stevenSHO

Does anyone in here really believe that the XF chassis was altered from the pre X series range at the end of the X series range?

Would ford go to such extremes to impliment chassis changes at the end of an era when the new "A" series came into being?

I reckon this is just "hogwash" bullshit brought on by legislation of time and place! Ive worked under XB XA XD and XY and to me there is no great difference in the cross member or the spindle axle tie rods upper and lower control arms or the caster and camber section or the transmission mounts! etc

I think this engineers certificate is a lot of balony that need to be handed to vic roads as a extra cash flow. How the hell would Ford change its end of the line falcon of the X range to such drastic change?

To me theres not that great a difference except for springs and calipers but in general the X series has the same part nos for its suspension to a certain degree. Heavy duty sway bars springs etc can be swapped without to much dramas. The v8 is no great challenge for the XF and surely ford would not alter its chassis tooling to produce one offs for 85 to 87 and then close off the xrange and lick its wounds and start again!

The XF would make the best V8 selection in the entire X range because its rear end was finally "modernised" with a sturdy WATTS link suspension to steer any V8 out of the XY oversteer problems and cornering probs. The leaf springs were good for its day but at the end of the day the XF could have been the best HO for the X"-" range! Its a shame the ford engineers stuffed up the climax for the X range before the change to the "A"-? onwards with V* watts linkage to tame a great falcon in transition. Ford must of had holden engineers running for Nassers shares and screwed the end of the greatest era of FORD history, the XXXXXXXXXXFalcon. What a sad way to end the relative to the XY HO to get morons to dessicrate the XF.

This has to be bullshit with legislation as the rule of the time and the fear of world petrol shortages. Are all the V*s dead today? No just those idiots that screwed the XF falcon the GRAnD finalle to the end of an era!

needturbo6

im positive the xf has the same chassis as xd/xf, just brake and suspension changes among others.......... im pretty sure you can swap just about everything across from an xf to xd/xe's. they could have strengthened the chassis a bit i suppose.......

InitialD

after owning alot of XD,XE and XF's i can tell you that they are basicly the same cars cept of that BS about Certs for anything on XF's like V8's etc

load of sh*t in my opinion, damn Vicroads

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1991 Ford Falcon EA 30th Anniversary

RAPTOR

While I agree that it's mostly political/legislative nonsense and the cars are basically the same it is possible that some stampings went to a thinner gauge steel once the V8 was removed from the options list. Similarly some std components (ball joints, tie-rods, bushes) may have a lower rating even though the aftermarket treats them all the same. It's no surprise that the geometry, dimensions and all basic stampings remain unchanged.

I thought the WATT's rear end was first available on the XE.

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xbgs351

What have you been smoking? The XD leaf spring rear is far better than the XE/XF rear.

ESP

Heater hose connections were different from 6 to 8 regardless. Ignition wiring and electrical looms etc were also different, hence ADR differences.
Any V8 in an XF series II would also have to suck unleaded.

Hardware wise, I'm not sure if there were any differences from XE - XF. Brake calipers were revised in XF, but I'm sure suspension geometry and components were similar.

I still prefer the XE to the XF anyway. It has a much tougher look and the interior dash layout of the XE I think has stood the test of time a little better.

Overall, I think the XF sold heaps more than any other X series model, so it was definitely a good car for FORD. They were definitely short sighted about their philosophy on market trends at that time, hence their vision for a complete "Hi Tech 6" lineup for all FORDS. This was probably due to the fact that their engineers were having major difficulties in modifying the CLEVO to run on unleaded. Remember that the sixes of the time had their alloy heads designed by HONDA to assist with the overall transition to a compulsory unleaded diet. The R & D to do this for the CLEVO may have been too expensive and the fact that they may initilally lose more HP again probably had them running scared..................Remember what the initial ADR's did to the CLEVO...................120 kw and 139Kw asthmatic pices of junk in the XD - XE that were only useful for towing. Imagine then turning these old motors over to Unleaded............you'd end up with 110 Kw monoliths. The fuel injected sixes were tuned to run at 110 - 120 Kw !!!!!!!!!

The XF sales were testament to the fact that FORD initially got their vision correct. What they neglected was the necessity for a HIGH performance division / vehicle that could carry the company's marketing and HYPE to the rest of the range.............aka HDT for Holden. It's taken them almost 20 years to recover from this..........................

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XE ESP The last of the CLEVO's
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DansEdgli

The firewalls were also different in the XFs. I miss my 351 XF. The XE did look a lot tougher.

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Twin Cam EA falcon
SWB Ford Maverick
06 SV650S

meethed

So you're saying that I can ditch the lowering blocks and leaf springs in my XD and get some nice dumped coils? I thought the watts link would require a different rear-end-something?

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outback_ute

No-one is saying that meethed, the XD and XE/F rear ends are a lot different. The similarity is the front suspension.

MADNC_8

LMAO outback, i had to go back and makesure his forum name was in fact meathed - thought you were havin a go

the actual chassis in itself is the same.
i owned an XF that had both I6 and V8 power, and the firewall needed to be modded to clear the left rocker cover(im sure if you were running stock covers it wouldnt be a problem but my chrome tall covers didnt clear)

i didnt get it engineered, but i was going to have to to keep my insurance, so i put the I6 back in. shortly after, i sold the car to purchase the NC Fairlane