HOW TO: 400-HP SBF POWER COMBOS 

From 255 hp to 459 hp with a top end kit on the junkyard 351W bottom end was impressive. The fact that it improved lower end torque significantly too is even more impressive.

And this is the one where most folks will live. Nice.

Wow, that camshaft really improved the whole curve on that little engine that could.

I'm old. I grew up in the late 60s and have had the pleasure of driving and owning almost every one of these pushrod engines on this site. My first car was a 70 1/2 Z28, when they couldn't give it away because of the gas wars. it wouldn't even start on the brand new at the time, regular unleaded. I have family that has worked for airlines for most of my life, so I could get enough avgas to mix up batches to make it fly. Few years ahead, I got ahold of a 71 Boss 351 Mustang. I don't care what anyone says, that car would spank my old Z28, any day of the week. The car was huge, and terrible to try to back out of parking spots, but by far it was one of the fastest stockers I have driven. It pulled from idle to red line, never missing a beat, and many big blocks were left in it's dust. Someone else wanted it worse than I did, and I messed up and sold it. I still miss that one more than most of the others I've had, with the Z coming a close 2nd.

This is the best ford small block series I have ever watched.Richard has out done his self again.The man is a Ford genius..He's like a FBI investigator just the facts man.

And that's why I've had my Boss 302 since '75, though, sadly, the car it came in has been gone many, many years. All the nay-sayers scoffed at the non-Chivvie with ludicrously "mismatched" cylinder heads, but any time I had a fairly well-matched combo of parts in it, it exceeded expectations. This will probably be my last build on it since I'm an antique, and it is now out to .060 over, as well. With the good parts I got together for it, and the fact that the heads have FINALLY been cleaned up from factory as-cast form, I expect it will perform better over a broader range than it has before, which will be going some. Wish I had a bunch of buddies with a dyno, 'cause I'd love to compare what it ends up doing to my next build-up, which is a "mock" Boss or Clevor with AFD aluminum heads, a "better" (I think) intake, and parts less slanted to an old school vibe. Nice to have stuff like Richard puts out, that goes for the real effect of architechtures and parts choices, not "common" knowledge that ain't always rooted in unbiased fact.

It looks like that upgraded cam in the Boss wanted to rev to 8,000

Been waiting on this Richard.

Been waiting all day for this video. Thanks!!!

Woohoo, Boss, fingers crossed it doesn’t let us down, luv your videos Richard.

This video confirms why I like Cleveland heads so much. I saw a dyno comparison with a boss 302 and a boss 351, they made identical peak power, the 351 just made a lot more low end torque

Love your stuf! Keep bringing the great information.

Awesome series I have learned so much for my build.

absolutely love these videos thank you for your time sir

I enjoy all of your videos! I'd enjoy if you were to ever do an all efi 302 videos. I'd just want to see the cheapest top end efi kit to the most expensive top end efi kit

In Australia, we didn't have Boss 302 engines in our factory Fords but 302/351 Clevelands. Although Clevors (Boss), Windsors block/Cleveland heads are popular now days because of all the aftermarket Windsor stuff available from the US.

Best series ever! 👍

Love the ford stuff!!!

Would love to see a junkyard dog special using gt40p heads (explorer for instance) and see what you could make as far as a low buck special . Loved this too btw. Thanks for the hard work you guys put into this!

Great video series!!

91👍's up Richard thanks again for taking us all along with you for the rest of the story

Richard I know this is extra work but if possible listing the parts separately for each combo would help so we could study and make better decisions based on budget constraints. Thank you for consideration of my request. Your videos are great. Mark

What about 400hp efi combos surely you have done some rpm 2 or Holley systamax 2 combos that make over 400 not every one wants to run a carby

Love the vids Richard, any chance we can do same video back to back with different EFI systems and manifolds. Keep up the great work

351W had the giant leap of power,over 200hp increase,those motors are great,Windsors and Clevelands.

🔔👍 Love the SBF stuff!! Im stuck in 1990 with a stock 5.0 GT HO fuelie T5. 25 yrs. It has all been tried. Where can I get reasonable hop up information for this fuelie? Thanks for your great videos.👍 YeeeeeHaaaaaw!!! 😁😁😎

Always wondered how my combo would make power. 351W, 10.5:1, ported TFS170's, Comp 35-518-8, RPM Aig gap with a 600CFM TBI through shorties. Thanks for all the testing!

I've been watching the Touring Car Masters from down under (and I love it) ! They've got some of their stuff running out past 8300 ! Sounds great , and if you don't believe me , it's on you tube .

The BOSS 302 rules!!! Many moons ago, I passed on a set of Boss 302/351C heads. As a young hotrodder, I was told that these big port heads on a small motor would not make any power below 5K rpm-myth busted!! Have you run the 351C 2V heads, with smaller ports than the 4V and open combustion chamber-good enough for a boosted application?

