I am new to this forum and to this 1983 Mustang LX. The Mustang was originaly a 3.8 A/T convertable which I bought with a bad motor. I am fixing it up for my daughter and have a 1985 351HO patrol car motor and transmission I would like to install.

Could anyone give me any helpful advice as to what problems I may run into while installing this. Motor mounts, exhaust, crossmember, cooling etc.
Thank you in advance.
Paul

 

well u might want to get some 5.0L or 351 motor mounts i used the mounts outa 88 f-250 truck with a 351W and i had to make a few adjustments. Your best bet is 1 5/8" headers from bbk or whom ever and they go into about 2.5" outs and some off-road H-pipes, with down pipes at the back. cross member if u go with dual exshaut u'll have to change the transmission crossmember that supports dual exshaut because if it a single the one pipes on the driver side will have to hang below the transmission crossmember. for cool normal rad is fine but if ur 351 had a fan on the water pump u'll have to take it off and buy a electric fan the size of the rad. gas lines will have to be changed to a larger size.and some subframes might have to be add along with k members and also u might have to have ur hood banged out a bit in the middle for clearnce or buy a cowl hood and suspension might have to be upgrade for the added weight and an aligment done good luck on ur swap

 

Thank you very much for the info. I will be starting on it next week and I am sure I will more questions as I go.

 

+1 5.0L motor mounts work fine, people like to use the vert mounts too, since they're a little stronger.

you might need a crank pulley spacer to get belt to line up right, Ford Racing has them in several thicknesses

BBK swap headers are a little restrictive but fit in good.

swap is pretty straight forward with a little common sense.

check out www.50resto.com for factory style parts like the trans x-member and such.

also, ditch the mechanical fan and go find a fan/shroud out of a Licoln Mark VIII, they fit
perfect on stock 2 row radiator and fine with a little trimming on 3 row.
Very good fan, easy to wire up and I found mine for $50 at junkyard and they're on ebay all the time for $70-90

 

Can anyone tell me how to identify the oil pan needed for this swap? The motor I have is from a 1987 Crown Victoria. Am I lucky enough for it to have the correct pan and how do I tell?

 

the way i did the test to see if my pan would work id got the farm loader and set the block and pan only in then seen if it fit and mine did right on but thats stock one that was on engine i dont kno what to tell u u can try here

http://www.freewebs.com/vristang/fox351wswapfaq.htm good luck

 

If it came with a V6 you will have to swap the K-member to install a V8

 

I was told it was the I-6 k-member that was different, not the V-6. Who is right? I understand that ultimately, I will just need to set it in to see what fits, but I am trying to gather up what parts I need ahead of time to reduce the down time.

 

I'm not sure about the 83 but 86+ the v-6 k-member is fine for a v-8