Engine Detailing - How To: Detail A 289 Engine

13 Our engine's oil filter from the dyno test was still in place, and we won't take it off until after a few hundred miles of break-in. Instead of spending big bucks for the absolutely correct reproduction oil filter (we're going to drive it, after all), we purchased the Rotunda oil-filter decal from NPD. After careful measuring and taping, we made it fit the filter like a second skin so it would simply slide off and on. We should need only one decal a year, taking it off for oil changes and swapping it to the new filter.

14 To determine how to run the power brakes and automatic-transmission steel lines off the intake vacuum fitting, we looked through our shop manuals, Osborn Reproductions assembly manuals, restoration guides, and Bob Mannel's Mustang & Ford Small-Block V-8, 1962-1969. Some books showed both installed, like the erector set we built here. But we got the correct word from Mannel's book: For '66 Mustangs with an auto trans and power brakes, the booster got its vacuum from the intake fitting (steel line running toward the valve cover), and the auto trans sourced its vacuum from the check valve on the brake booster. Now we know.

15 For many, the chrome open-element air cleaner, factory on the Hi-Po but available as an over-the-counter option, is the showpiece of a small-block Ford. We wouldn't think of building a hot 289 without it. From NPD, the air-cleaner assembly comes with the decal and air filter with the proper blue base ready to be installed.

16 While a factory A/C car would have a clutch-type fan assembly, we're installing the extra-cooling five-blade fan and regular fan spacer. When we take our project to Classic Auto Air for the rest of the A/C installation, we'll have them upgrade to the seven-blade fan.

17 Because our distributor houses a PerTronix electronic ignition conversion, we wanted to make the extra wire as discreet as possible. We found an old elbow connector in our spare-wire-connector box, stripped it down, then soldered it to the PerTronix lead that goes to the negative side of the coil. A bit of shrink-wrap covered the connection and, at first glance, the connection looks factory. The positive wire from the PerTronix was routed discreetly behind the distributor and tapped into the factory coil feed wire.

18 On the dyno, we used the dyno headers since they were set up for the thermocouple probes the software uses to "see" exhaust temperatures. For our hidden power scheme on the 289, we shipped our NPD-supplied Hi-Po manifolds to Extrude Hone to be abrasive-flow ported, then dropped them off at Jet-Hot to be coated in their natural gray-iron, thermal-barrier coating.

19 The installed manifolds look great, and will for years to come. Some people remove the manifolds for cleaning and refinishing, but that sounded like too much work for us. Plus, the thermal coating reduces underhood temperatures and keeps the heat inside the exhaust for better efficiency. Next time, we'll install the transmission, starter, and other drivetrain components, along with our detailed engine. Then we'll fire up our Mustang project and get it to move under its own power for the first time in four years.