’67 Ford Mustang engine install

Hi Gang! Dne’ here! This little story is about the engine that I chose for my 67 Mustang! I don’t know why, but I began looking for a drive train for my Mustang a little too soon! I was so excited!  I had much to do before actually needing an engine, transmission, drive shaft and rear axle!

If one looks intensely enough,  whatever you want, you will find! I found everything mentioned above in Dallas,Tx. A young man had a ’67 Mustang and was installing an expensive engine, but didn’t need his old stuff~ I bought his old used engine, and drive train! ; )  I pulled a trailer there, about a 4 hour drive, he loaded it~ and I was happy!

Now I’m not much on rebuilding engines, but I took this engine apart and had parts all over the place! So I began a search for someone to overhaul this engine! So I found and engine builder on Ebay of all places! and he lives in Spring, Tx, not far from my home! I called him, his name is Herb. He came over to our home that same day, and introduced himself~ I was impressed at his manners and just overall~ well, just a calm man who knows his stuff! He loaded my engine and took it to his home where he works on all sorts of engines, even ships them all over the U.S.A.! Unfortunately, this engine that I had hauled all the way home was worn out and useless except for certain parts.

I still have this intake manifold! It’s a boat anchor! and surely could be used for one. No one wants it! : (

Many months later and a crazy amount of work~ my engine compartment is ready for an engine! The Flaming River rack is installed, the brakes are done! I’m ready for an engine!

At this point, Gary (hubby), was out of town and I was dying to install this engine! I will have to do this ALONE! eeeek!

Installing the engine/tranny wasn’t as bad as I had anticipated! I had it all ready, tranny attached, and eventually the exhaust headers installed.

I can do this! I had the back of my stang really high as I needed to get under it to make sure all was going well and to hook up the transmission cross member.

However~Problem 1~ There are always problems! lol The shorty headers did not work with the Flaming River rack and pinion as you may see in the photo below~ the engine will not go in! “Houston, we have a problem!” I removed the headers and let the engine the rest of the way down, BUT~!

Problem 2! The frame supports that hold secure the engine supports did not fit together! I was “this close” to drilling the holes and making them larger, but found out that there is a subtle difference between the 67 and 68 frame supports. It took a few weeks, but I finally found the correct frame supports!

After installing the new frame supports, here is the engine finally bolted down to its new home~ ; ) I was happy! ; )

I have a beautiful engine! I would hate to know I had to take it back out, but in another blog post, you’ll see an issue that arose where I had to take much of this engine back apart! yikes! 🙁

Though problems arise; problems are resolved! Let me introduce you to my “new” engine! My 289 engine (punched out 0.40 over)! It’s not a high performance engine, but runs great!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this part of my build; ) or if you should need and engine builder, contact me and I’ll get you in touch with Herb! Be sure to subscribe to my website and follow along! dne’