Intake Manifold

Intake manifold installed, exhaust manifolds installed engine painted and test fitting valve covers, carburetor, and air cleaner assembly.

But before installing, I added back the baffles on the underside of the intake.  Interestingly, in addition to the center baffle that is on all intakes, this also had the baffle at the back that was installed for intakes with a road draft tube -even though this intake was not machined for the road draft tube
(No hole at the rear).  This was presumably done because some non-hipo 289s got the road draft tube and front cover mounted oil fill tube, and it was easier to just install the rear baffle on all intakes rather than risk having one that was machined for the road draft getting released without the baffle, which would possibly result in oil leaking out of the road draft tube and the rear of the engine.

 Shown without rivets yet installed.

Another weird thing that cost a ton of time an effort was the plug for the rear lifter oil supply galleries, located at the rear of the lifter valley. 

This is supposed to have a 3/4" plug, but on this engine it took several cycles of trial and error before I finally found the right sized plug.  I've seen where other people have used the 3/4" plug, but had to stake it in place.  This is just another one of those weird things that is different about this transition period of 289 production - other 289s I've worked on the 3/4" plug worked just fine without staking.  Because the hole is slightly irregular, measuring the diameter gave varying results so I tried 3/4 too small, 7/8 too big , 51/64 too small, and finally 53/64" plugs. Of course, as luck would have it, the one that fit was discontinued and I ended up having to pay for the entire remaining box in the US, plus shipping to a local auto parts store in order to get just one plug - but I got it and it fit! 

Shot of an original plug on another 289 I have in the shop.

 Plug ready for driving in with a socket.

 I taped off the entire valley with plastic in case there were any shards of metal when I drove the plug in and I'm glad that I did, with the hole being slightly irregular.

 Plug driven in to the proper depth.