My sbc was a 355 untill it ate 3 roller tappets,when I tore it down ,I went with a 3.750 crank 13.7 to 1 slugs and just went with a lil bigger cam @.615/.625 .I home ported the heads myself wp angle plug 64cc iron heads .010 off the heads .my port job was little more than deburing ..haven't dynoed it just dropped it in and run it ..the difference was something I'm quite satisfied with.

Gotta love that 218 likes and zero dislikes good job richard

Richard, take the 306 that u got and put a solid flat tappet cam with duration in the 250 plus area and around 600 lift with a victor jr intake and lets see what it makes. I had this combo and it was a screamer.

This is awesome

thanks for including us Aussies!

I’d be curious as to how much power you’d get extra on the boss/cleveland 4v heads with the exhaust port plates that fill in the bottom of the exhaust ports between the headers to prevent the tumble that the exhaust ports are notorious for. Some people use to epoxy them in for a higher port shape and claimed to get significant power increases

Hey Rich, can you try getting your hands on a set of the new AFR 185 “as cast” heads. I think they call them ENFORCER heads. Maybe try them on this 347 so we can compare them to the trick flow “as cast” heads?

Just start with a 351w, preferably a 93 up so you got a roller cam. A half inch more stroke, right at 6" connecting rods! I'm 63, been hopping up these things for 45 years! Find a 351w, unless it won't fit! If not, sell that and get a fox body!

Ford Man is pleased. boss 302 with the same cam I ran in the edelbrock top end kit.. Explains why it wanted to rev to 8000 rpm..

@Richard Holdener Do you remember a magazine car way back in the day (MMFF?) Fox Mustang with Saleen kit, the motor was Vortech/Paxton supercharged with the carb mounted on the intake side of the supercharger. It used a fuel solenoid from a nitrous kit to prime the motor.

High school buddy had one was ah blast like to find a Boss 302 set-up

Us aussies do like Boss 302s, but we never got them here. We did have a 302 Cleveland, which shared the same parts with a 351 except for crank, rods and the closed chamber 2V heads. This is where "Aussie 2Vs" come from. Only 302Cs got them.

Boys in Australia 👍👍

I love the 351c/w combos. Such an old idea yet it works so well. I have a set of clapped out closed chamber 4v heads. Makes me want to drag them out again.

Big fan of clevors after spinning the big ends on my basically stock cleveland through draining the oil pan into the heads. I couldn't find one of the bearings until I realized the two halves had fused into one. The horror.

Could you please show the power figures with the Four Hole Spacer. I was looking at a 1 inch fourhole spacer for my 308/ 5 Ltr Holden V8 motor that runs a .214@ .050 lift camshaft.

Do a dyno pull with a HCI 302 then put 180 degree headers on and see what kinda power gains you get from them.

Right on

Richard have you tested any Anderson Cams in any of your Ford testing?

Richard .. I've watched enough of your videos to be halfway dangerous ..I want to try my hand at a twin turbo set up on a 1987 5.0 using a blow thru carb ..I need some advice .. do you have a min to help a man out ??? I trust you 100%

Will you be doing more testing of the cadillac 500?

I bet that thing could crank out some good power with bolt on parts.

I have a comp cams xe274hr and I am not sure if would have enough PTV clearance on a stock 1992 ford 302 roller motor with an afr 165 heads?

Keep putting more cam in that Boss 302! I want to see it at 500 hp.

Any Piston to valve clearance issues when slapping those 185cc heads on stock block (assuming stock pistons not notched for 2.02+ valves)? My edelbrock 2.02s hit factory style piston.

I have to say, I was not impressed with the valve springs TFS put on their TW heads. I had one break with less than 20k miles on an E-cam. Motor was 4yo and driven 5kmi a year give or take. However, it did give me a good excuse to ditch the terrible E-cam (terrible for anything but a stock engine IMO) and put an XE270HR in its place. The TFS heads don't work with the springs on the cam card, so I picked a set of 330lb/in springs. 165lb on the seat, 330lb open, .530 max lift. XE270HR with .512 lift worked great, the TW heads fall flat after .500 lift anyway. That is a great cam for a TFS TW head and street manifold combo, roughly 10.3:1 compression. Makes lots of torque and pulls to 6k.

Could you show 351w bore 40 over with victor drag head 205cc cam lift 650

Richard, Would a spacer work on that Boss 302 combination?

But what about the truck intakes?!! I found an edelbrock efi truck intake at a local junk yard and have been curious what the do to the curves

So 408w with Cleveland heads! 550hp good to know

Hey @richardholdener1727 love your videos! I'm in the process of swapping a EFI 351w over to a carburetor and was wondering if there was any issues when you swapped this one you used in the video? Did the Intake fit right up? does it just take any normal 351w distributer? Someone was telling me the deck height changes on the 351w EFI compared to the Carbureted version.. any input helps! thank u!

I currently run a 331 in my Maverick with afr 185 and a 281hr cam with 1.7 rockers. Happy to assume i make at least 400 hp

i wanna see what someone could do with ported e7 heads on a budget really see what that head is capable of ive ported a few sets and they have so much meat to take out and shave 20 tho off the deck and that 274 cam

I feel like you should include a $ per HP gain for each of these. Excluding the stock engine cost of course.

