New Oklahoma member

Cessna 180 · October 6, 2024 at 12:14 AM

Hi all. New to this sight but not new to K cars and engines.

We used K 289s in our stock cars in the late 70s. My cousin bought a core for $325 and we all bought components for them over the counter.

I had a green 66 K coupe for a while. Myself and several of my friend's were Ford guys in the late 70s. Among us we had the 66 K coupe, a couple Boss 302s, a Boss 351, a 428 Cobra Jet Torino and (two Boss 9s that we never got running).

A non Ford friend of mine recently acquired and gave to me a disassembled HiPo289 engine. The well known and accepted story goes that in 1965 a Tulsa area Super Modified driver "ordered two 289 Cobra engines straight from Shelby in CA" to run in his Super. My friend was involved at the time and says the story is true and saw them run.

I sure wish i had a worthy purpose for this engine. It is a std bore block with no discernable wear.

Could anyone give me some insight on these 3 cams? The one stamped Cobra is interesting.

Side note: We own and operate a Machine Shop / Metal Fab shop, have raced sprint cars for 20 years, collect and restore vintage open wheel race cars and fly a Cessna 180.

Respectfully, Paul Martens

C6ZZKGT · October 6, 2024 at 3:15 AM Official Post

Welcome to the site, Paul

In regards to the engine assemblies from Shelby, these would interestingly NOT have a VIN stamp as they were not originally assigned to a Kar. Being as, generally, Hipo 289 engines installed in Kars were VIN stamped, my feeling is that the lack of a VIN stamp could be a tell as to their Shelby origin.

In regards to the camshafts, original Ford camshafts were identified by casting numbers between the lobes and and the main journal. I cannot duplicate the original Hipo 289 casting on a computer but it would be an upside down A next to a right side up E. Even that changed later in Ford replacements as they had what I remember as an F105 or something like that. Ford normally did not stamp the end of the camshafts with the one exception during the Ford Muscle Parts program era where the end was stamped with a medium sized C3OZ-C. That stamping is purely by memory as I only had one of those back in the day in the Muscle Parts packaging. I have a couple of boxes from Shelby where the camshaft and lifters were sold as a kit. Unfortunately, I do not have the parts and only the display type of boxes. Therefore, I am unclear as to whether Shelby ever stamped any of the camshafts as Cobra.

I hope that some of this information is useful for you. This is only my personal observations and not true Ford Motor Company memos. Our personal observations is the best that many of us on this forum can do. Although my long background working with Ford dealership parts has placed a lot of original Ford, Holman-Moody and Shelby parts publications in my library which helps a lot.

-Fred-

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