My setup is a 1967 hi-po 289. With 70 Cleveland 4v closed ported heads. With a nostalgia 271 cam. so technically a remade boss 302
often referred to as a Bogus Boss. you will either need the plates from Price Motorsports to adapt the Windsor intake to the the Cleveland heads or get a manifold for this application. Could be a cool build.
Mine is 100% Cleveland so I'm not really that familiar with the Boss set up but I know the intake has to be special to fit the C heads on a 289 - something also comes to mind about drilling some steam holes in the head gaskets - I know these heads are not simply bolt on and go
I prefer the term "Clevor" .... way to go. I seem to recall someone making specific intakes for both 2bbl and 4bbl heads on the smaller block, might have been Edelbrock.This is probably dating to the late 80s ... don't know if they still have them. Something else you might look into is exhaust adapters (or whatever they are calling these). They are an exhaust manifold flange that has wedges attached that insert into the exhaust ports and raise the floors a bit. If anything, the exhaust ports are really big, and raising the floors helps them flow better ... picks up the velocity a bit, and they seemed to help in all rpm ranges.
You will have to drill the heads for coolant flow as the 351C had a dry intake manifold. An old Boss 302 dual plane intake will fit. Tubular Automotive makes the headers. Now the bad news. I have both owned and driven several Boss 302 Mustangs. Those 4V heads have waaaay too much intake port volume for a 289. Low end torque will be non existent and with a flat top piston, your compression ratio will be so low it will make matters worse. The better route would be to buy a set of small port (2V) Australian heads or purchase a set of TFS 190 or Eddy Cleveland heads if you insist on staying with a Clevor engine. Even then I would build at least a 347 stroker. I love Cleveland heads and was going to put a 302 Clevor in my car before deciding against it. With the excellent Windsor head choices currently available, it is much cheaper to stay with a Windsor. It is a much better street motor, period! Now if we are talking race engine, that's another story.
There closed chamber heads. So if anything my compression will go from 10.5 to at least 11. All the 69 bosses had them.
you would be best served to listen to those with firsthand experience and rotor ain't steerin' you wrong here. Do the math and you'll see that little motor lose 1 full point of compression with those heads. Think.. "pop-ups" if you want a compression motor. If you did decide on using them?.. which I also think will most definitely be a mistake on any street motor of that size.. you should look up.. "MPG port plates". You'll surely need em' unless you run 4.30 gear and really high stall speeds. And the exhaust ports are pretty badly designed as they abruptly/severely drop gasses over the floor of the port. Stingers will fix that though. There is also another company called.. Price Motorsports.. which carries intake adapters to use Windsor intakes and also port plates/exhaust inserts as well. Pricey.. but extremely high quality and they will make that motor sing like a rockstar.
I am getting the impression there's no way to steer you away from that combo. But what the guys here are trying to tell you is it's a lot of work on your part to construct a badly mismatched combo. Those heads are too big for a 351. They are gigantic on a 289. The 351C hydraulic cam cars on the street were pigs unless they had 3.91-4.30 gears. Even then their hydro cams gave out before the RPM sweet spot that the 4V heads wanted to be at. The only motor Ford really got it right on was the BOSS 351. That one had a fairly aggressive solid cam and combined with the steep gears and that motor was a very fast car for it's day. Consider getting ANY decent set of Windsor bolt on heads. Just about all of them will outperform those Cleveland heads on a 289 below 6000 RPM. If this is a street car and those heads are all you can get for it I'd get both intake and exhaust port plates. Find a good aluminum dual plane intake! A single plane intake is going to slow you down. Edlebrock must make something for that combo in dual plane. That and some decent 3.50 or more gears and it should work geed IMO. And around a 600 CFM carb. That motor needs air velocity and that should help. Questions: What Transmission are you running? What gears in the rear? Any way not trying to bag on your car or your excitement over it. Just want to see you get the maximum bang for your buck
