Ford 351 Boss Engine Build - Late Model Boss, Part Three

The valves are stainless steel units from Ferrea. The sizes are maxed out to the rulebook limits: 2.020 inches for the intakes and 1.600 for the exhausts. The stems are all 11/32-inch in diameter.

Precision Products & Performance Center produces these solid flat tappet lifters. They are high end, but Charlie says they are necessary if you expect your lifters to live in a very high rpm application with an aggressive camshaft. The tool steel lifters are exceptionally hard, and PPPC holds the outside diameter to extremely tight tolerances to reduce the chances of sticking a lifter. They are also rebuildable, which includes regrinding and polishing the tappets, which makes the lifters more affordable if you reuse them after a rebuild. Finally, notice the pressurized oiling hole in the tappet face which injects oil between the lifter and the cam lobe to prevent lobe wear.

After the cast iron heads are decked to the rulebook minimum of 62 cc's, the intake valve seats are given the standard 35, 45, and 65 degree cuts while the exhausts are modified slightly to 35, 45, and 63 degrees.

Once everything meets his exacting specs, Robert Long assembles the heads.

Before dropping the lifters in place, all the lifter bores are liberally coated with assembly lube.

With aggressive flat tappet race cams, killing a lobe during break-in is a very real possibility if everything isn't done correctly. This includes coating the tappet faces with special lube developed for flat tappet camshafts.

This is the guts of the custom oil pan from C-Line engineering. As you can see, it's extensively baffled to maintain oil control and keep it around the pickup at all times.

For NASCAR LMS racing, Edelbrock's dual plane intake (PN 2782 for Fords) is the only thing allowed. We got ours-as well as the two-barrel carb adaptor sitting on top-from CV Products.

After the lifters are in place, Charlie sets the heads onto the block and torques the fasteners.

The sump of this pan is quite large at 14-by-14 inches across the bottom. This means Charlie's can get nine quarts in the pan without any windage problems. The extra oil means there is less chance for starving the bearings, plus it stays cooler during extra distance races.

The intake gaskets are provided by CV Products. The Longs prefer to glue them in place on the heads before installing the intake manifold. This also gives you the chance to inspect the gasket to make sure none of it is extending into any of the intake ports. If it is, you can trim the offending material away with a razor blade.

You may not have heard of Mel's Ignition because it is a small ignition specialty shop in North Carolina, but it's a quality product. Mel produces only high-performance ignitions, and every one is hand built and tested by Mel himself.