Ford Racing Is Keeping Traditional Pushrods Alive And Up To Date

Besides the announcement of the most powerful crate engine ever offered by an automaker in the 1,200-horsepower Megazilla 2.0 at the 2026 SEMA Show, the crew at Ford Racing Parts have two other pushrod crate engines on display of the 8.2-deck and 9.5-deck Windsor varieties.

The first was a fuel-injected 347 crate engine in the company’s R125 Mustang. Using the Ford Racing BOSS 302 block with aluminum cylinder heads, the stroker combo delivers 360 horsepower and 400 lb-ft of torque right out of the crate. It gets its displacement from a .030-inch overbore, a 3.400-inch Scat forged crankshaft and forged I-beam rods, along with a set of forged MAHLE pistons. Topping off the combo are a set of Ford Racing’s 188cc X2 aluminum cylinder heads. It’s fitted with a cam that idles at 800 rpm and pulls through 6,000 rpm.

The second crate engine on display shows just how big a small-block can be, with the automaker’s 460 cubic-inch 351 Windsor-based crate engine. Again using a BOSS block as the base (this time the BOSS 351), it is overbored to a stout 4.150 inches and is fitted with a forged Scat 4.250-inch-stroke crankshaft. Forged Scat H-beam rods and forged MAHLE pistons complete the 460-inch small-block’s rotating assembly, and like the 347, the short-block is topped off with a set of aluminum X2 heads. This one gets a bigger camshaft for all the extra displacement, coming in at .594/.618 inch of lift and 242/248 degrees of duration at .050.

Generating big-block power from a small-block footprint gives grassroots builders a massive mechanical advantage during complex vintage restorations. This 460 produces 575 horsepower and 575 pound-feet of torque thanks to serious internal engineering.

Mike Goodwin, a name you might recognize from Ford Racing, explains that these aren’t just repops of old engine designs, but rather a lineup of fully modernized powerplants that are still true to the originals. “All of our current Heritage engines use brand-new components produced with brand-new tooling. The blocks are designed around what Ford originally developed. Still, we’ve applied lessons learned from NASCAR and other racing programs to update the castings.”

So, even though Ford Racing is bringing out killer modern crate engines like the Megazilla and Dark Horse Coyotes, they certainly aren’t forgetting about the platforms that got them here, which is truly good to see, as we’re fans of both.