With 760 horsepower and earth-shattering torque from 5.2 liters of displacement, the Predator V8 is highly strung from the factory. YouTube vlogger StangMode upgraded his Shelby GT500 – lovingly nicknamed The Hulk - to 1,000 horsepower without taking into consideration what that means for the internals, and as expected, the inevitable did happen.
Some of the upgrades that led to the engine blowing up in a thick cloud of smoke include the Lethal Performance fuel injector rails, Kong Performance throttle body, L&M camshafts, a 2.5-inch pulley, and a cold-air intake. After discovering two holes in the block, L&M Engines in Hatboro, Pennsylvania tore down the supercharged mill to find out if it’s repairable.
A flat spot on the roller is the first find of the teardown, which means that one of the cams needs to be replaced. Taking the oil pan off the block isn’t a pretty sight either because L&M Engines found bits and pieces of a rod and a piston. One of the oil pan bolts also happens to be bent.
What comes as a bit of a surprise is that the timing is correct even though one of the pistons is sideways in the block and the valves need to be replaced. A connecting rod may have chainsawed the block, but on the upside, both heads of the Predator V8 can be salvaged.
Oh, and by the way, the remaining rods are bent as well.
Speaking to StangMode, one of the mechanics explains that “too much power in a cylinder caused a rod to bend, so the resolution would be to have stronger rods.” Reading between the lines, someone will spend big bucks for internals that can withstand 1,000 HP and God knows how much torque.
The big question is, what about the TR-9070? It’s rated at 664 pound-feet by the Blue Oval and the supplier alike, which is a little higher than the 625 pound-feet of the bone-stock Predator V8. However, a tuned engine will ultimately translate to premature wear for the Tremec-developed tranny.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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