Owner Observations

Owner Observations

Parts information breakdown

1) The Carburetor to a BOSS 351 is one of the most "priciest" pieces of all muscle car parts. It is because it is extremely rare. This Autolite 4300D series which has a spreadbore design, small primaries and oversized secondaries fetches upwards to $2500-$3500.00 in restored shape. It was not highly respected with factory settings (though it was no slouch) on the street or strip and was replaced, in most cases, by Holley's. The intake manifold was usually replaced as well.

Note: Articles of the day (running engine tests) stated that if you replaced the carburetor and intake with a Holley 750 double pumper and a Edelbrock "Torker" intake manifold, it would produce an additional 70 horsepower over the stock number of 330bhp. Headers usually added another 10-15hp. So it is easy to see that this car with very few changes could easily produce over 400 horsepower.

1972 Holley Catalog: Original Equipment (O.E.) replacement for Autolite 4300-D spread bore. 1971 BOSS 351, manual trans. Carb. 0-6129, Ford No. D1ZF-9510-VA, manual choke, 780 cfm, model 4150.

2) Heat Shields were also usually removed and forgotten when owners added headers.

Owner Observations

The stock exhaust manifolds really restricted airflow and sound. This car screams for headers and a free flow exhaust system.

With a 3.91 gear at 55mph, you were taching around 3200rpm. Not a great highway gear by any means. Why wasn't a 3.50.1 offered?

The rear window size or lack there of (the "slit" as some have called it) was over exaggerated. It was not that difficult to see out of. It just took a little getting used to.

Power steering on these cars was an absolute! Ford finally got it right with these Saginaw manufactured units.

If you kept your foot out of it, gas mileage was around 12-15mpg.

Body Tightness

Very few of these cars, if any, had rattles. We always hear people say "they drive like Cadillac's".

Fold down seats did not rattle as much as earlier designs either.

Picture of fold down seat

Interior

Front Seat comfort was atrocious. The high back design was fine but they were terribly lacking in pad and lumbar support from earlier high-back '69 and '70 designs. Rear seats were "typical" Mustang afterthoughts and designed for children under 10 only.

Different examples of '71 Boss 351 interiors:

(Standard / Mach 1 Sports Interior / Deluxe)

Click on examples below.

'71 Boss 351 interior features: