Intro

[XESP351]

Hey all;

I'm from Melbourne and I recently bought a 1997 EL Ghia V8, i'll attach some pics if i figure out how to do it, and since i know absolutely nothing about the Eseries Fords (I am an X series falcon man), I thought I would join the E series forum and start learning cos i hate driving a car when I know nothing about its common problems and how to fix them etc. So I will soon be relying on your wealth of knowledge to answer a few questions about the car, but first i thought i'd intrdouce myself. Fady.

[Commando]

Welcome mate!

You've picked a great model there, one of my favourites. Problems that the 5.0s are known to suffer from:

* cooling system leaks (niggling, not catastrophic)

* inhibitor switch on the auto sometimes lets go, this will result in the box randomly thumping through gears while you're cruising down the road. A side-effect will be heavily shitstained pants, if you happen to be on a busy/wet road when it occurs.

* asthma. The heads aren't the best, but aren't the most restrictive part of the engine. The exhaust & intake manifolds are CRAP.

* blend door motor on the climate control may fail. This will result in losing either heat, or aircon (it governs heated, ambient, & airconditioned air entering the cabin).

* electric window(s) may crap out on you due to age

They're far from being a lemon, but the above are just some known things to watch out for. Sadly, your car is guaranteed to suffer from asthma if it's stock

Cheers

-Dave-

[SVT8]

welcome to the club, where abouts are you from?

Not to many problems will occur with an eseries v8 (unless your unlucky). Most common probs are usually wear and tear stuff. Trans, the odd coolant leak, a few vibrations with belt/pullies getting worn and rear main leaks. Otherwise they go for ages.

Performance wise in stock form, they suck. Need to open up top half of the engine so it can breath to get it moving. Heads, cam and manifold are good upgrades. If you can source au v8 heads (gt40p's) and manifold (explorer manifold) and slap in a cam, youl be suprised. oh, standard exhaust is a piece of shit to so get rid of that. There should be a sticky link in the general section that tells you how to post pictures up.

[XESP351]

Well, what can i say, you have already answered some of my questions without me even asking!

The first one was: why does it kick down to second momentarily when im cruising on the freeway doing 100-110! I was told the Starter/neutral switch on the tranny needs replacing, that's just another word for the inhibitor switch i take it?

Second question was that the performance sucks so the planned short term mods are gonna be a bigger intake snorkel, K&N panel filter and a cat back exhaust. So what i wanted to know was
1. will this be sufficient to at least give me a little bit better performance?
2. What exhaust system works best? 2.5 in or 3 in, single or twin (if it fits) and lastly what kinda mufflers?
3. Are the factory headers any good and is it worth spending the money on a set of pacies?

Also what exactly is the blend door motor on climate control?

And where does the coolant normally leak from?

And lastly what are your thoughts of putting a VSI LPG system on it, do they work well on them? I am looking at a Parnell system and trying to decide whether its gonna be worth the extra $1200 over the mixer system.

Thanks for the help guys.

Here are some pics. She's only done 130k kms, as you can tell by the plates i pickedher up from Tassie on the weekend.

[Commando]

The first one was: why does it kick down to second momentarily when im cruising on the freeway doing 100-110! I was told the Starter/neutral switch on the tranny needs replacing, that's just another word for the inhibitor switch i take it?

Yeah mate, it'll be that switch. It's an off-white semi-circular plastic thingy hidden behind a heat shield on the passenger side of the box. Has two plugs off it. 10 min job to fix!

1. will this be sufficient to at least give me a little bit better performance?
2. What exhaust system works best? 2.5 in or 3 in, single or twin (if it fits) and lastly what kinda mufflers?
3. Are the factory headers any good and is it worth spending the money on a set of pacies?

1. Nope.
2. Just don't go too big here. Single 2.5 is fine for a stock-ish 302. Single 3" or twin 2.25" would be the biggest I'd go. (Admittedly mine is semi-twin 2.5" into single 3", but the car's not stock anymore ). I went with a single deep-offset muffler (dunno the brand) for mine. As for cats, I haven't got high-flow ones, I just had them flanged.
3. Factory headers are crap! Definitely spend the money on extractors like pacemaker PH4000s if your budget stretches that far (for an exhaust system)

Oh, and the car looks great!

[someLS1]

Best el colour!! makes me miss my ghia

[stockiEF]

Very tidy ghia you got there mate! Regency is the best colour for the EL Ghia's! Enjoy watchin the $1k's drift into it to get it almost no-where. haha nah mate you will have fun, enjoy!

Best el colour!! makes me miss my ghia

max you dont miss that car. you miss haci's kebabs and single pegga's!! haha

[SVT8]

your not gona see a real difference with exhaust and larger snorkel....maybe a little but not much, it will just seem to rev easier really.

how much money do you want to spend on it? i mean if your getting gas, then exhaust will be enough and maybee a cam so it sounds nice. Wont be quick, but perfect cruiser and cheap to run. If you decide to hog it out, youl need at least a couple of grand to get it really moving.

coolant usually leaks from brittle hoses, heater tap and waterpump. Yes a VSI LPG system is better then a mixer, but if your not building a go fast car then no need to spend extra on a VSI system. Better off going with a mixer setup, and windsors generally run good on gas trouble free.

[BLCKED]

nice care mate, welcome to the forums

depending how far on the performance you want to go, a good set of heads will do you alot of justice, au v8s have gt40 heads wich can be sourced for around the $750 mark.

good set of alloy heads for around $1500.

other things to look at are diff gears, 3.9s go great with 4 speed autos (revs at around 2350 at 100 kms)

the autos dont like alot of heat either, i have had some bad experiences with the v8 autos.

definetly get some extractors, a bigger throttle body is also a good investment.

[Commando]

good set of alloy heads for around $1500.

Pro comp?

other things to look at are diff gears, 3.9s go great with 4 speed autos (revs at around 2350 at 100 kms)

Closer to 2150rpm

[XESP351]

Thanks for the comments and advice and the warm welcome guys.

Yeh the first thing i'll be doing is fitting LPG, still not sure which system, but i'll keep looking into it. Main priority after that will be a set of 18s and an exhaust system. Everything else can wait until there is spare cash lying around.

P.S. Can anyone recommend a good exhaust place in Melbourne?

[SgtBourne]

beautiful car mate!