I have a 66 mustang, with what I think is a 289 4speed combo. I will be checking out the condition soon, but had a question. I have a 64 mercury with a 390. I am not a ford/mercury guy at all. Were Ford and Mercury engines different? or the same? Any help would be appreciated. Now back to my buicks.
A 390 is the same, Ford,Lincoln,Mercury. Mostly Ford and Mercury shared the same drivetrain. Unlike GMs different divisions. The 390 and the 289 dont have anything in common though.
Ford and Mercury use the same engines. Small blocks include the 260, 289, 302, and 351 windsor. The 390 is of the 'FE' engine family, which includes the earlier 352, 360, 390, 406, 410, 427 and 428. The 351 cleveland, 429, and 460 are a different engine family. 390 and 289 have different bellhousing bolt patterns, and the 289 trans will have a longer input shaft than a 390 trans. Be carefull with early small blocks. They changed the bellhousing bolt pattern sometime in 64 or 65. I have a pair of '67 Fairlanes that I don't talk about much here.:bglasses:
Thanks guys. I will probably use the 289 4speed combo since it is already matched up. I have the 390 in the 64 Mercury. As long as the 289 is in decent shape, I'll just sell the Mercury.
One thing to know The '58 to '64 FE blocks had two mount bosses per side. '65 up blocks were four boss blocks. '65 up is the block you would want for a Mustang install. The earlier block can be adapted but 390's are not hard to find.
I would not even think about a big block in a 66. It is way to hard to get them to run cool. If the core supports are the same as the 65 I work on there is not enough room to get a radiator in there that will work without lots of mods. I think that they changed the core supports in 67. I went nuts trying to keep my sisters car from overheating. Took over $1000 in mods to keep it running cool. This is with a brand new 302.
Doug, Did you ever check the gage? I had several 65 & 66 Mustangs with 289-351's in them and had no cooling problems at all.
I had a '66 Falcon with a 390.......don't recall cooling problems. Plug swap problems yes....header gasket replacement problems yes.....install issues yes.....
Easy fix to those plug swapping issues back then, Brian. Torch out the inner fenders (as much as you dare) and change them through the wheel well with the tire off. Might as well put on a set of fenderwell headers at the same time like all the gassers. We may have gone a little too far on my 61 Valiant when the 383 went in it. Couldn't get the doors or the hood to open until we played around with a floor jack and found where to add some bracing. Then found that the clutch wasn't releasing as the firewall and cowl was flexing away. More braces. Then the tires hit the dump tubes....and so on and so on..... Never had a cooling problem though, even with the cute, little, original radiator.
%^$#$ Fords. I know some people do not have problems, a lot do. I checked everything, different guages etc. We finally put in an aluminum cross flow, opened up the core support, big electric fan, chin spoiler to help suck air out from under the hood. Works good now but has left a bad taste for sure. Will have to take some pics of what is under the hood now. Google 65 Mustang overheating and see the hits. We had the engineers from Ford tell us that the cooling system is underdesigned on these cars.
I keep trying to find a use for the Mercury Mont Claire with the 390. Sounds like I'll try to figure out what is in the Mustang now, only guessing 289, but I don't think it is the original.
A buddy had a roller cammed 460 in an '84 Mustang. Huge cooling problems. Long fan and radiator story short....degreed in the cam properly instead of just installed with the marks....no more problem. o No:
On the 289 Mustang, set the timing correctly. Also helps!!p I had a Buick V6 once with a bad head gasket, therefore all Buick V6's have bad head gaskets. :sleep:
To get a big block into a 65/66 mustang you need to either remove the shock towers or bash them with your favorite BFH. I think the weight penalty would make it not worth it though. Im going either the ls1 route or a twin turbo'd SBF on mine
