Thread: Wanting to upgrade a 289 in a 65 Galaxie

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Hello guys. I just repurchased my 1965 Galaxie 500. When I sold it 5 yrs ago it had the original 352 bb in it. I invested over $3000 in that engine to get her humming. Well the guy I sold her to blew the engine with in the first month of owning her and took it upon himself to stick a 289 back in. So my question is what can I do to this 289 to give her some power? It seems a little weak to drag this tank of a car around. I considered stroking it to a 331 but at the current time that is a lil out of my price range. So I also considered rebuilding it and get the heads reworked and adding a thumper cam and a good holley/edelbrock 4 barrel instead of the 2 barrel thats on it. I'm kinda stumped so I figured I would reach out to you all for suggestions. Thanks

Oh not looking for a street machine just a nice cruising engine to take the family to cruise ins

Find a used 460

Since the 289 is already in it the weakest link is the heads by the time you mess with the stockers you should consider the Flo-Teks mentioned here:Six Budget Ford Heads That Work - Car Craft Magazine The "thumper" cams won't be big on low end torque which you need to move a heavy car so to get you into those heads lets find some budget "bang for the buck" parts like this cam and lifters: http://www.summitracing.com/parts/lu...00lk/overview/ The new heads will have the correct springs for the cam,the Flo-Teks also have a 1.94 intake valve so no modification to the piston valve reliefs will be needed,grab this for an intake:http://www.summitracing.com/parts/su...view/make/ford and http://www.summitracing.com/parts/su...00vs/overview/ Headers would be a plus HEDMAN 88400's will fit your Ford.

Originally Posted by JeffB2

Since the 289 is already in it the weakest link is the heads by the time you mess with the stockers you should consider the Flo-Teks mentioned here:Six Budget Ford Heads That Work - Car Craft Magazine The "thumper" cams won't be big on low end torque which you need to move a heavy car so to get you into those heads lets find some budget "bang for the buck" parts like this cam and lifters: http://www.summitracing.com/parts/lu...00lk/overview/ The new heads will have the correct springs for the cam,the Flo-Teks also have a 1.94 intake valve so no modification to the piston valve reliefs will be needed,grab this for an intake:http://www.summitracing.com/parts/su...view/make/ford and http://www.summitracing.com/parts/su...00vs/overview/ Headers would be a plus HEDMAN 88400's will fit your Ford.

I like your ideas. Before I got kids I wanted power out of it. But now I rather take it slower and use her for a cruiser and someday if one of my boys wants to make it back into a beast then that can be their project. :P

Originally Posted by JeffB2

Since the 289 is already in it the weakest link is the heads by the time you mess with the stockers you should consider the Flo-Teks mentioned here:Six Budget Ford Heads That Work - Car Craft Magazine The "thumper" cams won't be big on low end torque which you need to move a heavy car so to get you into those heads lets find some budget "bang for the buck" parts like this cam and lifters: http://www.summitracing.com/parts/lu...00lk/overview/ The new heads will have the correct springs for the cam,the Flo-Teks also have a 1.94 intake valve so no modification to the piston valve reliefs will be needed,grab this for an intake:http://www.summitracing.com/parts/su...view/make/ford and http://www.summitracing.com/parts/su...00vs/overview/ Headers would be a plus HEDMAN 88400's will fit your Ford.

I like your ideas. I used to want a power house, then I got kids. So I figure a nice running cruiser would better fill my needs. Someday my son might want to make her into a beast but until then...



Here is a picture. She is solid, does need a paint job, and complete interior redone. I'm thinking hot rod black for paint and black interior. She does have potential.

If it's in the budget add these:SBF Ford 302 351W Stainless Steel Roller Rocker Arms 1.6 Ratio 3/8 Stud Mount

Not sure what it's like over your way but, up here you can get a 302 for cheap money and every once in awhile you can find a stroked 331/347 for next to nothing and that should be a bolt in.

Otherwise I'd be searching for a 429/460 or if a FE pops up for a fair price... Lots of choices and we'll gladly help spend your dollars! Let us know what you decide.

Welcome to CHR! Too bad about the PO trashing the 352 you'd built. Jeff's given you some ideas on building up your 289, and I agree that a "thumper" cam is not the right way to go - they're ground for sound as opposed to performance. Mike's given you some ideas on watching for a different engine, which I like. Making the '65 period correct with a big ol' 428/429/460 would be very cool, and a drop in. You might check out Barry over at Survival Motorsports - http://www.survivalmotorsports.com/index.html if you really want to get into the FE big time.

Once you get a few posts we'd love to see some pictures.

Swap to a 351W. That 289 is OK in a midsize, but they were gutless in a full-size. A '79 or so LTD or Marquis engine fits right in.

Ditch it and get a bb. It will be cheaper. Cubes equal power. Cheating that equation is expensive.

This is my girl. She needs some work. Body is 99% solid with just a small amount of rust under the driver's tail light. Needs new carpet and an upholstery job. She isn't the prettiest yet but I am hoping to paint her hot rod black and suicide the back doors.

390 Ford and dress it up like a 352.. Otherwise, 429/460. HP per dollar is pretty cheap considering.

this is what she looks like for now.

Originally Posted by RonnSulli

this is what she looks like for now.

I used to race "stock" classes with 302's and 289's, here are some low buck suggestions that I did back in the day. First off we had to run under a 480 lift cam so we went with a comp cams 480 with 270 duration. For valve springs we used 429 "red colored" stock springs with 351c retainers and 351w keepers. Then for heads any of the 351w 68 through 74 will bolt on no problem they have a little larger intake port about 20cc, and 1.84" intake valves stock. The exhaust valves are larger too with a 1.54" stock , we just used the stock 289 bolts never had any trouble where the heads are steel ya know. I would normaly take a straight cut off the heads at .030" and then angle mill them .030" to the point where the two little ebrows on the outer head surface are flush . This will put you around 10 to 1 compression plenty on pump gas. As far as porting the 351w head doesnt need any on the intake port, however the exhaust port you can get in there and wack the emissions bump off the roof of it and then bell mouth it to match a mr gasket header gasket. An 1 5/8 primary header set up is an absolute must for this type of set up, it will be a complete dog with out headers lol experiance showed me. The best intake manifold i found was the dual plain for getting a 4 door 63 galaxie to come off a corner on a dirt track, single plains kill too much torque and dont help top revs much. The intake manifold must be a 302 as the width of a 351w intake is too wide. As far as port maching the intake manifold to the 351w heads use the 351w intake gasket and port the manifold to match. This can all be done with the engine in the car and tipicaly these motors peaked rpm at about 6000 and the torque was improved a bunch over stock. The best thing was I got 18mpg with one of these set ups in a 69 fairlane street machine and it sounded cool and the cam smoothed out at about 1250 rpm, very street / hyway frendly for little to no money on top of 100k mile short blocks lol. Hope some of this helps