First off, Welcome to the brotherhood!!! This is a great group of guys and gals to talk with. Has your 289 been rebuilt recently or is it the original? Since you are 17, have a shop build the bottom end and install a top end kit yourself. Maybe one from Edelbrock, or you could get suggestions on here on what to piece together. Throw some headers on there with a new exhaust and away you go, until you have money for other stuff.

I surprised no one has asked yet. But what about your brakes and suspension? If you wanna go fast, you better be able to stop and handle it.

 

I think I'm gonna go with the rebuild. Ill prolly have a shop do the work, but I may consider doing some of the work myself, depending on how much time I have. As far as I know the motor has never really had any work done to it. I know ill need to increase braking performance in order to be able to stop it, so I'm thinking of swapping the front drums for discs.

I am going to start a new thread on what I am thinking about for the rebuild so check that out. Thanks for all your help in making this decision.

 

That's cool. I hope you do some of the work too. It is fun (in the end) and at the end of the day you can say YOU did it rather than paying it done.

 

I think another thing is parts. USED parts are your friend. DSC motorsports has a ton of heads, blocks, and intakes and I have dealt with them many a time. Ebay is also a great source. Buying used parts and having them media blasted and properly cleaned can save you a great amount of money. I mean pretty much I will buy anything used except pistons, camshaft, and piston rings. If you shop wisely you can save a ton of money. Unless your building a 25000$ motor and you want only the best, used and cleaned up is the way to go.