For those who have no access, here's "Part II" of an incredible build up from the guy's over at Car Craft; By Matthew King .... "As crate engines go, GM Performance Parts' 454 H.O. crate engine is not only a bargain at it's street price of around $4,600, it's forged crank, pistons, and rods also make it capable of throwing at it. We proved that in our Aug.'03 issue (Import Killer: 780 HP from 7.4L") by taking a bone stock 454 H.O., swapping it's stock hydraulic-roller cam for a bigger Crane Cams hydraulic roller, upgrading the GM dual-plane intake manifold to an Edelbrock Victor Jr. single-plane, and bolting n a Vortech carbureted supercharger kit for a total gain of more than 300HP over the 470HP baseline.... ...It's not like there's anything wrong with the 454 H.O. as shipped, it's just that as with most things performance related, we're genetically incapable of leaving well enough alone, as evidenced by the fact that even 780HP on pump gas was not enough. For a year, weve been waiting patiently for AIR FLOW RESEARCH (AFR) to release it's newest big-block Chevy head: a 305cc intake-runner aluminum street head. Based on the performance we've seen from our AFR's small block Chevy and Ford heads, and combined with our experience using AFR's bigger race-oriented, CNC-ported big-block heads (see "911HP Big-Block Chevy," Aug.'03), we knew the as-cast 305cc street version would be the perfect choice for a pump-gas-friendly street/strip mill like the 454 H.O.... ....The 118cc combustion chambers in the stock rectangle-port cast-iron heads, combined with the small dome on the stock forged pistons, give the 454 H.O. a relatively low 8.75:1 static compression, which makes it a great candidate for supercharging. The 305cc heads have 119cc chambers, so we had AFR mill our test heads slightly to reduce chamber volume to 112cc's for a bump in compression to 9.2:1--still well-suited to the boost levels generated by the street-oriented Vortech supercharger kit we're using, but a bit snappier in a naturally aspirated combination. Our test heads also featured AFR's optional CNC-profiled chamber design, which greatly enhances the flow characteristics of the heads by unshrouding the valves. In fact, the set of 305's AFR produced with this new chamber design. As the accompanying flowbench results show, these heads really kick butt compared to the factory iron heads, especially on the exhaust side, and priced around $2000.00 a pair fully assembled, they're quite affordable as aftermarket aluminum big-block Chevy heads go..... .... Operating under the bigger is better theory, in addition to the AFR heads, we selected a slightly larger Crane solid-roller cam to compare against the Crane hydraulic roller we testes in the previous configuration, had the Edelbrock dual- and single-planeport matched by AFR to their heads, stepped up to bigger 2-inch-primary headers, and then bolted the Vortech blower back on to see just how much power we could ultimately wring from an otherwise as-assembled 454 H.O. short-block..... ....When all the testing was done and the smoke had cleared from the dyno room, our final answer was an astounding 926 HP at 6,700 rpm and 756 ib-ft at 5,800 rpm. That's 2 HP per cubic inch on pump gas! When we ran our "Import Killer" headline last year, we got a bunch of letters from import guys calling us out for comparing a vlown engine to some of the overhead camshaft techno wonders that make the magic number of 100 HP per liter of displacement naturally aspirated. Well, we don't care how bad-*** some dude's naturally aspirated Honda S2000 motor is; if you go up against 900-plus pushrod ponies and 750 pounds of earth-shaking torque with a wrong-wheel-drive econobox, you're gonna get a fast and furious old-school ***-whipping"...... Our thanks to Matthew King for an awesome build-up and story, and our thanks to CAR CRAFT for allowing me to rewrite this article for it's fans who don't have the access....

I like the way they closed the article. Too bad they did not disclose cost.

925 HP... not for pump gas and less that 7 pounds of boost!

Stick that up your fart-pipe and smoke it ****-boys!!

Heh... I can't believe that the term **** (i.e. the grain you boil in water is on the banned list . Ah well...

"The Easiest 900 HP Ever"


By Steve Dulcich (same article on same 454 build-up)


.... "For the clincher, we brought back our secret weapon: a Vortech YS-trim centrifugal blower. We covered the installation and operation of this carbureted blow through system in the original "Import Killer" article in Aug.'02, and we changed absolutely nothing when we bolted it back on for this go-around. The blower components were re-installed onto our 454 in less time than it takes to change an intake manifold, and we didn't even change the jetting in the Mighty Demon CARB installed inside the Vortech CARB airbox. As a precaution against detonation, we filled the fuel system with Unocal 100 octane fuel, retarded the timing to 30 degrees before TDC, and let it rip for the numbers.....

....In typical centrifugal supercharger fashion, the higher the engine revs, the more boost is generated, carrying the torque curve with it. With torque comes horsepower, and it basically came down to a matter of at what RPM we wanted to draw the line and stop. We bumped the total timing to 32 degrees and set the dyno control to a peak of 6800 RPM. The 454 rewarded us with 926 HP at 6700 RPM with a humble 6.9 psi of boost. The implication is clear--with the Vortech-blown combination, output is limited only by our nerve and the remarkable strength of the 454's bottom end".....


A big thanks goes out to both Steve Dulcich, and CARCRAFT again...

a 600 RWHP f-body = import killer, 925 HP is a super car eater