Hi all, I have searched the forums, and Google as well and I am still in a bit of a quandary.
My 1997 EL falcon GLi Sedan(done a little below 230,000 kms) when it first starts in the morning has a bit of a rough spot, as in when you start to accelerate it feels like it's going to stall, however it does not. After about 500metres or so of driving it's fine, including for the rest of the day. It's only in the morning that it does this.
I have replaced the spark plugs, changed the oil and filter, changed the fuel filter and air filter as well. I recently (about 17,000 kms ago) had the dizzy changed and the ignition coil as well as I was having the same problem except that the car would sometimes just randomly and then one day it just stopped, so getting those changed helped it.
Also I removed the heat shield this morning to see if there was any indication of a coolant leak under it and I could not notice any, I was a little low in coolant after I serviced the car so I topped that up and I am now watching that with interest.
Any ideas as to what it might be, it's due for a transmission service soon, could that have anything to do with it?
To myself it idles a bit rough, however after servicing it my father seems to think it idles fine(maybe I am just being picky).
If anyone (near Parkdale) wants to come for a drive to see what I mean then feel free, I'll drive around for a bit. Unfortunately I cannot service the car here as I am renting and it would violate the rental agreement.
Again, any ideas would be really helpful, thanks in advance?

check the base timing in diagnostic mode?
could be out a touch, did you gap the plugs correctly? also have you tryed running the 98 octane petrol for a full tank or some injector cleaner in the tank? try some carby/throttle body cleaner. and as you said watch the headertank incase the headgasgets blown

Possible mild head gasket leak......

Coolant (being non-combustible and all) causes a miss until it is cleared from the combustion chamber.

I have noticed now that since the service the temp gauge is on R or M in the NORMAL range, this was not the case before the service.
I am beginning to suspect that the head gasket or something else is wrong.

update time, i'm looking at getting a transmission service.
I just checked the leads(unplugged them one by one) and they are all sparking, checked how the car ran with the MAP sensor unplugged(it ran worse) so i plugged it back in, unplugged the idle speed control motor and it ran worse, so plugged it back in, unplugged the TPS, it got worse, so plugged it back in. I will take a look at the spark plugs tomorrow morning and see what they look like. Only coolant in the cooling system.
Last time it ran rough and then stopped deadish it was the distributor, could it be this again?
Is there a temporary fix for a head gasket if it is the head gasket?

im gessing slight headgasket when its cold eg over night mine was doing that before i done the headgasket it cemiweld about $10 from supercheap or repco

how did you apply the chemi-weld substance?

It tells you on the bottle you have to heat the engine up hotter than normal running temperature i just pulled out the fan fuse under the bonnet but the best way is to block half of the radiator with the fuse in as you don't want to over heat the engine

at the moment it gets to O on Normal which is slightly higher than it was originally.

You want it about 3/4 on the gauge for 20 mins

Having identical problems here mate. Lately it's been more that it will crank its head off in the morning but not catch. I've been through all the other stuff & haven't found much. Timing was out & the aux shaft has a bit of wear

I had the cranking problem last time, it kept turning over but not starting, turns out there was no spark and I had the dizzy replaced. At the moment I have had it suggested that it could be the injectors, which it could be. However I always think the worst (head / head gasket). I am going for a drive to Goulburn on Wednesday and from there to Coffs Harbour on Thursday. I will see how it goes, might put some Techron 5000 in there and see how it goes, but not sure if I should try that or some upper cylinder lubricant like morey's or lucas upper cylinder lubricant.

UPDATE: I have put 2 bottles of Techron 5000 in with some 98 fuel and I will let you all know how that goes. It seems to be idling better straight away, however that could be the placebo effect as well.

I took the car on a round trip to coffs harbour, up on wednesday, back last night. I noticed that it does not like hills at all and seems to struggle with them. I did manage to get 600km off a tank though which is more than I have done previously. I think this is because I filled it up with 95RON petrol, I don't think the 98 is doing it any good.
update monday arvo: figured i would have a look in the engine bay to see what the go is, it looks like there is oil coating the bottom half of the engine, so my best guess would be head gasket, would anyone else agree with this?

My car doesn't like to drink 95+ pulp either. No idea why, I stick with 91 swill for now