Factors of 10: Top Engine Builders Tell How to Make 1,000 HP

Factors of 10: Top Engine Builders Tell How to Make 1,000 HP

Who was the first to bat 1,000? 1,000 horsepower, we mean. Well, the Napier Cub 16-cylinder airplane engine was said to make 1,057 hp in 1920, and land-speed racers went 203.79 mph with the Sunbeam 1000 in 1927, although it made its 900+ ponies with the help of two engines. In the 1940s, we got steam and diesel locomotive engines that could boast the power of more than 1,000 horses, and in airplane design we see the superchargers, turbos, and oxygen-happy fuels that would come to define hot rodding in the years to come. Ask a Top Fuel racer when supercharged, nitro-burning 392 dragsters first boasted 1,000 horses and they’ll shrug and say, “The first time they ran?” From there, it spread like the flame front in an optimized combustion. Boat racing, Indy Cars, street racers, F1, tuned import cars, Calloway Corvettes and Hennessy Vipers, everybody was aiming high, and now it seems like 1,000 hp is the new 500 hp—who doesn’t have it? We wanted to get the scoop on the best way to go big, so we called 10 different engine builders known for dyno dominance and asked ’em how it was done. We thought we’d get 10 different recipes for bumping past 999 horses, but we found that building high-horse performance is more about philosophy than the parts bin.

“I don’t have a single recipe, because everyone who comes in has a different need for their build,” said Dan Timm of Advanced Engine Concepts (AEC) in Green Lake, Wisconsin. “That keeps it interesting. I like a challenge.”

“It’s not hard to make horsepower these days,” said Kenny Duttweiler of Duttweiler Performance in Ventura, California. “The question isn’t, ‘How do you make 1,000 horsepower?’ but rather, ‘How do you make 1,000 horsepower for 100,000 miles?’”

OK, guys, how do you?

Ed Pink
Newbury Park, CA
EdPinksGarage.com
Specialties: SOHC 427 Fords, Hemis, Flathead Fords

We started with Ed Pink, because at 88 years old and with a background in Top Fuel and Indy Car racing, Pink was topping 1,000 when most of the other builders in this story were still worrying about that pinging sound from their baby rattles. With typical modesty, “The Old Master” said he didn’t think he’d be helpful on the topic. “I don’t build those big-cubic-inch engines,” he said, but while he may not be bolting together mountain motors, he’s known for making big numbers from small cubes. Pink’s blown Hemis and Cammer Fords made huge horsepower in dragsters, but he also wheedled more than 900 hp out of turbocharged 161ci Cosworth engines, made them last through the rigors of the Indy 500, and outperformed the factory Porsche engineers with 183ci, air-cooled six-cylinders. “On a small engine, everything better be perfect,” he told us. So is there any engine you can’t make 1,000 hp with? “I wouldn’t want to stand next to a flathead Ford that did,” Pink said, laughing. (FYI, Ron Main’s record-holding Flatfire flathead built by Dick Landy is rated at 653 horses.) “Here’s something for you to think about as you talk to people about this,” Pink continued. “At the speedway, when we were doing Indy, if I had a car that had a lot at the top, but didn’t accelerate out of the corner, that driver would come in and say, ‘Ed, it has no power.’ If he had a car that came out of the corners, even if it didn’t have as much at the top, he’d say that was a powerful car. It’s not the number, it’s where you can use it.”

QMP
Chatsworth, CA
QMPracing.com
Specialties: Drag-Racing and Street-Performance Engines

We spoke with Mike Consolo, who has been building engines with Brad Lagman for the past 20 years. Consolo went straight to boost when asked what he’d recommend to a customer wanting 1,000 horses but surprised us by saying he thinks a Roots-style blower with a carburetor is the easiest combo. “We’ve been doing that since day 1,” he said. “Boat engines on pump gas that we built out of Brad’s garage.”

Above 1,000 hp, Consolo recommends EFI. “The carburetor that can feed 1,200 hp or more is going to sacrifice driveability at partial throttle, but at 1,000, it’s a totally reliable combo.”

