Boss Block and Stock Heads
 

How many more ways can Ford screw up a good thing? They made a great block with great materials and bulked it up in the right places but decided to shorten the bores for all the wrong reasons and there's something else that they screwed up.

They put scalloped water jackets on the outside of the deck so now you can't use a production heads on the block. The lip of the water jackets are uncovered with the stock head. That was never a problem with the R302 block. There were round holes drilled on that block. If you needed to you could just plug them.

I don't care who from Ford Racing comes on here and spews some reason for this stupid design. They just gave away business to Dart that did their homework and probably looked at heads and asked racers what their blocks should have and should not have.

At any rate, has anybody managed to make the Boss Block work with production 302 heads? I would be grateful to learn how since I now have a $2000 block that is worthless for stock and super stock.



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Re: Boss Block and Stock Heads
 

:):):)...well know the...dilemma...went same route when doing fresh motor for our stock eliminator fox body GT...ended up just purchasing the Dart...as well...nobody ever said..."engaging" with this Ford stuff...wuz gonna' be... ez...lol...Ford Boss block was/is nice though...!!! :):):)

Re: Boss Block and Stock Heads
 

Thanks. I've been a Ford man for 40 years and they just seem to go out of their way to make it almost impossible for drag racers to compete. They've been doing this forever. I don't know why I still bother. I mean why do they bother offering up a great new block only to limit its use. There is NO reason to do what they did with this block other than make it easier to do their stroker crate motors. To do what they did to the water jackets is special kind of stupid. I've have G-Blocks, R-Blocks, production blocks that never had a cooling problem. I have R-452 block from a winning nascar team that has round holes for the water jackets. What does Ford do? Create a new block and screw it up with stupid design "ideas."

I'm just baffled by it.

Re: Boss Block and Stock Heads
 

My superstock motor Kuntz did has a Boss block with stock cast iron E7TE heads. Might wanna ask them




Bret Velde
2003 SS/LA.

Re: Boss Block and Stock Heads
 

Boss Block, Iron (Explorer) GT40P's, Cometic .027 mlg , no issues

Re: Boss Block and Stock Heads
 

:):):) Hey...Good news is...thank goodness a whole bunch of guys WAY smarter than I...figured it out !!!...guess I gave up too ez...just moved on to Dart...old adage true...NEVER a day goes by...can't learn sumptin' 'eh...been that way...for lots of years...lol :):):)

Re: Boss Block and Stock Heads
 

That's good to hear but I put the heads on the block and there's water jacket openings as clear as day with an E7. It's not much but its there. I cant see how it would not leak since there's no head surface to seal the gasket to the block.

Since Ford made this great idea you would think they would make some kind of expansion plug for the holes. I may make my own punch and die but Ford should have already done that.

Re: Boss Block and Stock Heads
 

Thanks. I'll give them a call.

Re: Boss Block and Stock Heads
 

Cometic gaskets too





Bret Velde
2003 SS/LA

Re: Boss Block and Stock Heads
 

Ok just relax i had the same thing happen to me. Filled it up on the dyno poured out i looked like idiot. Had a machine shop put cast iron rod pressed in the block to fill those holes. Cost me $600 i think but all has been good, this is a stocker with e7te heads been this way for years now lots of runs on it. In the catalog there is fine print about this didn't see this till after the fact. Have pictures on an old phone can send you. Will be a couple of weeks till i get home, racing in Arizona right now.

Re: Boss Block and Stock Heads
 

Thanks James. I'm sure you understand my frustration over something that was totally avoidable. I read the small print and never in a million years would have guessed that the reason the block doesn't work with the heads is because of a change in the water jackets that serve no purpose. Anyway thanks and good luck in Arizona.

Re: Boss Block and Stock Heads
 

I had access to 68 J Code heads for $100 and this undid it. Can't blame Ford, though. They make it clear in the Product listing on the Ford Performance Parts website:

"Designed for M-6049-X306//X307/C3/D3/Z304DA cylinder heads. Not designed for production 302/351W or M-6049-Y302/Y303/X302/X303/X304/X305 cylinder heads"

That block worked OK on AFR 1399 heads with gaskets made for the 6010 block. They are GT40 castings. Gaskets must be straight on the exhaust side to keep the water where it's supposed to be. I'm switching classes with n351 iron heads and double checked with Mike Delahanty first. Used to be director of Ford Short Track Racing, so he knew the head.Got an answer lickety split! Rely on your peers.

Looks OK so far.

Don't go all BowTie on us, now...

James: Good luck and have fun. Hope to see you in the combo this year - SS/CS.

Re: Boss Block and Stock Heads
 

That's the thing. GM and Mopar to a certain degree go out of their way to help racers. Ford never has even with Glidden. Apparently they havent figure that out and they also havent figured out the people that race fords usually buy fords for their daily drivers. Ive probably spent at least a half a million over my lifetime buying ford products and for what? How many of us have done the same thing?

Why is it so difficult for Ford to understand that if they put some effort into supporting drag racing they might actually get something in return. They don't support the guys who race fords without any help from them. How many guys have record setting cars that they developed over years and even decades and have gotten no support from ford? Not a block, not a set of head, not even a manifold or a few grand to help them out.

GM has been there for their people and thats why people race GM products and buy GM cars and trucks and so do their family members.

On another note. The N heads are great heads. But just like everything, Ford changed the casting so now you can't raise the roof like you could before with the early casting. If the roundy round guys weren't able to raise the port roof then they could have either milled it out from the top or left it there. The drag racing guys could still raise the roof if the material was left where is should have been left. Now that's gone. They could have even helped promote the N-head in CS and get guys out there to dominate the class but never did. They left them to do it on their own and only a few guy have. Now its to late since you can use aftermarket heads in CS.

The lack of vision at Ford has no end. It wouldn't have cost them anything to leave the N-head material where it was or to just drill holes in the Boss block like they have for 30 years with their others blocks. It just seems they go out of their way to stick it to drag racers unless you put up the cash for a new Cobra Jet. Lets see how long that lasts.