i cant seem to find the edelbrock performer kit, only the performer rpm kit, anyone know where i can find it?

 

on the 8 v 9 debate, my 8" whined like a biatching wife for years but never broke. The axles however...IMO they are notup to any sort of punishment. If you have a hard tyre compound andcan break traction easy, then no probs. Any sort of grippy tyre and the axles twist. That was my experience with a pokey but tired 289.

 

Think I would look more at the torque than HP. Personally I would cut an 8" off at about 250 ft/lbs. Like "Aussie" stated, you have to be able to "HOOK" the tire(s) to the road in order to load the drive line with torque. Thats what breaks things. So in your consideration for thesearch, keep this in mind. And"Dodgestang" made a good point, with a 300 HP enginewith maybe 300 ft/lbs of torque, AND a good set of drag slicks, that could easily snap a 9" simply because of thesudden load.

 

so should i go with the edelbrock performer rpm package and holley 570 cfm carb, with try-y headers, and dual 2 1/4" piping for the exhaust, would i be able to get to 300 hp and 300 ft/lbs. tq.? and also change out the stock 8" rear end to 9".

if not what kind of setup do u guys recommend? head/camshaft/intake/carb setup

 

the edelbrock package is a nice step up. if your looking for some more HP and some more performance go for it, you will notice a pretty big difference. the 9in you dont really need as of yet, though getting it wouldnt hurt. you can just keep your 8in for now but posi it if its not already. also if you can, beef up the tranny a little bit, I.E a shift kit, or modified valve body or kevlar clutches, something along those lines (not sure if you hav an auto or maual). if you were to do those things then you would get some nice power out of it.
yeah i would go with tri-y's too, they are good street headers, good for low end torque which is what helps you most on the streets.

now if your looking to go bigger, i would say do an engine swap. find a 302 from an 88-90 5.0 and drop it in, fits no problem, just gota change the oil pan and some other little things. these motors are better then the older mustang ones because they are rollermotors and not hydraulic, less friction. you could leave it fuel injected and get some nice MPG out of it, but then you have to hook up like 12 sensors and change out the gauge panel, alot of electrical stuff.

check out this site for a little more info on the 302 swap
http://www.jason.fletcher.net/tech/combos/pwrcombo.htm

 

Having just gone thru the EXACT same thing you are asking (67 289 auto), my suggestion is to pull the 289 and put in a crate. Keep the 289 preserved in your garage. Go to T and L engines if you want 400 plus HP or Ford Racing and buy their 345 HP 302 for somewhere in the $3500 range. I'm telling you, you are going to spend more than that on a quality rebuild. You could probably keep your tranny and 8 inch rear for now with the Ford Racing option, get the tranny rebuilt for about 500 bucks to handle the increase in HP if you have an auto. May not even be absolutely necessary.

I ended up going the Stroker 347 route after I had decided to rebuild the 289. Ended up thatmy 289 was already bored 60 over so I had no choice, I had to trash it. I thought I'd do something a bit more powerful/different than the Ford 302 (even though my trusted mechanic begged me to just buy the 302 from Ford Racing, he has installed many with great success and it is relatively easy) The 347 has taken me much longer and more expensive than originally planned. Tranny, rear end, etc etc...my 2 cents: go with the 302 long block and you'll be in good shape. The 8 inch will handle the power of that during the break in period. If you end up blowing the 8 inch, oh well, replace it then. I don;t think the rear end will be an issue. You may want to swap ring and pinion for 3.55s vs stock 2.73s.

Truth is, I asked this same question on this thread months ago, several times. It really depends on what you are trying to achieve and what your finances are. I am WAAAAYY above where I originally anticipated both HP wise and $$$$ wise. HP is cheap, the strength is expensive. You can't just buy Performer RPM/AFR/TFS heads and a camand be done with it. You have to strenghten the internals, make sure the bore is nice/honed, new timing chain, new intake, new carb, new ignition, new dizzy, pistons, upgrade the c4 tranny strength......see where I'm going???? That's why I advise (unless you have unlimited funds and very good mechanical ability) to just buy the crate and be much closer to done with it, keep the 289 stock on the sidelines.

All this is just another opinion which you open yourself up for when you ask that "which cam/heads" question on this board. I know, I did it too....

 

alot of good advice here man, take it all into consideration before you start droppin big $$

 

You can break any rear end if something is not right, or you have excessive power. A lot of it depends on gearing and suspension. If you have traction devices set wrong, with excessive preload, band angles etc you can snap axles with modest power. Also, gear ratios are increasing power at the wheels. If you have 300ft-lbs of torque going through a 3.00:1 first gear and a 3.55:1 diff, that's 3,195ft-lbs of actual forceat the wheels because of gear multiplication. Think about it, how much force do you really think it takes to break a piece of high quality steel that's 2x the diameter of a broomstick? Way more than 300ft-lbs. If you have a lot of gearing and stocky tires, you can break any axle, especially if your suspension is set up wrong. I'm pushing over 350fwhp through my 8" at the track with traction bars and have no problems with it, on street tires. Really hard launching on slicks wouldn't really be an issue either if the suspension is setup right, but that's the key. Like ANY part in a car, it needs to be treated properly. Though there is a limit to the abuse an 8" will take, like with any axle, it's generally well beyond what any well setup street car will produce. I plan on going to a 9" mainly because it's easier to get gears and other parts for them. And I plan on going forced induction or nitrous, which will really be testing the limits of the 8", and it's easier to get disc brake parts for them too

 

i think im going to go with te ford racing 302 crate engine @ 345 hp. does it come with the intake mani. and carb? also what else would i need to install it into my fastback??

 

No...it does not. The things to consider (plus a few more I'm sure...) would be:

intake
carb
front sump oil pan (comes with a rear sump)
check the water pump outlet
distributor
check bellhousing

I would do some homework online to compare packages. Ford Racing's website, T and L engines, www.proformanceunlimited.com, and many others I'm sure sell full (long block) crate engines. Some of these guys include the things I just mentioned and their prices are comparable.