Hot Rod Godzilla

[ Frankie ] You're watching Powernation!

[ Pat ] Today on Engine Power we are gonna be working on a brand new platform we've never had in the building before and it's gonna be awesome! [ Frankie ] We're excited and you should be excited, but to find out what it is you're just gonna have to watch and see. [ Music ] [ Pat ] Welcome to Engine Power. We work on a lot of cool projects here. Anything from mild to wild, big blocks, small blocks, six cylinders, fuel injected, carbureted, turbocharged, nitrous, the list goes on. Every now and then we have the opportunity to work on a brand new platform that is gonna take the industry by storm and it is gonna power everything from full blown race cars to street machines and cruisers. It just so happens we have one with us today. Without further ado I present to you. [ Frankie ] A brand new Ford Godzilla. We have finally gotten one, and if you are not familiar with what this engine is it is Ford's gas replacement for their Superduty trucks as a more cost effective replacement for the diesel engines. It is 7.3-liters or 445 cubic inches. It is 4.220 bore, 3.976 inch stroke. It has a 4.53 inch bore spacing. It is a cast iron block, but the reason this is so exciting is because Ford has not made a cam-in-block pushrod V-8 for almost 25 years. It's been about the same amount of time since they made an engine with this displacement either. This in the minds of a lot of people in the industry is going to be the answer for replacing the LS swaps in Fords. Today we have finally got our hands on one and we are going to do some upgrades. Before we get to that kind of fun stuff we do want to take it just how it is out of the vehicle and dyno it bone stock to see what it makes. So we're gonna get this thing off of this crazy crate, get it on the run stand, and get it into the dyno so that we can. [ Pat ] Make some hot water! That's called horsepower. After splitting the engine and the TR-140 transmission we can get it bolted onto a dyno cart with some Summit Racing Godzilla engine mounts. [ Frankie ] So this is a new engine design for Ford but they made it a little bit easy on the back end because it's based off the Coyote. So it's a Coyote style bell housing and it uses a Coyote eight bolt flywheel. Same kind of trigger wheel, a 58-tooth. So we have a Summit Racing billet steel flywheel that we're gonna put on here and hold it on with a set of Coyote ARP flywheel bolts. [ Music ] [ drill humming ] [ Frankie ] So our Godzilla is mounted on our dyno but we need a way to actually run the engine, and the factory e-c-u and wiring harness would take a ton of work. So we need an aftermarket solution. That is where Holley comes in because Holley has been making aftermarket e-f-i systems for a bunch of engines for years, and with the Godzilla only being out for a few years they have come out with a plug and play solution for Ford's 7.3-liter gas engine. It's based around the Terminator-X Max e-c-u. This is a great swap e-c-u because it has a ton of capability if you're talking about naturally aspirated or supercharged, turbocharged, nitrous control, it has all of that and it even has transmission control if you want to put a common aftermarket transmission behind it. It comes with a plug and play harness for this engine. So most of the connections are already made for you. There's only a few simple wires that you have to hook up, and it has an o-e quality finish. It comes with its own fuse box. So this is gonna be really easy to install. It comes with the correct coil harness for the engine. It comes with the correct injector harness for the engine. It comes with coil drivers for the factory Godzilla two wire coils. And just like all the other Holley e-f-i systems you can do all the setup and tuning with the included three and a half inch handheld or if you want to get deeper in the tune-up and get your own custom tune going you can use Holley's free laptop software. Also it does come with an included oxygen sensor that you can put in your exhaust pipe so it can self-learn. This is a great kit. We're gonna get it installed and hopefully be running this Godzilla here pretty soon. So we are changing out the coils on our Godzilla and you're probably wondering why. Well we didn't know this until we got the engine but this is a 2023 Godzilla, and what that means is Ford made some revisions mainly to the coil packs. They went from a two wire not as smart coil to a three wire smart coil design. The Holley e-f-i is only designed to run the older two wire style. So we are gonna need to swap them out, but it's pretty hard to find Godzilla coils. We actually got on the AutoZone Pro Mobile App and found a complete set of Duralast ignition coils for a '20 through 2022 F-250 with a Superduty gas engine. The great thing about Duralast is when they engineer o-e replacement parts they make sure that they meet or exceed the o-e specifications for function, form, and fit. So what that means is we are gonna get a coil with at least the same spark energy if not more spark energy, which is gonna be great when we start adding power to our Godzilla later on. That also mean they're gonna fit just as well. They're gonna bolt right into the exact same place, and they're gonna have the same high quality connector as the stock ones. They should plug right in. We're gonna go ahead and get these changed out and we will be pretty close to dynoing this bad boy. [ Music ] [ drill humming ] [ Music ] Up next, we see what our Godzilla can do in its stock form and tear into this brand new power plant.

