540 Big Block Chevy Engine - Horsepower!

540CI Blown Big-Block Chevy, 1,438 HP
Jerry Lopez and Bill Rohlinger, Goal-45 Motorsports, Huachuca City, AZ

"They call it the Medusa motor," says Jerry Lopez. For those not up on their Greek mythology, Medusa was a female so hideous that any man who looked upon her would be instantly turned to stone. Her hair was made up of serpents, which is where the nickname for this big-block originates. Jerry and his Goal-45 Motorsports shop partner Bill Rohlinger wanted something a little different for their '67 Camaro heads-up machine. Since their shop is next door to Bob and Terry Woods' Supercharger Store, it made sense to adapt one of the Woods brothers' crank-mounted superchargers to this big-block Chevy. But the twist didn't stop there. The bed o' snakes intake generates its share of interest. "We've been parked next to a Top Fueler," Bill says, "and there were more people looking at our car." The numbers this big Rat puts down are reason enough to pay attention. Bill says the 1,400 hp was at 17 psi on the big ATI ProCharger. Then they got greedy and cranked the boost up to 35 psi. Jerry estimates that the power ran up to around 2,400 hp. "That's when we started breaking stuff left and right. I've got a wall full of driveshafts. We twisted 'em up like pretzels." They backed the power down to make the drivetrain live, but now with a brand-new chassis and a new clutch, they're turning the wick back up. "We're gonna try to run 25 psi and see what happens."

1. Fuel
Methanol fuel in this tank can make big power for several reasons. First, it's an oxygen-bearing fuel (CH3OH); second, it has a very high research octane number (RON) of 106. The downside to methanol is that it requires a very rich air/fuel ratio mixture of around 5.5:1 or richer to make power. This means you have to burn roughly twice as much fuel compared to gasoline, but methanol is worth additional power over gasoline, especially in boosted situations.

2. Heads
With a blower that can twist out over 4,000 cfm, each intake port is pushing 500-plus cfm, so large-by-huge Dart 345 Pro 1 castings with titanium 2.300-inch intake and 1.88-inch exhaust valves were the choice. The heads were then custom-ported by Goal-45 Motorsports. The valves are actuated by a set of Crower 1.70:1 roller rockers and Manley pushrods.

3. Chassis
The full-tube chassis Camaro weighs 2,960 pounds and has run a best of 7.90 at 187 mph on a set of 33.5x16.5x15-inch Mickey Thompson slicks. Wilwood is responsible for the disc brakes that haul this beast to a stop.

4. Drivetrain
What you can't see behind the engine is a complete Lenco four-speed transmission backed by a Nick Boninfante three-disc clutch assembly. If the driveshaft doesn't break, the power moves down to a Ford 9-inch rear with 4.11 gears and Moser 40-spline axles. All this fits in a full-tube chassis built by Goal-45 Motorsports.

5. Snakes
The center of all this attention is the wild intake manifold that gave Jerry's car its nickname. That's a Ron's Flying Toilet throttle body mounted just upstream of the eight individual inlet pipes that feed into the Dart tunnel-ram intake manifold. "We've tried it without the individual runners and it makes the same power," Bill says, "but it attracts more attention this way." Methanol fuel is fed by a Hilborn mechanical fuel pump to twin sets of injectors plumbed directly into the intake manifold.

6. Short-Block
The short-block consists of a 4.50-inch-bore iron-block with a 4.25-inch stroke Lunati crank spinning a set of Manley steel connecting rods and J.E. pistons. Jerry was tightlipped about the compression and the cam timing. We do know that the cam is an Isky mechanical roller.

7. Blower
The F-4 ATI ProCharger supercharger is not even listed on ProCharger's Web site because it has been superseded by the F-3R, but this is still a formidable supercharger. We got the specs from Bob Woods at The Supercharger Store, listing this blower as having the grunt to push out 4,300 cfm airflow capability, which is enough to feed up to 2,300 hp. With this much load, Jerry decided to mount the blower inline with the crankshaft using The Supercharger Store's unique step-up box.