Hi guys - not much of an expert in Ford engines. I have this old 289 I believe that I took apart for fun. Wanted to know how to read the stampings on it. Believe its a 64.

Also there is some serious damage to one of the cylinder walls you can see from the images. Looks bad to me. Do you think its worth re-building this engine? Can a machine shop do anything or is it just not worth the effort?

Thanks.




Damaged cylinder wall 1





Another view of the damaged cylinder wall





Block stampings

 

Looks like it's been sleeved already to fix the damaged cylinder. Are all the cylinders like this? This appears to be a 1964 casting, so it probably has a 5 bolt bell housing pattern. If you need a particular vintage of engine for date matching, or if you're trying to mate it to a similar vintage transmission, you would need a replacement block of the same era. But if all you're after is a small block Ford v8 engine to fit a newer transmission, lots of better cores are available for dirt cheap.

 

Thanks. The other cylinders are fine. I am worried about the integrity of that damaged cylinder and wasting too much money at the machine shop. I have access to another 289 and I am trying to learn about engine rebuilds and have a car in mind for the engine. I am not too worried about matching.

 

As mentioned, it's a 5-bolt block rather than the later 6-bolt so unless your project specifically requires the early bolt pattern for authenticity and to mate to the bellhousing/transmission, I'd look for another block to build. I don't see the sleeved cylinder as being that much of a problem if you do need to build it, but I'd go for a 6-bolt block personally. (The change from 5 to 6 occurred in 1965) And the 5-and-6 bolt patterns are not interchangeable:



However, if you do build another block I'd hang on to that one, 5-bolts aren't all that common any more and someone may need it at some point for an authentic restoration.

You can also use a 302 block and put the 289 internals into it.

 

Valuable information. Thank you.

 

I must say that's a real early block, July 2, 1963.

 

and seeing as it is an early 5 bolt block, it could also be a 221 or 260 block

 

that was my thought but casting number comes up as 289.