Hi Performance 289 Install in '66 complete

[Comechero65]

The engine that you installed I assume was a used engine that you had rebuilt. Question is did they hot tank it first to eliminate any rust? If an engine has ever been run with only water in the cooling system instead of a good coolant will always have rust inside. All the best radiators and fans won't always keep the engine temp under control. You have to get the rust out and no amount of flushing will do that. Having the block hot tanked and manually brushed out is the only way to get out the rust. I keep reading of this issue from others having the same cooling issues and doing everything to keep it cool and fail to correct the real problem. If you must use a used engine and not knowing how it was used or maintained in the past then you have to do what's needed to make sure it has a clean cooling sytem. My opinion only.
Ron

[dcducks1]

Ron,
The motor came my way by accident. My 66 had the original 289 motor in it with 50ish thousand original miles on it. It didn't smoke and ran nice but had a 2 barrel carb and I wanted to jazz it up a bit. Plus, I knew the heads would need redone if I ever wanted to stop putting lead additive into the gas. I was at a junkyard one day helping a buddy and asked the owner if he had a good intake for a 289. He sent me out to look under the hood of a 69 Mustang. The car looked really good and had new interior. I lifted the hood and there sat this motor. The story was a mechanic rebuilt the motor and never got paid. He had a mechanics lien against it and sold the whole car to the junk yard for $1500. I got the motor (302 with edelbrock intake, edelbrock 600 carb, edelbrock fuel pump and headers) for $600. It is a hydraulic roller cam motor and looks and runs great. Everything was a mystery because I never knew what to expect from the motor (how hot was the cam, etc). When flushing the radiator, I'm not seeing much as far as rust. A good friend who swapped a 289 from his Mustang to a 351 ran into the same cooling problem when he went from the original radiator to a 2 core aluminum. He put the 3 core aluminum in and never had a problem again. Hopefully I will have a good ending to the story in a few days. I appreciate your wisdom and responses on this subject.

Dave

[Comechero65]

Usually once there is rust in the block flushing won't get it out and you won't see anything come out when flushing it. It's just in there to stay. Hopefully it's ok and that the 3 core will keep it cool. It's hard to tell what cam is in the engine. Maybe it can be identified by the year and model car it came out of. But at least it is a roller cam which is good. I'll bet it has the stock stamped steel rockers not roller rockers. Ford was not too generous to install roller rockers in 5.0's on run of the mill fords. That's what was in mine but I replaced them with roller rockers. Figured it might as well be rollers all the way.
Ron

[dcducks1]

The mystery of the overheating might be solved. I think I had the timing wrong which was making it ping at higher RPMs causing the overheat. I brought it from 12 down to 10 and the overheating is gone. I am still going to put in the 3 core radiator for good measure.

Dave

[Comechero65]

Good deal. Pinging is often the result of timing too far advanced. backing off a couple degrees at a time helps find the safe spot. And cutting doiwn the tendency to overheat is good.
When I instaled the 5.0 in my Comechero setting it at 6 degrees like the old 289 wasn't good enough. It wasn't happy at that setting. bumped it to 14 and it runs great. I can actually go a little higher if I want.
Ron

[dcducks1]

I actually had it at 14 when it overheated and then bumped it down to 12 and finally to 10. Running cool as the other side of the pillow now.
I went to the "Coming Out" car show today. I couldn't enter today because I could only stay a couple of hours but I did drive the Comet up to the show and walked around. The cars were gorgeous and I was very disappointed that the only thing close to mine was a 66 Fairlane and a 64 Falcon. I was so sick of seeing Camaro's and Mustangs by the end of my walk. I tend to gravitate towards the "unique" cars. I saw a GTO "Judge", a Ford Torino 429 Thunder Jet, a couple of Cougars, a Pontiac Star Chief......now those are cool rides that you just don't see. Two things happened today.......I named my car and I figured out what my next restoration will be. A guy asked me if my car had a name and out of the blue I said, "yes....Helen Eileen!" Each name happens to be the first name of my grandmothers and it just rolled off the tongue so.........Helen Eileen it is!
When I was in the Navy I promoted to the rank of Senior Chief Petty Officer which wore the anchor with one star on top. We were called "Star Chiefs". One of my neighbors who wasn't very military savvy heard that I had been promoted and congratulated me on becoming a "Super Chief" instead of a "Senior Chief". My buddies had a lot of fun with that and called me Super Chief for years. Soooooo, my next car is either going to be a Pontiac Super Chief or Star Chief. I like the fact that you just don't see many around and that suits me just fine.

Dave

[dcducks1]

Would have replaced the 2 row radiator with the 3 row last night if they would sent me one that actually fit my '66 Comet. ARRRRRHHHHHH! Ordered another one from a different company and will be sending this one back. Looks like I might be putting the 2 row back in the car so that I can at least go to the car show this weekend.

Dave