Hi all,

I have a original 65 convertible to be restored this winter. I have talked to the owner of the garage where the car will be redone. The issue is the engine. Right now it has its original 289 which probably was out once to be rebuilt. It looks like this:



So the issue is:

1. Just rebuilt the engine, take it apart, new gaskets, maybe timing chain if neccessery, rebuilt head etc. - this is probably the cheapest way and we have the original engine saved.

2. My workshop man will be ordering some engines for other cars and asked me if I want one:
like this: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/FORD-...item2ea8305726

I am wondering what would YOU guys/girls do ? Go for new one (3,2 k) or rebuilt the old one and have nice original engine and some spare cash ? What would be better long time ?

I like original cars, but when I saw this nice new 302 ...
I'd appreciate any thoughts

 

For me, it would depend on what kind of options the car has. If it's a pony interior A code vert, I'd probably rebuild the original motor with some internal go-fast goodies. If it's nothing special, I'd drop a beefy small block in it

Realize, there are hundreds of thousands of similar cars out there, so one more that isn't original isn't going to be the end of the world.

Either way, though, keep anything you remove for a possible future seller.

 

Starfury,
thanks,

well, it's a regular C-code with standard interior, but I have to keep in mind that in Poland where I live there are maybe 20-30 verts total.

but I guess you're right and the best way is to get the new small block with 300+HP and have the original kept in the garage.

one more thing... what would be the 'around' cost of original rebuilt with "go-fast" goodies ? heads, intake, carb - around 1,5k together, anything else ?


by the way, I see you're from SLO , nice place, I lived in Arroyo Grande in 95 and 96 :-)

 

Nice! I didn't realize you were in Poland. But yes, it's nice here I actually live in Grover right now, but I've been a SLO-ite for a few years.

I can't really guess at what something like that would cost over there. You might be better off asking Kalli, as he's more accustomed to dealing with importing parts. In your case, I think it may be much cheaper and easy to simply get a crate motor like the one you mentioned than to import parts piecemeal and put together a nice performance rebuild.

That said, I'd roughly guess at $1500-3000 over here, depending on how many goodies you'd want.