Warning: There is a bit of NSFW language, so proceed with caution at work!
[1]We love dyno videos. No, really, we love dyno videos. Especially dyno videos where the car owner is willing to let it all hang out in search of the highest horsepower number he can achieve.
This particular dyno video comes to us from Stance Autoworks [2] and features what is billed as the world-record-holding stock bottom end 5.3 LS engine. Anytime we hear the words “stock bottom end” and “world record” and “dyno” all in the same sentence, we cringe a little bit inside, because one never knows what they are going to get from a stock bottom end in anything – “longevity”, “stock”, and “dyno” aren’t really words that belong together.
Regardless, the engine has survived 80 bottles of nitrous oxide injection and two years of turbocharged boost, and that in itself should tell you what you’re in for when you press play on this video.
The dyno competition takes place as part of KC2K13 [3], a car show and cruise that took place earlier this year in the Kansas City, Missouri area – one of the hotbeds of automotive performance in this great land of ours. One dyno run passes without incident, with the boost coming up quickly on the turbocharged machine, registering 865 horsepower and 837 foot-pounds of torque on the Dynojet [4].
[5]Remember where we talked about “stock” and “longevity” up above? Yep, you guessed it – run two sees the engine expire in dramatic fashion, with smoke belching from the engine bay and a horrendous rattling and clattering sound as “stock” becomes “junk”, culminating with parts rolling around on the dyno room floor. That’s a wristpin, and those belong inside the engine block.
The Camaro managed to break the 900 horse number on this final pull, registering 901 horsepower and 903 foot-pounds of torque, but that’s no consolation to the owner, whose dreams are left in a puddle of oil underneath his ride.
Thankfully, LS engines are a dime a dozen in your local scrapyard [6].