Steve Magnante's 1001 Mustang Facts. Steve Magnante

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СКАЧАТЬ settings. The heavy-duty C4 also received different gear ratios than the unit installed behind 6s and regular 2- and 4-barrel 289s. Standard C4 ratios were; 2.46, 1.46, 1.0, and 2.20:1 (First, Second, Drive, Reverse). The heavy-duty C4’s ratios were slightly tweaked: 2.40, 1.47, 1.0, and 2.00:1.

      63 Those 1966 Hi-Po K-code 289 Mustangers who didn’t want to hassle with a clutch pedal and shifting their own gears paid an extra $216.27 for the privilege. To Ford’s credit, the extra-duty 9-inch rear axle housing and differential remained part of the Hi-Po 289 package, regardless of whether the 4-speed stick or automatic transmission was chosen. Truth be told, the cushioning effect of the C4 automatic transmission’s torque converter would have muted the Hi-Po 289’s 271 hp and 312 ft-lbs of torque, allowing safe use of the standard V-8 rear axle and its smaller 8-inch ring gear.

      64 Even though Ford “softened” the Hi-Po 289’s image slightly with the 1966 addition of the C4 automatic, customers who sought the comfort of air conditioning were still out of luck. The Hi-Po’s solid lifters, stiff valvesprings, and superior breathing conspired to allow crankshaft speeds higher than the A/C compressors of the day could handle.

      65 Ever wonder how long it took to install Mustang engines on the Dearborn/River Rouge assembly line? Once again, the Martha and the Vandellas 1965 music video “Nowhere to Run” provides the answer: 20 seconds. If you watch frames 104 through 124, you’ll see a fresh A-code 289 4-barrel and 4-speed manual transmission being loaded (by one man) into the engine bay of a Mustang convertible. Watch it on YouTube today.

      66 Regardless of engine choice, Ford upsized radiator capacity throughout the 1966 Mustang line. The 6-cylinder cars were increased to 9.5 quarts (from 8.5) and V-8 cars were upgraded to 14.5 quarts (from 14.0).

      67 To shed critical nose weight on the 1965 and 1966 A/FX Mustang 427 drag race package cars, lightweight all-aluminum radiators were installed at the Holman & Moody Charlotte, North Carolina, build center. When painted, these units are indistinguishable from standard copper and brass radiators but reveal their dull aluminum finish from top to bottom when stripped. Also offered as over-the-counter service parts, these rare radiators have been seen on vintage Shelby Mustang road racers as well, although Shelby never included them as standard equipment.

      68 In 1965 Ford changed the number of bellhousing-to-block attachment bolts from five to six during the 1965 model run. The extra fastener was added to improve structural integrity and reduce NVH factors. Mating 1963, 1964, and certain 1965 289 engine blocks to later 1965 transmissions can be frustrating. All 260 V-8s had the five-bolt configuration.

      69 Carroll Shelby must have quietly cursed his initial decision to up-fit each 1965 GT350 with a cast aluminum, deep-sump oil pan bearing the Cobra logos on each side of the sump. Because his conversion plans didn’t include actual engine removal, the pans had to be installed with the engines still in the chassis. This was facilitated by work pits sliced into the floor of Shelby’s 6501 Imperial Highway LAX airport hangar/assembly line where laborers stood in 7-foot-deep troughs under the cars. A messy job, the Cobra oil pan swap involved removing the steering link and engine crossmember and caused much grumbling among employees. By 1967, the aluminum oil pan was dropped entirely. Modern Shelby Mustang restorers freely add the exotic pans to later (1967–1970) cars, creating the false impression Shelby continued their use after 1966.

       Iconic yet problematic, the GT350’s sump kick-outs added capacity and build time.

