68 Ford 289 Died...

Thanks for posting the fix! Often the group nevers sees what the real problem was. Just curious, how did you determine the coil was weak?

thanks, Bobby

It got very warm.

wrote in rec.autos.tech

Glad to hear you got it running. Also glad to hear that you were able to find out what was wrong inspite of the help from all of us.:-). One thing, it has been years since most of us have worked on anything like your engine, mainly because it has been years since they made them.

The cracked gasket would be letting air into the intake after the choke plate, thus making for way to lean of a mixture, especially when cold.

A you going to do most of the work yourself? Be a fun learning experience for both of you. You can rent the tools you don't own, and have an automotive machine shop quite a bit of work on the motor. And it would be a lot cheaper than having some one else do it.

Of course. But, how good of a driver is the 17 year old? Any way, what model is it? All I have seen is that it is a 68 ford.

I have a 1968 302 in a Torino myself. Couple things I've learned from experience:

1) Timing chain is almost certainly ready to go or probably has slipped already. Ford used a NYLON not a metal, set of timing gears and they wear out fast. 2) The factory exhaust is crap. Get a set of custom-bent headers and free flowing exhaust. 3) A lot of people like to replace the intake manifold with a 4-barrel set and carb. If you do this, (an Edelbrock carb and manifold look nice on this and work fine) be aware it isn't going to do diddly squat for increasing power if you don't replace the exhaust. And even then, it's really a waste of money anyhow, and will just kill your gas mileage. 4) If your going to get the engine rebuilt don't just swap with any old 289 the rebuilder has on the shelf. Your 289 has small-chamber heads that are worth a lot to people trying to build high compression small block fords. The later model 289's and 302's used larger chamber heads which have much lower compression ratios.

This is not to say, however, that a high compression engine is a good way to go. It's not. This is fine for circle track racers who are willing to feed Av gas into their engines but it's dumb for a daily driver burning garbage grade low octane gas.

Instead, what you want to do is call Paxton and talk with a tech there and get a recommend on an optimal engine setup for one of their superchargers. This probably will mean dropping the compression ratios using different pistons (which you might end up doing anyhow) or different heads, or whatever. All a Ford 302 is, is a overbored 289 block, which makes 289 blocks very rebuildable.

Other changes that will help greatly is junking the stock point/condensor distributor and replacing it with an electronic ignition, and re-camming. These engines take mild cams very well. Once more, selection of the cam and such should be done in consultation with the rebuilder and Paxton.

5) Lastly, hopefully your 289 is hitched to a factory 4 speed. If it's attached to a C-4 automatic transmission, then run, not walk, as fast as you can away from any engine mods. A stock 289 freshly rebuilt and tuned has more than enough power to strip out torque converter splines and such on these transmissions. Some people claim that these so-called "hardened" C-4's work well, all I know myself after racing my 302 is that it eats transmissions. In my opinion, the C-4 is only a grocery-getter transmission.

There is, or was, such as thing as a bellhousing that allows you to attach a small block Ford to a C-6 big block auto tranny. I've never seen one myself but if you must soup up a 289/302 with an auto tranny on it, then you want to setup a C-6 on it. This will probably require driveline mods and God knows what else.

6) Lastly, if you do hop up the engine, make sure your running a 9 inch rear end. A lot of these cars came setup with 8 inch rears. If you find the right 3rd member and axle you can get one that will be a drop in replace for the 8 inch and you only need to replace the u-joint.

Ted

It is all ways nice to find out what the real problem was.

If you want to someone who knows Fords and can do a great job, I recommend ESI on Mission Gorge Rd in SD. These guys are great if you want to ring some extra power out of the engine and NOT have reliability problems. If you are looking for a stock rebuild, these guys are not the way to go, they are the high priced spread.

They built the 428 in my Mach1 and they built a 450 hp 289 for a friends vintage race Shelby Mustang.

Erich

Try searching on smartpages.com for a machine shop near your zip code. Pretty handy resource for finding business types nearby.

I bet! When I was 17, I'd have tried to talk my Dad into helping me find a 460 for that thing. ;)

Cheers, - Jeff G