Hey guys new poster here. I'm in the process of rebuilding my cougar () for street/strip applications.

I've gotten a hold of a 289 which has a pretty much brand new bottom end in it (main reason I'm completing it and not a 351 - money haha). I'm in the process of picking out parts for the top (heads, cam, intake..etc) with a goal of 350 hp/tq and came across the edelbrock kit (#2091)which has the right curve. Even with the slight differences in CI do you think it would meet my needs? Or would I be better off picking and choosing different parts?

For instance:

AFR 165cc heads
Weiand Stealth
Comp cam xtreme hydrolic flat
and so on?

Keep in mind this is my first build and I don't have much experience in matching parts, nor cash for trial and error. Any advice, thoughts or recommendations?

 

Do you know what pistons (dished, flat, domed, etc.) are in the short block and the deck height? If you could find out the piston brand/ model# that would help you a lot and any other info. you could get - stock crank, rods, etc. You need to figure out where your compression is going to be with different heads. The stock heads were 54cc I believe so a flat top piston will help close that down some. Aftermarket heads come 58cc (AFR) to 68cc I believe so you want to pay attention to what models and the cc. You could have a nice bottom end and put a big cc head on and end up with stockish 8:1 ratio which will feel like a dog and leave a lot of HP on the table compared to a proper head matched to get ~9 and 10:1.

My engine is pretty much as you described in the end of your post, 289 stroked to 333, AFR 165's @58cc for 9.7:1 ratio so I can run ~87-89 or tweak my timing and run 91-93 octane. I also have a Weiand Stealth, Demon Jr. 625, CompCams XE262 flat tappet hyd. cam backed by a built AOD, 2200-2500 stall and 9" with 3.50:1 tracloc. Won't know how it runs for a couple months but expect 350-400 at the crank.
Jon

 

The pistons are flat top, deck hight is 8.206? The make for all the parts seem to be ford there is not much in the way of identification on them, 'cept for small ovals on the connecting rods. I was aiming for a 10:1 cr which I thought would be obtainable with those AFR heads. Still iffy on what cam I should chose however.

You seem to have built pretty much what I was going for, have you run into any problems with the stroked 289? I thought about bringing mine to a 306 if I can squeeze out some extra $ but have heard so much from either side of the fence.