Soaring

Here is an article I found interesting. There is nothing here we don't all already know, just common sense stuff., but a reminder that we need to keep our old ponies well tuned for peak performance. I need to try to find some platinum tipped Motorcraft plugs. I already have the pertronix.
http://www.mustangmonthly.com/howto/26821/

gta289

Geez they got really low dyno numbers on that 289. a couple years ago there ws a carol shelby convention that rolled thru colorado. my dad and i went, he took his 390 fastback it took my GTA. they were doing dyno pulls for 25 bucks and my dad and i decided to do it . His 390 cranked out about 315hp and 372lbs of tourqe, which was impressive, my little 289 was pushing 242hp@3700 and 312 lbs of torque at 3400. my guess is that the car in the article either had a old engine or bad timing or something. to an extent my internals of my motor are no where near stock, and the tranny has goodies in it as well, but my mini mods were only limited to a higher duration cam,pertonix ignition,lunati roller rockers,and some minor head work. I know the cam shot my ratings up a little, but there no even getting 130 hp out of theres!!! maybe you can explain the difference to me glen? i read the whole article and i cant come up with a thing

Soaring

About all they did was to put in the pertronix. The air/fuel mixture was off, timing was off, jets were too lean, and it had a worn out dizzy. Those are all easy fixes with a further tune-up. The 4100 needs to be re-jetted or replaced, the dizzy needs replacing, and the timing has to be tweaked with the new dizzy. The vacuum advance wasn't even working, so that needs attention. Yeah, 128.4 HP is really low isn't it? I get more than that with my 2v stock set-up.

gta289

yeah and not only that geln, but the torque ratings were laughable, at the very end when they put a new intake and carb they barely made over 200 lbs of torque when 289 2v are rated at 280 lbs of torque....i wonder whats going on there??

chrumck

Yes, I've been thinking about it too. This is the same article Glen advised me to read some time ago before planning any mods with the engine. I was let down a little about the car's performance and little scared how much money I have to spend on waking my car up. From your comments I see there is some hope though

gta289

oh defientely theres hope, it can be just as much as upgrading to a four barrel, and electronic ignition, with the right rear end gears the car defiently livens up. i maybe spent 1,200 total for upgraded engine parts, including machine work on the head and the cylinders being bored out. the tranny only cost me 850 plus a 2000 stall converter from b&m that only set me back 195, and trust me total cost of the entire drive tran was around 4500 for everything (engine,tranny and rear end) i could have done more, but all the add ons i did do i keep well hidden and unless you drive it, can tell theres more to the car. I have driven my dads old stock 289 4v conv he sold not to long ago, and i can say, a stock 225hp @283lbs torque felt a lot different from 242hp @312 lbs of torque. When i drove mine the same day, man that 17 hp and 32 lbs of torque you could feel!!!! if you add more than i did, trust me youll feel it, i cant tell you how many times my car has almost gotten away from me[&:]

Soaring

Obviously, it was an old worn out engine. They should have taken their own advice and ran a compression test before dinking around with mods to the top. Probably the heads need work. We can't always assume the bottom end is in good condition before we start adding mods. Yeah, a 4v with a decent intake , electronic ignition, good plugs and wires and headers will bring some life to it, but without a strong bottom end to support those mods, you are just crapping in the wind.

6mustang6

You must remember, that The specs for a 4v 289 is 225. AT THE ENGINE, NOT THE WHEELS. SO it loses power.

Mustangood

yah i think a c4 cruisomatic isnt the most efficient transmission for getting power to the wheels

gta289

agreed that the c4 isnt a bullet -proof tranny as a c6, but like i said, i have some mods in mine to make it better. As for the Horsepower ratings, i do relize there judging from the motor itself, but also keep in mind, those are not actual ratings,there estimates from Ford, they were estimated for insurance purposes, i mean come on really, a freshly rebuilt 289 4v with no mods sure as hell feels like its making more than 225hp than there pathetic 137, sorry thats what Honda civics have, and last i checked, no POS honda has EVER beaten my car and till that day comes, there is no 137 hp coming from a 289, not even a 2v
and by the way it looses power if you put a weak stock torque converter in it, if you put a higher stall converter, it makes much more power, and especially if you lower the gears in the back, if anything, that livens these cars up even more