Richard, I am super impressed with the 351w. Did you have valve to piston clearance issues with the 351 stock bottom end and the healthy .573/.582 lift cam?

How about building an EFI 302?

Fords boss to dodge’s judge. Who has the authority??? Thanks Richard

So how much horsepower can a 302 block actually handle? I seem to be hearing different answers.

Hey Richard! You've probably done more cam swaps than most people, so what is your opinion on installing and breaking in a used flat tappet cam in a new block? Precautions, procedures, caveats?

Hey Richard, do you think the tfs3 cam will fit.?In the explore engine. Without Ptv clearance? Thanks for all the info you are sharing.

HOW TO: Big Block ford FE hp series...PLEASE! I NEED ANSWERS! FOR MY 428 IM BUILDING SOON

Is that their 1 inch spacer?

How hard would it be to get your hands on a 7.3L engine in the new super duty? I would like to see you run some test on the new pushrod engine 🤔.

I'm missing the blast of engine sounds. pulling down on the dyno.just me being the motor head I am

What distributer were you using on the 302?

To be honest I'd build a 331, and if that wasn't enough I'd go straight to a 351w. Especially for combos in the mid 400hp range. The boss and cleveland engines are high RPM BREATHERS!

Hey Richard how much more do you think a set of TFS 192 high ports would get you on that 351w setup

What happened to low-down 5.0 mm/ff procomp heads intake Back in 09 I think 🤔 made a wink under 400hp for 1000$ with a relatively small cam .

On the 400 hp 302 with the spacer did adding the spacer to the dual plane drastically change cab jetting?

Richard is it plausible to build an adapter to go from the 5.0 lower to a gt500 eaton supercharger...? You know a plate that matches the 8 hole lower and a plate for blower and connect them? Or the possibility of adapting a 177ci Weiand street blower lower to a modern supercharger? I'm a professional fabricator/welder so custom fabrication isn't an issue.

Love a Windsor 5.0i Oo===oO

I am building a .060 over 351w for a boat. I have a set of fresh stock heads from the Cyclinder Head Shop. Using a xe274 with 10 degrees lobe separation flat tappet cam and 9 to 1 comp will it make 300 hp?

Been running sbfs since mid 70s, they always responded best with bigger cams. Especially with solid lift cam. Don't understand why everyone today run such small cams with way too much duration. Hell with driving a hotrod 20mph , it's a hotrod!

I can't wait for the 500hp stuff... But what happened to the 289?!? *sad panda*

Kind of curious about my combination. 5.0 with AFR 195 58cc chamber Renegade heads, pistons have a 6.8cc dome, E303 cam, TFS R EFI long runner, 75mm throttle body, 1 5/8 headers, 1.82 rockers and about 11.25 compression. It seems to pull really hard from around 2k to 6k.

Awwww, I was really hoping the 289 would make it into the 400 HP combo video.

What's the trick to Installing the TFS stage 2 cam in a stock shortblock? I've read and read you can only run about .520 max lift for enough piston to valve clearance. I want to duplicate this combo on my 88 stock piston shortblock

The 11r heads on the first engine, the 302. Must have been the 190 intake runner to make that power?

How do the boss heads compare to a modern aftermarket Windsor head?

This might be a amateur question.. but would these numbers be the same for a 302 out of a 68 mustang? If I followed the same setups? It is a 302 but just wanted to know before I start my project!

seems rare to hear about Canfield heads anymore. they use to be the hot ticket.

Was waiting for the Pro Comp / Speedmaster cylinder heads. $600 a PAIR !!!

The 302 that used in the test was a stock motor?, having enough PTV clearance with those high lift camshafts?

I'm sorry if I missed it but what valve springs do you recommend for a 5.0 gt40p.

Let’s make 1000hp on 302 stock rods and stock crank and gap the rings sling the rods out the oil pan................ go for it Richard

**What's wrong with my 400hp combo? 95 mustang 302. Stock bottom end, TFS Twisted Wedge 11R 190 heads (66cc) with Ford B303 cam, Ford stock Cobra intake, Procharger P1SC (8psi) with 3 core intercooler. Made 400 rear wheel hp at 6000 rpm. I know I lowered the compression going to the 66cc heads, but I figured it would do better than that. Any ideas?

Didnt the factory Boss 302 have the 289 HIPO cam ?? specs are identical.

Tell me again why people claim those 4V Cleveland heads don't make torque? I have a pair in my parts stash I'm building a 400M to use them on. I'm working on the operative theory that the hot ticket for this motor will be a hydraulic roller cam with relatively mild duration, but nearly .600" lift at the valve.

So just a quick question BluePrint engines 306 Has 386 hp And 370 TQ What would you think would be RWHP. C4. Auto.

It’s so easy to take a 351W and build a 427 that makes 600+hp and great torque I don’t understand why anyone would even mess around with a 302 anymore except for the BOSS 302.

Whats the compression ratio for the 347