A little back story. 1967 289 with a C4 and 2.79 rear ratio
This is what I thought I had
I am working on a 67 289 with a Comp Cams 252H cam in it. Best manifold vacuum is 12” hg. That’s with ignition timing at 15 degrees and about 750 rpm.
The back story is that the engine was rebuilt in late 1998. The car was driven very little and then parked. The previous owner got cancer and passed away. The widow kept the car for several years until she remarried. Her new father in law went through the car and did a lot of work on brakes and everything else that dies from sitting too long, and got it running. As it turned out she never was comfortable in the car and decided to sell it. When I bought it the brakes would lock up if you touched the pedal. The booster was bad. There were also a ton of electrical “fixes” that I had to unfix and get it all working. Once I got it running I discovered that it made very little vacuum, not enough to make the booster work right and it was not wanting to shift out of first.
I found the paper work from the rebuild and it all looks reasonably good. TRW pistons that are .030 over L2218E. Flat top 4 relief design. Should make 9.6:1 compression with a 54cc head.
Summit used to offer kits. This was the FEM-CSMHP728-311: pistons rings main bearings rod bearings cam bearings oil pump and of course this cam.
At some point it also got an Edlebrock carb and single plane intake manifold.
How ever almost none of that was true. I took the rocker covers off to find this:
Now I find poor rocker arm alignment
The studs are screwed in so guide plates are probably in the future
And then this:
Well this doesn’t look good
Funny wear pattern inside the rocker
And then it gets worse. The fulcrum has worn a deep groove in the stud.
So I finally got the cam out and got my first big surprise.
What I found was NOT a Comp Cams 252H. It turned out to be a Crane H-288
I also found several lifters that were not holding pressure. So this one is a mixed bag all the way around. The bad part is that this car has a stock C4 with the stock torque converter and 2.79 rear gears.
So time for a new cam, lifters, springs, retainers and keepers.
I will be using this cam. I’ve been really happy with it in another car.
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I put all of that in and it fired right up sounded great and so I decided to to the cam break in. For about 12 and a half minutes it ran great and then I heard a tapping and it started to run just a little rough and then as I was getting to the key to shut it down I heard and expensive sounding TINK.
I pulled the rocker covers and found a bent and partially broken push rod. I pulled it and replaced it and reset the lash and fired it up. It started to develop a light tap and I shut it down. The replacement push rod was bent and the rocker arm was way out of alignment. Hmmm…
What I discovered next was that whomever installed the screw in Studs had most likely done it by hand. They were all crooked to one degree or another. This had caused some wear in the push rod alignment slots and it was allowing the rockers to rotate out of alignment with the valve stem. Crapola.
So I found a set of known good (I hope) J code 302 heads that were recently rebuilt and then replaced with aluminum heads. They included a nice set of roller rockers and the pattern across the top of the valve stem was perfect. All I needed to do was to transfer my new springs retainers and keepers to the ‘new’ 302 heads. I decided this would be easier with the 289 heads out of the car. Pulling heads is no big deal but they keep getting heavier…
SO on the bench I started pulling the springs. I did not flip the head over right away but when I did I discovered something I did not expect: huge valves.
This is a 1.94 intake
And 1.64 exhaust
And the pistons were also not what I expected.
I think this is a Sealed Power 7006P .030 over.
289 engine 4.030 bore x 2.87 stroke
old#7006P30—new# L2218F30
Forged street piston 293CI @.030
compression 9.68w/54.5cc,9.24w/58.2cc,9.00w/60.4cc,8.73w/63cc,8.17w/69cc
compression dist.-1.602
clearance-.014 deck, .005 skirt
flat 4 relief
rings-E-251K 30 sealed power moly, R-9903 30 Speed Pro plasma moly std.fit
R-9343 35 Speed Pro plasma moly file fit
5/64,5/64,3/16
pressed or floating pin
I think they will be okay with the heads I have
They were only made in 1968 and have a 4-v stamped on them. Chamber size is 52-55 cc, intake valve-1.773-1.788, exhaust valve-1.442-1.457. Compression ratio in theses engines ran 10.5/1.
I just want this run about like an original A code 289. Not building a race car, pure cruiser.
I am of course putting a new set of push rods in. I have inspected the cam as well as I can see it and the lifters and they all appear to be in good shape actually breaking in nicely.
What do you think I should do with the big valve 289 heads? Bury them out back? have a machine shop build them and then sell them?
I’m sure someone wants or needs those heads. They’re not making any more of them!
I have a few sets of 315 Windsor heads…
Bill,
My thought would be to sell the 289 heads as is with a full disclosure of their issues. That way the next owner can decide how they would like to repair the damage.
Randy Goodling
CCOA #95
