350 hp Shelby 289?

Hey Guys, I was looking through one of my books last night and read about the 350 hp Shelby 289 engine. I thought this was very interesting but wondered what kind of cam specs and compression this engine had. I know the factory high performance 289 only had around 271 hp and that cam had specs around 470 lift and 290 duration. (If I'm not mistaken) Back then that was a lot of horses out of a 289....how did Shelby do it?

It was 306 HP for the street GT350 in '65. Hi-po 289, Cobra Intake ( Edelbrock F4B really) Holley carb and tri Y headers with glass pack side exhaust. Not sure about the cam specs though.

I thought the 306 HP engine still had the 271's cam.

But, I maybe wrong.

One of the Shelby books mentions how it was done. But mainly it was a bomb ready to go off. Good for a few hours of hot running, or for drag racing only. Most folks settled upon the 300 HP version.


Wm.

After reading one of my old Shelby Americans it stated that the R model GT350's used ported heads with larger valves, different cam, some engines got 4 bolt mains added. They used baffled oil pans and had external oil coolers too. It does not specify 350 HP but I'm sure the R models approached that in that state of tune.

The little 289 was abandoned for the GT40 LeMans cars after '65 because they would crack/break their main journals before the 24 hours were met. The cross bolted 427 had no such dilemma and in '66 they handed a win to Ford ( actually a 1-2-3 finish)

Ford advertised 343 HP for the 289 using factory optional parts. I don't know about the longevity of the combo. I can supply you with the factory nos. if interested. Best regards.John--Las Vegas.

Juan, I'd like to see the cam specs for that 343 hp 289 cam...should be more lift and duration then the 271 hp 289.
As for the F4b being similiar to the Shelby aluminum dual plane high rise...yeah there similiar, I compared both one time and the Shelby is clearly taller and has larger runners as well. I bet the Shelby would out perform the F4b easy.

All I've been able to find out is the 350 hp 289 was a base 271 hp engine with some GT-40 mods added to it.

1) Shelby intake with a 715 cfm holley.
2) GT-40 heads which had bigger ports and valves
3) windage tray with deeper finned oil pan
4) Tri-Y headers
5) Cam (unknown at this time) solid lifter for sure.

Here is a kit claiming 367 hp from a 289-302... Makes me wonder how they are getting it.

eBay Motors: Edelbrock 2091 Ford 289-302 367 HP Top End Head Kit (item 140244190937 end time Jul-04-08 18:02:46 PDT)

They don't list the cam specs.

The cam no. was C40Z-6A257-A. My search engine for the master parts list does'nt work well so I really can't find the specs. This was an engine kit with the 4-2 barrel Weber carbs. Best regards. Juan--Las Vegas.

I don't think there was a problem with reliabuilt the cobras won every SCCA race that was held for three years . The engine that was having problems was the Aluminum over head cam small block ford was trying to run in the GT40 that was braking every race . Shelby turfed these engine for the cobra version and started winning races when the Gt40 was handed over to Shelby American .