Ford 289 in an Isuzu

Anyone ever done this? Can anyone tell me what problems I may encounter specifically from doing this swap? Also is there anything that may go fairly easy for me. I can across a great deal on this rebuilt 65 HIPO motor and I couldn't resist. I mainly bought it for the size and the distributor being in the front. Only after did I find out it was a HIPO block and the heads were built up too. I also heard alot of people prefer this motor to the 302 and say it is a great little motor to build upon. Lemme know what you guys think. Thanks for the help.

i'm staying with chevy, its a little more work with the firewall and such, but much cheaper in the long run. i would like to see how the ford fits though. I'm cutting out most of my firewall for the chevy one since I wanna have it positioned as far back as possiable. I think i'm only going to have about a 2.5 foot drive shaft. LOL

Anyone else ever gave this a shot or have any comments on the performance of the 289 engine? Just curious what your opinions are. This enigine is gonna be a tough build and install but will be well worth it. I can hardly wait!!

Well I dont know much about ford motors but a chevy 350 is cheap to build and reliable. That and it fits really good in a Isuzu engine bay.

anymore inputs??

get naked and dance

I think it's really the same as a 302, just different stroke... outside dimensions should be identical I think... That chevy vs ford shit has changed a lot over the years, used to be that nobody made anything good for ford, but you can get some good cheap shit for them these days.

The down side to me is that ford shit just isn't as interchangeable as chevy shit. But that could have just been my bad experience trying to get a pulley set up to work, and if your engine is complete then you probably won't run into those kinda problems either...

Another thought...

You might be better off selling that 289 to someone that needs it for a restoration project... not sure if it'd get a premium price or not though. Assuming it would, I'd recommend picking up a 302 from a late 80's early 90's mustang GT. They came with forged internals and can be pushed pretty far... check out this article :

http://carcraft.com/techarticles/50452/

If you do go that route, be aware that one year (i think 87) had flat top pistons that won't work with some aftermarket heads too... I'm not 100% sure on that though, so just double check if you do it!