hey, i was gonna put a 351 in my xe falcon but i just brought a heaps better xf falcon, and i heard that it wasnt that easy to put a v8 into an xf, can anyone tell me what's u have to do to make it fit / work, thanks

easy as putting it in an xe use the same parts just the heater outlet pipes from the heater box hit the l/h head so the proper way to do it is pull the dash and turn the heater box upside down and put a hole in the firewall for the pipes or if its not going to be a street car and you dont need a heater just cut them off at the fire wall apart from that everything else from the xe bolts straight on ie engine mount plates ect just extend a few wires ect easy job

thanks a lot mate , just the heater pipes, kewl, ill turn it upside down

yeah but you have to pull the whole dash out i meen the heater box is one of the first things put in i could fit the engine before pull the dash lol but other people find that kind of work easy(then again im a fat prick lol)

Ahh the one question that never gets fully answered. What sort of V8 do you plan on fitting in there? If its a 289/302/5.0 windsor then there are no mods to the heater box required. Just a straight bolt up with XE V8 mounts. If its a clevland, 351 windsor or big block then yes your heater box will need to be modded.

Some people have told me that rather than pull the heater box out and turn it upside down it would be easier to put 90 degree bends on the heater pipes where they come out of the firewall that way you don't muck around with the dash and a big V8 will fit. I think Mr Landau said that in FM1.

please dont tell me this can be done ive pulled out that many dashs lol ive tried just bending them but have kinked them or cracked them inside

someone told me that you have to cut into the suspension towers ? is that true, that's for a 351 cleveland by the way

f**k no they are the same as an xd/e except for the pipes

well they are wrong then, hahaha, looks like i'm dropping a 351 in there

What sort of vehicle is donating the 351?

i have no idea, does this matter? do i need xe/xd mounts for the xf? or will any mounts fit?

If you want it registered you'll need an engine that meets the same emission standards as the car it is going into. An XB's 351 Clevo and C4 came up at a good price when I had my '86 carby, ULP XF. To attain an engineers certificate and rego this meant either a gas set-up or ditch the XB combo and drop in an injected 351 from an F series.

I have been told by a few workshops that you can use mounts from as far back as XW.

Spot on for engine mounts, but gearbox requires the same setup as XE, if you are fitting a C4 into a late XF you will have to drill holes for the gearbox cross member, as the forward holes were removed on late XF.

These are mainly Cleveland fitting problems:

The heater core doesn't just turn upside down and fit back in either, been there tried that, a fair bit more work.

Forget about using elbows for the heater core, it will either be a pain in the a*** to refit or it will have other clearance problems.


Another tight a*** idea is to use the air-con evaporator for the heater if it is fitted and you don't want air-con, apparently this works very well.

Carefully with tappet covers, you end up having 5-10mm clearance between the head and firewall, as the XF firewall is heaps different to XD-XE, it can be slightly modified (big hammer limited by heater box being behind firewall including insulation) or major modified.

If you use an auto you can not fit the kick down linkage, there is no room, you may be able to fit a cable setup, as per some early X series autos.

If you have the high series lower firewall insulation it will have to be removed, the engine will sit against it otherwise.

If you decide you want air-con you will have to get some custom air-con hoses made up (been there done that), unless you decide to fit a XD-XE condenser.

No XFs had V8s as an option so any factory tacho will have to be calibrated, I got my Ghia cluster done.

If you run a manual, look under the dash where the hydraulic master cylinder holes are, drill them out, don't bother with cable, might be a little playing here, but worth it.

Most sports air cleaners clear the bonnet insulation, either cut a hole in it or remove it.

The engine back then got in this mess because of a lot of problems with over heating, pinging etc etc, I was young and limited with time as working in Sydney and returning home every weekend, lots of temporary things fitted.
Straight LPG

If I had done a before and after it would have been the wrong way around, the V8 engine bay looked awesome when first fitted, and looked shocking down the track.

Dragging up an old one here but what did you do to the heater core Macca?

Yeah I know this is a bit late and youv'e already probably put the V8 in but thought I might post this link to give a little insight into what else can be done to get a V8 to fit into the XF engine bay.

http://www.jasonpigdon.com/auto/xfv8/ford_xf__v8_conversion.htm