You sir have got taste when it comes to modding an e-series.

If I could fistbump you IRL then I would you champion.

Hey mate, thanks for the input

Fingers crossed I should be receiving a programmer in the late part of the week, hopefully before the weekend so I can have a play with it. A mate down the line with a turbo'd EF Fairmont has very kindly allowed me to borrow his programmer for a few days so if everything goes to plan, I'll get it running.

Jason from TiPerformance has revised the fuel map and sent it to me to burn when I get the programmer. A few slight changes have been made which should help it cope with the aggressiveness of the cam; from what I gather, a bit more fuel has been trimmed from the map around idle to stop it over-fueling like it is right now.


Hahaha, where's the fun in that? .

Lol, I probably should have stuck to my original plans of the Wade 1543b and J3 chip. I think I would have saved some $$ just doing that, but then I wouldn't get as much practise with swapping out cams so much


Cheers man! Haha, to be honest this is never going to get any bodykit, not even the tickford style lip kit either. I love the look of the tickford kit, but I like the clean look of a simple e-series in this case.

A tickford kit wouldn't last long on this before the front lip would get absolutely smashed off lol, very low front end FTL!


Haha, modifying a daily is the worst idea in the fkn world! I'm so close to buying my mum's KF Laser off her to use to get to work, but I don't even have enough $$ to buy that bloody rust bucket lol.

Funnily enough, in all the cam swaps I've done on the Fairmont so far (can't exactly how many I've done now, but I've done 3 within the last 5 months lol) I haven't lost one shim yet. Masking tape to hold the lifters in the rockers and blocking up oil galleries and area around timing chain with rags works brilliantly!




Hahaha, cheers hus!! Mate, I could say the exact same for you, your EL Ghia is fkn mint man!

Very jealous of that fresh paint job haha, one of the nicest colours, and easily one of the sexiest looking e-series around

Where was that "comprehensive" cam spec list on this site again? Add some of those Kiwi Cam Everest impressions......
[edit] ford-4l-and-6-cylinder-f1/6cyl-cams-spec-list-t57092.html

hey KWIKXR good to see your still playing around with the mont,

i sold my EF mont a few weeks ago but just picked up a EL Mont mint as for 500 so back to modding and as i have my BA now i can take the EL off the road for long periods of time for bigger mods,

guess i have to read near 100 pages of this thread again for more idea's lol

Haha thanks wtbdlltd, I'll be mucking around with the Fairmont forever man, can't stop spending money on the damn thing lol.

Anyways, while I'm here, may as well update with the good news

I persisted with the Auckland Cam's #840 grind, managed to borrow a J3 programmer off an awesome mate, and with a bit of research on tuning guides and some guidance from Jason @ TiPerformance, decided to give tuning the chip to suit the cam a go...

After a few late nights altering a revised tune Jason sent me...


The Fairmont lives!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOEmitJ_e0E

Pretty wrapped with it, considering it could have been so much easier to just pull it out and put the old mild cam back in. It's definitely a nice feeling just listening to the 4.0 motor idle away with a bit of a lope to let you know the cam is there .

Had to take a fair bit of fuel out by altering the VE table around the idle ranges (even though it had already been altered to take a fair bit of fuel in the first place!) to stop it hunting constantly and to lean out the mixture so it wasn't dumping mass amounts of fuel out the exhaust. The exhaust fumes have put a giant black stain on the fence behind so that's what I was using to gauge the air fuel mixture, till I can get some dyno time .

Starts from cold perfectly fine, don't even need to put the foot on the accelerator to keep the revs up or nothing which came as a shock to me. I have it idle set to around 850rpm in Park (sits at about 1000rpm after a cold start then drops down after warming up) and around 800 in drive. Best I can get the manifold vacuum is 17in-hg in Park/Neutral and around 15in-hg in Drive, so the cam definitely has a hefty amount of valve overlap, probably not the best for a street car, but I'll wait and see how it drives on the road and make a final decision then. Rev limit is set to 5800rpm for now, if I ever get a proper bottom end built, it'll be going up no doubt lol.

