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Tech: ProCharged Boss 302

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Tech: ProCharged Boss 302

She’s a ’Runner

Blow-By Racing boosts Ford’s high-revving Boss 302 with impressive results

By Steve Turner

We love visiting performance shops. You just never know what kind of wild projects you might run into when you sneak behind that plastic chain that separates the customers from their in-progress rides. On a recent trip to South Florida we popped in on the crew at Blow-By Racing in Boca Raton. What we found on the dyno had us breaking out he camera to snap a few shots.

Clint Jones’ 2013 Boss 302 is ready to rock the rollers at Blow-By Racing in Boca Raton, Florida, after a full build topped off by a cog-driven ProCharger F-1A supercharger. The car rolls on Weld RTS wheels—17x4-inch up front and 15x10-inch out back—wrapped in M&H front runners and Mickey Thompson drag radials.
Clint Jones’ 2013 Boss 302 is ready to rock the rollers at Blow-By Racing in Boca Raton, Florida, after a full build topped off by a cog-driven ProCharger F-1A supercharger. The car rolls on Weld RTS wheels—17×4-inch up front and 15×10-inch out back—wrapped in M&H front runners and Mickey Thompson drag radials.

You might think that the owner of a Grabber Blue 2013 Boss 302 might be satisfied with the performance of his high-revving corner carver. Well, that wasn’t quite the case for Clint Bates. Not only did he want more power from his RoadRunner rocket, he mainly wanted to put that power down in a straight line.

“He wanted to build a fun, fast street car to play on the Oklahoma streets,” Blow-By Racing main man Chris Jones explained. “Also, he wants to get his wife behind the wheel and build a motor during the winter and go into the eights. More to come in a few months…”

Though the basic engine in Clint’s Boss is stock, it does wear a few bolt-on upgrades, including an ATI crank damper and a BBR 160-degree thermostat. To help the boosted Boss breathe, the exhaust is fully upgraded thanks to Stainless Works long-tube headers, a Stainless Works X-pipe, and a Pypes 3-inch after-axle exhaust.
Though the basic engine in Clint’s Boss is stock, it does wear a few bolt-on upgrades, including an ATI crank damper and a BBR 160-degree thermostat. To help the boosted Boss breathe, the exhaust is fully upgraded thanks to Stainless Works long-tube headers, a Stainless Works X-pipe, and a Pypes 3-inch after-axle exhaust.

To achieve his goals, Clint brought his Boss to BBR for a complete make over headlined by a cog-driven ProCharger F-1A. When we spotted the car it was on the lift getting tidied up before dyno-tuning commenced. We prowled around its underside, and quickly learned the car had all the support hardware to make the most of big-boost.

Underneath, Clint’s boss is bolstered by a Freddy Brown 4R70 feeding power through a PST driveshaft back to the stock 8.8-inch rear. Strange shocks, a UPR anti-roll door bar, BBR lower control arms, and a BBR Panhard bar plant that rear. A Tig-Vision five-point cage, with swing-out door bars, and Stiffler’s subframe connectors tie the chassis together.

Packing big performance in a relatively compact unit, the ProCharger F-1A is rated for a maximum of 1,100 horsepower and 38 pounds of boost. Clearly it has a little room to grow on Clint’s combo, and he plans to build the engine so he can make the most of this unit.
Packing big performance in a relatively compact unit, the ProCharger F-1A is rated for a maximum of 1,100 horsepower and 38 pounds of boost. Clearly it has a little room to grow on Clint’s combo, and he plans to build the engine so he can make the most of this unit.

It is definitely ready to rumble, and while we were in the shop, the car made its first dyno hits with the big ProCharger installed. Chris dialed in the tuned quickly, but the boost level was a little too high for comfort. The F-1A immediately created 20 pounds of boost. Even with C-16 race fuel in the tank, Chris believed this was a little much for the stock engine. Yes, RoadRunners are stout from the factory, but Clint was wise to plan on fortifying the engine for his future plans. In the meantime, Chris swapped on a larger blower pulley and reined the boost in at 17 psi.

