Comments on: EL Falcon ‘Hybrid’ Engine Camshaft Timing

By: Craig Wilson

Craig Wilson — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:01:02 +0000

Hey Gavin,
I know for sure that the AU head gasket is a direct fit onto the earlier block and I have heard that the AU head will fit the EL bottom end but please don’t take that as gospel. As I said I have only heard that, I haven’t seen it with my own two eyes! My advice would be to ring an engine reconditioner. Any reasonably busy shop would have dealt with more than a few Falcon heads and should know the differences, if any.

Hope that helps!
Regards,
Craig

By: Gavin

Gavin — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 09:27:22 +0000

Hi Guys,

I’ve been hunting around everywhere and keep finding conflicting information. I have a complete head of a 99 AU series 1 falcon that i am wrecking. The key question is can i fit the whole head of the AU on to the 97 EL falcon that i am repairing. Any information would be great.

Cheers,
Gavin

By: daryl

daryl — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 00:31:06 +0000

hi i have a 1990 ea ford its backfiring through the carbi and wont start. i’ve just changed the head. can you help please?

By: Craig Wilson

Craig Wilson — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 07:12:30 +0000

Hi Bob,
Yes, you are right, stop at the point where the valve timing is lined up, remove/release the timing chain tensioner, zip tie the chain to the camshaft sprocket and remove the sprocket bolt. Once you have the replacement cylinder head, refit the camshaft to the replacement head – you may have to rotate the camshaft until it will line up with the locator on the sprocket.

Hope that helps!

Regards,
Craig

By: Bob

Bob — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 21:36:28 +0000

Many thanks for that. As I am removing the head and replacing with a reconditioned one, should I stop at the point where you “?rotate? the camshaft sprocket to the position needed between the two yellow chain links.” Otherwise do I have to do this then do it again (by it I mean release the timing chain tensioner, undo the sprocket bolt) after I have zipped tied the chain to the camshaft sprocket (after setting TDC). I would rather undo the timing tensioner and sprocket bolt once. Just a question I guess about the sequence of events here. Your help is much appreciated.

It is true.

By: nzstoph

nzstoph — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 19:45:28 +0000

Thanks for that Craig I will go and line up the cam to day and let you know

Chris

By: craig

craig — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 12:20:45 +0000

Hi Chris,
Personally I would be trying to avoid removing the timing cover as it is a pain in the neck job, but having said that the position of the idler is important as it runs the distributor.

I think your best bet would be to set the camshaft timing correctly by removing the timing chain tensioner and ‘walking’ the chain around the camshaft sprocket until it is lined up and then see if you can reposition the ignition leads on the cap so that you have a range of advance and retard adjustment.

I realise this is not correcting the problem as such and if you have the time (and the patience!) a better solution would be to remove the cover and as you say start again with lining everything up properly. You can easily count on around six hours to remove and refit the timing cover, not fun!

Hope that helped.

By: nzstoph

nzstoph — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:28:42 +0000

Hi Graig.
Recently I purchased an EL Fairmont, as it turned out it had a lot of issues mainly due to running with no thermostat. I have resolved most of these but still lacking in power and a slight miss under power in 3rd( top gear)2800 to 3000 RPM.
I read this article “EL Falcon ‘Hybrid’ Engine Camshaft Timing “ and checked the cam timing mark and sure enough they are out the yellow mark is about 2 /3 teeth to the lift of the line, witch is about 12o.clock and the little dot is lined up with the head surface. Also the spark plug leads have been repositioned in the distributor cap ! and the ign timing is advanced as far as the dizy will move. Do you think I will have to pull the front cover off and start from scratch or dos the position of the crank , idler and chain , not mater as much as the crank and cam sprockets?

Thanks Chris

By: craig

craig — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 10:54:21 +0000

Hi,
I’ll have a look around and see what I can find for the 4.0 engine.

Cheers,
Craig

By: pkj68

pkj68 — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 10:37:47 +0000

Hi, I have a xh 4.0 and i am trying to find a pic of the timing marks set up. A desription would also help. I cannot get access to a service manual. thanks