289 hop up help

Well, in point of fact I did mine with an electric die grinder, before I got the air tool kit.

Anyway, the port right at the surface is pretty restrictive, like a sphincter, smaller than the preceeding portion of the port. Especially 67 and later 289/302 heads. The 351W and 5.0 heads start out better that these.

The gray shaded area in this photo is iron that should be removed- imagine the restriction. The nose-shaped bump down in the port is for the internal type Thermactor, and should be removed back to the original concave floor at either side of the bump. Imagine buying a nice new cam and have your exhaust trying to squeeze past that. The alternate type, with the external air injectors, puts the lump in the upper left corner of the port, which may actually be worse.

The 351W and E7's are better to start with ? Not so sure about that. I think all were pretty much equally crappy in regards to the constriction except for the GT40 heads. Imagine what we'd have had, had Ford used the same port design they gave the 3.8 V6 heads. :Teh-Win:

For a 16 yr looking for a little more zip, I'd install new gears, hedders, good intake and carb.

Yes, he can pick up more with heads and cam (even porting), but any 16 yr old I know wants to drive his car now. These things can happen in a weekend and he WILL feel the difference. More than likely, he just wants it to sound mean and do some burn outs in front of his friends. Save the cam and heads for when it's time to do the bottom end or at least save it for another project. I'd hate to see a kid take it apart and loose interest. He should also think about stopping and handling. Vintage mustangs don't drive like hondas..

S-Car-Go said:

He should also think about stopping and handling. Vintage mustangs don't drive like hondas..

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Jeeze, could you at least pick a small Ford?

D.Hearne said:

The 351W and E7's are better to start with ? Not so sure about that. I think all were pretty much equally crappy in regards to the constriction except for the GT40 heads. Imagine what we'd have had, had Ford used the same port design they gave the 3.8 V6 heads.

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My experience with the E7 head is limited, but not so the 351W, which was the GT40 head of it's day. Come to think of it, it's the direct ancestor of the GT40 head of our day. Cleaner and larger ports than the 289/302.

Imagine what we'd have had if they had put just a little effort into the port sand core design. Even if the 2V passenger car heads were left lame, they could have at least used better cores for the 289HP, which had it's own specially designed heads. The inlet ports of the 289HP exhaust manifolds are quite generous, makes the holes in the heads look tiny. If only the exhaust ports had been matched to them at the factory, imagine…

the stock 60's 289's were slow pigs. My bro and I used to waste our friends bone stock 66 with a 91 escort NON gt on a regular basis..Lol.

My other friend had a 67 with a weiand stealth, holley carb, and dual exhaust. It def put some life into that little engine, but was still a low 16 second car on a good day.

For a young teen, I'd suggest nothing other than a carb/intake/dual exhaust. It'll make it peppy enough to drive around, but not so fast as to put him in danger.

Don't waste your time bolting on heads and intake onto a stock 289...just pull the entire engine and trash it, and start off with a late model mustang 5.0, or better yet an explorer 5.0 engine. An explorer 5.0 engine will put down 300+ flywheel HP all day long, as compared to the stock 289 in a 66 mustang, at around 150 hp.

289's can kick ass, but you've got to take them all apart, and spend good coin on the buildup, including lots of compression, lots of cam, and lots of head. $$

to be honest for a small ford i think the edelbrock performer or performer RPM heads are the best bang for the buck at about $1000 in a side by side comparison between what like.. over 40 cylinder heads in Muscle Mustangs and Fast Fords, the performer was a contender in the Peak HP, AVG HP, and same with TQ. it was like 10 less than the AFR 165's which are 1200~. but i remeber when i was 17 my first upgrades where intake carb and headers with dual exhaust *shrug* always wanted those heads tho..

although saving up for an explorer block project would be a good.. Learning oportunity.. yea.

v8only said:

My other friend had a 67 with a weiand stealth, holley carb, and dual exhaust. It def put some life into that little engine, but was still a low 16 second car on a good day.

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Strange, my 289HP would make it into the 14's, stone-stock with an open rear and street tires.

I was guessing by sotp, but it wasn't quick