1966 289 help please

[ECU5.0]

alright, im from the 5.0 forums but im rebuilding a 66 mustang for my dads friend. we pulled the heads off and got everything out of the engine bay except for the block to clean it and paint it. stock motor and stock heads i believe. the car has never been run on unleaded gas. its been sitting in his garage for the past 15 yrs and sat in his garage at his last house for about 8. the last time this motor ran was sometime in the 70's. its only got about 7k miles on it because he rebuilt it in high school. the motor turns over easily by hand and everything looks good. im taking the heads to the machine shop in a week or so when i get a chance and im just wondering, what needs to be done so that he can run unleaded gas. also, the heads have adjustable rocker arms on them and he doesnt want to deal with those anymore and wants to know if he can switch to a pedestal mount. money is no object to this guy so let me know what has to be done. thanks for any help and sorry for the long post

 

[65ShelbyClone]

The heads need hardened seats to use unleaded, thats all. Leave the adjustable rockers; hydraulic lifter cams only need to be set once anyway. As far as I know, there is no way to convert from stud rockers to pedestal. If its easier, just get some E7TE heads since thay have both hard seats and pedestals already.

Until a few months ago, I spent all my time in 5.0 tech also.

 

[Ronstang]

The heads need hardened seats to use unleaded, thats all. Leave the adjustable rockers; hydraulic lifter cams only need to be set once anyway. As far as I know, there is no way to convert from stud rockers to pedestal. If its easier, just get some E7TE heads since thay have both hard seats and pedestals already.

Until a few months ago, I spent all my time in 5.0 tech also.

I agree on the hardened (stellite) seats and keeping the adjustable rocker arms as once the engine is built the guy won't know the difference but switching to E7TE heads on a 289 is not necessarily good since the combustion chambers are considerable bigger than a lot of the heads found on 289s so you would loose compression, efficiency, and power.

 

[danny clemens]

It is my understanding that just the exhaust seats need to be hardened. There is no reason to do the intake if it is not needed. I'm not 100% sure about this but I have read it before. I'm sure someone else will let me know if I am wrong.

 

[ECU5.0]

awesome thanks guys....i was pretty sure thats what was gonna need to happen. just wanted to get another opinion.

 

[iskwezm]

alright, im from the 5.0 forums but im rebuilding a 66 mustang for my dads friend. we pulled the heads off and got everything out of the engine bay except for the block to clean it and paint it. stock motor and stock heads i believe. the car has never been run on unleaded gas. its been sitting in his garage for the past 15 yrs and sat in his garage at his last house for about 8. the last time this motor ran was sometime in the 70's. its only got about 7k miles on it because he rebuilt it in high school. the motor turns over easily by hand and everything looks good. im taking the heads to the machine shop in a week or so when i get a chance and im just wondering, what needs to be done so that he can run unleaded gas. also, the heads have adjustable rocker arms on them and he doesnt want to deal with those anymore and wants to know if he can switch to a pedestal mount. money is no object to this guy so let me know what has to be done. thanks for any help and sorry for the long post

yeah,just leave the valvetrain adjustable

 

[SoCalCruising]

Gee, if money isn't a big deal ... Have them put in larger valves (Windsors, maybe) and do a 3-angle valve job. Switch to screw in studs, too. Some stage 1 type light porting, mainly bowl work, would wake it up. Also, hog out the bumps in the exhaust runner.