Ah, another turn of great luck, my exhaust got to the Wide Bay depot today and now the site says it was shipped to cairns. Lovely.

Nothing done lately, I finally wrecked my back tyres, they were still of road legal depth but too many donuts at the boat ramp finally ripped the inside tread off the right hand back one. I attempted to put some ROH mags off the old XF onto it but the EL centre hub was smaller than the XF wheel centre hole, so I didn't risk putting them on as AFAIK the centre hub is what holds the weight of the car. I found some Top Gun 8mm plug leads off the XF as well so I might chuck them onto mine as it will go with the blue theme I am going with in the engine bay. Still waiting on exhaust.

I finally got my exhaust!!!

I couldn't wait to put it on so I chucked it on at my friends house. It sounds pretty f**k beefy, with comp headers, deleted cat (getting a highflow cat put in in a few weeks), with the Lukey catback. We took it for a spin and I raced my friends car, he beat me in a standing start but at 50km/hr rolling start I beat him up to 120 and then he just reeled me in and flew past, I think my gearing is more advantageous than his for that which is why I got in front for a bit. Or maybe he just let me win. We have video of it so I might post it but I'll edit my numberplate out first.

As for the noise when you don't want it to be loud, it's great. From idle to 1300 it's a bit deeper than stock, 1300-2000 is the same loudness as stock, 2000-2500 is droney but the midrange is where it really starts barking. I'm pleased that it's not droney at highway RPM because I've heard it drives you insane after a few trips like that.

Next up - getting the applicable seals and such to take out my cam chain tensioner so I can put in my Wade 1636. Also need a tappet cover gasket as it's leaking a bit of oil.

Oh, on another note, an EA tappet cover should fit an EL (my engine is a non-hybrid one) right? Because on our old EA, I think the tappet cover looks better than mine, it's got the raised grooves running down it and also the nice Ford logo. I might paint it up like I did to my cover and then sand the paint off the Ford logo and those raised grooves - rough sandpaper gives it a nice look, I did it on my 4.0 logo.

I put in the cam last night, very easy to do. I was worried about the chain tensioner and stuffing it up but it's easy to take out. I have to put the rockers back on and everything back together, I'll get some photos and a video of it running after I finish it.

Sounds like its coming along nicely mate. Post up a vid of the sound after having the cam installed.

How's the tail pipe out the back look?

Cheers man, your car in your signature looks pretty neat too, I'll have to have another read-through of your build thread. I'll chuck up a video today.

The tailpipe is a bit to the right, which I'm not phased about but if I wanted to put an oval tip on it, it'd be a pain. It also sticks out a fair bit more than the original (about 4cms probably) but that can be solved with a cutoff wheel and some filing. I was thinking of running twin 2.5 inch dumpers from after the rear muffler but it would be a tight squeeze, I'd have to move the muffler towards the front of the car a bit more to give it room.

Ho ho ho, I just had a lucky break (pun intended). I snapped one of the middle bolts on the rocker assembly pedestals. To say I was angry is an understatement, but instead of losing my head I walked outside and took my angry out on a tractor tyre with a sledgehammer. Good cardio workout. Took all the bolts off and got the snapped off stump out with a pin punch. This was my fault as I tried to tighten the middle up too early, should have done the others up a bit more. As I said, lucky break, I should have used my head. Phew.

Alrighty, cam is in and running. Look it out for a burn in the forestry with my mates and we ended up camping out there overnight. Dirty car just after I'd washed it...ah well. I definitely have more torque down low with this cam, I haven't really tried its midrange as I've been nursing it as the cam runs in. Fuel economy isn't too bad, my average was 12.4l/100km lately because I've been driving it hard, it got down to 12.1 on a 60km trip last night.

As for other stuff, I had to re-seal my tappet cover gasket up, I got it twisted up and it p****d oil all over my firewall and down the bellhousing. Darn it. Fixed it up and now I'm going to degrease the engine today.

Also I noticed to coolant on the side of the engine the other night...not very optimistic about this. I hope it isn't the head gasket letting coolant out of a passage...if it is, such is life. Coolant level isn't low. I wiped it off, it's coming straight out from under my extractors, so probably right out of the bit where the head meets the block. I could put some Chemiweld in it or whatever but it doesn't seem to be leaking again so I'll leave it.

I chucked the stock air intake back in because my chrome one is rubbing on the bolt on top of the intake plenum and I'm worried it will rub a hole in it - time to go modify it so it doesn't rub, I might have to make a bracket to hold it to the plenum.

Apologies that this build thread isn't very interesting - it seems every time I modify something I take 1 step forward and 2 steps back. I'll get a video of it running too and post it this arvo.