[ Frankie ] The last thing we need to change on our Godzilla is the throttle body, and the reason we need to do that is because the 2023 Godzilla throttle body is actually one of the other changes they made. The Holley e-f-i is designed to run a '20 through '22 or a '20 through '22 GT-500 throttle body, but we actually can't bolt it up because Ford changed the bolt pattern for the throttle body and they're not even close. A solution we came up with is you can actually bolt an LS-2 style LS cable throttle body directly to the Godzilla manifold with a little bit of clearancing on this bolt hold here. So we're gonna be putting on a Holley 95mm low taper LS throttle body, and this actually works pretty good because the Holley software can handle it. And if you're putting this in an older car it probably has a cable throttle already. So this will be easier to swap in. [ Music ] [ engine starting ] [ Frankie ] So Godzilla running on the dyno, running great, very smooth, which is a stock engine so that's good. We're gonna turn this thing from 2,500 to 5,500 because the truck engine should be relatively low r-p-m. Hopefully we'll hit both peaks within that and see what she makes. [ Pat ] That's smooth. [ engine revving ]

[ Frankie ] Oh man! [ Pat ] What are these rated for? [ Frankie ] I think these are 425 horse, 475 pound feet. [ Pat ] No idea, but I can tell you we have a bone stock engine making 502.9 horsepower and 564.6 pound feet of torque, and it runs like a Swiss watch. That Holley system is really, really nice. Nice job Ford for underrating your engine like a big dog. [ Frankie ] Now we've just got to do our upgrades and see what it picks up. [ Pat ] Let's get it off the pump. [ Frankie ] We've got our Godzilla into the assembly/disassembly area and that's exactly what we're gonna do next. We have a slew of upgrades for this thing including a cam swap, spring swap, intake swap, some front drive accessory changing, and a new oil pan with oil conversion. We've got to get it all disassembled. We'll get everything off before we start putting in new parts. We'll start out by removing a lot of the components we won't be reusing, like the exhaust manifolds, plastic intake, and stock fuel rails. To get to the cam shaft we'll also remove the front accessory drive that's designed for the stock trucks. [ Music ] Drop the oil pan sealed with silicone. It has dowels on your side. And pull the damper and timing cover from the engine. Ooo, look at all of that. [ Pat ] I'm not sure what any of this does. After removing the oil pump drive chain we can take off the valve covers and removed the rockers and pushrods in the firing order and keep them organized for later. After testing a few we did not trust the loose lifter trays to keep the lifters from falling in the cam tunnel. So we turned the engine over to keep the lifters raised up in their bores while we swapped the cam. The stock cam is gently slid out, and finally we can remove the oil pump contraption from the bottom of the engine. [ Frankie ] That is as far as we're gonna tear down our Godzilla today. So we can start talking a little bit more about the upgrades we're going to be doing. In the power department it's mainly gonna consist of a cam shaft, spring, and intake swap from Edelbrock and Comp. They have put together a really nice package, and we're excited to see what power gains we're gonna be getting with it. For the cam shaft this is their Stage-3 hydraulic roller for the Godzilla engines. So the specs are a 273 at 50 on the intake, a 250 at 50 on the exhaust for duration. It is set on a 117 degree lobe separation angle and lift at the valve with the stock rocker ratio is 671 thousandths on both the intake and exhaust. So this is appropriately sized for a 445 cubic inch engine, but when we start upgrading cam shafts with larger duration and larger lift on engines with variable valve timing that's something we have to worry about in terms of piston to valve clearance. So Comp actually came out with two solutions to that, a phaser limiter kit and a phaser lockout kit. That is actually the option we're gonna be using. As far as the spring package they have come out with a drop in spring package. This is a conical spring versus the stock beehive. It comes with the spacer/locator to go under the spring, the correct retainer, and the correct keepers. So we'll be putting those in later. Now since we are upping the cam shaft we're gonna be moving that power up higher in the r-p-m range, and to compliment that Edelbrock has come out with an XTS intake manifold for the Godzilla engines. This is great because it has a little bit more plenum volume and it has a slightly shorter runner to match with the cam shaft. As a bonus it uses an LS cable style throttle body, and it comes out at a straight angle which is great for a swap engine. First thing we're gonna do is get the cam shaft in. That way we don't have to worry about our lifters anymore, and then we'll start working on our other upgrades. [ Pat ] Coming up, we finish making our Godzilla the perfect Ford swap engine.

