A 435ci LS engine from Gerry Stone and Roycroft Racing is leading the field after the second day of qualifying at the 2014 Amsoil Engine Masters presented by Hot Rod Magazine. Ten teams have posted numbers so far with qualifying continuing through Thursday. The top three engines will advance into Friday’s final. Testing is being conducted on two dynos in the motorsports department at the University of Northwestern Ohio.

Roycroft Racing’s LS engine that led qualifying after two days at the 2014 Amsoil Engine Masters Challenge. Photo Courtesy: Hot Rod Magazine

The Roycroft bullet is based on an iron block and production LS7 heads. Fuel is fed through a Holley EFI and air is controlled with an Enderle single-butterfly throttle body on top of an All-Pro intake. Average peak horsepower from three runs was 723 to score 2798.5 points. Average peak torque was 618.0 lb-ft.

Under the Engine Masters format, the engines are tested for average power and torque from 3,000 to 6,500 rpm on three test runs. Numbers are then fed into a formula that takes the engine’s size into consideration to produce a comparative score. Rules limit naturally aspirated 2-valve engines with hydraulic roller cams.

Earning second spot in the qualifying so far is a 413ci Clevor, or Ford Windsor with Cleveland heads, from Raceheads/AFD. It made 605.3 horsepower/583.3 lb-ft torque and scored 2,683 points. Third was a 407ci small-block Chevy from Henderson Power Sports and Speier Racing Heads that made 600 horsepower/542.3 lb-ft torque and totaled 2,599.5 points.

Rounding out the top five are a 436ci small-block Mopar from Robinson Rutters Auto Machine (617.7 horsepower, 591.0 lb-ft torque, 2,556.6 points) and a 433ci Ford FE from Survival Motorsports (636.3 horsepower, 562.0 lb-ft torque, 2,536.5 points).

The Survival engine has a unique story, as portrayed in the YouTube video above posted by Hot Rod. Owner Barry Rabotnik had this same engine at last year’s competition, raced it over the season, then tuned it up for this year’s Engine Masters. He says it has over 200 dyno pulls with no problems. Another unique feature of this engine is a dual-plane intake converted to EFI. Very few engine builders attempt to use dual-plane intakes with fuel injection, but Survival is taking advantage of those airflow dynamics to move the torque curve to a more desired rpm range.

Hot Rod also posted videos showcasing the 409ci Hemi from Hinkle Motorsports that currently sits seventh in qualifying (613 horsepower, 518.3 lb-ft torque, 2,502.7 points) and a 540 big-block Chevy from Weingartner Racing that is ninth in the standings with the strongest pull so far at 783 horsepower and 691.7 lb-ft torque. But when the displacement is factored in the points end up at 2,481.2.

Other Top-10 engines include 401ci small-block from Midnight Express/Robert Peters Racing Engines in sixth place (569.3 horsepower, 519.7 lb-ft torque, 2,517.9 points), 402ci small-block Mopar from Raceheads (539.3 horsepower, 540.7 lb-ft torque, 2,517.4 points) and a 450ci big-block Ford from RM Competition (625 horsepower, 581.7 lb-ft torque, 2,473.9 points).

Hourly updates on the competition can be found on the Hot Rod blog.