The Boss has been good to me for 8 years. Its time to give her a little love. Nothing crazy, just some maintenance and updates.

What do I work on?? Oil system, Exhaust, Valve train are almost all stock. Knowing oil pumps and valve springs have failed and lead to destroyed engines. I think these are a great place to start.

Oil. I have a Moroso aluminum pan in the shop. This along with a new pump are planned. Which Pump?? Suggestions?

Valve train. Valve Springs will be changed. Do I go with stock Boss replacements, Livernois drop in replacements or blow my daughters inheritance on the PAC springs? A new billet sprocket will also go in. Which one? Chains, tensioners other parts?? Suggestions.

Exhaust. Looking at the long tube set up from ARH or Kooks. I will keep the side pipes, she sounds great with the side pipes and want to keep that sound. I'll get with Shaun at AED for a turn.

What will the car be used for?? Some street driving, HPDE and TT. She has 14,000 miles and has no issues.

Suggestions, other items to freshen up for durability??

14,000 miles!!! Its just barely broken in!!

Yep. Its a toy, not transportation.

Just don't ignore her. Heck, even I got a bit intimate with you KB Boss! She loves to run. You can't let her sit, gotta share some track tyme between the 302 and 350.

A Boss craves attention..I know my does!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm curious what others think about this plan. I too have 14,000 miles on my Boss and it's now a dedicated track toy. I have no issues with the motor. It doesn't use oil and runs to 7800rpm at will. I already have the Moroso pan, Kooks LTH, intake and 100 octane tune. I am looking to get a HP bump without a refresh as I don't see any reason to take the motor apart. My plan was the L&M cams, CJ intake and tune. I was even wondering if this can be done with the motor in the car to save time/money. Should I do the same as TMSBOSS and swap out the potential trouble areas like valve springs and oil pump at this time?

Doc

I am hoping someone can share experiences with oil pumps swap/install. Did they go with the Boundary pump or the Ford piece? I have heard of problems with a gear swap using the original housing so I'll stay away from that. Complete pump only. Is the extra cash for the Ford pump worth the money??

Valve Springs? Boss or big bucks, thoughts?

Can Cams be done in the car, sure. Would it be easier with the motor out, yep. Except for the whole removing the motor bit. If you have a lift and can then "Remove the car from the engine". This should be the easy route. Pulling the engine from the top, not so much.

Valve springs for sure. Cams with more aggressive ramp rates need to have stiffer springs. If the valves themselves have hollow stems/are sodium-cooled, make sure that the spring seat and open pressures aren't too high for them, or that the valve-spring-cam combination has been verified by a Spintron test.

I'm mentioning that ^^^ because a fast guy in our area just experienced valve stem breakage on a motor that had been upgraded to double springs (LT1-powered 6th gen SS/1LE @ 7250 rpm, or about 750 rpm above OE redline; engine seemed to be fine as long as the rpms were was held under 7000).

I don't know if the oil pump can be done with the motor in the car.


Norm

14,000 miles. I’d leave it alone for now. I had 44K on mine before I thought of doing anything. But then again it is your car and money so do what you like. That’s just my .02

byronj said:

14,000 miles. I’d leave it alone for now.

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My thoughts exactly.

Norm Peterson said:

Valve springs for sure.

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That's what I didn't want to hear lol. I realize it's easier to drop the motor out the bottom but I only have the Quick Jack so not enough room. If I drop the motor then I might as well do the heads and oil pump and now it becomes a bigger check to write. I just need something now that will get me by until I really need to rebuild....hopefully not for a few more years. But I also don't want to break something because I was cheap and didn't fix it the first time.

Not sure if it can be done on these, but I think it can. Get a compressor and build an adaptor to fill the cylinder with air through the plug hole. Then ..once the cams are out, you can replace the springs individually. this video is the 3 valve, but you get the idea. In the IMSA cars we were only allowed to go .020 on the block (to square the bores) new valve springs and rod bolts, later we could change the oil pump drives. This method looks like a PITA, but you just take your time and work your way through. if you choose to leave it all together it may be time for an accusump, one of these saved an engine at Daytona when debris cut an oil line. The fact is, the Boss 302 is a very robust engine, but as in all engines, things like valve springs have a life cycle.
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?...429F3BF225A4FEAFD9EA429F3BF225A4FEA&FORM=VIRE

https://www.freedomracing.com/4v-5-0l-coyote-valve-spring-compressor.html

The makers of this compressor claim you can replace springs with cams in place. This is likely the way I will go.

I know the springs have a life cycle. I would be happy to know I swapped them out thousands of miles to early the a mile too late.
With the tool costing more than a set of Boss Springs. The stock replacement road may be the one for me. I have replaced springs on cam in block motors before. OHC, this will be new for me. Air into the cylinders should be the same. Remove the followers, then the spring, reverse the process. Simple, Right?

You may be able to do cams and springs in the car but your back will be cursing you! Especially if you are replacing the springs and while you're there, the valve stem seals too. You can do the timing chains and oil pump in the car but I would recommend removal of the radiator. Possibly even the bumper.

There are a couple of different spring compressors and you'll have the most difficulty with accessing #4 and #8 due to the firewall. You'll probably have to remove the battery tray too. I dropped the engine and used the Freedom Racing/Stallion spring compressor. This also made it easier to remove and replace the valve keepers. With the engine in the car, you may have to use the lower profile EuroeXport compressor. From what I hear, replacing the keepers with that compressor is a PITA.

I used the Ford CobraJet Oil Pump. Otherwise I would get a new OEM pump and then replace the OPGs with billet ones of your choice. Don't forget the billet crank sprocket. I also went with the L&M intake cams, production Boss exhaust cams and Boss springs.

You may also want to look into later generation oil pump, oil pan, and pick-up tubes that may improve upon your Boss setup.

https://performanceparts.ford.com/part/M-6675-M52

But I'm not sure if that has billet gears or if the aftermarker billet OPGs can fit in it.

Coz

Much appreciated.

I have two post lift at the house. Changing the pan, pump and valve springs may be easier with the engine on a stand. Just drop the motor with the K member. Access to the back holes will be no problem.

I will likely stick with stock cams for now. I am as interested in more miles as in more MPH.

If you're going to do the pan and what not, then drop the subframe, other wise it will get pretty crowded, should you go nuts and install a set of headers..now is the time, and make sure you use bolts with smaller heads so you can get them off later, I pulled a set of BOSS headers in tech and it was a PITA.

another suggestion is do like the @honeybadger and go full track beast. I mean since its just a toy....ITS JUST A TOY, why not? YOLO

I still drive her on the street. I also have to spread the budget over two cars....oh yea, and a wife.

byronj said:

another suggestion is do like the @honeybadger and go full track beast.

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That's my dilemma. I can't decide if I want to cross the line from track day toy that can be converted back to stock or track-only race car. I like the idea of a street car that can run hard vs optimizing the car fully for track speed. At the end of the day I get frustrated when the car doesn't run like I feel it can. I know it's heavy so I'm really dying to get all that street car material out. I am going to sit down with the guys at Phoenix soon and need a plan......and likely a bigger check.

long term goals are vital, lots of guys take mods away in little bites and in the end they find they could have just gone full out, because the car ended up there anyway. I don't know if you want to do SCCA stuff, but a T3 car cane be done relatively cheaply (relative being the operative word) and they use V6 or 3valve V8s. If someone wanted to build a competition car that they can afford, and more importantly, maintain, that would be my suggestion. a lot of these HPDE arms races can get pretty crazy, eclipsing the price of an actual class car.