Like drag race engines, truck pulling mills are designed to make maximum output for relatively short bursts. Sure, the intention is to have them hold together for as long as possible, but unlike say a stock car engine that has to go hundreds of miles at a time at essentially full throttle, the full tilt pulling mill is designed to get up into the power band quickly and stay there for as long as the driver has his or foot jammed into the firewall. Take this awesome freaking big block Ford for example. It measures out to 482ci, which in today’s world is pretty much a small block with respect to total displacement, but the foundation of this beast is a fat block Ford. It is topped with a single four barrel carb and as mentioned above, it lives in a pulling truck.

I took Freiburger to his first truck pull a few years ago when we were up in Loring, Maine for an LTA land speed meet. Turk and Tonya were also in attendance. None of them had ever been to an actual pull with the various classes of trucks and tractors all trying to drag the sled. When the four wheel drive trucks came up, most running these wild screaming big blocks like you’ll see in the video, he watched a couple of runs and then looked to me and said, “This is like watching a series of the most brutal dyno pulls I’ve ever seen.” He was right of course because as tough as the actual dyno equipment is, there’s nothing like listening to one of these engines scream right past nine grand while turning the tires and being loaded down by the weight box as it slides up the back of the sled. With upturned headers through the hood on most trucks, the sound is literally blasted right up into the air and the whole cacophony is something that you’ll never forget if you are a first timer. Also remember that these engines are working at 9,000+ RPM and by the end of the pull in many cases the truck is moving at what amounts to a fast walk. Sheer and utter violence!

This is one fine sounding Ford and I have to admit to listening to this pull about 10x after I found the video. There’s nothing quite like a big block making these kinds of noises.

PRESS PLAY BELOW AND LET YOUR BLUE OVAL FLAG FLY AS THIS BIG BLOCK TURNS 9,500 RPM ON THE DYNO!