I know it's a long shot but please help me find my XA GS Coupe engine?
 

Originally from Ballarat Victoria. Eng no. JG65NC26685K

Back in 1983/4 I bought a Falcon 500 XA Coupe. At the time I did not care for matching numbers or XA front ends for that fact so I completely stripped it down, took off the GT front & put a XC front & XB GT bonnet, had it painted black (Originally Red Pepper with black outs) & swapped out the 302 (Matching numbers) for a 351 I had in my XA panel van. After a while I pulled the 302 out of the van & replace it with a crossflow six & auto so my dad could drive it & sold the 302 toploader to a mate & put it in his XY. He ended up totalling the XY & he sold the combo to another mate of ours Mark Quinney who had it for a year or so & then sold it again but to who I don't know & he is now dead so I cant ask him.

If it was just a 500 it would not be such a big deal but as it came from the factory with a GT front, GT dash, toploader etc. (only thing missing was a 9" diff) it got me wondering about its heritage.

I contacted Ford & found out it was indeed a GS.

It was only on the road for about a year when I lost my licecne for 2 years so the only way to stop me driving it was to give it another once over so I stripped it to bare metal this time & stripped the engine as well. I wont go into reasons why but that's virtually the way it has been for the last 25+ years.

I now want to restore it back to original (Even though I don't particularly like Red Pepper, looks like a dirty orange to me) so I have all the panels etc. but don't have the original engine & I feel that without I may as well not bother (With oringinality).

I have been to Vic roads & the engine is not in any registered vehicle in Australia but may be in a club registered one (They are not on computer)

I don't think it would have gone interstate but whoever has it may have shifted.

I know I could have simply stroked the 302 to a 351 but I didn't see the point when a straight swap took less than a day & both were drivers again.

SO here's my long shot, if you know of a Cleveland engine lying around that came out of a coupe (JG65) or indeed in your car I would love it if you could check if it is the one I seek. Of course in the highly unlikely event I find it I will certainly come to some arrangement with the owner, especially if it is in a car.

Even if the person who has it doesn't want to sell it back to me I just like to know if it is still around.

Thanks

PS to the administrators/moderators I intend to post this in several different groups as obviously this could be anywhere so please don't delete them. Thanks
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