Hey guys, I need some help. My 16 year old son has a 65 coupe with a stock 289, Automatic trans C4, factory air and power steering. This thing is pretty much stock except we recently added later model distributor with the GM HEI ignition module. The problem is that this thing just wont idle down with out dieing. We have really had this problem since before the new distributor. I have cleaned the carb (it has a remanufactured OE carb 2V) tried adjusting it and I just can not get it right. So I think I need to replace the carb. So should I go back with another remanufactured carb that I don't have a lot of confidence is as good as a new carb or should we go to a 4V intake and carb. This is what my son wants to do and I don't really care outside of he has limited funds and I will have to help him pay for it. Now this car still has stock 2 into 1 exhaust and we want to put dual exhaust on it in the future. So should I go to the 4V? and if yes what should I get? or any ideas of how to make what we have work?
Help carb suggestions 65 289
- Thread starter mainlandstang
- Start date
you just need a 4 barrel manifold and a 4 barrel carb. If its all stock probably nothing bigger than a 600 cfm. a lot of people prefer to buy carbs new. The manifold should probably be a stock one also. Thats if your planing to keep everything stock. Id say before putting anything hi performance on there you probably want to rebuild the motor.
Keep in mind that even with the addition of a 4V carb/intake, most likely the 289 you have willl still breath much like a 2V as it most likely still has the 2V variety cylinder heads. I dealt with this on my '66 Coupe years ago.
With limited funds, cleaning/rebuilding the OEM 2 bbl or going with a reman 2 bbl is a good start as you will have good vacuum readings, mileage & throttle response. You'll probably get more bang-for-the-buck getting rid of the restrictive exhaust and going to a good duel set up for now.
If you go to the 4 bbl's, be weary of the aftermarket alum intakes as they are known to leak coolant into the oil if they don't seal up well. The 289 doesn't really need a 600 cfm carb even with 4V heads, intake & headers. 500 or 550 cfm or so is more like it. Even with a 268H Comp cam/springs, the 600 Holley was a little too big on mine.
I would recommend steering towards the Carter carbs as you will find yourself tinkering with the Holley too much. They are good for WOT runs but for a DD, eeh.....
GT
Thanks guys for all your suggestions. I am not really looking for go fast right now as he is a new driver and this car has plenty of go now. But if we can do things that improve the car I do not mind spending a few extra bucks. We are not really concerned with keeping it stock and my son of course wants to get to the 4V carb and intake if we do this I was thinking about the Edelbrock performer intake and the Edelbrock 500cfm 1403 carb, that or I think we will go for the Holley 7448 new 2V carb. Is the Edelbrock carb any good? and whatever carb I put on here that is not a stock carb am I going to have a problem with the throttle linkage or will everyting hook up easily?
All well and good, but there's no difference between the 289 2 bbl vs 4 bbl heads. So there's absolutely no gain there. Even the 289 Hi-po heads had the same porting, valves and chambers as the 2 bbl heads. As for your advice about Holley's vs Carter's, that's BS. Holleys require no more tinkering than any other carb. If you were tinkering with a Holley in search of somethign more, then you had some other problem causing your displeasure. Like the ignition system.
Everything on the Holley 7448 will bolt right up. You will need to modify the fuel line though to fit. But that's true for any other carb too.
69Rcode_Mach1
Active Member
I am still trying to figure out where this reputation that holley's are finicky comes from, and as D. Hearne pointed out the heads are the same on 2V or 4V 289's you must be mixing it up with the 351 Cleveland. You know best how responsible your son is going to be, if you feel the car is adequate for now then I would work with what you got or go with the carb D. Hearne suggested. A decent sized 2bbl can still perform. If you plan on pepping up the motor at some point I say go with the a 4bbl. I personally am a fan of single plane manifolds so I am going to suggest the Weiand Xcelerator or you can go with the stealth for something a little more tame (from my experience there is not much trade off and the single plane nets more hp). I say this because you say you want to do exhaust down the road, you can use the manifold in combination to add some pep but not make the car unstreetable or unsafe for a younger driver.