Haven't driven the car yet, mainly because I have a slight problem I need to fix first. I'm getting a bit of chain slap now around the 2000rpm mark. I know I had a little bit of slap at the same speed after the ported head went on (probably due to being shaved and the thinner headgasket) but it seems worse now after the new cam has gone in. Have reset the tensioner numerous times now, made sure the small oil holes weren't blocked etc and can confirm that it is putting tension on the chain, however it seems to be slapping only at that certain RPM and sounds quite horrid. Reminds me of all the Jim Mock cam + chain noise horror stories so many people experienced

I'm going to have a play with the tensioner later on, maybe see if I can somehow 'shim' it to put a little more tension on the spring. Sounds dodgy as F**k but apparently a few people with the Jim Mock cams that had problems, fixed it with shimming the tensioner mechanism.

Apart from that.. Happy as fkn Larry

Good s**t matey. Love all that. Now what happened to this J3 programmer....? Wouldn't say no to taking it for a burn myself one day.... Suppose I should sell an LSD and buy one myself.

Lol tony, hinting on selling that lsd to kwik?
and good s**t on the programming man, save the bin on your computer, and one day i might just get copy, good to see someone has a proven tune/cam combo in nz now. Oh and if anyone wants a cam and j3, ecu etc my mates selling his... http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing ... =477506042

Edit: an lsd or some lsd

how hard was it to tune? taken it for a drive yet? sounds like it's idleing alot better now.
maybe you could try the other cam now

Cheers mate! Haha, the J3 programmer will be going back to its owner sometime this week, the owner has a bit more tuning to do with his boosted EF Fairmont which is coming along pretty damn well! Hopefully, will be catching up with at the Hamilton All Ford Day.

Still can't afford that LSD either. Hell, I can't even afford to put gas in the poor 'mont lol, so it'll probably sit at home till payday comes so I can fill it up.


Hahaha! If I had the money, it'd be under the Fairmont right now. I'll definitely be saving the bins, I've pretty much saved a separate bin for every tune I tried until I got it to work. Would be interesting to see if anyone with the same cam could use this bin as a base tune to work off. Seems to drive pretty well, but with anything to give you an indication of AFR's, it's all guess work.

Dyno time is one thing high on the priority list right now with a close 2nd being getting myself my own J3 programmer asap!


Wasn't hard as such, just tricky trying to learn things as it was my first time with anything to do with tuning. When you open up TunerPro to alter a tune and open up something like the VE table, it's just a whole bunch of values that looked completely foreign to me at first. Once you get your head around what that, and work out what increasing/decreasing those values by a certain percentage achieves, then you start getting the hang of things. I basically just loaded a stock bin to see how everything looked, then loaded a tune Jason sent me and compared differences to see what needed changing, then started playing around till it worked lol. Definitely need to save up for a wideband kit and a data logging setup after I buy a programmer so I can start fine tuning it a bit more precisely.

I can't try the other cam as I swapped it back for this cam I have now. I think it was for the best too, this cam has a very noticeable drop in vacuum and was ground with a 114deg LSA for a broader powerband. The other cam was ground to 110deg LSA for a somewhat explosive punchy powerband, had more duration and a s**t more valve overlap so would have f**k all vacuum in the end, making it a bit of a pig. The other cam was designed to make power up to 6500rpm, so power would have probably come on sharp over 3000rpm and probably die out just after 6000rpm at a guess.

I haven't driven the Fairmont for a few weeks before tonight so I have kinda forgot what it felt like. I have been driving Dad's EF XR6, which is pretty much completely stock other than extractors + exhaust. Compared to that it feels a bit more sluggish below 2000rpm, once it hits 2500rpm it seems to pull pretty damn strong. I took it out for a drive about half an hour ago, but couldn't really do much testing because the road is a bit damp and only drove around the block which is a 50k zone . Tried giving it a few quick stabs rolling it on in 1st and all I get is wheel spin pretty much as soon as the cam hits it's sweet spot and bounces off the 5800rpm limiter haha, gets there pretty quick compared to what I remember. Idle's pretty smoothly though, definitely feels a lot tougher with the lumpy idle (sounds a bit more lumpier than it does in the video) and has changed the tone of the exhaust a fair bit.