QMP isn’t brand-specific, but it does do a lot of GM-based builds. Consolo says the base for 1,000 hp is an iron Dart or Brodix big-block. “Anything over 700 to 800 hp, you should really get a good block. A factory block might be fine, but you don’t know where it came from or how it was treated in the car or truck it came out of.” He says the finish work required on an aftermarket block is less, and the cooling, oiling, casting textures, and even the iron itself will be better quality.

For cylinder heads, Consolo likes to match the block brand, not because he feels there is a performance advantage, but because the logistics of ordering parts are easier. QMP uses a lot of Dart, Brodix, and Air Flow Research cylinder heads. Consolo says cams are almost all from Comp but using custom profiles designed at QMP.

When quizzed about exotic coatings and oil squirters, Consolo is unimpressed. “We use pistons with antifriction coatings, but at this power level, you don’t need oil squirters.” He gets excited talking about gaskets, though, and as we continued the interviews for this story, we end up hearing praise for the Cometic and Felpro Multi-Layer-Steel (MLS) gaskets from every builder we spoke with. “They seal like an O-ring, but you don’t need to cut a groove in the block!”

Jon Kaase Racing Engines
Winder, GA
JonKaaseRacingEngines.com
Specialties: Mountain Motor Pro Stock V8s, Boss Nine Fords

Typically known for big Fords, these days Kaase Racing Engines does everything from Unlimited Catamaran and Mercury Motors boat engines to race and street engines of all makes and models. Jon Kaase said the shop does about 30 engines a year in the 800- to 900hp range. “We’ve built at least 10 a year in the 1,000hp range for the past 40 years, so you can do the math.”

When asked his choice for a good, streetable 1,000 hp, Kaase unsurprisingly goes Blue Oval. “If it was left up to me, we’d do a big Ford. You can make 1,000 hp pretty quick, but compression matters a lot. If it’s a street engine that won’t always be driven on better fuel, we’d go bigger on cubic inch. With the Ford stuff, you can build big with minimal work on the short-block. All around, the Ford is probably the easiest because the bore center is big and the cam is up high so the connecting rods don’t come near. If you were going to build a 620ci Ford versus the same-size Chevy, the Ford is less work.”

Here’s the Kaase quick recipe for a big-inch, big-power Ford:

598 ci
4.600 bore, 4.500 stroke
Kaase SR-71 cylinder head
11:1 compression
Cam: 265-degree-duration intake, 275-degree-duration exhaust, and 0.800-inch lift

Like QMP, Kaase uses Comp cams, the Cometic MLS gaskets, and still does a lot of carbureted engines. “We use a lot of the Quick Fuel carbs that are owned by Holley. You don’t need a $3,000 carburetor. We’ve also had good luck with the Holley Sniper for EFI. They look like a carburetor, and they are pretty darn good. We were impressed.”

Kaase is a fan of coated piston skirts and coated bearings, but says that is for durability, not power. “Mahle comes with coated skirts, and we send our bearings to Calico Coating in North Carolina. I’ve never seen any difference in horsepower from the coatings.”

What he does see a big difference from is the oil pan design. “You have to make sure it has a good oil pan. With a big-cubic-inch motor, it whips up the oil, and what works for 500 ci could starve with 600. It isn’t just the crank pulling it up. Air under the pistons moves up and down, too, and can blow the oil away from the pickup. If we don’t use a full windage tray, we usually build at least a little steel plate to isolate the pickup.”

To learn more about Jon Kaase, flip to HOT ROD’s Take 5 section on page 16 to read what he had to say to Evan Perkins.

Duttweiler Performance
Ventura, Ca
HotRodEngineTech.com
Specialties: Turbocharging, V6, Land-Speed Engines

Kenny Duttweiler is still excited about horsepower, even though he first made 1,000 hp nearly three decades ago when he was tuning Buick Grand National V6 engines to unheard-of levels of performance. “Oh, but it wasn’t common back then,” he said. “Now, we have an LT1 here making 1,000 and an LS making 1,100, and when you’re off boost, they’re just normal engines. It doesn’t take a heck of a lot to get 1,000.”

Since Kenny’s interest isn’t just in making the number, but in long-term reliability at that performance level, he says it’s worth spending the money for a good block, heads, and all the internals to support not just the goal number but above it. “If the customer says 1,000, I’m going to use stuff that can go to 2,000.”

