting it at 0 degrees, I took it for a drive and barely made it home, so I then waited the 2 minutes, reset it at 0 degress, it was better but still barely pulling. My brother looked up in his workshop manual and it stated 4.0 ltrs to be set at 10 degrees advanced, so I waited the 2 minutes and set it at 10 degrees (15mm before TDC exactly) and it runs like a charm, chirps into second and rips a decent skid.

I also threw on an aftermarket waterpump when I replaced the engine. Yeah my combo probably isnt the best as its mostly non-genuine but I still dont believe thats the problem as the fans are still damn irregular, can anyone tell me at what temperature the fans will go into High Speed? Even by using Boost on the aircon, which works fine at idle, the fans will go into HS right away everytime but then sometimes when its running hotter, they wont go on manually all the time.. Nuisance! It really does seem the fans are just getting irregular signals if thats possible.

There are many on here who don't know how to set the timing on an EL.

The book you have must be for an EA/B/D as they run a base timing of 10 deg. EF/EL's are 0. But that said, they do tend to run a bit better with premo fuel and a little more advance, usually 5 or 6 deg, anymore and you might end up with pinging.

To set the timing, you dont wait 2 mins. That 2 mins could actually be 3 or 4 or 5 as it wont drop into base timing mode until all the codes are read out. You have to wait for the engine to "stumble" and sound like its going to stall, then its in base timing mode. Last check is that you can rev the thing with the timing light on the marker and the timing doesnt advance, it stays still. At all other parts of the diagnostics, the timing will advance and retard as per normal.So this is the time to play with the timing.



Maybe the ECU is expecting the temp to come down itself without requiring the fans, because it expects the cooling to work one way, but its not because of some other problem. I have a similar "issue" with my BF. If I park, the temp will rise (as it normally does) and when I restart the car, the temp jumps to 1/2 way or more from its normal 1/3. It takes the ECU about 15 sec before it goes "oh, this temp isn't coming down by itself, time to turn on the fans"... Which is does and all is good a min later.

Its definitly for Ef/El, its actually for the fairmont/fairlane range but I cant see that there should be any differences there? Its not pinging as far as I'm aware but I am running Bp Ultimate which may help, I will double check the timing before I drive it again.

Sorry, I guess I was just using the 2minutes as a example, but yep I was waiting for it to nearly stall out and drop the rpm, I didnt know about the revving and the marker wont advance, I'll definitly try that. You're definite on 0 degrees ? Like I said I timed it 10deg advanced and it seems to be fine, as it was before the rebuild but I cant say I really drove it alot or hard at 0 degrees, I cant be definite that it didnt feel right at 0 as I actually had some problems with the timing, whether I didnt tighten the yoke on the dizzy enough I cant be sure but I did drive it at 0 for a bit and it felt right but the next time I drove it, it seemed way out. I'll just have to try it again, I'll let you know. Thanks mate...

as i said earlier,
try swapping your ECU and the temp sender for a known working unit...

this is an electrical problem, not a physical one.
so go straight to the source and see how you go...

Swapped the Ecu last night, so far so good, not a great improvement but I havnt seen over 104 after running the car from cold, went from 30-104 and then dropped, and only 102 coming up the driveway.
Will just have to continue to test it for a bit longer.