When upgrading a 289 for better street performance but not racing is there a particular order ( e.g. carb, then headers, etc.) or do you just go all out? Not looking to go broke with this project.

 

the smart thing to do, would be to maybe buy a combo package, so that takes out all the guess work, and do it all at the same time, to save money.

try one of these kits,

http://store.summitracing.com/egnsea...115+4294858290

 

all depends on money only

a good few bob for intake and headers (I'd start with that)
a few bob more for intake and carb
a cam is not expensive (compared to the rest), but more time intensive (most people won't do that themselves) and it should match to the rest of the car. so buy one now, or

a lot of money more (~1000$ more) will pay for a set of nice heads and get a different cam for that

and that's the top end done.

the bottom end is timeintensive, albour intensive and part expensive :-)
as in new crankshaft, pistons, rods, or rebuild and stroke etc etc etc)

so if you are broke already and can't help putting money into it, I personally would start with headers and exhaust.
It will perform better and at least sound better :-)

 

Free flowing headers, new intake, bigger carb maybe a Holley 575 cfm. Cams are nice but it will take work. Electronic ignition is nice though.

 

No matter how much gas you stuff in the motor, it has to fired with a good ignition system.
Save about 250-300 bucks for a CDI box,high performance coil,decent plug wires, and Pertronix points eliminator, in that order.
The Summit box is as good as any, IMO. There are many alternatives to Pertronix as well.
Decent coil, well don't buy a racing coil, it won't help, just a good one is all you really need if you have the CDI box.

 

oh on that subject .. don't buty any "racing"distributors. They are missing the vacuum advance that you should have.
Race cars only know one throttle position. open.. you probably pent most of your time on the road

 

I don't see any reason to buy a CDI box that early in the game. That's a huge chunk of money that can be spent elsewhere, and the engine will run just fine off a basic electronic upgraded distributor.

I'd recommend trying to set out a plan for how you want the engine to end up. Ideally you would buy everything at once so it's all designed to work together, but that's not always feasible, so you need to know where you want to go with the build. Also, you need to factor in the motor's limitations. If you're running on stock-style (especially if they're original) rod bolts, don't plan on being able to wind the motor past about 5500 until you rebuild the engine.

Generally a 4V carb/intake upgrade is first on the list for a 2V motor. It's a quick and easy swap and provides improved throttle response and top end power.

Headers (or hi-po manifolds) are also a good investment. Stock manifolds flow absolutely horribly.

Heads and cam should be matched to eachother, and I'd recommend doing those at the same time.

Rear end gears I would consider a high priority. They don't increase power, but they make better use of the power you have and will likely provide more improvement in usable acceleration than almost anything else you'll do to the engine.

 

The engine will run just fine off properly setup points as well.

Here are some 'points' about each.
The difference between Pertronix($80) and the Summit CDI($130) is 50 bucks.

What you get with points eliminator:
1. Convience. You never have to change points.

What you get with CDI box:
1. Multiple spark discharge below 3000 RPM. Insures complete combustion.
2. 300-500 volt discharge into the coil primary creating a hotter spark on the secondary of any coil, even a lowly stock one. This allows you to open up the plug gap, even with a stock coil.
3. If you use points then dwell becomes irrelevant. Points will last for years because they are no longer switching high current into the coil primary. Its the high current that eats points. With a CDI box they are just switching a low current 'control signal' to the CDI box.
4. Not a big deal but they do provide a clean Tachometer output line.

For the above reasons a CDI box will make starting easier and smooths out idle, might even improve gas mileage a bit.
Points eliminator only replaces points, thats all. For the 50 bucks difference I would take the the CDI box.

 

throw a nice cam in there, with a dual plane intake manifold and a 4 bbl carb and i think youll have what you wanted...you can get a nice set of heads too but thats $$ and if u do that make sure ur cam matches the heads