Nice work with the wags mate

I love wagons and have an ef fairmont wagon which is slowly getting mods done to it ATM I'm putting a T5 conversion in as well as a rebuilt xr6 motor. Also have a genuine xr6 wags as a burnout car just cause I can lol

I'm part of an Australia wide wagon forum http://www.ozwagons.com check us out.

A sad day...
On the way home from the city today had a rapid drop in oil pressure @ 80kph and started hearing a horrible 'death rattle', then she died. Got her off the rd, checked and topped up oil, let her sit for a bit and tried to crank her over... grrrrrrr - clunk!! 'Ohhhh f**k!!' Tried again.. grrclunk!! grrclunk!!
Methinks she's had it

oh sad to hear mate, pretty much the horrible sound ever for us car owners.

you getting it replaced yeah?

UPDATE -

Well I managed to coax her back to life today and crawl the 10 or so km home.

Paid very close attention to how the motor was behaving and this is what I observed. She cranked over ok to start with, then just as she fired it damn near stopped altogether, about 2-5 seconds of rattling when she started, then she settled into her usual idle but with a very (and I mean barely noticeable) miss every 10 seconds or so. Threw the pushy into the back and set off.
Pulled slowly onto the road and eased on the throttle.. no rattles, oil pressure ok, bit low on power.. 'oh well, at least we're moving'. 40kph.. ok... 60... still ok... 80... STILL ok. Came to a red light and pulled up, she gave a bit of a splutter and shake. Into Neutral and eased the revs up to keep her running... smooths out and behaves. Lights change, into D and off we go again.

Until this point (probably 5-7kms down the rd) she'd not even started to warm up... I thought I might have knocked the temp sender wire off when stuffing around with it yesterday. But now the needle starts to creep up......... And then the problems start over.... the slight miss becomes more obvious, she begins to loose power, and the oil pressure starts to plummet. By now I'm about 2 mins from home so I thought 'Sod it!! I ain't pushing this b**ch again!!' Kept going and as I rolled into the driveway the oil pressure buzzer sounds and she REALLY begins to cough, splutter and rattle.. I turned her off before she died totally and holy shiieet does she STINK (Like Kuwait in 1991 ) of burnt oil, no smoke though??
All the fluid levels are ok, I just checked for oil loss and there is none (that I noticed), she didn't even get close to hot today.. might have only just reached her usual operating temp if that.

Anyhow..... I am still unsure just what the hell the problem is. I was originally thinking the oil pump had failed, but if that were the case wouldn't she be reading no oil pressure to begin with? She ran fine (aside from that slight miss, which is new) when she was cold.
Anyone have any other possibilities?

Hmmmm????
$1350 to have an AU engine fitted (as the odds of finding even a 1/2 decent EF motor these days are microscopic).... I know she's a bunky 18 year old wagon, but I've put a fair bit of work and time into her and aside from yesterdays little engine poo poo she's in bloody good condition for her age.
Problem for me there however is cashflow is pretty tight at the moment.
As for the current motor.. Yes it could just be the oil pump, but if it's not it could still be big $$. Also, what other damage has been done? And it's over 350,000kms old.

Thats astronomically expensive IMO.

Can you turn a spanner? Just get a used ed/f/l motor and swap it in. Or buy a smashed one for the motor. Pretty unusual to die like that.

goolgle Adelaide falcon spares at salisbry,

speak to chris he might have a good Ef engine there for you.

iv done some work with him if he is not sure on the engine he bins it so you will only get a good one.

I can turn a spanner ok, but I also have a stuffed back and doing it myself without causing further injury to it is not something I really want to risk. Also I have no means of getting the engine out and a replacement in. So unfortunately I'm stuck with getting someone else to do it for me.


Do you know if they'd be able to do the swap for me if I can get the car down there?
(as per above)

Just got off the phone with Chris $350 for a 113,000k EF long without acc (Alt, P/S A/C), and he put me onto a local guy who can fit it for me for $650.
Good tip wtbdlltd, much appreciated.

Get the au motor and that's cheep it cost me 2k to get my at motor into my ef wagon and soooo much of a better motor

If I had the money I would. But of course cars by their very nature will always wait until you are flat broke before s**t themselves.

I just went and had another look at the car. She kicked over ok and idled really well for about 30 secs, then... tick, tick, tick, rattle, rattle, shudder, cough.. die. But there were no horrible grinding or mechanical sounding death noises... aside from the rattle. Oil pressure again dropped rapidly just before the rattle started. She runs.. just. But it sure as hell looks like she'll be in the shed for a little while yet.

Just look up where to cut the ef K frame take it to a welder and get him to cut it and weld it back up that the rest is easy it's all ef parts the
At bolt on to the block

This is proving more and more confusing...
If the oil pump was shot there wouldn't be ANY oil pressure at all correct?
And why idle happily like that then suddenly start misbehaving?
If there was not enough oil getting around she'd be rattling her a** off from the start or so I would have thought.
&#$@ing cars!!!

It's a bit hard to take it anywhere at this point. Also I need to get it sorted out with a minimum of fuss and hopefully, without it putting me into even more debt. I'd love it if I were in a position to do the AU conversion, but at the moment owing to my limited fiances of late it's not looking like a viable option. If this had of happened in a few months time I'd be in a much better position. But as I said before, cars choose their moments carefully.

Take off the rocker cover and check the rocker assy.

Check the plugs and the state of the oil.

Hopefully its just got a broken rocker or something. Could be bottom end damage though.

Drop the sump and check the pickup too.

Hey man Paradise Wreckers on Main North Road have a AU engine with 230ish kms on it for $350? or talk to Nathan at Athol Park Ford Wreckers, one of those 2 should be able to help, they should have a EF Engine there also for around the same price if you wanna go that way.