"The guy who did
the deed was an ex-Rootes Group (U.K.) Technician. He is a competent
mechanic, with little experience with SB Ford engines. But he knew the right
questions to ask, and to whom to ask them, as well as where the shops that
could do the machine work were located."
It seems a contradiction, your UK mechanic has little experience but knew the
right questions to ask????
" Controversially, he was told by his U,S. "expert" friends that early 289
blocks had thicker cylinder walls than later ones (when did they change the
castings?) And as the story goes, the shade tree race mechanics of the day
discovered that you could bore these early blocks to .100" and they would
actually run cooler (!) Than the stock blocks.
The later blocks, also as this story goes, were cast with thinner walls to
access this extra cooling factor.
I am looking forward to getting straightened out on this thick-walled block
story: truth or fiction?
I think there are more of these over-built engines out there."
Some possible answers to your story:
1) Maybe you actually have a 302 instead of a 289 and the stroker kit was
installed in the larger engine.
2) Could it be your inexperienced mechanic was in cahoots with the machine
shop and billed the sh*t out of you for nothing. In other words, you may have
a 260! And I quote: "I wrote cheques. Lots of them"
3) You have found the holy grail of Ford 289s. The super secret, Carroll
Shelby, Ford experimental, Doane Spencer ("I can get 350 hp out of a 260!")
magic 289 block that can be bored out without regard to water jackets and
still run cooler. Very rare indeed, possibly the only one in existence!
Jeff
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