This is a little off the y subject but there is a guy who swears he has a boss 302 motor I can get dirt cheap, anyone know how to positively identify a boss motor, He wants me to look at it in the morning.

I know what the heads look like with the huge porting, but elsewise I haven't a clue other than the casting numbers should be something like C9AE or D0AE.

Anty help so I don't just get a regular 302 would be appreciated.

55 Vicky & customline

58 Rack Dump, 55 F350 yard truck, 57 F100

59 & 61 P 400's, 58 F100 custom cab, 69 F100, 79 F150, 82 F600 ramp truck, 90 mustang conv 7 up, 94 Mustang, Should I continue?

Boss 302s had steel cranks, now if you can verify that you may be on to something. For the street because of the BIG ports in the heads they were not really that a bad ass as one would think.

-Gary Burnette-

Is the engine out of the car? I seem to remember that the freeze plugs on the side of the block where screw in?? Makes for a easy check. Also if the pan is off they had 4 bolt mains. The crank was forged steel.



And Gary is right, the Boss didn't make much power below ~4000 RPM.



I think they were made only a couple of years so if the price is right I would say go for it, you maybe able to sell it to someone that needs one for a Boss 302 restoration$$$





Johnson Rod



Southern California

Thats what I was thinking to turn it over to someone restoring a Boss, and now that the fog is clearing I think you are correct about the freeze plugs being screw in. My buddy had a book on boss motors that I borrowed for a while and read it a couple times, he had a Boss 351 which they made only 1 year in 1971 and only like 634 of them or something like that. The boss 302 was only made in 69 & 70 and I think only around 900 something were made or that number per year, (can't remember, I wish I still had that book in front of me)

I do know the Boss 302 and 351 used the same heads and they were solid lifter motors (Like a Y)

I am going through another party on the information and I asked him to call the guy and ask what year the motor was and he answered 1968 so being used in a 69 model year the block could read C8AE etc whereas the 69 model comes out in September of 68, so the year is in the ballpark. Thanks for the reminder on the freeze plugs.

If I haven't been given a bunch of BS I may have stepped in some S*#@.

55 Vicky & customline

58 Rack Dump, 55 F350 yard truck, 57 F100

59 & 61 P 400's, 58 F100 custom cab, 69 F100, 79 F150, 82 F600 ramp truck, 90 mustang conv 7 up, 94 Mustang, Should I continue?

Have you tried a web search of Boss motors? Gotta be a club or web site on them...





Johnson Rod



Southern California

Billy,

        The Boss 302 did NOT use the same heads as the 351 Clevelands. Common misconception. The Boss was basically a Windsor, and the cooling arrangement in the block is substantially different between the two motors. The boss will be a Windsor Head with the Cleveland style canted valves and the huge ports you remember. We may have all been wrong on the actual horsepower though, they had one at the Pure stock drags in Stanton. It went 12's! They guy who built it is a magician with engines, but he doesn't cheat. I'd expect the car to be an optimized car but the thing made unbelievable power for 302". It was quicker than several Cobra Jets.

      There were no 68 Bosses, Only 69 (Big intake Valve) and 70 (small intake) other than that there was a 68 Tunnel port Windsor used in Trans-Am, good luck finding one of those!

Frank/Rebop

Bristol, In ( by Elkhart) 

Frank,

I didn't say it had the same heads as the cleveland, I said it had the same heads on the "Boss" 351. only 634 or something like that made in 1971. The Boss 351 was one of the fastest cars ever produced from the factory because of the weight to power ratio, I read somewhere where it was in the high 11's out of the box. I also know that it had the highest compression ratio of any engine produced in 1971, If I recall it was like 11.7 to 1. Remember this was the year that all the other manufacturers dropped ratios and horsepower but Ford snuck this one in on them. My buddy had one with only 19,000 original miles and I went for a couple rides with him and looked the car over on a lift several times, it still had the factory exhaust and tires, Detroit locker with factory traction bars etc, it literally screamed.

It was rated at only 330 hp but being a solid lifter motor I think it was a little underated.

55 Vicky & customline

58 Rack Dump, 55 F350 yard truck, 57 F100

59 & 61 P 400's, 58 F100 custom cab, 69 F100, 79 F150, 82 F600 ramp truck, 90 mustang conv 7 up, 94 Mustang, Should I continue?

Besides the screw in freeze plugs, look for the Cleveland style of heads but the thermostat housing on the Boss 302 will be located on the intake manifold like a 289/302 engine whereas the 351C engines had the thermostat housing mounted on the block and in front of the intake manifold.  Boss 302’s also had aluminum intakes so if you find an engine with a cast iron 4V intake, it’s going to be something besides a Boss 302.

The valve sizes in the '69's were extremely large and killed the bottom end.  Valve sizes were downsized in '70 to permit the engines to make more lowend torque.  I had a '69 model early on and ultimately replaced the original Boss 302 with a 427 High Riser and never looked back.  Many years after I got rid of the car, it was eventually restored back to original.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

[quote]Y block Billy (10/3/2008)

---

Frank,

I didn't say it had the same heads as the cleveland, I said it had the same heads on the "Boss" 351. only 634 or something like that made in 1971.

Billy, I'm not positive on this one, but I always thought the "Boss 351" was a 4 bolt main-solid liftered Cleveland based thing. So the heads wouldn't have interchanged.  They were strong motors, no doubt. '71-72 was like now, everbody was worried about insurance rates, you had trouble giving muscle cars away. By '73-74 it got ridiculous.

Frank/Rebop

Bristol, In ( by Elkhart) 

Frank,

I believe the boss 351 did have a cleveland style base but I know for a fact that they had the same heads as the boss 302. one day we had 3 different cars with 351's together, one windsor, one cleveland (or should I say M), and one boss and believe it or not they were 3 different sizes. The Boss 351 was its own beast of all the best of everything and it had all kinds of low end (they must have figured it out by 71) and when stomped on in 2nd gear would put the car sideways.

55 Vicky & customline

58 Rack Dump, 55 F350 yard truck, 57 F100

59 & 61 P 400's, 58 F100 custom cab, 69 F100, 79 F150, 82 F600 ramp truck, 90 mustang conv 7 up, 94 Mustang, Should I continue?