The brands he mentions are familiar: Dart, Callies, Manley, Boostline, ARP, Comp. “If you pick an engine that breathes well to begin with, say the Coyote, you can use a small cam, and with turbos, it almost doesn’t matter which one you pick. I’ve done tests where I move the cam timing around and don’t see any difference on a boosted engine power output.”

We asked Duttweiler if he thought there had been one change in technology that took 1,000 hp from race levels to street. “I think the advent of computers that have knock-sensor capability, and oxygen sensors, that made some of this possible. As power levels rose, manufacturers made better blocks, heads, gaskets. In the beginning, it was easy to get ahead of the components. Now you can use a small hydraulic cam, and the pistons are lighter, the ring packs are thinner and offer less drag, the turbos are better and spool faster, and the supercharger companies are going nuts, offering bigger and bigger blowers. They are making it easy to make the power. Look at what the OEMs are doing, like Dodge with the Hellephant, or on the GM side, LT-4 with a supercharger and a cam change. The Fords, even though they are small, love rpm and make power. We have all these fuel options: E85 or flex fuel or meth injection. The factory computers can support it, and for older cars, there are options from Holley, FAST, and AEM. Also, transmissions with more gears—that helps the engines last, too. We used to drive around with 4.56 gearing. That was hard on parts.”

Duttweiler says he likes coatings on piston skirts and main bearings, but like Kaase, hasn’t seen any power increase from ceramic coatings on components. He also warns against using coated parts in engines running on alcohol. “It can eat through some coatings.”

Rather than spending money on exotic materials, Duttweiler recommends upgrading cooling and oiling systems. “It doesn’t need to be dry sump, but especially if you’re feeding a turbo, you’ll want a high-volume pump. Pay attention to the oil pan as well. I recently dyno’d an LS build with no windage tray just to see, and it was down 64 hp!”

Does Duttweiler see any end to the rising power levels of street machines? “I’m working on a 555ci big-block with 88mm turbos right now, and the owner came in and said, ‘I only want 2,000 hp,’ and that’s so easy it’s incredible. It’s going in a street car. Maybe that’s going to be the new norm.”

Banks Power
Azusa, CA
Official.BanksPower.com
Specialties: Turbocharged Engines, Diesels

“Oh, I’m agnostic,” said Gale Banks when we asked if he preferred gasoline or diesel when it comes to making horsepower. “As long as it is turbocharged, I’ll burn anything.”

Like Ed Pink, Gale Banks has been in the performance-engine game a long time. He says he first made 1,000 hp around 1969 in boat racing and has been a fan of turbocharging ever since. “I remember having so much power I wanted to get rid of some because the rest of the drivetrain couldn’t handle it. That’s the story of my career, making more horsepower than everything else could support.”

For Banks, the challenge is not in making power, nor in reliability. As an endurance racer, he has confidence in his ability to make an engine stay together. No, Banks is interested in making big power on pump gas, and here’s the kicker, doing it cheaply. We haven’t talked about price yet, but almost everyone we spoke with said $20,000 was the low end of what a customer could expect to pay for a stable of 1,000 ponies. Banks says his current goal is to put together a turbocharged small-block Chevy package that runs on pump gas at a more affordable price tag.

Why a small-block when a big-block or a diesel would be so much easier? “If you build a 600- to 700ci engine, the internals get expensive,” Banks said. “If you build a diesel, you need to be able to do it without removing emissions. I’d want to do it smoke-free. Of course, with diesel, there’s no octane issue, but I like the challenge of pump gas.”

Banks agreed with all the previous builders on the importance of oiling, cooling, and high-quality gaskets and adds that head studs are another failure point with high-horse engines. “It’s worth going ARP. The clamping force gains go up with the material upgrade. Some builders drill out the block for bigger studs, but going bigger in stud only makes for a stronger stud and a weaker block. I absolutely recommend going to a better alloy over a bigger stud.”

For Hemis Only (FHO)
Bewdley, ON, Canada
ForHemisOnly.com
Specialty: Nostalgia Super Stock Hemi Drag Engines, Street Hemis, and Pro Street Packages

We’ll let Tim Banning comment on the elephant in the room—that is to say, the second-gen Hemi. Banning says that requests for 1,000hp Hemis are fairly recent. “We saw quite a few bracket-racing Hemis at this level, so we knew it could be done, but our first request was about five years ago. Up until that point, most customers thought 800 hp was amazing. Times have changed.”

