351W Cam in 289

[PRH]

I would think for a slight upper rpm HP improvement in a 289, while still retaining oem reliability, the early 351w non-HO cam would work okay.
The specs for a Clevite replacement(229-1655) are:
.416/.416, 270/270, 195/195, 107.5 lsa, in at 103

[PackardV8]

Being on a budget is tough, but might be better to save the gasket money for a set of used gears.

Agree. It took several years of my young life to learn the OEM heads are the bottleneck. Small cam changes can be felt somewhere in the rev range, but overall not much is going to happen.

[AllicanaFORD]

Yes, these heads can use working over. Nice small combustion chambers but bad exhaust flow, like all Fords I reckon. I'm told there is a lot to be gained by a simple gasket match on the exhaust side, some say its as good as a cam upgrade doing that alone with headers.
So its also another reason to not stress the "prefect cam" for now as the heads won't be coming off until they need to. As a reference they are essentially the same, same flow anyway, as a 271hp HiPo or 306hp GT350 which used .477/477 310/310.
If I fell some where between those numbers and where its at now I would be tickled pink.