[greazyball]

that horsepower was at the engine.Somebody posted here that an undepowered engine can be helped with an overdrive and 4.3 gearing.Thats true to a point.My falcon was quick,eventuallyi added 4.10 gears and more than one mustang/chevelle/nova that had more power and better motors got spanked by my 289. and 273 horsepower is nothing to sneeze at.I like the 289 its my favorite engine,But if you are looking to build up to or beyond 300hp I would take advantage of the later 5.0 roller cam motor.with fuel ijection.Those motors will spin well into 6,000rpm..whereas my little 289 was huffin n puffin at 4,500 too 5000 and thats always been a restriction on fords i think..they didnt wind up like a chevy 327/350 unless you did some work to the heads.if you want to stay 'old school' then yeah build a 289 still a good motor but i think it will be an uphill battle trying to get it to or above 300hp.it can be done without doubt but there are better motors to start with.I read an article a long time ago called '8 tenths of a second the hard way'..i think it fast fords and mustang mag..anyway the editor took his 1990 5.0 mustang and added early casting 289 heads to his 1990 motor he had done a backyard porting job on the heads and added the then new roller cam/rocker adapters to the heads..he chopped nearly a whole second from his 1/4 mile times.at the time aluminum heads were all the rage but very expensive...so he wanted to do an article for the low-buck guys

[Hookedup12]

Engine goes in Tomo so ill see what I think of it!!!!

[olerodder]

I'm new to this forum, but have been drag racing........and some street racing Fords for almost 25 years. My current car is 70 Maverick with 408ci.
To start off with, like some people have said is to drive it..............if it's too slow then a quick 30/40hp would be to deep six the Ford heads and go with aftermarket heads..................SBF's will make hp, but not with the factory heads. I had a 64 Comet with 289HiPro 4spd and 4:30 gears, had a Schneider.........this was over 30 years ago, but think is was .544 lift.....anyway I had the 69 DOOE 351w heads that had a ton of work done on the exhaust side and the motor was just under 300hp at 7200rpm..at the crank. Fast forward to this past May and my 408 made 650hp at 6800rpm.
Heads/cam/compression are the key to making hp in a carb'd SBF....IMHO

[greazyball]

my point about factory ford heads was that overall they dont flow as well as say a chevy head..as for HiPo heads Shelby himself said in order to get more power from the HiPo heads they still needed alot of work in the valve areas,especially the exhaust side.and and at the time i used the 351W D003 heads,they were the best option for increased hp..nobody was making aftermarket heads for the 289/302.HiPo 289 heads were then as now non existant and if you did find some they were $$expensive$$ and out of reach for the average guy looking to increase horsepower.i know i was tired of seeing the chevy guys at the strip able to twist a 327/350 up to 5,000-6,000rpm no problem and those engine were not anything exotic..my old 289 was done making power around 4,000-5,000 the biggest problem was lack of good flow from factory cylinder heads..later GT40 heads,aluminum heads etc solved some of those problems..but 300 or more horses from darn near stock heads is difficult. I had done pretty well to squeeze 273hp from my 289 with the pieces i used..to get more needed better designed heads ..like what came on later 87-93 302's

[greazyball]

i have another 289 that im thinking of building for my 65 falcon convertible..(had it since 1982)..im stuck on what i want to do with it...make a HiPo 289 clone,with solid lifters,correct intake and carb etc...or,Do i use an aftermarket aluminum head that has roller cam,roller rockers,fuel injection ets..i like seeing my cousins 90 mustang lx wind up way past any rpm range i ever got with my old school stuuf..but i also have a 428/C6 from a 69 or 70 thunderbird..it WILL fit as i installed mustang II IFS way back in 1988.. a big block Falcon..i will never have an SOCH 427 or anything like it..but i can get close

[olerodder]

I had a friend just sell a really nice little 65 Falcon Convertible. It was a factory 289/4spd car. He did the revamp on the 289 2 barrel motor to a 289HiPro with parts I sold him, C50E-A heads, C50E-9425 intake without the emissions hole in the back and the 3/8" bolt rods.
I used to have a ton of HiPro stuff...........but with the prices on it so high..............I sold most of it because I was't going to build a 289 again.
If it were me I'd update the motor, paint it Ford Blue and make it reliable with aftermarket heads and roller hydraulics with a cam similar to the original HiPro and maybe a Cobra alminum intake..........................IMHO

