Hi guys, I was wondering if any of you have seen or ever heard of a BOSS 9? I read somewhere I think it was on the internet that it was a 429 with hemi heads. Is this true? and what advantages would it have? I though I read that it was banned from NASCAR. Why? And what kind of power did it have? I'm sure somone has. Please help

 

The boss 429 used hemi heads for nascar and what was called a semi hemi head for the street. I've also heard it refurred to as the shot gun hemi and semi hemi . From what the Ford books i have they list the Horse power at 375@5200 rpm and Torque at 450@3400 rpm. Compression is listed at 10.5 to 1 . It used 2.28 intake valves and 1.90 exhaust valves. The few books i have list just aluminum heads for it but when i went to columbus i saw a couple of iron heads. As far i as know it was actually run in nascar in Fords torino Talladega race cars. Now in one of my mustang books the 428 scj would actually run quicker in the quater mile compared to the boss 429. Now ford also made a 427 sohc Fe motor that was banned in nascar.

 

David

 

Well that explains it. What was I thinking The Boss 9. I have heard of the boss 429 but I thought it had regular iron heads with big valvles and runners. Are they hard to find? If so where can I find one ? What years were they made and what cars did they put them in ?

 

The "Boss 9" and Boss 429 are one in the same. Yes the Boss 429 is a hemi headed or "shotgun" motor.

Good luck finding one of these complete for under 15 or 20 grand. There were only a handfull made for the Mustangs over the course of 2 years. Once NASCAR banned them, production dried up in a hurry. It's too bad. This was a truly impressive engine once the cam chain issues were worked out.

I have an aquantince that bought a Boss 429 Mustang new in 1969 at a local dealer. When he picked it up and pulled out of the lot he mashed the gas a proceeded to do a rippin burnout. With all the torque, he started wheelhopping and ripped almost the entire quarter panel off with the tire. Now that is some serious chassis overpowerment.

 

Oh man thats way too bad. That would be nice to put in a 79 f250 mudder in front of a np435. You could do some serious pullin with that. What cam chain issues were there?

 

I never heard of any cam chain issues on the 429. The only ones i heard of where on the 427 sohc which had a 6 foot timing chain.
David

 

Rufus,

If you are close to Carlisle, PA, go to the all Ford show/parts swap the 30-31 May-1 June. Bet you can find some B9 heads and parts there, but, bring plenty money.

 

Well that would be nice to go to but I don't have much to spend and I live in new haven MO so its not that far. So let see if I can just get a set of heads they just bolt on right ? The 429 Boss and 429 blocks are the same are they not?( correct me if I am wrong) So that makes me think. Does the boss use o-rings to seal the heads or are they regular gaskets like everything else? just wondering cause someone told me they do.

 

Orings in the deck for sealing compared to a regular 429 which uses a head gasket

 

The B9 heads are 'externally' oiled by a third oil passage down the block. The B9 block also has a lump in the front of it like the rear lump in the std 429/460 block. This feeds oil to the heads/rockers. The pushrods and lifters in the B9 do NOT oil the heads, they have no oil holes in them.

 

Yup, you're right. My bad. I got caught up in the moment thinking about all of Ford's REAL muscle and got the SOHC and the BOSS confused. SOHC=Shotgun not the 9.

The Boss didn't have a chain to worry about, just huge pushrods and rocker arms.

Good call there 1976 ranger......

 

I actually have a "S" Boss engine, they're actually called a "Blue Crescent" engine.