[ Frankie ] To lock out the Godzilla's variable valve timing phaser we will start by installing this retaining bolt that keeps the trigger wheel from rotating during the process. Then we compress the spring, insert the Comp locking tool, and remove the bolt that holds tension on the spring. The other three countersunk bolts can be pulled out and the cover plate removed to get access to the phaser. The wedge block drops inside and we tighten the internal pipe plug to hold the phaser in place. Then the cover goes back on and the entire process can be reversed for reassembly. [ Music ] And our phaser is locked. [ Pat ] The stock timing set is reinstalled and we can torque the torque to yield cam bolt following Ford's specifications. To change the springs with the heads on the engine we filled the cylinders with pressurized air one at a time and used this bolt down hand compressor to remove the stock beehive springs. We set up each of the new springs individually for 135 pounds of seat pressure and 465 pounds of open. Then we install them with the same tool. [ Frankie ] Even though we can't adjust it we will degree the cam to find its intake center line for accurate data on valve timing events, and it lands at 111.5 degrees. [ Pat ] The new cam required slightly different length pushrods for proper lifter pre-load. So we got these Trick Flow three-eighths diameter 8.350 long pushrods from Summit Racing. The stock rockers are reinstalled at t-d-c compression stroke in the firing order and torqued down to 25 pound feel. The new springs receive a hefty amount of Comp Valvetrain spray lube for lubrication on startup, and the stock valve covers are bolted back down. [ Music ] [ Frankie ] With all of our valvetrain fully installed the next thing we're gonna do is start sealing it up and make this engine a little bit better of a swap engine cause that's kinda the whole idea here. Holley has been well known for their mid and high mount accessory drives for LS and Gen-3 Hemi engines. They have created a similar kit for the Godzilla. So we have one of their complete accessory drive systems along with the oiling conversion. So this comes with their own design timing cover with a cartridge style water pump, a modern version of a power steering pump, alternator, and a/c compressor. It all came in black, which is one of our favorite colors for engines. As far as the oiling conversion what they've actually done is gotten rid of the chain drive shaft driven oil pump with the weird pressure relief on the side of the engine. It actually has a more conventional style crank driven oil pump kinda like what you would see with an LS with an easily accessible pressure relief valve. So this is a little better because there's less parts to fail and it's more durable in a high performance application. [ Pat ] Holley has gone the extra mile to put in the engineering so this can be used in any application you want it for. Circle track, drag racing, autocross, street stuff, it doesn't matter. We even went ahead and got the extra baffle for the drag race application. Also a windage tray for great oil control. Now it's great looking sitting here on the table but it's gonna look better on the engine. [ Frankie ] The new oil pump drive gear and oil pump can be slid on. Then the O-ring sealed timing cover is torqued into place. We'll start the oil pump mounting bolts by hand and leave them loose for now. Then use this included Ford seal driver to press in the front seal. Before we can tighten up our oil pump mounting bolts we need to install the damper, and for this application we're actually gonna be upgrading to an aftermarket Fluidampr viscous style harmonic damper. The reason we're doing this is the o-e damper is a rubber elastomer style damper, and it's really designed for a truck engine. So relatively low power and low r-p-m. Well this engine is not that anymore. We are drastically changing the power output and the r-p-m range of this engine. So we need an aftermarket damper that's gonna be able to hold up to that. That's the benefit of a viscous style damper. It is much better at tuning a wider range of harmonic frequencies that can damage your crankshaft bearings and other components inside the engine. As a bonus it doesn't need to be serviced like an elastomer style damper because there's no rubber or O-rings that dry out, crack, or erode over time. As long as the fluid is still inside the damper it is functioning properly. Now Fluidampr has done a great job of precision machining this as far as the pulley depth, the pulley spacing, and it is precision honed for the correct interference fit on the crankshaft. This damper has been third party tested by the SFI Foundation. So it is SFI approved. If we were to take this engine racing we are set up and ready to go. So we're gonna use our special adapter to get this thing installed and keep on moving. [ Pat ] Once the damper is installed the oil pump mounting bolts can be torqued down. The alternator, power steering, and a/c compressor can be bolted up before the tensioner and pulley covers finish it out. A thick bead of silicone seals the fully assembled swap oil pan just like the factory, and our new intake is the last piece to go on before this Godzilla hits the dyno. [ Frankie ] Up next, our new and improved Godzilla hits the dyno and cranks out some serious pump gas numbers.