He says that while making the power with a blown Hemi is easy and can be done with a mild build, doing it with a naturally aspirated engine that can run on pump gas is more interesting. “Without compression, we have to make our power with displacement, great heads, and induction. A durable street engine cannot run huge valve lifts with excessive valvesprings. The biggest challenge, especially with Hemi engines, is keeping the valvetrain from being overstressed. We solve that with extra oiling to rockers, pushrods, and soft cam profiles.”

Banning says he’d start a big Hemi build with a Keith Black aluminum engine block topped by Stage V heads they CNC port in-house. Inside, he’d go with a Callies crank, Carrillo rods, and CP custom pistons. FHO is another fan of Comp cams, and the valvetrain duties would be handled by Ferrea valves and Manley springs, retainers, and locks. “We use Stage V roller rockers mounted on Manton thick-wall shafts and our own billet rocker stands. If we were building for blower application, parts would stay similar, other than pistons and pins, but obviously, power would be way over 1,000 hp.”

Steve Morris Engines
Muskegon, MI
SteveMorrisEngines.com
Specialties: Custom Forced-Induction Engines

From HOT ROD Drag Week Unlimited cars to experimental supercars, Steve Morris is not afraid to pack an engine bay full of horses. When we called him for this story, he snickered: “1,000 hp is entry level for me. I don’t build anything with less.”

Morris says his first four-digit build was around 1999, when he was first getting familiar with boosted engines. “I wanted to hit that 1,000hp mark with a big-block on pump gas that would work as a daily driver,” he said. “I knew even then that that was going to be the trend. Nowadays with a big-block Chevy and boost, if you can’t make 1,000 hp, you shouldn’t be building engines.”

While a big-block Chevy makes it easy, Morris says he could build a high-horse engine on any platform. “If the customer didn’t have a preference, my go-to would be an LS followed by a Gen III Hemi. The only one I wouldn’t do would be a Mod motor. Other people do, I just don’t have much interest in them.”

Morris says that both the Gen III Hemi and the LS can reach 1,000 hp without requiring an aftermarket block, and that the stock GM LS9 head gasket is the best deal out there. “I have a stock-block LS3 making 1,200 hp in my own personal vehicle.” However, he says car owners almost always want more down the road, so he suggests building with higher horsepower in mind. “Use the good internals, build bigger, and detune. Callie, Molnar, Scat, nobody ever wishes they’d used lesser-quality parts, but people often wish they’d used better.”

Good parts don’t come cheap, and Morris acknowledges that it’s possible to hit the 1,000hp mark with junkyard parts and no-name turbos. “If you get an engine from me, fully dressed and ready to go in a car, that’s gonna be somewhere around $30,000,” he said. “But then, I’m right there to support it, to teach the customer about EFI, and to not be afraid of the laptop. It used to be that you could build a cheap 500hp engine, but you needed a pro to build 1,000 hp. Now you can get a junkyard engine to 1,000 with some reliability, but you’re still probably going to want to step up if you want more. It’s good the bar keeps moving up; there’s always a place for the entry-level guy.”

Advanced Engine Concepts (AEC)
Greenlake, WI
Facebook.com/Advanced-Engine-Concepts-Inc
Specialties: Circle-Track Engines, Dyno Testing

Dan Timm is on team boost for making power. “It just puts you there a lot easier,” he said. Like many of the builders in this story, he said there’s no one way to make the 1,000hp goal. “Parts are parts. Whatever you like to drive is what you should build.” Having said that, he does caution that some makes are cheaper to put together and maintain than others, and given the choice, he’d probably encourage a customer to go with an LS engine for ease of parts acquisition. “But big-block Chevy, Chryslers, I wouldn’t ever say it couldn’t be done on any engine. Look at what the power guys are making with little import engines. If you say it can’t be done, someone will come along and do it.”

Timm says he first started seeing big numbers in the 1990s, as circle-track racers searched for ways of making their top ends live through long events. “Reliability was a real concern for the teams. I’d love to go back to the ’80s with what I know now about metallurgy and valvetrain forces. The invention of the Spintron—which is a valvetrain dynamics machine that spins the motor with a camera on it—that really allowed us to learn a lot about what was happening inside the engines at high speeds. At the same time, the cylinder-head guys were working on better ways to get air through the engine, and what they learned has made it easier for the average guy today to make the power numbers we’re seeing.”

