The Boss crank had a part number stamped into the counter weight.
Storm Cranks in Mt.Vernon did 10/10 on all of them. Said they were all the same as far as he could tell.
He was shocked by the size of the Boss/HO balancer. He had never seen one of them before. He thought the 4v was the performance balancer until he saw it.
He tried to talk me out of it. Telling me it was no good for the assembly because of all the mass on the snout of the crank.
I've had only two of those. VERY hard to come by.
The ORIGINAL Boss heads that I had were marked D1ZX, cast into the underside of the heads.
Only set I've ever seen like that.
People say I'm wrong. I had a pair. Don't know what the story is from Ford on them other than they used up the initial parts run on build Boss 351 engines, then installed all of them in the Boss Mustangs and all service part casting numbers were different.
Connecting rods I think were D1ZX castings/forgings also.
They look the same as the 4v rods except for the rod bolts which were unique to the Boss as well.
I'm not preaching here. Just relating what I had seen and what was in my possession at one time. (going as far back as the Early '70s with the 351C). Still not done with it yet because of the Pantera.
If I had thought back then any of this would have been significant at all, I would have documented it with photographs. I was too busy ducking criticism from elders like my father who thought everything I did was BS and I should be married (to share the misery I suppose) and working my ass off.
There was also this issue that effected single draft age men in the US called the Viet Nam War.
The army was going nuts trying to find enough "meat" to stockpile their boots on the ground efforts in "South East Asia". Draft boards couldn't fill the quotas they were given.
I mention that simply because unless you experienced that sociological event yourself, you can not imagine how it changed the smallest things that you did in everyday life as a result. In relationship to the 351c, others my age are involved with it similarly, for similar reasons as well.
I was too young to realize the significance of Eisenhower's departure speech, "beware the military/industrial complex", when he said it.
When I turned 18, I found out exactly what that meant and the brilliance of the statement.
The Boss 351 was somehow all caught up in this mess along with the "fuel shortage", and EPA requirements.
Detomaso got stuck trying to race an undeveloped engine in an expensive racing category and Ford bailed out on two fronts 1) financing racing the Pantera 2) race developing the 351. That development got done by various NASCAR and drag racers, post Pantera factory racing, unfortunately.
The entire mess, is as they say, just history now.
Yes Capt. A Boss "spec" engine with a couple of little "upgrades" is a very good way to keep a Pantera "vintage era" correct for sure.
