Hey guys i'm really new at this and i have little knowledge about cars but i'm trying and i hope you guys can help. i have a 289 v8 1966 mustang coupe and i need a little help with the engine performance and handling of my car. I am curious to what i can do to my engine to get more whp and hp out of it. I have straight pipes dual exhausts and i know i need headers and a good carburetor and maybe pulleys but what else? and what do you guys recommend for headers, carburetors, and pulleys?

Also i took my car to a hot rod shop and they guy replaced my suspension and control arms and everything and i don't know what he did but i want to redo it and make it handle better because even with power steering it is kind of hard t turn when i'm not moving but when i am moving the steering becomes really sensitive and it seems as though there is a gap or lag time when i turn the wheel an X amount of distance.

P.S. if you guys could post some restoration threads i would greatly appreciate it because i want to strip my car sand it all down, cut out the rust spots and bondo them, and repaint it and i have no idea how to do this lol.

 

Welcome to the Classic Section. You're definitely in the right place. As far as the engine, how deep are you willing to go into it and what's your budget? If you plan to tear the engine down all the way, you'll have more options but it will take more time and effort.
Easier routes would be a carb, intake, heads, etc.

Also, feel free to post pics, especially of your rust spots. That will make it easier for us to diagnose the problems and help you solve them.
I'm just now dealing with my rust. Just recently cut the spots out and will be welding in a patch, not using new panels.

 

Thanks! yeah I had the engine rebuilt before and I didn't want to get technical going in and starting from scratch because i would have no idea what i would be doing to that engine haha, i have no knowledge how to take an engine apart and put it all back together. but things that i could do would be carb, headers, pulleys, and exhaust.

the car does not have an extensive rust problem it has some bubble spots of rust on top of the roof near the driver and passenger side windows, little spots on the fenders and on the bottom of the doors. nothing too bad.

 

I'm right there with ya. I still scratch my head when I see the engine I bought torn down. Bought a 3 hour interactive DVD on engine rebuilding, its been a great help, but engine rebuilding definitely isn't for everyone. It'll end up costing me more to learn about it all but I might use it later in life. My family is, well to put it simply, not doing bad (but not good) so the usual cycle of cars is to sell them at 175-200k miles on the engine. I've grown accustomed of my truck and I've convinced my old man I'll rebuild the engine and not let him sell it. :P


I definitely suggest new heads, and maybe a high rise intake, plus a matching carb performance wise. There's lots of little things you can do to squeeze more HP out of the 289s, they often get underestimated! Remember what powered the cobras?
I love seeing a built 289, so cool IMO.

Also, as always with rust, be prepared for the worst. I had a few bubble spots on my '67s hood, assumed it was just a paint bubble (cause the paint job is crap) but one day I poked it with a screwdriver and it broke right through.
And the bottom corners of the doors are commons spots for rust from water inside the door. As well as the fenders, where water gets on the inside of the wheel wells.
I'm saying this all from experience as I'm having the exact problems on both my '67 and '68 as you are, haha.

What's your experience with welding? I'm just wondering, I'm not one to judge, I just started learning a month or two ago...

 

welcome to the thread we are glad to have you im new here too.

carb if its a stock 289 to a mild one, guys are running the eldebrock 1405 600cfm carb, thats what im running on mine with a eledbrock performer matching intake, if it still has points switch it over to electronic ignition, up grade the coil also as the one you have may be weak in spark, pulleys i dont know about but have heard and saw on here guys running underdrive pulleys, and 1-1 pulleys, headers are just a choice, on mine i have hooker headers but will be switching mine out soon, i have true duels with glass packs on it , when i redo exhaust im starting fresh from headers on back all new exhaust

take a look around the site and you will find alot of helpful info.

just because a hotrod shop did any work on it dont mean squat, the car we just bought hto rod shop did a ton of work and im ripping all the junk stuff out now that is less then 1 year old in cluding suspension upper and lower arms

jack the car up put it on jack stands and start going thru every nut and bolt re tighting it we just changed out lowers today i have pics up on a thread on here tonight of a arms that was new stamped 07/08 as manf date and from the pics it looks liek they was installed 20,000 miles ago loose bolts even on a arm bolts we replaced our lowers today and it tightened it up quite abit not jumping around anymore while driving

 

The best way to get more power out of it that you can actually feel is to match a set of heads with a cam and intake... but those heads might have to matched to a piston and that piston to connecting rods. even if you can get away with just the first 3 items this cost big bucks and if that engine is new(ish) all that money that went into that engine is kinda wasted...and probably cost more than to simply buy a new crate motor for 3 or 4 thousands bucks.

SO

for a few hundred dollars you could take it and have it dyno tuned and attempt to get the optimum performance out of what you have now. You may get up to 60 more HP with a simple tune far more than headers, pulleys or fancy ignition would.

-Gun

 

First and foremost do a lot of research before you spend money. I suggest frequenting this site and others for a couple of months before you dive in.
In order for the other members to help you better, we would need more info about your intended use, budget and current configuration.

the short list for upgrades:
disc brakes
overdrive trans and taller gears
1" shelby drop
stiffer springs
larger sway bars
roller coil spring perches
solid mounted adjustable strut rods
stiffer shocks
engine tune up
dual plane intake manifold
headers
appropriate carb

Search and read, this should answer most of your questions.

 

Best advice is above: look around this site and see what others are doing and why they are doing it. I would wait a few months to establish a good knowledge base about these cars before making any rash decisions.

 

yeah and shop around for parts cuz i didnt and found a mustang shop 12 miles from me that could of saved me 32 dollars/set on the lower control arms and i got them at a parts store by me i did just as anybody would start replacing parts now knowing and going to look at the mustang serivce center is the name of it i can get perches basically i can build a whole car for what i saw in there lil shop or they can order it in within a few days

 

I have no experience in welding haha but i do want to learn i'm afraid to screw up anything. I'm considering fiber glass bondo. thanks for your advice!

haha yeah so much work i also have an 06 acura TL i'm working on too and i'm getting pulleys for that but underdrive pulleys i'm afraid would take power from my electronics. Oh! and sound advice on the carb thanks =]

yeah i've thought about getting a crate engine but i think i can save a lot of money getting headers, pulleys, and an exhaust system and keeping the originality of my car, vin numbers etc etc.

Thanks for the advice! i don't have an extreme budget this will take me a lot of time but i do have disk brakes and i want to convert them to power disk brakes. thanks for the advice on the springs, shocks, control mechs of the car =]
haha yeah shopping for parts for sure i've learned that from buying parts for my acura, i've saved hundreds