Fox Few Question Before V8 Swap

nos289

New Member
Apr 29, 2014
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Hello
I just purchased a 88 4cyl car that comes with a 351. I have been looking around getting ready to drop the 351 into the fox. The 351 will be carbed so I wont need all that wiring. I just have a few questions Ive been looking on other forums. Do I need to change upper and lower control arms to use v8 spindles? Also would I need to upgrade the master cylinder? Would I need to also change the gauge cluster with one from a v8? Also what about the rack and pinion steering Ive seen some people say they have to be upgraded and some said just to leave the stock 4cyl one in.
Thanks
 
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Hello
I just purchased a 88 4cyl car that comes with a 351. I have been looking around getting ready to drop the 351 into the fox. The 351 will be carbed so I wont need all that wiring. I just have a few questions Ive been looking on other forums. Do I need to change upper and lower control arms to use v8 spindles? Also would I need to upgrade the master cylinder? Would I need to also change the gauge cluster with one from a v8? Also what about the rack and pinion steering Ive seen some people say they have to be upgraded and some said just to leave the stock 4cyl one in.
Thanks
You can use same lower control arms for front suspension just get V8 spindles and I think the brakes.

What transmission are you using? Rear end needs to be swapped. The original 7.5 won't handle that much power. Driveshaft depending on the trans you use. The rack and pinion is probably done anyways so replace it with the V8 one. I went with a quick(er) ratio one from autozone. I don't remember if the tach will work. I believe it wont read correctly due to the fact it was a 4cyl before but I could be wrong. The speedometer is mechanical so it should be ok as long as you use the correct speedo gear in the trans. Does anyone remember if the raditaor needs to be replaced?

Good luck with it
 
You can use same lower control arms for front suspension just get V8 spindles and I think the brakes.

What transmission are you using? Rear end needs to be swapped. The original 7.5 won't handle that much power. Driveshaft depending on the trans you use. The rack and pinion is probably done anyways so replace it with the V8 one. I went with a quick(er) ratio one from autozone. I don't remember if the tach will work. I believe it wont read correctly due to the fact it was a 4cyl before but I could be wrong. The speedometer is mechanical so it should be ok as long as you use the correct speedo gear in the trans. Does anyone remember if the raditaor needs to be replaced?

Good luck with it
As for the radiator I'd go on and put a fresh one in there while its torn apart. The link I gave to autozone is the one this gentleman mentioned. Another plus to replacing the rack is you get new inner tie rods
 
I just did the front end work on a 4cyl to 5.0 swap. I have a complete donor so I just moved everything over. technically, you can leave the tiny 4cyl brakes and spindles, the only hang up would be the power steering lines - getting them plumbed into the power steering pump / rack. good luck stopping.

Also, the springs / struts in the 4cyl are going to be working pretty hard holding up a 351. you cant just change the strut, because as mentioned above, the 4cyl strut matches to the 4cyl spindle.

if you are going to run dual exhaust, jump under the car and look at the brake line where it crosses over to the rear axle... the passenger side is going to give you problems unless you re-route it or swap in the lines from a 5.0 car.
 
The tach will be off by a factor of 2 if you don't swap the gauges - I forget which way, but I drove mine like that for a while (I put the v8 cluster in days/weeks before I put the engine in). The radiators are the same, which seems hard to believe, though I agree you should go bigger with a 351. The 4 cyl springs are "weaker" than the v8 springs. I've seen people leave them in - the car will sit low in the front, and handling will not be the greatest.