Just need a 2800rpm stall and it should get up and boogie quite well

Well, not much has progressed since last time. It's been running pretty well actually, apart from a bit of timing chain slap at around 2000rpm. Recently, the noise has seemed to have lessened at the RPM, and now I get the odd rattle from the chain at idle every now and then once the engine is hot, so not sure if its just finally wearing itself in or not LOL

Tried shimming the tensioner with a flat washer to compress the spring a bit more/put a little more tension on the chain guide but it didn't do much at all really. CBF with it anymore, I've been driving like that for the past few weeks with zero problems so I'll just keep an eye/ear on it and continue on.

Definitely has a s**t more pull from 3000rpm up to the 5800rpm limiter, actually feels like it'll keep pulling past there, but on a stock bottom end with a fair few km's on it, I don't want to kill it just yet. It does feel quite gutless below 2000rpm though compared to my Dad's EF XR6, so would be great if I could safely add a few more degree's of timing to sharpen up the bottom end a little bit more, but I'll have to wait till it goes on a dyno and buy myself a J3 programmer before any of that will happen.

The idle is lovely, has a fairly decent lope at idle, but the twin 3" tip at the end of the exhaust gives the lope this weird 'putting' sound. Plan is to get that f****r cut off asap and have a 3" dump style tip welded in after the rear muffler, but recessed so it can't be seen, then will have a go at filling the cutout in the rear bar for a 'smooth' look.

Still haven't had time to put it on the dyno to check AFR's. 98% sure it's still running pretty rich from the midrange upwards, as I never really touched that part of the tune at all. The tune doesn't seem too far off though, doesn't have any flat spots, no signs of pinging etc so, so far, so good *touch wood*.

Would definitely benefit from a 2800rpm stall at the very least, just to get it up into it's powerband quicker. Will probably get the diff rebuilt eventually, possibly with a locker fitted and get my 3.89:1 gears put in at the same time which should have it moving along nicely then. After that's done, I'll probably be done with this build, leave it as my weekend car or daily it depending on what I buy next and what I plan to do with it.

Anyways, made a few changes to the audio setup which is about all that's changed in the past few weeks. Wanted to save my SQ gear for a proper SQ install i.e proper door pods for the front stage to house the DLS UP6 woofers and some fiberglassed A pillar pods for the tweeters.

Pulled out my DLS UP6 midbass woofers from the front stage and replaced them with Digital Designs DDCS6.5 midbass woofers for a bit more midbass emphasis up front. When I first trialed all my speakers, the DD's seemed to pull off a lot more midbass kick and just sounded really good all round. The DLS UP6's were a lot more detailed (much better for SQ), but lacked the midbass kick I wanted to feel up front to blend in well with the sub stage.

Pulled out my Response Precision kevlar midbass woofers in the rear and chucked them in my old man's EF XR6. I bought some Digital Designs CXS6.5 2-way coaxials to put in the rear, but had an issue with one speaker (the usual adhesion failure between the speaker spider and the basket which these DD's are known for, have already fixed the DD CS6.5's so they are fine lol), so they haven't gone in just yet.

Also pulled out the Image Dynamics IDQ12v2D4's in favour of some ID12v3D4's which I had sitting around begging to be used. So far, it sounds a lot better than before. Doesn't have the detail of an SQ system (or even as much as it did with the old DLS midbass woofers and IDQ sub's), but still sounds pretty nice overall and sounds like it has the potential to play louder more comfortably.

Didn't bother using the DD tweeters or crossovers in the front, much preferred the Response Precision ribbon tweeters and CS2327 passive crossovers I have been running for the past year or so.

