Anyone ever built a bad little 289?

Gary Cole raced an altered wheelbase 57 ford powered by a 289 a fourspeed and i cant imagine how deep rear gears. It got me thinking anyone ever built a rippen 289 for racing?

 

about 25 years ago I raced (oval track) against a guy named Billy Joe Crosier... That was the fastest , highest winding engine I ever heard. It had to be near 10 grand all the time. It never came apart. It was nuthin but AMAZING. I've had nothing but respect for that little engine ever since...

 

Back in the early 80's, I had a chance to buy a '66 Falcon Sport Coupe, triple black, vert gat shifter, 4.56 gears with the hottest 289 I'd ever seen. Guy had ported the livin' ****e outta a set of cobra heads - took 'em out to the water jackets and welded 'em back up - and then stuffed inna set of 2.02/1.60 valves. Shifted the little snot somewhere north of nine grand. The car had been a dragster since day one - only had a few thou' on the clock. The owner produced timeslips...

Best was an 11.99.

He was in dire financial straits; needed jing bad. Car and trailer could be had for $1800.

FYI - lotsa 302 pieces fit the 289. 302's have been HIGHLY developed; the 289 can wind just a tad higher; with good volumetric efficiency, it's possible to crack the 400 HP N/A mark with one of Henry's SBF's.

 

I have an Edelbrock 289 Perfomer intake someone gave me. Will it also fit a 302?

 

I had a 66 mustang back in 66 with a 289, headers,4 bbl,4 spd, 4:56 gears, HP cam & lifters( solids), dual point dist.& Cheater slics & i ran 14.2's with it all day long!!
I had the car weighed & it was 2400 lbs!
I bought the car new with a AM radio, WW's, 225 HP, 4 speed & i paid $2367 for it!!lolIt was in july & it was a left over!!They were coming out with the 390's in them & everyone was waiting for them.
They are a great motor, worth investing in.
jimV

 

There used to be a SoCal JR. fuel rail with an injected 289,that turned 9's in the 1/4 mile. I forgot the name , sorry. Sparky

 

My Mustang Fastback has a HiPo 289 out of a Cobra. Aside from the factory performance parts, its bored .30 over, racing cam, '65 GT350 headers, Buddy Bar intake with three deuces and louvered air cleaners, Cobra roadster aluminum oil pan and early (pre-65) Shelby American valve covers. Neat looking little mill and it pulls like hell! Some people dont care much for SBF's but they were everywhere by the mid-60's. I have an old pair of finned Cal-Custom valve covers just waiting for the next one to come along
-Dean

 

Had a '66 Coupe. Looked bone stock, except for over the little "289" sticker on the front fenders, in tiny letters it said "High Performance"....and it was... 271 horsepower, solid lifter cam, Autolite 4-barrel on factory aluminum manifold, dual point distributor, 10-1/2 to 1 compression, and factory cast iron headers. If you didn't listen for the tell-tale valve clatter
(the valves were set at .020" hot) you were in for a big surprise. It had a Ford Top Loader 4-speed, and I found out later that you could always tell one of these cars because the 5th digit of the serial number was a "K" and mine was... that car won me more than a few dollars, back in the early 1970s, in "unsanctioned acceleration contests, held illegally on public thoroughfares"... ;-)

 

Great motors, my brother has one in a full fendered '34 p.u. with a four speed. That little truck will spank my '46 Chevy coupe with a built SBC..He used to smoke me from a stop so i figgered i could get him top end. We were driving to a cruise one evening and he was way behind the group of cars that i was travelling with. i was the lead car and i saw him coming up behind us and p***ing the other car behind me. i thought there's no way he can get by me if i punch it before he gets too close to me, so i floor it. He was a hundred yards behind when i punched it and within a few second he smoked by me like i had lost four cylinders... later i asked him how fast he was going when he blew by me and he said his speedo only goes to 120 so he wasn't sure!!!!

