Reply to "Mangusta Hi po Engine"

Bob,

I would expect that you would see an assembly date of "sometime" 1967 or 1968 in your car. We were lucky enuf to have #508 around here for a while....and I was able to look into that motor when the guy was freshening up the v/c gaskets etc.... It was a genuine hipo 289 with proper 67-68 date codes. I can't recall if I wrote them down anywhere....if I did...I can't recall where I wrote them.....but being an old Mustang/Cougar "by the numbers" sort of character, I was able to confirm all the proper hipo bits.....distributor, intake, heads (casting markes 12 or 23 in corners) and the fact that all of the manufacturing stamps were original on this particular car! Casting dates were also grouped close together...within a couple of months of each other! I would have expected that these engines came out of Ford "spares"..... Since you could still get a hipo 289 in 1968 in a Mustang etc, this was not a stretch for DeTomaso to get them. The 302 was not yet in production in 1967, not hitting the US production lines until 1968.

The only thing that differed on the early 289 cars was that they used a different bellhousing and smaller flywheel than the 302 cars.

I think that with other posts, we have figured that your car was one of the last cars to have a hipo in it! Guessing that perhaps 15-20 cars came with the engines. Once the 302 was available, it was most likely cheaper...!!! So guess what DeTomaso purchased???? Not a stretch here....!

Ping me if you need more help, but you can find date codes on Harmonic balancer, water pump, block, heads, intake, distributor, carb to start with. Flywheel also. The combo of date codes and "casting numbers" will tell you the rest of the story. Generally, it is accepted that all of the components should be dated within a 2-3 month period of each other, as some may have been stacked in bins....but figure that when an order went in for a batch of engines, that most likely the cast iron parts, heads, block, would be close. The aluminum intake could vary as it was probably an outside vendor (Buddy Bar?) that made it....flywheels and balancers could have been on the shelf for a while too.....

Nothing magical about these early engines....they came from Ford. nothing wrong with the 302's. They wind like STINK if you let the exhaust out...... Goose headers are very restrictive.....and the 302 heads will benefit from slight exhaust porting. (Intakes are FINE!) Stock valve springs will go above 5K, but usually the cam/spring combo was the shortcoming. However, this 302 engine, is exactly the same as the 302 used in every 4 barrel Mustang, Cougar, Fairlane, Comet with a manual transmission. No slouch.

If you are lucky enough to still have the small aluminum tag on your intake manifold, this will tell you exactly what car it was built for, when it was built and which revision it is. These tags are decoded in the front pages of the Ford Master Parts Catalog that is found on your Ford dealer's parts counter....or my garage....as I bought a copy of this book a long time back.....! Has been worth every penny....many times over!

Lemmeno if you have a tag and want it decoded. I know we have been over this before......

Ciao!
Steve