Boosted Falcon

I currently have a ’91 EA Fairmont with 3.9CFI and factory T5


I’ve read a fair bit on forums for a couple of months now with regards to interior swaps and engine swaps, what will work and what won’t. Today when I went into a wreckers to purchase a couple of wing mirrors, I ended up taking a look a “1996 Ford Falcon EFII Futura FA” that was written off by an insurance company after it rear ended the car in front of it, damaged the front bumper and pushed the radiator and battery back a bit BUT as far as I can tell it did not damage the engine, and the wrecker has confirmed that he has had it running and driven it a short distance across a paddock (its been stored on their farm). According to its rego records it had 210,000km on it at last warrant. Heres a few pics:




So as you can see the damage to the engine seems nil and the interior is almost mint condition. The only things that have been sold off the car is the wheels, boot lid and rear window pane, so I expect there might be a bit of water damage to the back seats but on the plus side its only been there a few months, and its just coming to the end of our summer. Also of note this is the “All Blacks edition”. I can take the whole car away for $500NZ.

My questions:

Will the engine mate up with the T5 in the EA ok?
Is it possible to swap my steering rack and column for the one in this?
Is it possible to change my suspension to the EF’s one?
What issues would arise using the EF’s diff? (As I understand this is the easiest way to make the handbrake in the EF interior work)
Will the seats mount into the EA without modification to the floor pan?
Does any body know what the “All Blacks” edition actually means other than a sticker on the side of the car? lol

I plan to do a complete interior and engine conversion, As far as I understand it the use of coil pack ignition isn’t an issue as I will be using the EF’s ECU and looms, however is there a significant difference between the automatic and manual ECU’s? (I remember reading something about needing to trick the auto ecu into thinking its always in neutral?)

I would be doing this as a very long term project, start by stripping down the EF and storing everything away from the rain, and probably get the engine refurbished. Then doing the bulk of the work between semesters at uni

At some point in the future I would like to add boost, however I think that the cost is prohibitive at this stage.

darkmikey wrote:Does any body know what the “All Blacks” edition actually means other than a sticker on the side of the car? lol

sticker pack only i think.

pretty keen to be thinking of a turbo when nz premium is about $2.22 a litre too...

Bugger, I was hoping it would mean at least an XR6 cam lol

Yeah as I said, turbo is more of a dream than reality at this stage, I do a bit of freelance web design and programming though (Just starting a degree in computer science, but have been programming for about three or four years now), and I'm hoping to get a fair bit of cash for a couple of major projects I'm doing at the moment, one of which would hopefully result in passive income for a while. A large amount of the motivation behind the whole project is to learn (and get a bit more power and life out of the tired EA), as I don't have a massive mechanical background, in saying that though I have a few friends (who know what their talking about) that can help me with any bits that stump me.

Will the engine mate up with the T5 in the EA ok? Yes, will bolt up the same
Is it possible to swap my steering rack and column for the one in this? Yes, strait swap
Is it possible to change my suspension to the EF’s one?Yes, the struts/springs. Not the control arms in the front. Control arms in the back and diff can all be swapped
What issues would arise using the EF’s diff? (As I understand this is the easiest way to make the handbrake in the EF interior work)None, really - just make sure you copy the handbrake cable etc exactly when moving it all from the EF to the EA
Will the seats mount into the EA without modification to the floor pan?No, you need the transmission tunnel (also needed for the handbrake conversion) section - remove the carpet from the EF and you will see the peice that is spot welded in- you need to remove this and weld into your EA
Does any body know what the “All Blacks” edition actually means other than a sticker on the side of the car?No idea sorry.

EF is basically ED XR6 cam anyway.

Cheers, that's put my mind at ease, this time next week I will hopefully have the EF sitting in the paddock at my place

nstg8a wrote:

darkmikey wrote:Does any body know what the “All Blacks” edition actually means other than a sticker on the side of the car? lol

sticker pack only i think.

From the photo it looks like it gets passenger side airbag too?

ELDanny wrote:

nstg8a wrote:

darkmikey wrote:Does any body know what the “All Blacks” edition actually means other than a sticker on the side of the car? lol

sticker pack only i think.

From the photo it looks like it gets passenger side airbag too?

It would be a standard on EFII Futura.

I don't think it was standard on anything but EFII Ghia's.

Yeah my ef2 futura doesn't have it

oh my bad

That's really quite pov

welcome to 1995

So possibly is closer to ghia spec than a non all black edition one I guess? I just thought of one more question, in your opinions, would the frontal impact have caused damage to the waterpump, but more specifically the mounting point on the engine?

I'd say it was just optioned with the airbag.
I Dont imagine any of the mounts on the motor would be damaged, the water pump is likely ok too, it *could* have damaged the pulley/shaft.

but its too difficult to say looking at the photos.

airbag could even be a nz specific thing, like all new gs utes over there have premium sound standard, but here its only an option.

Ok thanks, I think I shall take the chance and hope for the best, at the least I get a nicer interior out of it
Now to convince dad to let me keep another car out behind the barn

darkmikey wrote:Ok thanks, I think I shall take the chance and hope for the best, at the least I get a nicer interior out of it
Now to convince dad to let me keep another car out behind the barn

what part of canterbury are you in? didnt cope any damage from the quake?

A little place called Dunsandel, about 40km south of Christchurch. Our house held up both times fine, and all my family and friends are ok, although we all know someone who didn't make it. A few family members had their belongings wrecked, but no injuries themselves. I was actually at Canterbury uni when the second one hit, and my mum was on the third floor of a building in the CBD. Scary stuff how suddenly it happens, no warning just bam...

Good to see another kiwi mate, slowly getting a a foot in (just like kiwi's in gold coast!), gotta hand it to tha cantabrians staying in there i'd be outta there after the 2nd one, the AllBlack ones just had a couple options ticked like airbag and i think stereo and ABS, and good luck with the build heaps of info here and LOTS of reading

Cheers mate, How'd you find the engineering process, and cost? Yeah I read a lot of information for the last few months, and in fact I was reading your thread with quite some interest only last week lol, love the work you did on the manifold, looks top notch

Unfortunately since I'm a uni student, the $500 price tag on this thing is a lot of money for me, so this thread was more of a confidence booster in making sure I had my facts right before parting with the cash. I'm sure I'll be reading even more info as the build progresses (and probably asking the odd stupid question), the car is getting delivered tomorrow quite excited.