Hi all,

I have recently aquired an EL Fairmont Ghia, and it really does seem to be slow! Now i know these arent fast cars anyway but in comparison to me EL Futura and definatly to my ED Mont its a dog. Both my ED and the new EL are manuals and the ED absolutly kills the EL, there really is no comparison. Now i have changed a few thing but just wondering if you guys have any other ideas on what I could look for.

I have changed the plugs, leads, coil, dizzy cap and rotor. He had as wierd intake so i changed that back to almost factory to see if that was some how restricting it but no. Changing the ignition stuff did make a difference for sure but not to anywhere near the ED. I have adjusted the timing (slightly advanced), and thats pretty much where it ends. The extractors look cheap and are not mandrel bent i thought these may have been restricting it as they look small, also he had some head work done on a non tickford head and someone put a cam in it that was supposed to be the same grind as a tickford one, now i suspect that if this was done with the same rubbish knowledge of the car all the other work he did on it was done it could well be not a great cam at all. So i thought that maybe if this was a custome grind and they got it wrong that could be restricting it too (i have a standard cam i could put back in to try maybe ??).

It just feels as tho its being held back and restricted. Oh and i changed the fuel filter too.

Any advice you could give would be great appreciated as I do like the car just not going that slow.
Regards ... JAMIN

i would be checking/resetting the timing
make sure to follow thw procedure earthing the pins on the diagnostic plug under the dash

Blocked Cat? Although usually with this it wont rev over about 3.5k.

Hey guys,

Thanks for your responses, but i have reset the timing to standard before i advanced it doing as you say by earthing out the two pins but i have since advanced it again (its runs better).

Also the cat is near new and is a high flow cat.

Thanks again, any other ideas?

Jamin

just unlucky

If you have an EL ghia, you should have the tickford head and cam fitted from factory. I can't see whhy the previous owner would have removed this for a standard cam (but the headwork I can understand being completed on a standard head)

As suggested, check your timing. Check your ignition and your cam timing. If your cam is a tooth out - it can cause the car to be sluggish too.
Check your exhaust for blockages - both the cat and the muffler can be blocked, causing prro performance.

Apart from that - I am not too sure what else to check

Thats strange, The EL should be a little quicker. I have exactly the same car as you. I found extractors where useless and provided a power loss if anything.

I had exhaust+extractors+filter+advanced timing I put the car back to standard and couldn`t notice any power loss(slight midrange loss)

I would say they probably stuffed thing up when the head was removed and they butchered it. Engine could be worn out how many KMS?

A compression check could be a worthwhile test. Check the correct ecu is fitted. Dyno run will show if its output is right.

Leads, plugs, Filters all need checking/replacement.

Keep us posted