Putting boost to junkyard engines is too much fun! I know it isn’t the same as building some bad ass racing engine, nobody is going to argue with you on that one, but man you can make some real power and have some real fun by grabbing your favorite junkyard engine and slapping some boost on the darn thing and letting it eat. With engine management options that are available today, and the quality of parts for cheap, you can really do some fun stuff without breaking the bank or blowing stuff up for no good reason. I’m a fan of Big Blocks in general, but when you can take an anemic 1990’s big block and create pretty epic power numbers that would have only been possible with a full blown race build when this engine was manufactured, that’s just cool.
Do you think junkyard engines are worth the time to play with? Would you throw one in your hot rod with cool parts like this junkyard jewel has on it?
Or do you think it is a waste of time and energy to do something like this?
You know our opinion, but we’d love to hear your opinion as well. Make sure you comment in the box below and we’ll take your thoughts into consideration when getting our next engine ready to roll.
Hm, it appears there aren’t many opinions out there on this. My thoughts on this: While a properly built engine will certainly (1) last longer and (2) likely make more power a test like this is certainly valid and educational as we know there are a lot of folks out there who are into using junk yard engines. I just don’t know if many of those folks (other than Chads team on the most recent race wars show) are into using old big blocks like this. Obviously LS engines are the junk yard engine of choice as fir the $ they are much lighter, smaller (easier to package) and probably have a stronger bottom end. I honestly have to wonder how long the junk rods and cheap cast pistons in the big block will hold up under boost.
The big block wins on a horsepower to dollar scale over an ls,unless you don\’t know how to build a good cheap big block.
People dont do this! Properly build the motor for your requirements! Most times this recipe is doomed for failure and labor costs and a good buildable core are out the window.
How bout some odd ball caddy 500
I have a blast at the junk yard and I am a girl…built a 396 big block for my \’70 Chevy C10…pull my own parts too