Ford Godzilla V8 Knocks on the Door of 1,000 HP Without Boost or Nitrous

There’s something to be said about Ford‘s 7.3-liter Godzilla V8 and how engine builders can’t get enough of it. I mean, it makes sense—it’s a big-displacement pushrod lump that’s not an LS and cheaper to build than a 5.0-liter Coyote. It’s narrower, too, as it can drop right into a Fox body Mustang. As impressive as the Godzilla is with boost, some folks are taking it to another level without any supercharger, turbos, or nitrous—just old-fashioned hot-rodding techniques.

This bored-out, 472-cubic-inch example built by Willis Performance just made 984 horsepower at 8,000 rpm on the engine dyno. It’s far from stock, of course, but you won’t find any forced induction here. It’s seen several iterations, and Brian Wolfe from Willis brags on the Visner Engine Development stage 3+ heads and billet intake manifold for the latest power leap.

Check out this hardware:

The bore measures 4.250 inches while the stroke is under at 4.165 inches. As for the crankshaft, it’s stock with an offset grind, and the block itself is the same you’d find in a new Super Duty pickup. While it’s impressive to see it holding up to this power, it’s no surprise as higher-powered boosted examples have survived with stock blocks just fine—including a Whipple-boosted Godzilla that Wolfe previously built beyond 1,650 hp.

Other mods include a Militia Racing Products solid roller cam with upgraded lifters, rockers, and belt drive from Jesel Valvetrain Innovations. Clearly, a lot of top-end work has been done, but that’s what’s required when you’re building the world’s highest-powered NA Godzilla. “I have not seen anything over about 770 [hp] elsewhere,” Wolfe tells me.

The goal is to reach 1,000 hp with this engine, and Wolfe believes it’s well within reach. He and the team had to wave off any further tests for the time being as a water leak developed where they had welded on the combustion chamber. Still, that 984 hp figure was a decent improvement over its previous best run from December where it hit 973 hp at 8,200 rpm. You can listen to Wolfe talk shop on the Revan Evan YouTube video below.

Wolfe says this engine exists purely as a test mule, so don’t expect to see it on the strip anytime soon. That’s not to say a similarly equipped example will never make its way down the quarter-mile, though, as more and more Godzillas are finding their way into drag builds. And while it may be faster to make more power with forced induction, I can’t help but feel like this is a whole lot cooler.

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