As I sit here waiting for some new head gaskets to arrive for Buford T Justice that I ordered from Summit, dreams of turbocharged LS goodness have crept into my brain. It isn’t any secret that a thoughtful matching of good factory parts and the addition of forced induction, especially via a turbocharger can transform relatively small cubic inch LS engines into romping, stomping animals. There were a few great running turbo LS combos on Drag Week months back and the engine in this video makes a (claimed) 1,092 hp @7600 RPM. Unlike the bizarro world claims made by the dude selling the Olds we highlighted earlier in the day, these are numbers that jive for me.
As neat as the 1,000hp figure is, the 755 lb/ft of torque had my eyeballs bulging as well. This engine would hustle a Nova, Vega, or similarly light car to some way deep single digit elapsed times on the strip, or it would serve as the ultimate scream generating, tire melting, burger joint bragging engine on the streets no matter your location.
The poster of the video listed these specs for the engine. Certainly nothing too crazy here: “5.3” with LS3 heads, 9.5:1 compression, 239/243 116+4 cam, PT8847 turbo, 1092hp/755tq at 7600 RPM . Turbo kit by One-guys-garage.com, Engine built and dyno’d at TPIS in Chaska, MN
PRESS PLAY TO HEAR THIS LS MAKE SOME GREAT NOISE NEAR 8,000 RPM!
anyone else able to count 6 Mississippi’s between WOT and when it started to make power? The power is nice, but that kind of lag makes it just a dyno queen.
that’s a small turbo that will spool very fast on the street, Ed. The dyno in the video is loading the throttle slowly, and the dyno ultimately controls the RPM of the engine. Sounds to me like it actually spools super fast and it should be, it’s a tiny turbocharger. This should be a great street combo.
Well said!!!
guess I should have looked closer and paid more attention? You’re right that is a small turbo. Not sure why the dyno was holding it back for another 6 seconds after achieving WOT, but impressive power for a small turbo, medium boost, basic/affordable combination.
That is actually a huge turbo for a 5.3L engine… I’m running a 70mm turbo on my DD 5.3L
5.3L has a bore size of 3.78″ and a LS3 head requires a minimum bore size of 4.00″….
i havent looked it up but i dont think you can bore a 5.3 out that much, especially on 20 PSI
That is correct. However, this is a 6.0L bore (4 inch) with the 4.8L stroke. making it a “5.3L” 332ci.
Mother of God!
It’s a 4.0″ bore block (6 liter) with a 4.8L crankshaft, badass combo.
I have been following some of the LS write ups for a while, but I never heard of this combo.
It makes a lot of sense, basically a destroked 6 liter, correct?
How long will it live at that level?
So cool! Hot rod also did this in a rather bangshifty fashion, with a junkyard LS and twin turbos, with little more than gapped rings and ported heads, they accidentally made 1,200 hp trying to kill the engine.
http://www.hotrod.com/techarticles/hrdp_1109_stock_gm_ls_engine_big_bang_theory/
Well done, well written!