So while going to the local diner during cruise night, my dad shows me a '66 fastback hiding behind garbage near a house in an orchard. The owner is not home, so we just peek at the car a little bit. I instantly spot the "high performance" badging above the "289" emblem on the front fender.

How do you know if it is a true K code engine? He could have just attached the badge. I know that the alternator drive pulley is bigger, and I think that the harmonic balancer is a bit wider, isn't it? Are there any other tell tale signs. I don't have room or money for another Mustang, but I can convince my dad to buy one and then I still have access to it.

My second question is if it is a K code, what would a rusty, but straight and complete fastback go for, do you think? Of course, I would buy it no matter what, but my dad needs a little more convincing. By the way, did the K code cars automatically come with 9" rears?

 

pop the hood and look on the drivers side, there will be a long list of letters/numbers, if it has an "K" then its a K code. or open drivers side door and look there for a tag like this

with a K of course:

 

Well, were talking about a car that has so much junk around it that I could not get within 6 feet of the door. The only part within an arm's reach was the hitch on the back of the car (yes, a trailer hitch on a fastback!) and I might get a front view if I climb over some metal barrels. So at best I might be able to pop the hood.

Also, just because it has a K code on the data plate, doesn't mean it has a K code engine under the hood. I want to be sure before considering a massive restoration.

 

Hello.To know if the car sitting in front of you actually is a K code, and not a car that someone 'adjusted' the numbers on, involves a pretty close inspection. On the 65/66 cars, the K codes came with a 9 inch rear end. All other mustangs had either an 8 inch or, on the six cylinder cars, an integral carrier. On the 9 inch rear ends the snubber is on a bracket bolted to the front of the pumpkin. All others had the snubber bolted to the floor above the rear end. There is a bracket spot-welded to floor of the non-K codes that has two threaded holes with a funny looking slot between them to bolt the snubber to that sticks out about an inch and a half from the floor. The K codes have a bumper plate that doesn't have that slot. There are three different styles of bumper plates for K codes, depending on when the car was built, but all of them only stick out about 3/4 inch from the floor.Starting in 67 they were putting big block 390s in mustangs and those also came with a nine inch rear end. All K codes came with dual exhaust, There is some reinforcement inside the rear frame rail on the driver's side to support the exhaust pipe. But dual exhaust was also part of the GT package, which you could also get on an A code car, so the presence of dual exhaust doesn't mean it is a K code, but the absence of it means it is not. In 65 they were all 4 speed cars, so there should be no hole in the firewall for the neutral safety switch harness. There should be a hole in the firewall for the manual choke cable, etc... There are a bunch of things that one would really need to know what they were looking at and looking for. The best thing to do is to go ahead and get such a person to go look at the car for you. Hope that helps.

 

Yes, that does help. I thought that the K code engines had 9" rears, but I wasn't certain. Now that you mention it, I did see a top loader 4 speed sitting in the junk pile. Of course, it could be for another car, but it could the one that came out of the fastback.

Thanks for the information on the rest of the car. By the snubber, do you mean the rubber stop that hits the rear axle in case the car bottoms out?

You seem to know a lot about the K code cars. This is a '66 I believe (again it is hard to tell when you can only see parts of the car through the junk pile) so any other information you can provide would help.

 

Look on the intake manifold.If I remember the one I had has a K stamped on the manifold.

 

Really, a K stamped on the intake manifold? Never heard of that one before. Really?...

Isn't the larger alternator pulley and wider harmonic balancer true of the K code engine as well. I know that the alternator part is true, but I'm only pretty sure about the harmonic balancer.

 

Yes Ive heard that is true about the bigger balancer.

 

Hi again.I used to restore mustangs for a living while my husband was in college. I only have one K code now, but I've had several at different times. Yes, the K codes had a balancer that was twice as thick as the one on the other 289s.Here's a picture of one on my car.Yes they had the big pulley on the alternator. There was no K on the intake. They used the same intake as an A code. They also had a different fan, which was much heavier. There are a lot things about the motor, but if the car no longer has it's original motor, which most of them don't, that doesn't really mean a whole lot in the way of establishing if the car itself is actually a K code, and the presence of a K code motor doesn't mean the car is a K code. Once you determine that the car itself is a K code, then you start looking for stuff like the 65 motor mounts, the fan, the alternator pulley, the heads, the fuel pump,etc... because some of that stuff is really hard to find and really expensive when you do find it. But that's for the haggling over the price phase, not the authenticating phase. I'll take some pictures of some of the things to look for and post them for you. The K code I have now still has the original motor and the body is pretty unmolested.

[IMG]local://upfiles/68214/45BA510F088F418AA5C9419CDE2587C6.jpg[/IMG]

 

Yes, pictures would help. They are worth a lot. I have not been up close with that many K codes. I will look forward to the posts.