[Hookedup12]

Well this thing pulls pretty damn good. I swapped rear gears to 4.11 just to run it up the street for a little and wow this thing is mean for a little 289. Heads turned out to be gt40 from what my machinist said, so I lucked up on that end and I think with a little 75-100 shot I could get some decent times from this thing. Cam turns perfect for my kinda drivin

[greazyball]

Thats awesome! you know what i liked best about running a 289 that was pretty quick and nasty,And could beat a 350 camaro or 340 duster?..when the owners of the cars i beat asked 'Hey,what engine are you running,And what cam etc?..i would tell a lil white lie and say 'its a 221 from a fairlane'...they would get a bit ashamed they just got beat by an engine that has less cubes than a slant 6 chrysler hahaha!!..i even added the valve cover and air cleaner stickers that read '221'..the 221,260,289 and 302 all look exactly the same at a glance.Like you i had to use steeper gears,expieriment with different sized tires and rims,all to make maximum use of the rpms that i had available and to make up for the power i didnt have.Plus at the time,my falcon was not anywhere finished i ran it around with gray primer,plain steel wheels (all different colors) there was no upholstery to speak of..and what was there,Was ratty and ripped.All the holes in the convertible top were covered with bumper stickers from a radio station.But underneath,I had mustang II suspension,everything in the steering,brakes,rear axles had been rebuilt or new.I spent all my money on the running gear and stopping power.

[Hookedup12]

Bump bump bump

[Hookedup12]

Yeah I went one heat range colder on my plugs and had to use a bigger pump nozzle in my holley. I was totally surprised with the car I'm carrying it Tomo to get it tuned on a dyno and will post some numbers ill try to uploa a pic of it on the dyno

[vinniekq2]

dyno tuning,what kind of dyno?

[Hookedup12]

Rwhp dyno just for tuning I'm not worried about numbers I'm happy with what I have just want to make sure I'm not robbing it of power.

[vinniekq2]

sorry,I knew it was a chassis dyno. Magnetic or inertia? with a magnetic you can tune the car without running the engine to the redline

[greazyball]

the 'poor man's dyno tuner' is what i called my rattletrap set up.I took an exhaust smog tester,A small hand held thing with a probe you stuck into the exhaust pipe.It would read the exhaust and tell you if the car is running rich or lean..it wasnt designed for something like my falcon but it did come in handy.you can get a rich reading on the screen,or you can get a lean reading.I then used the process of elimination..if i was running rich,then i fiddled with the jets..then if that didnt lean it out..then i would adavance or retard the distributor,play with the points gap..i got a pertronix ignitor to solve that issue.Then i would play with the plug gap or even the type plugs i was using..i also took the thrmostat into consideration..maybe i was running a thermostat that was too hot or too cold..and i stayed consistent with gasoline..i always used 89 octane..little thngs like that can mess with setting too.lets say the day i began testing i had 87 in the tank..then the next day i ran 91 or 92..then the next day was 89 octane wiith a booster in it.All these things and the changes i was making affected the exhaust reading on the smog tester..while it wouldnt tell me what i needed to adjust it did help me go in the correct direction and could be used as away to gauge the changes after i tinkered with the carb,ignition.when the stinging eye watering and nostril burning rich condition wasnt so obvious,i knew there was still room to 'tighten' up the efficiency.I kept track of every change i made and the exhaust reading from the tester after i made each adjustment.And just to satisfy mu curiosity i actually had the falcon smog tested..not required where i live..it passed 1998 emission standards! not too bad for a 289 that had a home port job,a small aftermarket camshaft,An autolite 4100 4bbl carburetor,pertronix ignitor ignition module,glass pack mufflers and no catalytic convertors..a short while after that is when i took the car to a dyno tuner and had it fine tuned..the only thing the guy reccomended for changes was switch to 'Bosch' sparkplugs,a better quality plug wires,a better flowing intake manifold

[olerodder]

Originally Posted by vinniekq2

sorry,I knew it was a chassis dyno. Magnetic or inertia? with a magnetic you can tune the car without running the engine to the redline

I know that with a Magnetic you simulate the amount of HP it takes to push the car through air at 50mph by using an electric brake/load cell............but how can you get away from running the engine from idle to redline/WOT?