EngineLabs Engine Giveaway Is Live — Looking At The Big-Block Parts

No need to bury the lead; the 2025 EngineLabs Giveaway presented by Summit Racing is now live! You can head to www.enginelabsgiveaway.com and get entered between now and April 2, 2026. There’s no cost to enter, no merch to buy, just head on over and sign up. If you’re going to be in Indianapolis over December 11-13, 2025, for the PRI Show, you can not only stop by the POWER Automotive Media booth (#1105) to get entered, but also see the big-block being assembled live on the show floor.

Our goal this year is simple. No power adders, just cubic inches and compression to make more than 1,000 naturally aspirated horsepower that you can run on 93-octane pump gas. That might seem like a tall order, but between this year’s engine builder — Nick Bacalis of Bullet Racing Engines — and our product partners, everyone keeps coming back to the same word when discussing the 1,000-horsepower goal: “easy.” So, go ahead and head on over and get entered, and then we’ll dive into the engine. Ok, you’re back. Good.

The EngineLabs Giveaway Engine Short-Block

When you want to get 632 cubic inches of displacement from a big-block Chevrolet, you need to start with a tall-deck block. In this case, we opted to use Jason Line’s new block design. The JLine Performance tall-deck iron block is made in the USA and comes with a deck height of 10.200 inches, with a .400-inch raised cam bore, and we opted for the .904-inch lifter bores. The JLine blocks all come with serialized billet steel main caps secured with ARP 12-point hardware, as well as threaded and O-ringed freeze plugs and oil-galley plugs.

The rotating assembly for a 632 needs to be equally as specialized as the block. Since we’ll not only need displacement, but also RPM, we’ll need something that’s both lightweight and strong. For the crankshaft, we’re going to be using a SCAT Superlight forged 4340 steel crankshaft. Designed with a 4.750-inch stroke, 2.749 main journal, and 2.200-inch rod journal, the 68-pound crank is center-counterweighted in order to handle the RPM we plan on turning.

That crankshaft will be sitting in a set of King Engine Bearings pMax Kote XP-series main bearings along with the same series of rod bearings. Surrounding those bearings will be a set of SCAT’s forged 4340 steel H-beam rods. Coming in at 6.700 inches long, with a 2.200-inch big end diameter and a .990-inch wrist pin, these rods are held onto the crankshaft with ARP’s premium L19 rod bolts.

Hanging off of the rods will be a set of RaceTec custom pistons, 4.600 inches in diameter, with lateral gas ports and a 20cc dish. The RaceTec engineers designed these pistons around the chambers of our DR-17 heads, and came up with a 1.105-inch compression height to fit the beefy .990 wrist pins. The pistons will feature a 0.9mm/0.9mm/3.0mm ring package, filled with rings from Total Seal. A stainless steel top ring, a stainless Napier second ring, and a 14-pound oil ring were the call for this package.

A Melling Select billet high-volume oil pump will keep the Klotz Synthetics 40 Weight oil moving throughout the system, while a Moroso 7-quart fabricated-aluminum oil pan will hold everything in reserve, controlling windage and keeping the oil where it belongs.

An Incredible Top End

Topping off the amazing 632-cube short-block will be a set of Edelbrock DR-17 cylinder heads, with a CNC intake and exhaust port developed by Pat Musi. The DR-17 features a .400-inch raised intake port and 17-degree valve angle. The heads will be fitted with Ferrea Racing Components valves. On the intake side, we’ll be using back-cut 2.450-inch titanium valves, and on the exhaust, we’ll be running 1.800-inch Inconel valves.  We’ll be using COMP Cams Elite Race dual valve springs to control the valves, measuring 195 pounds of spring pressure on the seat and 502 pounds of open pressure.

Controlling the valves will be a custom Cam Motion hydraulic-roller camshaft, with Johnson .903-inch hydraulic-roller lifters riding on the lobes. A set of Manton heavy-wall 7/16-to-3/8-inch tapered pushrods will connect the camshaft and the rocker arms. A set of Jesel Pro-Series aluminum shaft rocker arms, made specifically for the DR-17 heads, will translate the camshaft’s motion into valve motion. A Jesel belt drive, designed specifically for raised-cam big-block Chevy applications, is rated for up to 1,200 pounds of spring pressure and is adjustable up to 10 degrees of advance or retard, so it will handle our application with ease.

The cylinder heads will be secured to the block with Cometic MLS head gaskets and Edelbrock cylinder head-specific ARP 8740 head studs with 12-point nuts. On top of the cylinder heads will be an Edelbrock Super Victor II tall-deck intake manifold, which has been worked over by Wilson Manifolds to increase flow and match the DR-17’s ports perfectly. Wilson also modified the intake manifold with a set of fuel rails and eight Holley 83 lb/hr injectors. Sitting atop the 4500 flange is one of Holley’s 2,000 cfm 4500 throttle bodies.

Controlling the whole shebang on the dyno will be a Holley Dominator EFI system with eight Holley Smart Coils and a Holley crank trigger kit. Since this is designed to be a street-friendly engine, we’re also opting for a full Holley mid-mount accessory drive for all the creature comforts you’ll need when dropping this engine into whatever project vehicle your heart desires. In addition to the front-drive kit, a Powermaster HPR small-frame 180-amp alternator and Ultra Torque mini starter will be included.

This engine should be an absolute beast, all without the need for any form of unnatural aspiration, designed to run on pump gas. We’ll be testing the engine on ETS Racing Fuels‘ 94-octane XS Evo gasoline, so that we have a controlled test fuel and don’t have to worry about getting a bad batch. Make sure you head over to the EngineLabsGiveaway to get entered, because you don’t want to miss out on your chance to win this amazing engine.

The 2026 EngineLabs’ Engine Giveaway is presented by Summit Racing and made possible thanks to partnerships with Bullet Racing Engines, University of Northwestern Ohio, Automotive Racing Products, ATI Performance Parts, Bendpak, Cam Motion, Cometic Gaskets, Edelbrock, ETS Racing Fuels, Ferrea Racing Components, Holley, Jesel, JLine Performance, King Bearings, Klotz, Lemons Headers, Manton, Melling, Moroso, Powermaster, RaceTec Pistons, Total Seal, Williams Performance Products, and Wilson Manifolds.