yeah, mine usually idles around 900, and drops to 600 when in gear. My car picks and chooses when it's going to run good.

 

that is something that bothers me about m 289 it never has consistent operation its very different to than my 460 in my truck it never needs to be touched

 

Assuming no vacuum leaks and carb working properly, just loosen the distributor bolt and back off the static timing about 2 degrees. Should make it more managable. To idle smooth, the timing needs to be more "retarded" so the engine can deal with the load of the torque converter. If you have a high horsepower firebreather, a higher stall speed torque converter can also be a solution... but the distributor thing is easy to do, doesn't cost any money and usually does the trick!

My static timing is set at 9. the book says stock 289 should be at 6, HiPo at 12.

 

Someone knows what there talkin about... ^^ Im new to this whole timing thing! -Jon

 

i am not and i had a thought to do that today and that was all it needed

 

The stock plug is the Autolite/Motorcraft B-42. The B-45 is a little hotter. Like I said, do a general tune-up on your engine. I'll bet the timing is off.

 

well the thing is that i have new distributor and wire and plugs all done bout 2 months ago so i didn;t even thing that those were the culprits