Its not boring, its a good read. I strongly believe that your car and mine came off the line at the same time. Haha. I had a leaking water issue the night I got it back to my place which left me having to strip it down to the head block and replace the head gasket. Many others, as you'll note in the beginning of my build, gave me crap about not sending the head away for be shaved etc as I cleaned it up and put it back on. 14months later, it hasn't given me any problems.

Looks to be a good write up so far mate.

Thanks man. I am convinced too, they seem to have the same niggling problems! When I bought mine we did a title check on it and I think it has always been in Queensland so who knows? I really can't afford to fix the headgasket right now so I might just have to leave it in the shed until I have the cash...good excuse to put a metal AU headgasket on it. I haven't touched the head as it was working fine up until now. I s**t bricks when I snapped that bolt off into it, I had a vision of having to take it off and take it to a shop, and then they'd find it's warped etc. I'm reluctant to get the head shaved as well, it's a bit of cash to get it done I believe.

Did you use an AU metal gasket or the EL one?

We just put the EL one back in even though we had a complete AU engine that I'd recently painted black at the time. The only real reason I kept that one is being that the car is a Fairmont Ghia, it has the Tickford I6 engine / head block. Otherwise I probably would have settled with cutting the k-frame or the AU sump to fit into the EL and modify the AU engine to suit the EL. We checked the head pretty well, used a laser level and there wasn't any form of piting. It was just a matter of cleaning it up (pictures in my build), getting a new gasket kit ($120ish) and putting it back together. Fortunately there didn't seem to be any water in the oil so that was certainly a bonus. I crapped bricks as well when I got mine home. I didn't do a title check on it until I got it home and read the receipt that stated that the car was "Sold as-is, encumbered". That got me really p****d off because I thought that at the time I bought a car that was being paid off still. To make it worse, the guy didn't pick up my calls and wouldn't reply to messages for a few days, I think that was because he knew of the head gasket problems and was worried I'd want my money back. Fortunately he ended up sending a new receipt that stated it was "Unencumbered".

Ah, I'd probably take the EL Ticky engine too just because it's less fiddling around. Recently I concocted a plan of getting an EA, taking everything that isn't needed for roadworthy out, AU engine in, with the usual T5, extractors + exhaust, cam and chip, and it should have a very favourable power to weight ratio. I opted out of it because I really can't afford to pay 2 regos, and then about 1 week later a guy was selling pretty much the exact same thing on here! Damn it.

Good to know a gasket kit is only about 120, although I have to get new bolts I think as they are torque-to-yields? I checked my oil and it's fine so I was pretty chuffed about that. It seems the water only leaks out at night after driving and I see it in the morning...probably something to do with the cooling and heating of the block/coolant.

I only checked the title on mine after I bought it as I thought it should be easier/better to find out if there's anything funny about it before I spend money on it, and I was pretty chuffed about it being all clear. A mate's dad bought an XR650 from about 5 hours away and went to pick it up only to see that it was "encumbered" because somebody owed about 30 cents on it still due to a clerical error. Stuff like that really is a PITA.

I'm personally not much one for the older E Series cars, I actually started off with a Red EA '88 Base Series Ford. Lasted about six months before it passed away, was really p****d too because that was the start of my modification bug and I'd just done a lot of interior work just to have the car died from being parked on an angle on a hill. It never liked being parked on angles, damn car.



As for the bolts, I reused mine as my old man had taught me; just made sure they were done to the correct torque with a torque wrench. Some people are inclined against it, me, I don't want to have to fork out another $90 for a series of bolts because I'm a tight a** and was raised to use what I have. Haha.

Nice EA! Reminds me of my childhood, our family car was a series 2 EA, which is still out here and I'm scavenging parts off the old girl. Bugger that yours only lasted 6 months though As for the head bolts, a guy about 1 hour north of me is selling some for 40 bucks so I might get them or just retorque the old ones up. My tappet cover is still leaking...gah. I may as well just get a new gasket for it. I want to get a chip for it but I need new back tyres and a head gasket so first things first, as it's always the case. I need new front and rear shocks and some bushes as the rear squeaks but that is yet again more money. Bugger!

I got some video of my car...kinda disappointing as it sounds not too good in the video, I think it overloaded the microphone in my camera. My mate took one of us doing a race from a rolling start at 50 (on a private road) so I'll get that off him, it sounds way better in it.

Startup, it's idling at about 800rpm, I rev it to 1000, 1500, 2000, 3000, back to idle and then a blurp up to 5250ish. Probably shouldn't have done it with the engine this cold...also it seems to be blowing a bit of smoke, I'll just keep telling myself it's water vapour.

f**k youtube...uploaded it once and it froze up during 'processing' so I'll upload it tonight after I'm on offpeak internet data.