Ok I have sent messages to the sponsors here but what are people thoughts and results from some of the basic mods to the E series 6. I have read the sticky it was quite helpful.


Lisa’s car (For those who don’t know 1998 EL Fairmont Ghia so I think it’s the XR6 motor) needs to have the head off later in the year to change a head gasket and I am wondering what else should be done while it’s off.

Requirements
The car is a daily driver and must maintain a nice smooth idle and drivability, mainly through the midrange and low end.

I am looking for the following (in order)
- Increased fuel economy
- Increased power
- Moderate cost (budget is $2,000 all up including the head gasket change & labor)

Current mods include
- AU 2 XR8 intake
- Extractors (pacemaker I think, they are blue)
- 2.5â€￾ exhaust that sounds f@rt….

I am not looking for a loud exhaust note since she hates that but a nice non-f@rt sound would be good. I don’t know what power it has currently? Anyone know what the EL Fairmont Ghia’s have with the small amount of mods listed above, perhaps adding 15rwkw?


Aaron

The main thing you will want to be doing is increasing compression then. This will boost torque and efficiency.
So get the head shaved a bit.

Ok no dramas, i have sent you an e-mail so perhaps you can details some more on this in your repsonse.

Probably just a matter of putting in an AU head gasket, and getting the head reconditioned and milled about 40thou.

You already have good intake/exhaust mods. is the 2.5" exhaust a mandrel bent item, and what condition is the cat in. It might pay to get these checked out too.

Only other things I can think of are using a good free-flowing panel filter such as BMC, and a good lighter-weight oil. 10w40 or 15w40 if it's not already.

You probably won't be able to advance the igntion timing once you have the higher compression though, so that's why I havn't suggested that.

Yeah 15w 40 is what i'm currently running.

Oh the other thing you could always try is something like an MSD-6A and Blaster coil, but I have no experience with these....
They could only help with efficiency surely?

with those mods id say your looking at around 115-120rwkw? (bet thats a shock to your system haha)

as voxace said, if you just wanna keep economy and get a few small gains, an AU head gasket and just get the head checked and shaved down what they normally do to ensure its flat. ive heard this will take your compression from 9.35:1 to about 9:8-10:1 (tickford6 gave some figures a while ago) that will give u bit more power an efficiency.

how many mufflers/resonators does the exhaust have?

only other thing i can think of would be maybe a mild port n polish while the heads off? and possibly something like a stage1 RPD cam (hasnt effected my economy, might even be slightly better)

thats gonna put u close to the budget

Thanks sounds good. I will have to get the car back on a hoist and get a better look at this exhaust.
2 mufflers i think?