g'day

i've recently had the fairmont at a mechanics and it got treated to a new headgasket and some new head studs (after the old ones snapped).

Now that i've got the car back its not leaking water any more but now it's running really rough. If i let it idle in Neutral it'll bounce around between like 200 and 500rpm or so. At times its stalled. When im sitting still in D or R the car runs really rough and stalls regulary. I've dealt with this by slipping the car into Neutral when coming upto intersections and stuff which im getting tired of doing.

The car doesn't seem to have the "go" it did before being really sluggish mainly in the lower revs. I've also noticed (not on the trip) but just observing that the car is seemingly using a lot of petrol. I can't prove this but just my gut feeling.

Anyone got any ideas as to a setting or a sensor that might be malfunctioning that im getting this kind of behaviour? It's s**t me up the wall at the moment and im hoping to god that stupid mechanic fixes the car!!

Could be cam timing, which is the only thing that could have been affected by the head gasket change, unless new head, which opens a new bag of trouble itself/

Other than that check that all sensors are connected properly as they can cause dramas. ISC might need changing also!

Good luck tho!

mmmm

i'd like to instill some confidence in my mechanic (a friends dad) so i'm hoping the cam timing is ok.

The head is the original head so thats outta the question..

anyone got a scan of a diagram showing sensor locations or anything and what each one is? have only had a ford since feb so

What's the ISC??

I've had it back to the mechanics and they reset the ECU, set the base idle (?), drove it around 4 times to train it a bit and now it doesnt stall or idle rough, at times it can splutter around when its cold idling.

It still doesn't have the same go, seems a bit tame low revs but seems ok higher in the rev range?

If i ever get around to buying a cam i should be able to eliminate this problem... but thats if i can be fagged coughing up for one!

Another thought,

Could be a vacumn pipe not connected or a leak at the intake manifold.

Check for leak at intake manifold with engine running spray carby clean or similar around the intake manifold/head flange. If vacumn leak is there then likely that the revs will fluctuate.

Mate I hade the same work done to mine the other week and it sounds to me like the base ignition timing is a little retard. All I did was drive around with a 13mm spanner with me and advanced the timing a little bit at a time. You can tell when you have gone too far because it will ping. When you get that far you just back it off a little and it will be sweet. If you timing is even 3degrees retard it will idle slowly and rough and have no bottom end grunt. I hope this helps.

I agree with you symptoms, however it doesn't make sense that his problems only occured after a head gasket change, as there is no reason to disturb the distributor position just to remove the head.