If you had $10,000 to spend on your 66 what would you do?

jbsteven

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Sep 4, 2004
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I have budgeted 10k for the engine and transmission for my 66 with the 289. I have decided to completely rebuild the motor from the groud up. I am looking for reliability and horsepower second. Our target is 300-350 HP when complete. We will also completely rebuild the transmission (3 spd. auto).

If this was your motor and transmission what exactly would you do? I am new to older cars so specific names/brands/model numbers will help me out.

here is the car
newcar003.webp


and here is my daily driver
600sl.webp
 

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speed

thanks for the input but the rest of the car will have another budget. What would you spend 10k on if it were for engine and transmission only? BTW I will be doing no work myself so there will be some labor costs.

thanks
 
350 horsepower:
1.Set of AFR 165 Aluminum heads. http://www.airflowresearch.com/

2. Hydraulic roller cam in the nieghborhood of 225 degrees duration at .050, and around .500 lift.

3. Performer RPM air gap intake
4. Demon 650 carb. You can either go vacuum secondaries which perform well on the street, or mechanical secondaries which require more tuning.
5.Hooker super comp headers

6. Have the engine machined, and the rotating assembly balanced. Run right around 10:1 compression, with your stock rods and crank. I would add ARP rod bolts, and as a rule I use ARP bolts and fasteners for all my engines.

Use http://www.summitracing.com for the parts listed above, except for the pistons, which I would go with Probe.

http://www.probeindustries.com/

As for your transmission, have a local shop rebuild it using a high quality rebuild kit. Have them add a shift kit to the valve body, and then get a hold of TCS for you torque converter. You will be wanting around 2200-2500 stall.

http://www.theconvertershop.com

Hope that helps.

87
 
I would build a mild 5.0 HO and convert it to EFI, AOD tranny, new pumpkin with a Detriot Locker and 3.55 gears, air conditioning and a power booster for my brakes. The left over cash I would use to do work on my '57 Tbird! :D
 
Is that 300-350hp at the wheels or flywheel?
Myself, I'd go with efi, a low compression 347 with a kenne belle flowzilla at a measly 8-10lbs of boost, if you're looking for reliablity (as reliable as blown strokers can be, but that really depends on how YOU drive)

If you don't care much for stock stuff, go fuel injected and a 5 or 6 speed is a must. Nothing wrong with a 4spd toploader either. For engine options, easiest 350 hp is with a 351w or 351c, and they will be reliable because those blocks can take a lot more power than that.

Here are some links for you to get started on prices and such, to get a feel for what you're getting into.

http://www.streetortrack.com/products.asp

http://www.moderndriveline.com/Technical_Bits/automatics.htm

http://www.coasthigh.com/Assemblies/Ford/ford_331.htm

http://www.mustangsplus.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=MPFMP&Category_Code=susp

Any questions you have, just ask. Most guys here know their stuff, a lot more than I do at least.
 
If reliability is first, then I wouldn't jump right on the 347 wagon...
I will take heat for saying that, but the rod ratio and squeeze put on that block, I don't see this as the most reliable and long lived combo you can get.
I would shoot for 331 cid max, then beef the tranny and replace the rear with a Currie or Moser 9".
A good 306-331 would put 350 to the flywheel EASY, and 350 to the wheels with a little thought.
Dave
 
I would buy the Ford Racing GT-40 crate motor, makes about 345 HP for like $4000. If you want to keep it auto, get a race prepped C4. Then get nice rearend, with posi and say 3.55 or 3.75 gears. Oh and an aluminum driveshaft if you can.
 
I'd get a YS trim Vortech pullied 8" renegade crank pulley, 3" blower pulley, a Zero balanced 347 DART shortblock, custome built headers to pipes all mandrel bent 3", 8.5 compression, custom ground cam,TEA ported TFS highports, mighty max c4, dana 60 rear.

Yup quadruple digit hp here I come.

But wait only 10k dang Just the balancing to zero is 2,500, 2K for a dart block,3K for the YS, billet rotating assembly $$$$$

Yup too much money but how would you guys like to see your boost gauge hit 24 psi.


One day yes oh yes one day. :flag:
 
Stang_1973 said:
I would buy the Ford Racing GT-40 crate motor, makes about 345 HP for like $4000. If you want to keep it auto, get a race prepped C4. Then get nice rearend, with posi and say 3.55 or 3.75 gears. Oh and an aluminum driveshaft if you can.

I second this motion. It will get you were. Dolfan87 has a good one. But the crate motor is much less headache. All I would change is the gears. I would go more like 3.73-4.10 and throw in a gearvendor behind that c-4. Although that may make the mercedes jealous. :D
 
I think Dolfan's advice was very good.

One additional thing to consider is whether you are mechanically inclined and want to learn to tinker with the car or not. If you want to learn to tinker, get a carburetted motor.

You will want to upgrade the ignition - I see a lot of people here use MSD distributors and boxes. I have a pertronix in my car and it works great with the stock coil, but my car isn't high performance. You'll need to upgrade the cooling system as well - I'd recommend a generic aluminum radiator, whatever fits.

I won't try to top the above recommendations - except to say that if you're putting a lot of miles on the stroker will wear out sooner. If it's a 1,000 mile a year car - stroking a 302 to 347 shouldn't be a problem for reliability. Also, a stroker has more torque but won't want to rev as high - consider what you prefer. If you are putting very little mileage on it, you could probably just have a shop tune it up every spring and you would have very few problems with a carbureted motor.

If you want the thing to start easily the first time every time, no problems re-starting it on a hot day, hands-off mechanically.. I recommend you go with a 5 liter EFI motor. It will be more expensive, but you won't have to mess with it. Some of Dolfan's suggestions still apply (heads, headers, ARP bolts). However, I think you should set the car up for a supercharger (lower compression pistons, blower cam). A blown EFI motor should be very reliable, and make your power goals easily without revving sky-high. It will have a lot of torque as well.

For the transmission, if you prefer an auto - go with what Dolfan said. If you want a manual, go with a Tremec 5 or 6 speed and have a hydraulic clutch installed. It may be difficult to make budget while converting to a manual trans, so if you can live with an auto you may have to. I personally would settle for less horsepower and get the manual trans, but I don't know what your preferences are.

You said that the $10k was for engine/trans. Keep in mind that the driveshaft, rear end and rear suspension will have to be upgraded as well when you put this motor in. :)

My last suggestion you've probably already started. You'll want to contact a few local custom shops / engine builders with your ideas and get their recommendations and estimates. Hopefully you'll find a place that's done similar work in the past and will let you talk to past customers.

Sorry no links, just general advice. If you're having someone else do the work, they can take care of the details. That's where the budget can easily get blown, or not.

Good luck, it should be fun!