hi all,
my '63 sports coupe did not come with it's original 221 V-8. instead it has a 289 backed by a C4 tranny. there is an engine tag on the intake manifold held in place by a bolt and it reads:
289 C 67 15
?-E 240-B
the spaces are intentional and the question mark prior to the hyphen is because i cannot see a figure or letter in this spot. i've tried some websites to help decode the engine with no luck. i'm guessing it's a 67 'cause of those numbers on the tag but beyond that i'm clueless.
if anyone can provide answers to what the numbers/letters mean, specifically about engine spces, i would very much appreciate it.
thanks!
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1963 Ford Fairlane 500 Sports Coupe-Viking Blue

It's not that hard to find anything on the Internet these days. Ford Engine Tag would have givien you a flood of hits, like this one: http://www.fordification.com/engineIDtags.htm

So you can see that you have (if the tag is in fact the tag for that engine) a 289 made at the Cleveland plant for a car in the 1967 model year, and reflects the 15th change to the basic engine configuration. Next line please: The first character would be the last character of the year the engine was built for the chassis it was intended to be installed in and it is probably a 7, the E is the month, being May for the 5th month (Ford skips I so not to be confused with 1), then the engine code ( the particulars of how the engine was to be finished: '66-'67 - A/T, w/Cruiseomatic or C-4) in this case, the 240 B means to put an automatic flywheel on the thing instead of a manual flywheel. The code would have also included things like does the engine get an A/C pump, a PS pump and other particulars. You also know that this is a C-code 289 2bbl engine.

So there you have it. Now go out and shop for the engine tag where the first character sequence is 427 or 428.

thanks so much for the website info. i "googled" the numbers but must not have used the correct keywords. i hear your advice on the big block but for now i'm gonna see what i can build out of this 289. don't want anything exotic, just a strong street runner.
thanks again for the information!
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1963 Ford Fairlane 500 Sports Coupe-Viking Blue