kalli

Hi all,

maybe someone can shed some light.
The old 289 I had was overheating, spewing water. I changed the headgaskets twice, the intake gaskets 3 times and couldn't get it sorted (not a bother to me as I now have a lovely 302).

Anyway someone tried to sell his 66 locally as it was overheating and he didn't have the money to fix it.
Since I had a set of engine gaskets spare for the 289 a friend and I offered to help. we'll try to get it on the road and see how it goes. no charge, join the club, drive with us ...
the heads were braught for skimming and pressure testing, the radiator flushed and my buddy put it all together and still the same issue :-(

So another pal said: 289's are known for it, the water galleys in the block get blocked with crap. drain the water from the plug in block, if it trickles instead of shooting out that's your problem. Clear them with coathanger or similar

that's the idea ... any opinions on it as I never heard of that. might have been the problem with my 289 all along

TexasAxMan

I can see there being a lot of built up scale and rust which could lead to overheating. It's worth a try, take out the block plugs and try to drain the block, may need to insert a screwdriver or something to get it to flow.

After it's flowing, put in some kind of block cleaner/cooling system flush. I'd try the 2 part which has a strong cleaner (part 1) and then a neutralizer (part 2). Follow the directions closely.

coda618

I had my 289 block and heads boiled out at a rebuilder and when I got them back I still flushed both with water, air and used wire brushes in all the areas I could access. You would not believe the amount of rust and crap that came out of both the heads and block. In fact, one of the head passages was blocked shut with rust and I had to poke it out with a screw driver. So, yes, I believe that clogged passages could easily be your problem.

Scott H.

.....

cprstreetmachines

I may have missed it but have you done a block check yet, chemically ?

kalli

thanks all for info. we never did a block check. on either of them
when I was a mechanic I never saw an engine that was older than myself, so there was never problems with that. simply unknown to me (lack of experience).
I guess we'll see what we can do without pulling the engine out again (kinda sick of it ....)

boogerschnot

I could definately see that getting to be a pain.. I dont know if I would want to pull a motor that many times in such a short time span. But good on you to help the guy out.