[ Music ] [ Pat ] In today's Summit Tech Tip we're gonna discuss something you've seen us put on a lot but never really discussed the differences between the two, and that is throttle bodies. Cable driven throttle body versus drive by wire. Leading off we'll talk about throttle bodies that are cable driven. This is as simple as it gets. It is literally an air valve that has a bell crank that opens up a butterfly to let air in. It needs a couple of things to operate for the e-c-u. One being a throttle position sensor and the other an idle air control motor. The advantage to these are they're very simple. They have a cable that hooks to them very much like the throttle linkage would be on a carburetor, and it just hooks to it and actuates it. On the more high tech side is the drive by wire throttle body. Yes there is wires hooked to it but they don't actually actuate the throttle like a cable would. It is electronically controlled through the e-c-u. The advantage to this is there is no crazy things that you have to do to hook it up. It is just wires run to it. So you don't have to have some sort of creative linkage. Both of these are great systems, and if you have a question on what would be right for your application you can contact the experts at Summit Racing and they'll hook you up. [ Frankie ] The last bit of performance and swap parts we needed for our Godzilla we actually got from Apocalypse Performance. They have pretty much every performance part available for the Godzilla right now and a bunch of stuff for other applications as well. They hooked us up with a set of one and seven-eighths inch primary Stainless Works headers with a three inch collector. These are actually for a Fox body swap but they fit our dyno perfectly. A set of Billet Pro Shop billet fuel rails so we can put a-n connections on both sides, and a set of Fuel Injector Development 720cc per minute injectors because the stock 35 pound per hour injectors that Ford put in we were pretty much gonna be maxing them out on this application with our upgrades. These give us plenty of room for more upgrades in the future or if we want to run E-85 or something like that we have plenty of injector for it. So we'll get these popped in and hit the key. [ engine starting ] [ Pat ] The Godzilla is on the dyno and it fired right up. We're gonna make a run from 3,500 to 6,500 at 300 per second and we're gonna see what it looks like. Then we're gonna have to do some tuning from there because I think this engine's got a lot of potential and I think it's gonna do well. [ Frankie ] The big thing is we haven't actually done one of these before. So we're starting conservatively and then we'll go from there and do some work to it. [ Pat ] Let her buck and see what we're starting with here. [ engine revving ] [ Pat ] Nice load in. [ engine revving ]

[ Frankie ] That's pretty good. [ Pat ] I guess we'll start there. 553 and 524 pound feet. [ Frankie ] Solid oil pressure all the way across. AFRs looked right where they're supposed to be. Start putting timing in it. We'll make several runs incrementally increasing timing and then leaning out the air/fuel mixture until the power gains level off. We landed at 27.5 degrees of total timing and a ramp from 12.8 to 13.0 to one target air/fuel ratio for our final run. When do you ever get to beat on a brand new engine that you've modified? [ Pat ] It's gonna be five, four, three, two! Smooth! [ engine revving ]

[ Pat ] Definitely helped. 610! There's no way, 610! Picked up a little torque, 567.4. [ Frankie ] For reference let's overlay that with the stock Godzilla. That'd be the big change there. Torque is very similar, it just shifted it up. Take the power and it runs all the way out to 6,500. [ Pat ] Listen to that thing. [ engine revving ] [ Frankie ] I really want to put this in something now. [ Pat ] Great success! [ Frankie ] For more high power engine builds like this one you can find Engine Power on Powernation.