 

Use a set of 289 hi po rods, and arp rod bolts and it will live very well. In 65 crane ported some heads ,out to the water jackets, 2,02 intake valves and labeled them fireball and made a ton of hp in the upper ranges. i made 496 hp ,on a 302 .shifted at 8k. eng is still running

 

yes

 

Had one in a 65 Ranchero, 69 Windsor heads, domed pistons, edelbrock perf pkg, that ****er RAN! The car was very squirelly when you tramped it. Very underestimated engines.

 

You guys kick so much ***! Thanks for the replies. I think it would be fun to build a 289, use a set of aftermarket heads like a set of Windsor Sr. with a modern profile camshaft and put it in a g***er.

 

I believe this guy built some bad 289's
they were probably his most successful engine

 

My Fairlane "g***er" has a 289 in it.

Its not as fast as it could be though.

I've just got a edelbrock 4v intake with an edelbrock carb...and ****** supercomp headers.

Its fun, but I need to get more serious.

 

I DARE you!

My 65 Wa-Gone© has a 2bbl 289 and a 4 spd top loader...it would probably be pretty quick if it wasn't draggin around over 3000 pounds!

 

Yes it will

289, 302, and 351W will interchange

 

351W intakes will not fit 289/302.
Heads & cams will interchange - not much else of significance will (timing cover, accessories w/bracket changes, etc), but they are the same "family" of engine w/same basic design - 351W is taller & wider

 

My race partner and I bought a POS 289 HP-powered '60 Starliner street stock in '70 to run on the dirt. My buddy Louie drove...I wrenched.

During one of our "mechanical mis-cues' we installed the first/second gear shift arm upside down...Louie didn't catch it...

We NEVER before had made the feature based on our qualifying lap..we DID that night....since the car was in FIRST instead of SECOND GEAR it sounded like a NOVI Indy car down the straightaway.

We timed in about 10th fastest that nite (out of 70 or so cars)....finished about fourth in the main...the 289 must of been zipping over 9g's...never broke..ran it two more seasons after that nite with no problems.

That motor then went into a '65 Mustang that Louie's son ran for several more years on the street.

Tuff motor.

 

first i want to say i love that car...my first 289 was i a 69 torino convt. (junker) i put 351 heads and a big cam. the cam was so big that it slow as hell on the bottom end and i found out later that you need to drill a steam vent hole in the head so she dont over heat. sold that car!

 

I'm a Chevy guy NOW and don't see that changing...but DAMN I love the sound of a reved out 289! Had 3 Mustangs with 289/302's...all basic bolt-on engines but man did they have a great sound to them.
I can have more fun personally with the Chevy at the moment...but I do miss the special sound those SBF's can make...

 

In the meet certain cl*** reqirements (weight/cid) in the early 70's a racer here built a very nasty 260 and put in '70 Falcon. It screamed and ran hard.

 

doug nash had one on fuel ......was in his bronco ...and i think ended up in a fed......a buddy of mine, his boss had the dragster a couple years ago with the motor still in it.....brandon

 

I remember the Doug Nash Bronco. was the rail owned by the Hurrera Brothers?? Sparkx

 

not sure ....i will ask my buddy about it.....it was a 289 lemans motor...about all i remember about it.....brandon

 

A guy here had a built 289 in a 66 Mustang. Ran, I think he said, C or D modified production. He would side step the clutch at 8800 and regularly reved it over 9500 RPM, never broke a thing. It ran two full seasons amd he finally tore it down just for inspection. Everything was fine and he just put it back together. Tough little mill.

 

Yes, Mine is built to Shelby spec. Should be making 300 horse. In my 66 Mustang it went 13.70's with an automatic. Now I have it in the '39 witha 5 speed and 3.89 gears. May need to go a bit steeper....we'll see. It's sorta g***er style but lower in front. I want to change to heads to something aftermarket to let it breath better. I thing its running out of air at 7,000!!!!

 

Ive got a pretty hot 306 in my 66 stang coupe. Its .30 over, forged trw's 8.5-1 c/r. ported polished 68 heads, crane alum. roller rockers, crane powermax cam .498 .527 lift, NOS super powershot with 50 75 100 and 150 shot jets. Lookin to run low 13's high 12's with this thing with a C4 and 4.11 gears.