Pulled out the DLS UP6 woofers

And in went the DD CS6.5 woofers



(ID12V3)New sub's VS (IDQ12V2)Old sub's


Boot install at the moment


Bought a Pioneer DEH-P8650MP headunit to replace the Pioneer DEH-P4150UB unit that I installed previously. Only good thing about the P4150UB was USB functionality, everything else was average. The P8650MP is a fairly old headunit now (circa 2005) but was a pretty high end unit in Pioneer's range in that era.



Basic rundown, all the usual Pioneer s**t but with some nice features:
3x 6.5v preouts (Front/Rear/Sub)
13 band graphic EQ
Time Alignment
2-way crossover (HPF/LPF - Separate HPF for front and rear)
3-way digital network
OEL display etc
Mic for Auto EQ and TA

Just need to make up a surround piece to fill the gap, but so far it's perfect. Difference in sound quality compared to the old unit is honestly night and day, the extra tune-ability is amazing as well. Only thing missing is USB input, but I will be buying an IP-bus to 3.5mm aux cable and using a MP3 player for music mostly. Don't want to be using CD's as it's a slide down face, and the Pioneer unit's of this design are notorious for wearing out the ribbon cable between the faceplate and unit.


Right now, pretty happy with the audio install. Sounds nice all round, and will probably stay this way, with the exception of a new sub box being built, this time ported for a bit more output for more 'loud'

Got a few photo's today, nothing much has changed really externally, not much else is bound to change apart from a drop in height in the rear most likely.




And to finish it off, a photo a mate took at one of NZFF meets.


That's about it for now

Your car gets me hard every time I see it..

One odd thing I noticed is, you seem to be spending a sh!tload of cash on you cars stereo yet you have a $100 set of logitech speakers for your PC

Lol, nice observation!

These Logitech speakers I have currently are miles ahead of the $30 2.1 Logitech things I had previously . Have been meaning to do something DIY in this department eventually (buying raw home audio drivers, making 2 way bookshelf type speakers, then a decent 8"-10" home audio sub to finish it off) so haven't really splashed out on 'off the shelf' PC audio.

Then again, this isn't the flashest PC out there either which is why I haven't really bothered (Core2 Duo running @ 3Ghz, 2GB ram, GTX260 video card), still running XP/living in the dinosaur ages, but it does what I need it to do

Anyways, with a bit of luck, I MAY have some different seats in the Fairmont by the afternoon, just possibly.. Hoping no one has scored what I saw yesterday at pick a part lol..

You have my attention. I'll be back for pics later haha.

The XF is just an EFI 250, perhaps a Windsor later would be nice.

Nice man, a mild 351 would be mint. Love the XD/E/F shape, so simple yet so tough!

Well the Fairmont is pretty full with NU Fairlane black leather interior, literally! Hehehe..

Went down to pick a part yesterday arvo before closing to check out a 2003 Falcon, which was actually a NU 'Lane Was a taxi, so leather was in rather good nick. Luckily, went back this morning, took front and rear seats out. Unluckily, all the wheel barrows were all gone (only have 2 in the entire f**k yard ) and the counter where you pay for your goods is a nice 100+ metre walk from where the Ford section is, so had to make 2 trips back and forth (carried both front seats and tools in one trip, then carried all of the rear seat and tools in the 2nd, what a f**k mission when you're on your own!)

Managed to get it to the rear seat to the counter and what-a-ya-know, the wheel barrows are back for use

All good though, will put the front seats in by bolting the back and base to the EF rails and work out what needs to be done to fit the rear seats. Being LWB and all, the side bolsters are huge compared to the EF ones and not sure if the 60/40 seat backs and base are a straight fit, but they are going in regardless, so it they aren't a straight fit.... I'll just have to make the C*** fit

I guess pic's would be handy lol..

Everything needs a good clean, has a few splashes of mud hear and there probably from when it rained on Friday, but it'll clean up nice. Other than that, they are in pretty good nick! Not one rip in any part of the leather either which is great, and the rear seat centre fold out has cup holders!

Not bad for a $63 score in total, thank you Pick a Part