Editor’s Note: This is the latest in a new series from EngineLabs titled Homegrown Horsepower. We’re looking for all types of engine projects based in your garage. More details on this sweet nitro motor follow. If you want to see your engine featured in this new series, email a few quality digital photos, background information on your project and list of the engine’s components to enginelabs@powerautomedia.com. We can also include YouTube videos of the engine on the dyno or test stand. So, don’t be afraid to show off your engine. Send us the details!!

Ever wonder what happens to all of those Top Fuel and Funny Car parts that get tossed by the wayside when they are “worn out”? Well, the guys who run the Nitro Express A Fuel dragster could tell you – they get recycled into other dragsters that don’t have the same performance requirements.

Owned and driven by Mike Taylor and originally built as a 175-inch long dragster by Rich Pauza, the car was lengthened by Taylor, Richard Schuler, and a couple of friends. “The Nitro Express is made of leftover and abused Top Fuel parts. The car has gone 4.39 at 173 MPH in the eighth with a two-speed B&J transmission. The short wheelbase was a handful for Mike to drive,” says Schuler. 

The car evolved from running Junior Fuel, which is an iron-headed small block class that uses injected alcohol, and today is stuffed full of those castoff pieces. Currently the dragster uses a TFX Billet block sourced from Bobby Lagana that’s stuffed with a Sonny Bryant crankshaft, Howard’s connecting rods, and Arias pistons. An old set of Brad Anderson heads sit on top using an Enderle barn door injector to provide the fuel. 

An engine like this is no joke – it needs lots of fuel, and it needs it quickly. To that end, the team has plumbed the system with a 30 gallon-per-minute fuel pump feeding the engine through 2.5-inch diameter fuel line. The engine idles at 2,700 rpm with 130 psi fuel pressure, and at the hit of the throttle the engine flashes to 5,600 rpm and needs 525 psi fuel pressure feeding the engine. As can be clearly seen on any evening, front-engine dragsters are entertaining fire breathers — spitting nitro flames into the atmosphere just inches from the driver’s head.

“We tried using a PSI hat-style injector, but the engine wanted more air so we went back to back to the barn door. Now it has the Automan A/Fuel scoop in carbon fiber. It is as obnoxious as we are,” says Schuler. In order to light the fire with that much fuel flowing into the cylinders, an MSD 44amp Pro Mag is necessary – it’s pushing energy equal to the electrical output of a welder from the magneto to light off the spark plugs. 

All of the power is transferred through a triple disc centrifugal clutch and Mittler Brothers full-floating fabricated rearend housing that’s filled with Strange Engineering components.

It’s a neat little project, put together by a group of guys who race for fun – working their day jobs to pay for the parts that guys like Antron Brown and Matt Hagan use up like tissues.

Thanks for sharing it with us, guys!