3 Boss 302 rod questions

**Montanto** · 03-08-2003, 10:21 PM

Ok, I bought a set of "boss 302" rods, but I think two of them are not. When I unpacked them I saw that two were renumbered, but I know rods break and didn't look closer at the time. On next inspection, I noticed that two of the rods have 289 numbers "C3AE" and nothing more, while the other six say C3AE-D as I had expected. The C3AE-D rods appear to have thicker webs on the " I " portion of the beam. The seller says the difference is in the cut for the rod bolt seat, but I don't know the difference, so i have these questions:

1. What is the difference between a broach cut rod bolt seat and a spot faced seat?

2. Were any boss 302 rods made with a C3AE number, just like a 289, but they are still boss rods? That is, even hipo 289 rods are all C3AE-D, Right?

3. Were all boss 302 rods made with a squirt hole in the rod journal?

Thanks for your help as I can still recover my money (I hope) if these are 289 rods.

**393Clevor** · 03-09-2003, 06:55 AM

I would think they would be the same number.
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**nytling92** · 03-09-2003, 07:16 AM

I would think that a boss 302 rod would have a DOxx part number being that they were made in 1970, the part # you are posting would have been built in 1963. I'm not sure on this so it will be interesting to me to find out what the exact part #s are.

**Livermore Dave** · 03-09-2003, 07:35 AM

A broach cut is straight.The spotface cut will be some what half moon or close to the shape of the rod bolt head.
The casting numbers I researched is C3AE-D for the Boss and C3AE for the 289 HP.The best I can tell is the only difference between the Boss and 289HP rod is the rod bolt head.
The only rod that offers a pin oiler that I know of in the Windsor series Ford is the 351W...Dave.

**n2omike** · 03-09-2003, 08:34 AM

289hipo and Boss302 rods are the only 289-302 rods that came with 3/8" bolts. All others had the smaller 5/16" rod bolts.

The main structural difference between the 289hipo and Boss rods is how they are cut for the top of the rod bolt. The hipo rods have a straight cut, and the Boss rods have the stronger, rounded cut and use rod bolts with 'football' shaped heads.

If the bolts are all 3/8", it looks like someone sneaked a couple hipo rods in on you.

Good Luck!
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**Revolutionary** · 03-10-2003, 11:34 AM

Don't forget the balance on those rods will be pretty far off as well.
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