The bad rep comes from poor ignition systems and those who insist on "fiddling" with something in search of something they never really ever find. I've found that 90% of so called carb problems are really caused by an ignition problem.(part of the other 10% is due to dirty fuel)This is also where the bad rep of multiple carb setups stems from, back in the 60's when the factory was bolting these setups on, nearly all had points ignitions, and even worse, dual points ignitions. I've run a 2x4 set on a 427 in the 80's and never had problems, even from using two "off the shelf" 1850 600's (both used at that) ALl the problems I had in tuning was from the points setup wearing. Weak spring points last nearly a year in daily operation, but limit the rev potential, so I switched to Accell sets with heavier springs. Only drawback was they didn't last as long, 6 months was about the limit. Tried a dual point once. That lasted in the 427 all of 3 months before I went back to the single point. Today in running my 331 with the 3x2 setup, I've yet to have to touch the carbs, and they've been doing the job for about 4 years now. No points here, it's been run for a year in the 89 Ranger with a Pertronix unit, & now for the past 3 years in the Comet with stock Duraspark. I can jump in it anytime and give it one pump shot to prime the carbs (it sits for a week at a time) and it'll fire right up. Runs as good now as it did 4 years ago. With only one spark plug change since.
I have a bone stock D-code 289 in my 64.5 and found the Cobra intake and the 4100 Autolite carburetor work really well with the automatic and OEM gearing. The Cobra intake is a timeless dual-plane design and the 4100, although not very tuneable (compared to a Holley or Edelbrock), is dead reliable and rarely will have an in-service leak or failure.
If you can't find any old OEM-style parts, the Edelbrock Performer and a small Holley or Edelbrock carb will work fine. Remember, keep things geared toward low rpm torque. If you must retain the 2V carb, there's nothing wrong with the 2100. They work fine and can provide adequate performance. I personally wouldn't spend money on an aftermarket 2V carb, rather wait to buy a 4V intake and carb, perhaps used.
My background is about 30 years of racing SBF's and I know all those parameters, but I like to keep things mild on the street. Start mild and grow it slow. Good luck
If you can't find any old OEM-style parts, the Edelbrock Performer and a small Holley or Edelbrock carb will work fine. Remember, keep things geared toward low rpm torque. If you must retain the 2V carb, there's nothing wrong with the 2100. They work fine and can provide adequate performance. I personally wouldn't spend money on an aftermarket 2V carb, rather wait to buy a 4V intake and carb, perhaps used.
My background is about 30 years of racing SBF's and I know all those parameters, but I like to keep things mild on the street. Start mild and grow it slow. Good luck
I'm running the current incarnation of the Cobra high rise(the Ford Racing A321) on a mild roller 5.0 in my 89 ranger now topped with a 570 Street Avenger. Great setup from idle to 6000 rpms. I was going to suggest sourcing a used Holley 350 off ebay, but to a "new to mechanics" guy, it's easy to end up with the wrong carb (as in one that's worn out or been fiddled with to the point where it'll take a pro to straighten it out) The Holley 500 2 bbl is also a great performance carb, 4 bbl preformance in a 2 bbl package. I've used 2 of these carbs on 4 different Fords.
Holley 500cfm 2V's can be had pretty cheap on eBay so that might be a worthwhile experiment. That's about the same total airflow as my 4100 but the larger venturis and throttle blades on the Holley will cause some suffering of low rpm torque response, especially if the car has an automatic and OEM gear, like 3.0's. Nevertheless, worth a try. I would only caution the OP that a lot of used carbs have been 'fiddled' with and can be worn out in places not easily repaired, like the throttle shafts. So, you might have to learn a bit about carbs to make that a viable option.
69Rcode_Mach1
Active Member
If you are still new to this, do not get a used carb. It takes some know how and understanding on how carbs work to be able to diagnose and repair a carb.
Another 2 cents worth on buying used carbs. When I buy em, I only pick those that are obviously fairly new. Just buy shopping on ebay and looking what a new carb looks like (the finish) will tell you which carbs are the ones to choose from. I bought my 570 off ebay this way. The only thing I changed when I got it here was the powervalve. Been two years ago and it's done fine. Paid $150 for it. I've bought many Holleys this way. For me it's the only way to buy one as most times I'm operating on a limited budget.
Oh! You could be right there about the 2 bbl/4 bbl heads. Later on I bought a 302 short block and used the original 289 cyl heads as they had the "closed" chamber design. I had the engine builder run the cyl head casting #'s and I took him on his word that they were of the 2 bbl design.
As for the Holley's, most guy's I knew that had them had some kind of DD drivability issue. Many went elsewhere.
Ignition on mine was Accel from the dizzy to the coil, to the plugs with an Anderson electronic ignition module. Fantastic operation.
GT
No doubt about the 289 heads, 2 bbl, 4 bbl and Hipo's all had the same ports, valves and chambers from 64 to 67. Those that "go elsewhere" when they give up on Holleys ? I buy those carbs cheap and run em for years.
Almost new carbs for less than half price. Similar threads