For Timm, there’s no one brand that stands out in quality. He said the brands all mimic each other, and all the big names—from AFR to Brodix to Dart—offer comparable products. He called cam preference more of an “allegiance choice” and points out that, with forced induction, the cam choice is much less crucial than for naturally aspirated engines. “Just get it filled and slam it shut,” he said.

He gets excited talking about fasteners, pointing out that ARP is pretty much the only player in the automotive realm, and adding his voice in favor of the Cometic MLS gaskets. Like Kaase, he prefers to coat piston skirts and bearings. “It’s that little extra insurance, just a little more durability. The coating makes it more slippery; if it gets hotter than you want, it doesn’t transfer material as quickly.”

In the end, Timm said, it doesn’t matter what engine you choose, as long as you pay attention to the details. “Assemble it wrong and you’ll have 1,000 hp for a really short time.”

Sonny Leonard
Lynchburg, VA
SonnysRacingEngines.com
Specialties: NASCAR, IHRA, Tractor Pull

Sonny Leonard builds engines for racers all over the world. “I’ve got an Australian guy running a 727ci Hemi I built that runs on street gas and makes 1,300 hp. We’ve got a 615ci engine that will make 1,000 hp on 92 octane all day long, naturally aspirated.”

Leonard will build you a blown engine if you want one, but he likes how NA powerplants save weight because they don’t need an intercooler and fit better in a car. “Not so cluttered under the hood,” he said.

For Leonard, longevity comes from the support systems. “Use a radiator with 40 to 50 percent more capacity than a standard build. Get an oil cooler. Test for detonation on 89 octane. If it runs on 89, it will be great and safe on 91 or 92.”

Nelson Racing Engines
Chatsworth, CA
NelsonRacingEngines.com
Specialties: Full Vehicle Builds, Turbocharged Engines

Like most of the builders in this story, Tom Nelson is no stranger to hot rods or HOT ROD. His shop, Nelson Racing Engines, does ground-up vehicle builds, everything from bodywork to blowers, and Nelson says that gives him a slightly different approach to making power. “It’s a huge difference when you know you’re the one who will have to fit the engine in a car and drive it on the street,” he said. “We think a lot about the fitment of the engine in a car, the turbo piping, and the aesthetics.”

Like Banks and QMP, Nelson said he first saw 1,000 horses in boat-racing engines. “People were doing it in cars, but nobody was really doing it in cars that were streetable. That’s what we did with David Freiburger and HOT ROD when he did the F-Bomb Camaro: small-block Chevy, mild cam timing, low compression, streetable, and more than 1,000 on pump gas. What you can do these days with a turbo and fuel injection is incredible.”

While Nelson’s personal preferences lean toward turbos, he said that how you make the power depends on where and when you want it. For his sand-racing customers who need instant response, he’d suggest a Whipple supercharger, but for reliable four-digit power, he said it’s hard to beat a turbo LS. “Second would be the big-block Chevy, and after that, I’d say probably the 426 Hemi. Of course, if you want the most bang for the buck, just do it with nitrous. I think that still counts.”

Although Nelson’s engines are anything but budget, he’s totally on board with the idea of building up junkyard 5.3L LS blocks and seeing how far you can go. “It’s cool to get in at low cost, and if it blows up, you don’t worry about it, but I couldn’t make a business out of selling an engine that made big power for a short time. I want our builds to go the distance.”

With long life in mind, Nelson goes with aftermarket blocks that offer extra head bolts and stronger main webs, cylinder walls, and decks. He said they use Cometic or Fel-Pro MLS gaskets for some builds, but he prefers to O-ring the block and use a copper gasket. The trick, he said, is in the sealing, and that’s a multi-part process of heating it up, torqueing, and re-torquing.

“The basic food groups of a high-horsepower engine are block, turbo, fuel system, and fuel management. Those are the important choices to make. That’s for a boosted engine. For a naturally aspirated engine, it would be cylinder heads, cylinder heads, cylinder heads, and then maybe more cubes.”