To feed the ProCharged beast, Blow-By Racing converted Clint’s Boss 302 to return-style fueling with on of its Jackal systems. The heart of this system is an aluminum fuel hat equipped with one of Aeromotive’s A1000 fuel pumps. In this application it feeds fuel to a set of Deatschwerks 95 lb/hr injectors.
To feed the ProCharged beast, Blow-By Racing converted Clint’s Boss 302 to return-style fueling with on of its Jackal systems. The heart of this system is an aluminum fuel hat equipped with one of Aeromotive’s A1000 fuel pumps. In this application it feeds fuel to a set of Deatschwerks 95 lb/hr injectors.

“Because of the stock motor, we opted for safety and only running 15.5-16 degrees total timing and an air/fuel ratio of 11.2-11.4:1,” Chris said.

With the boost level reeled in, he could focus on dialing the car in for streetability. Yes, Clint wanted the car to maintain its dual-purpose personality, trading street and road course for street and strip.

“Tuning was pretty straight-forward on the ProCharger side. However, when going to a manual-valvebody transmission, tuning around a few things and calibrating the speed sensor can take a little longer. Overall the car drives great. It is quite streetable, and it should be a mid-9-second daily driver.”

Now you can see why we enjoy ducking under that shop chain so much. It’s not every day you see a ProCharger-blown Boss scream on the dyno. This should make one heck of a “street” car for Clint and his wife to enjoy the open roads of Oklahoma.

Backing up the stout engine combo is the aforementioned Freddy Brown 4R70 it is augmented with a transbrake, a Circle D torque converter, a B&M trans cooler, and, as you can see here, a Hurst Pistol Grip shifter.
Backing up the stout engine combo is the aforementioned Freddy Brown 4R70 it is augmented with a transbrake, a Circle D torque converter, a B&M trans cooler, and, as you can see here, a Hurst Pistol Grip shifter.
Chris dialed in this unique combo, as he does all Blow-By Racing customer rides, with SCT Performance hardware and software. Despite the combo’s impressive performance, Chris was able to keep the Boss streetable. You have to love modern fuel injection!
Chris dialed in this unique combo, as he does all Blow-By Racing customer rides, with SCT Performance hardware and software. Despite the combo’s impressive performance, Chris was able to keep the Boss streetable. You have to love modern fuel injection!
As we said, the F-1A and the Boss got along well—a little too well, in fact. Chris wasn’t comfortable with running 20 psi on a stock engine, so he swapped on a smaller pulley and dialed the boost back to a livable 17 psi.
As we said, the F-1A and the Boss got along well—a little too well, in fact. Chris wasn’t comfortable with running 20 psi on a stock engine, so he swapped on a smaller pulley and dialed the boost back to a livable 17 psi.

Though we weren’t around for a baseline run on Clint’s car, a typical 2013 Boss 302 will dyno in the 370rwhp range. Clint’s car is anything but typical. With the ProCharger F-1A and all the supporting hardware, Chris Jones dialed this Boss in to produce a whopping 753.37 horsepower and 625.62 lb-ft of torque.
Though we weren’t around for a baseline run on Clint’s car, a typical 2013 Boss 302 will dyno in the 370rwhp range. Clint’s car is anything but typical. With the ProCharger F-1A and all the supporting hardware, Chris Jones dialed this Boss in to produce a whopping 753.37 horsepower and 625.62 lb-ft of torque.

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6 thoughts on “Tech: ProCharged Boss 302”

  3. man it’s crazy how you can run an F1 head unit on a street car nowadays. I remember that was insane to even consider that back in the pushrod 5.0 days. That’s a great credit to modern engines being able to support the blower, as well as modern ecu tuning capabilities and refinement of the head unit itself over the years.

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