      70 The deepened, cast-aluminum oil pans were designed by Shelby’s Peter Brock with sidesaddle sump “kick outs” on each side of the aluminum casting. These boosted capacity (from 5 to 6.5 quarts) without compromising ground clearance. Inside, Brock incorporated spring-loaded trap doors to keep oil concentrated around the pickup screen during high-speed cornering. The stock K-code oil pans were made of stamped steel and featured fixed baffles that were lacking on base 289 pan stampings. While efforts were made to sell off the new take-off units, most of the 561 factory-fresh oil pans were simply thrown out with the trash.

      71 Lacking his own aluminum foundry, Shelby sourced many of his special aluminum engine parts (oil pans, valvecovers, intake manifolds) from the Buddy Bar Casting Company of South Gate, California. Still active today, Buddy Bar was founded in 1951 and was named whimsically by its founder, Bud Barksdale. Shelby wasn’t Barksdale’s only automotive customer. Ford collaborated with Buddy Bar Castings on countless projects/products including items for the 1960s LeMans and NASCAR Boss 429 programs.

      72 Buddy Bar wasn’t the only supplier of Shelby’s bolt-on aluminum engine parts. Offenhauser cast the majority of the dual-plane, single 4-barrel GT350 intake manifolds used in 1965; Dearborn Steel Tubing provided the finished machine work. Research is still active in pinpointing exactly where the intake manifold conversions were performed: on Ford’s Cleveland, Ohio, engine assembly line or by Shelby’s minions at the LAX facility. Such “open-heart surgery” on any engine is a highly warranty-sensitive topic (dirt entry, oil leak issues, etc.). Most automakers prefer not to have their engines opened up by pre-retail-sale mechanics.

      73 Another headache-inducing modification made to 1965 and 1966 GT350s was the substitution of the free-flowing 289 cast-iron Hi-Po exhaust manifolds with (even better) steel tube headers. Supplied by Cyclone, they helped boost output from 271 to 306 hp and had to be installed from underneath each car by the same pit workers in charge of the oil pan. Like the labor-intensive aluminum oil pans, the headers were dropped after 1966. Incidentally, Cyclone’s adroitness with precision-bent steel tubing resulted in a contract to supply four-point roll bars for the 1965 GT350-R Competition Model. At $5,995, only 36 R-Models were built. Records show the last one was sold during the 1967 model year.

       Shelby tried to find homes for the 2,939 sets of Hi-Po 289 exhaust manifolds removed from 1965 and 1966 GT350’s but in the end, the vast majority was scrapped. Fact No. 73 tells the exhausting story.

      74 After May 2, 1966, 289 small-blocks received a revised rocker arm with “side rails” added to center the rocker arm atop the valves-tem. Previous Ford small-block rocker arms relied on narrow, rectangular guide slots cast into the cylinder heads that maintained rocker-to-valve alignment via pushrod contact. The redesigned rocker arms, cylinder heads, and pushrods are not interchangeable. Taller rocker covers were needed to clear the revised rocker arms, giving late 1966 and 1967 289s a wider overall appearance than earlier engines.

      75 The Hi-Po 289 escaped the May 1966 switch to rail-style rocker arms. Because of its solid lifters, the Hi-Po was fitted with threaded rocker arm studs and locking nuts to allow for valve lash. (The hydraulic lifters used on the 200- and 225-hp 289s provide the lash and didn’t require this adjustability.) Thus, Hi-Po 289s built through the end of 1967 do not share their rocker arms, pushrods or cylinder head castings with lesser 289s.

SUSPENSION AND BRAKES

      76 The SOHC 427 engines fitted to Ford’s mini-fleet of ’65 Mustang A/FX drag cars were too wide to fit between the Mustang’s stock front spring towers. To make room, Holman & Moody removed the towers entirely and filled the gaps with flat metal panels. The stock coils and towers were replaced with a Ford-designed horizontally arranged torsion-leaf setup. Great for drag racing in a straight line, the torsion-leafs imposed drastic positive camber changes on hard acceleration, and street use was strictly forbidden by Ford. Engine bay space was so limited that the steering boxes had to be relocated outside of the frame rails, which disturbed steering geometry. The geometry issue was solved by sourcing Australian right-hand drive (RHD) steering boxes from Fords built Down Under.

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