My car buddies all know that if the conversation doesn’t start out about engines, it won’t take long before that’s where it ends up. I recently attended a dyno test of a 395ci stroker 5.7L Dodge late model Gen III hemi engine that was equipped with a ProCharger F1 centrifugal supercharger and water injection. The testing was done on a SuperFlow engine dyno at Larry’s Engine & Marine in Tucson, and the engine was built by Terry and Bob Woods who own The Supercharger Store in Huachuca City, Arizona. These guys are lifer Mopar fanatics and have created a series of excellent belt drive ProCharger centrifugal blower packages for a whole slew of different engines, including of course, the late model hemis.

What captured my attention was when Larry Peto pulled the handle on the dyno soon after I arrived and the engine delivered 885 hp at 5,900 rpm on pump gas. They managed this trick by adding their two-stage SuperCharger Store water injection system on top of around 15 pounds of boost. While centrifugal superchargers are not known for instantaneous boost, the engine still managed nearly 600 lb-ft of torque at 3,500 at only 6 psi of boost. Imagine that kind of power in even a heavy B-body – or better yet – a lightweight Dart and how quick that car could run – assuming you could hook it up.

Most of the world knows me as a Chevy guy – but really I love all engines – including a fascination with old WWII radial aircraft engines that sound like no other engine I’ve ever heard. Conversely, I want to learn more about the latest tricks that GM is doing with the direct injection LS engines that are the current engines in the new Camaro and Corvette. Then let’s jump back a few months and look at the amazing accomplishments of the Tony Bischoff and his Bischoff Engine Service (BES) win in the 2014 Engine Masters competition. His 401ci small-bore, long-stroke carbureted engine made 688 normally aspirated peak horsepower which is 1.7 hp/ci on pump gas using hydraulic roller lifters. The rules also limited the competition to 6,500 rpm so he couldn’t use the time-honored trick of spinning the wee out of the engine to pull off that horsepower.

Much of the credit for both of these engines can be placed on the cylinder head and I’m sure, in Bischoff’s case, those heads are a long way from stock. But even stock, the latest version Gen II hemi Apache heads are excellent castings with amazing flow potential right off the assembly line. So this got me to thinking that maybe I need to take a closer look at one of these engines. For example, even a 5.7L motor out of a 2004 Dodge Ram truck could be found relatively cheaply from perhaps a wreck or stolen vehicle recovery. I’ve heard that trying to make the Chrysler EFI system work on a modified engine is challenging, but it would seem that a typical aftermarket system like the FAST Sportsman would make that part a whole lot easier.

Of course, this spawned a fun little bench racing session with my buddy Ed Taylor. The discussion quickly plummeted down the rabbit hole. The scenario goes like this: Back in the early ‘60s, the original Street Hemi was king – everybody wanted a Hemi and those engines found their way into all kinds of different cars. I ran across a’57 T-Bird that had appeared in an early ‘60s Hot Rod magazine where a man stuffed a Chrysler Hemi into that T-Bird and then turbocharged it!

Here’s where our 21st Century bench racing session took an obtuse turn. We start with a 6.2L 392ci Gen III hemi engine, remove the stock EFI manifold and see what it would take to convert to perhaps a dual four-barrel style intake to make it look more like an early Street Hemi. Because I’m a GM guy, I have an orphan TH400 trans laying around. It took about 30 seconds to find an ATI adapter plate for $600 that will adapt that late model hemi to the TH400. Now we hook up a FAST EFI system to control the fuel and large injectors because we’re going to run this beast on E85 – and tell everybody it’s a hemi running on alcohol.

The Mopar faithful would change this plan to adapt a Torqueflite and then stuff it into a lightweight ’64 Belvedere. This has probably already been done, but if not, then somebody needs to step up. Our twisted sense came up with a ’66 Chevy II with a straight front axle to create the gasser look. We’d leave the hood off to show off those throttle bodies and two spark plugs per cylinder. Because we’re running this animal on E85, we could jack the compression up to 13 or 14:1 and that would make this thing really crisp. It would still run on E85 right out of the pump because of the 105 octane rating. I’m not really a big fan of the gasser look, but you gotta admit that this would shake up the troops. Maybe this has already been done – it’s crazy enough to be fun. Of course, you’d have to tub it in the back to stuff a big tire under it, but that’s not even difficult anymore. At the SEMA show, Dynacorn debuted a ’66/’67 Chevy II body shell that would be perfect for this and give a nod to Jungle Jim Lieberman.

I’ll never build this because I’m at least three car projects in arrears right now. This would be perfect for somebody who likes to toss it back at the resto guys, and this car would be sure to upset a few people and confuse the rest. To further compound this “error”, Ed and I came up with an idea to paint the engine block and heads Chevy Orange and call it a one-off “dual plug” LS! Maybe I’m just a trouble maker, but I think it’s a cool idea – as long as somebody else builds it!