69 Boss 302, 43,000 miles



67 Ferrari 330 GTS, Unrestored Rust, Flamed and estimated $2M

It's amazing how many of these barn finds continue to surface.

Clearly I've got the wrong network built up.

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1980 300TD-China Blue/Blue MBTex-2nd Owner, 107K (Alt Blau) OBK #15
'06 Chevy Tahoe Z71 (for the wife & 4 kids, current mule) '03 Honda Odyssey (son #1's ride, reluctantly) '99 GMC Suburban (255K+ miles, semi-retired mule) 21' SeaRay Seville (summer escape pod)

In the list of past cars that Ive owned I can proudly say that a 69 mach1 was one of those cars. These cars could dependable be a daily driver with 300hp plus at your foot but you would be filling its tank every other day.I enjoyed restoring the car and with a 302 pro built motor ,not orig, it was well over the stock boss302 output.A combination of sm block ford and looks to match was an exciting drive, You still cant beat some of the earlier lines of late 60's muscle.

Tough to imagine a 302 with Windsor type heads being "well over the stock Boss 302." If you go by advertised Boss 302 horsepower, yeah, you can beat that. If you go by what those things really made, that's another story.

The Cleveland 4V heads actually made the Boss 302 not a real streetable engine, but they made LOTS of horsepower, it's just that it was at too high of a rev range for most drivers to really be able to deal with it very well. They had too much head and cam for most any kind of daily street driving.

Just be alert, look at craigslist, autotrader, internet fora for the car you like, and be ready to pounce if you find one.


I'd say this '67 Cougar I found on ebay last year was pretty close to a genuine barn find.

Just 38k on the clock, totally original, and unrestored, stored in a warehouse beginning back in 1988, lifetime local San Jose car, reputedly never driven over 50 miles from there, original 1967 black plates and even the original dealer license plate frames still in place.

I've since spruced it up, added power steering and disc brakes, and it's been to SF, Reno and Nor Cal tours several times.

Couldn't be happier! Passersby love it, too.

I could probably get my purchase price back, maybe even more. But I justified the purchase as an "investment".

In that regard it is more fun to drive as an "investment" than looking at stock portfolio statements or nice paintings.

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1991 560 SEC AMG, 199k <---- 300 hp 10:1 ECE euro HV ...

1995 E 420, 170k "The Red Plum" (sold)

2015 BMW 535i xdrive awd Stage 1 DINAN, 6k, <----364 hp

1967 Mercury Cougar, 49k

2013 Jaguar XF, 20k <----340 hp Supercharged, All Wheel Drive (sold)

A trick from the hot rod ford guys back in the late 60s,early 70s was to match the 302 with 351 heads .Decking, porting and polishing the heads was the trick ,then a higher duration cam could yeild varied results ,the motor guy that built the 302 in this particular car was the man at the track who knew all these tricks.The car also had orig. been a big block car and shared what some considered the only way to tell if the car your looking to buy is a true boss 302 orig, factory supported shock towers.

I thought the first photo was a Ford Mustang. Now I know where the Mustang design came from.

If you're gonna steal a design, steal it from the best.

At that time 351 Windsor heads were about the best you could do without going to Cleveland heads. Compared to the Cleveland 4V's, those heads were making that engine breathe through a straw. No matter what else you did to it, the straw was still the limit. The 4V's allowed it to come alive big time for those drivers willing to drive something that didn't start making power until about 5 grand.

Im pretty sure you cant go with the cleveland head on a 302 block ,the cleveland motor was the best factory hp motor at the time but had a problem with drag guys ,an oil gallery coming up through the head wasnt enough supply under heavy load ,easy fix if your a motor guy but taking a factory stock car with no knowledge of the problem would be a quick money pit.The 302 with 351 head setup was used so much that an industry was built around it.

Sorry Chase, but I need to, in a very friendly way, say that in this particular case, you do not know of what you speak.

What MADE a TRUE Boss 302, was the Cleveland 4V heads on a 302. It took a different intake manifold and the short block was beefed up, but that is what made it special.

There might have been people that called their standard 302 a Boss 302 and that might be the source of your confusion.

Over the years a number of 302's have been fitted with Cleveland heads using a custom intake manifold, and I think it took a special casting for the thermostat. This is commonly referred to as a "Clevor." I expect that if you google "Clevor," you'll come up with more than you ever wanted to know about this hot rodders brew.

The Cleveland heads, even the 2V versions, flowed EXTREMELY well, and beyond any of the restrictive Windsor type heads. The difference was significant if not drastic.

As I explained in my first post, the 4V heads were just too much for 302 cubes. They didn't make significant power until a ridiculously high RPM, which is what made them pretty much a race only type car, although lots of people ran them on the street.

BTW, the old 351 Windsor heads might have been the hot setup for a 302 ca. 1972, but that was a LONG time ago. Aftermarket Windsor type heads eclipsed those heads probably 30 years ago, but still don't hold a candle to even a set of Cleveland 2V heads.

I remember very well when you got it. I still love that Cougar.

Some day, Jim. I hope there still will be some desirable ones around.

A mint 30,000 mi. '82 Dodge Aries won't really be the kind of barn find that I'd be interested in.

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1980 300TD-China Blue/Blue MBTex-2nd Owner, 107K (Alt Blau) OBK #15
'06 Chevy Tahoe Z71 (for the wife & 4 kids, current mule) '03 Honda Odyssey (son #1's ride, reluctantly) '99 GMC Suburban (255K+ miles, semi-retired mule) 21' SeaRay Seville (summer escape pod)

Sure, but 50 years from know, do you think that an S-Class stashed in the barn will fire up it's massage seats and lane assist video cameras after the mice have their way with it?