What’s the Best Horsepower Number for a Street Car?

Mike Consolo: “700 hp is plenty to get in trouble.”

Jon Kaase: “In all honesty, 700 hp is the perfect street-car number. I had a 900hp Mustang, and going down the highway, it would spin the tires at 90 mph. That will get you crashed in a hurry. I say build an engine that makes 1,000 hp, dyno it, then change the cam so it makes 700 hp and drive it forever.”

Kenny Duttweiler: “I’d say there’s a 600- to 700hp limit to what you can even drive on the street, especially here in Southern California. You’ll never hold the throttle open.”

Gale Banks: “The right amount of horsepower is whatever it takes to scare the living hell out of me. If it doesn’t scare me, it is not enough, and I’ve never had enough in a street vehicle.”

Tim Banning: “I try and talk my customers out of exceeding 800 hp if they really intend to use their car and want good driveability and long-term satisfaction. Our customer base is generally restoring ’70s Mopars. Even 700 hp is more than enough for most of these cars.”

Steve Morris: “I think 1,000 is the perfect, fun number. Burn the tires off whenever you want. I guess it’s really about what your tire budget is.”

Dan Timm: “You want something with a lot of torque that’s not peaky. If your car is too fast, you’re going to have to slow down so your friends can see you anyhow.”

Chris Cowland: “It’s power to weight. There’s not a lot of point to 1,000 hp in a 2,000-pound car, however, in a 4,000-pound car, 1,000 hp is a really nice number. Traction is an issue on the street. That said, in the bar, it doesn’t matter if you can hook up or not, it’s all about the number.”

The Hellephant

It cost $30,000 and it’s sold out, but if you want to talk firsts in horsepower news, Mopar Performance nabbed one with its Hellephant engine: The first OEM crate engine to break 1,000 hp. We talked with Chris Cowland, head of SRT/Mopar Performance Powertrain, to find out how the Demon merged with the Drag Pack to stomp out 1,000 horses.

Cowland said his first time seeing 1,000 hp was in a Japanese car: “It caught my attention. Later, the original Bugatti Veyron was the first production car to claim that power. It’s a significant number, but it’s all dependent on engine size. If I’m trying to get 500 out of a small engine, that’s just as hard.”

The Hellephant shares an overall philosophy with the Demon and Hellcat—large engine, larger supercharger—but Cowland says there are three major differences:

The block size increased from 6.2L to 7.0L. The Hellephant uses an aluminum block designed for the Drag Pack with a larger bore and stroke.

The supercharger size is increased from 2.7L to 3.0L, and the pulleys changed for a faster ratio of 2.8:1 versus the Demon’s 2.36:1.

The camshaft is more radical in the Hellephant. “The overlap can be less conservative because the OBD requirements that define the overlap on Hellcat and Demon aren’t in play,” Cowland said. “On Hellephant, we have more duration, similar lift, more overlap, and more rpm. We’re getting peak power at 6,700 rpm compared to 6,300.”

The bigger engine means that crank, pistons, and rods are all Hellephant-specific, but valves, heads, front cover, and timing cover are all production Demon. One internal change is that the oil squirters found in Hellcat and Demon aren’t needed in the Hellephant. “We didn’t do anything super exotic.”

Cowland said the thrill of working on this engine, and the production cars that inspired it, is knowing that there’s still an audience for big horsepower. “When we look back at Hellcat, we were supposed to make 5,000 to 6,000 a year, and we’ve sold 50,000 since 2015. I think everybody had predicted the crazy horsepower would disappear, I’m just pleased we found ways of doing this. At the very least, it’s livened things up. Too bad nobody is really coming after us, we’re sort of just competing with ourselves.”

On a Budget

Not all 1,000hp applications require a second mortgage or the selling of a kidney. Late-model engines, especially the LS1 and its Gen III and IV variants, have proved time and again of being capable of supporting 1,000 hp with mostly stock components. You will need some sort of power-adder, but that, head studs, and maybe a forged-piston upgrade should get you pretty close to the 1,000hp mark. Regular contributor Richard Holdener has used that method repeatedly with cheap LS engine combinations. Multiple dyno tests can be found on HOTROD.com. Be sure to check out the Sloppy Mechanics website also. It’s another vault of information on big-power LS combinations.