well heres my situation, im looking at buyin a 1978 falcon xc 500 sedan, 4.1 6 cyl auto done about 2,700,000k's, in WA, for arround $500ish maybe less. ive talked to the seller and he has told me the body is in good condition not much rust at all which is good, it needs a new or reconditioned radiator, and I am wanting to change it into a manual, how much would this cost exactly? is it easily done? (my bros an ex-mechanic so he would be able to to it for me probably) would it be worth it? my budget is say arround $3000 to get it running, but not in great condition. just voice ur oppinion and what would need to be done, thanks a lot in advance, Doug.

As Darren says, keep the car auto for now. Just concentrate on making it a safe driver. A cross flow radiator out of a XD to XF will drop in. Just use the Later model radiator mounts. They are cheap as chips at the wreckers. Don't go spending too muc

Hi again Doug,

I didn't consider the manual licence bit. They didn't have that rule when I did mine, although I learnt in a manual anyway.

I honestly think it is worthwhile getting some professional driving tuition and preferably in a manual car.

That's not a bad idea mate. Get the basics down pat first then start paying someone for the fine tuning. Is there another manual car you can use to get accustomed to a manual shift? If you are desperate to do the manual swap in your car you should be

Doug, what I meant was that all the XD to XFs ran a 2 core V8 radiator in their 6 cyl cars. Sometimes even a 3 core job was used so as long as the XD 6cyl shares the same radiator hoses as the XC you should be able to drop one straight in.