Effects of Ce addition on as-cast microstructure of A356alloy with high Fe content were investigated by optical microscope（OM）,X-ray diffraction（XRD）,electron probe microanalyzer（EPMA）.The results indicate that coarse acicular Fe phase is converted into fine short-rod Fe phase in the alloy with Ce addition,however,length of acicular Fe is increased with excessive Ce addition.The minimum length of acicular Fe phase can be observed in the alloy with 0.4% Ce content.Ce can effectively refine the grain size of α-Al phase.Addition of Ce was deemed to take the desirable modification effects on eutectic Si phase with 0.4%～0.7% addition,however,the weakened modification effect was observed with Ce addition more than 0.7%.