[fox81]

In the late 70s and early 80s my dad had a 64 Falcon. He put a V8 in it and claims that was a huge mistake cause the front end wasn't set up for it. So he never drove the thing. Mainly for that reason. Heres my question. I know for a fact that all Fox body cars are four lug. All four, six, and eight cylinder cars. But my dad is convinced that the 5.0 are five lug. That the four cylinder cars aren't set up for a bolt in 5.0. I know that you have to change a few things. But he tells me I would regret it if I put in a 5.0 my Zephyr cause isn't set up for it. (ie: not a five lug) So tell me...are the 5.0s five lug or four lug?

[HPMcGee]

i don't know what four or five lugs has to do with the car being set up for an engine upgrade. Usually when you talk about setting up for an engine size upgrade you are referring to the coil springs to support the extra weight of an eight cyl. or bigger breaks to stop a now heavier car. foxes are four lug even on V8's

[sleeper_inc]

All Fox mustangs had four lug (I do mean all)

[74stang2togo]

Originally Posted by sleeper_inc

All Fox mustangs had four lug (I do mean all)

1984-1986 Mustang SVO and 1993 Mustang Cobra had five-lug.

Other than that you are correct.

Fox81, the only differences between the 4-cylinder and V8 fox-chassis cars in most cases were routing of fuel and brake lines, minor differences in brake sizes on some models/years, rear ends on some models/years, spring sizes, and the addition of "kicker shocks" to Mustang GTs. I've done a 5.0 swap into a 2.3 car, it's a lot of work, but nothing complicated. On that car we even kept the 4-cylinder brakes and springs (springs to lower the car with the V8, nice little drop, brakes because the difference in stopping power wasn't even noticeable when we road tested the former 2.3LX convertible against an original 5.0GT convertible after the swap.)

Also on that car, we made a new section of brake line in the rear of the car to adapt the 2.3 lines that came on the car to the 5.0 rear axle's connections (and to clear exhaust, which the original 2.3 lines wouldn't do without running dumps) and a section of fuel line in the engine compartment since the fuel lines were also routed different.

You can fit almost any V8 Ford has built into that Zephyr, I've actually seen 460s shoehorned into Zephyrs and Fairmonts and done so cleanly they looked like they belonged there. They've got nice big engine compartments, and share so much of their architecture with the fox-Mustang and Tbird that you can upgrade from your share of pieces over the years.