scotttenorman

I have a weird one for you guys.
Sorry, I'm not a mustang guy................I just bought a 1956 Jeep with a 289 engine in it. The person I bought it from told me he parked the Jeep in his side yard in 1985 (26 years ago!!!!!!). He told me it has never been moved or started since then (in fact, he had never started it ever).

I got it home, figuring the engine was seized. I tried to turn the crank by hand, and got it to turn a little bit. It was pretty difficult. I pulled the plugs, which all looked good, and squirted a ton of pb blaster oil into all the cylinders. I hooked it up to the battery and it cranked barely. I cleaned all the electrical, pulled the starter, and cleaned it up a bit. Put it all back, and it was cranking fairly well, although a little slow. Poured some gas down the carb, and nothing. Swapped out the coil (the lady at the parts store gasped when I brought in the old coil...she said she hadn't seen a "Ford Motorcraft" badge on anything for quite a long time and said it was probably the coil that came from the factory.) Still nothing. Sanded the points a little and regapped them.....nothing. New points and condenser, and viola. She fired right up!!!!!!!!!!!

So, now that I've thought about it. What did I do wrong? Am I damaging it by running it? In total, it's run for less than a minute. Maybe about ten seconds is the longest consecutive run I've done. Of course I'm spraying carb cleaner down it to keep it running....no gas tank is hooked up. I DID NOT CHANGE THE OIL which was 26 years old. I will change the oil if I run it more.

Any idea what the engine is worth? It's a long story on the Jeep, but I never planned to keep it. I wanted to sell it for $500 complete. I never thought the engine would run. I guess what I'm asking is, am I better off pulling this engine and trying to sell it to a restorer, or is it just another v8?

crunchyskippy

Guessing from the attached two barrel carb, I'd say its just another old V8 (and rough looking at that). However, that is an interesting looking air cleaner. Was there a snorkel attached?

scotttenorman

I looked for the air cleaners, and they come up on ebay for about $50 in good shape. They just say they're for a mid 60's 289. Mine does not have snorkel (it's missing). The ones on ebay DO have the snorkel.

Are there any block casting numbers to be aware of that make it special? I can only see "C4??????", but I was just trying to date it when I looked.

Thanks,
Josh.

OCHOHILL

I am posting so that others may learn from what you have done.

What you did wrong was to turn the motor over and run it with the old oil still in. There is a moderate chance that water was in there too. Dinosaur oil has a shelf life of 6 months before it loses some it its qualities that make it desireable as a lubricant.

Plus, every component in there was dry, including the cam and lifters.

There is a reason a new engine should have the oil system primed. Your case is no different.

The value is $100-$200 around here if you can find someone looking for a 289. Otherwise, change the oil and run 'til it pukes.

stephen.osborne1

Look for the block code first... Should be under the starter on the block. If there is a "K" anywhere in there, you may have found a diamond in the rough, though I doubt this is the case... As mentioned before, judging by the 2 bbl carb, it's just a regular 289, not a K-code (which could be worth $$). If this is the case, change the oil, prime the motor this time, then run it till it dies.

scotttenorman

Awesome, and thanks you guys. As cool as it would have been to have a "one of a kind", I'm glad that I won't be pulling this motor!!!!!!!!!!!

I'll look for the special "K"..........I'll report back here if I find it.

MustangFTW

unless someone put a 2bbl on the 4bbl intake.....i would change oil, prime it, and run it till it falls of its frame. i assume you know how to prime? just need a long 1/4 inch socket and a drill, take off distributor and stick socket down hole, you shoudl feel it catch on the oil pump driveshaft, spin it till you see oil coming out of lifters (take off valve covers)

1slow67

I primed mine using the engine. Just unplugged the power to the dizzy and cranked it over a few times

scotttenorman

for next time, I guess, hahahaha.

I thought that if I pulled the plugs (which I did) and cranked the motor with the starter, it wouldn't hurt it too bad.

I wish I had known that priming trick before, I probably would have done that.

As for the oil change......don't cringe when I say this.......I'm going to take the oil from my gf's corolla, and put it in the 289!!!!! She's got less than 4k miles on the oil, and it just so happens that she needs it changed, so into the 289 it goes!!!!!!!! (I've always changed my regular 10/40 between 10k and 15k miles in every car I've ever had..............and I've never had any engine problems on any vehicle I've ever had.) Of course I splurged, and bought a new oil filter!!!!!!

1slow67

Dang I always changed at 3K miles.