Nitrous-Powered 7.3L Ford Godzilla Engine - Engine Builder Magazine

Nitrous-Powered 7.3L Ford Godzilla Engine

Looking to push the limits of a production Ford Godzilla engine, Paul Svinicki of Paul's High Performance stuck the engine in his 2010 Cobra Jet, added some better components and some nitrous. Check out the result!

Engine of the Week is presented by

While at the 2022 PRI Show, we swung by the Fluidampr booth to say hi to a few folks, and we found ourselves looking over a nitrous-powered 7.3L Ford Godzilla engine on display. As it turned out, Paul Svinicki, the engine builder behind this Godzilla build, was standing nearby, and he was kind enough to fill us in on the details.

Paul has been in the industry for 35 years. His shop, Paul’s High Performance, located in Jackson, MI, has been an area staple for 27 years now.

“We do everything from the 1950s to 2022,” Svinicki says. “We have older cars, newer cars, fuel injected cars, and so on. Aside from engine work, we’ll also get into steering, suspension, brakes, wiring – whatever the car needs. Not a lot of shops are that versatile, but it’s what we like to do. We focus on domestic cars and engines, no foreign cars.”

Paul also told us his shop has a chassis dyno and does tuning work, as well as custom carb work. However, when it comes to machine work, Paul’s High Performance only has a mill and a lathe for simple customization work. The larger machining operations for engine builds get sent out to other shops.

“I have three employees currently,” Svinicki told us. “I’m 66, so I’d like to not work 80 hours a week, plus we race and go to the track. We prove our work on this Godzilla engine program. Our car has over 350 passes. I don’t think there’s many people with 350 passes on their car with a Godzilla engine. We’re at the track, we’re testing, and we go to major events. We don’t do private stuff to say we did this or that. We do it right in front of everybody. We like the car to speak for itself.”

The Godzilla engine in question initially came from a production truck and Paul wanted to see what the engine would handle.  

“With a production Godzilla engine, we were the first in the 10s, the first in the 9s and the first in the 8s,” Svinicki says about their ETs. “Now, those weren’t all stock components. Currently, we’ve run a best 8.83 at 152 mph in a 3,400-lb., 2010 Cobra Jet. To get there, it has a custom camshaft, custom valve springs, forged Mahle pistons, Molnar rods, stock factory bearings, stock factory rings, and a stock factory bore. We do have an electric water pump on it and headers. To get the best performance out of it, we wanted to go nitrous and we wanted to do a dry kit.

“We’ve never really worked with a dry kit before, so Nitrous Outlet has been very instrumental working with us and getting this all to work correctly. You have to have the right components and you have to have a partner. We spray nitrous in the throttle body and then we have a direct injection kit that we bring in 7/10ths of a second later. We make our own atmosphere, so it’s very easy on hot, hot days. The nitrous is really good for making the same power all the time.”

Ford’s Godzilla engine has been gaining steam amongst engine builders and racers alike who want to see what the platform can handle and do, but not many folks are utilizing nitrous with it.

“Everybody’s doing turbos and superchargers, but we’ve used nitrous before,” he says. “However, to do a dry kit and then have control, we’re using FuelTech. They have the best control system, we feel, on the market. It’s fly-by-wire, so we’re able to monitor how it comes in, when it comes in and it’s just a smooth hit. Yes, when you leave off the trans brake, it’s wheelieing. We get 1.16-second 60-foots and so it leaves hard.”

According to Paul, the crankshaft is still a stock piece, but the shop balanced it and utilized a Fluidampr damper to help with engine harmonics. His shop also made the electric water pump plate and upgraded the timing chain.

“We’ve got block off plates,” he says. “These engines have a great big oil cooler. It takes 7” of room. Ours is 3”, so it bolts right on with the same o-ring and same bolts. The other thing we do is our own timing set. We wanted to get rid of the VCT. For racing applications, the Ford production stuff is good, but this is not in a truck. With 1,104 ft.-lbs. of torque and a 1,100 horsepower, the stock components are not designed for it. We ended up coming up with a dual roller timing chain set that’s adjustable.”

With one of the fastest Godzilla engines around, Paul’s High Performance continues to push the development of this newer engine platform. It’ll be interesting to see how far the Godzilla can go.

Engine of the Week is sponsored by PennGrade Motor OilElring – Das Original and NPW Companies. If you have an engine you’d like to highlight in this series, please email Engine Builder Editor Greg Jones at [email protected].

You May Also Like

Supercharged 4.900” Bore Space Hemi Engine

Building upon its 4.800″ bore space Hemi engine platform, Noonan Race Engineering made improvements to its 4.900″ bore space Hemi engine to the point that its now one of the engine shop’s bread and butter builds. Don’t let that fool you – this engine is packed with unique features and the performance to back it all up. Check it out.

During our week in Charlotte, NC, we got to check out some amazing engine shops in and around Charlotte and the Mooresville area. However, there’s been an engine shop we’ve always wanted to see inside of – Noonan Race Engineering. Located just 90 minutes southwest of Charlotte, Noonan Race Engineering is headquartered in Spartanburg, SC. Being so close by and the idea of getting to see Noonan’s state-of-the-art shop space and brand-new tech center was too strong to ignore.

5.3L LS Engine

Tony Paladino’s shop, Concord Engines, has been serving the Kannapolis, NC area with engine rebuilding and machining services since 2014. One engine platform they specialize in is the LS, and it is offered in three different power levels and configurations. Check it out!.

731 cid Outlaw 4.840 Bore Space Nitrous Engine

When it comes to building a 4.840″ bore space engine for drag racing, the class is limited on deck height and limited on bore space, but anything else pretty much goes. Pat Musi of Pat Musi Racing Engines recently finished development on his state-of-the-art 4.840 engine platform, and this 731 cid nitrous combo is freaking awesome!

632 cid Big Block Chevy Nitrous Engine

With a storied race history of his own, Sandy Wilkins has taken his passion for cars and engines and turned it into his life. From race teams to Roush Yates Performance to opening Wilkins Racing Engines, he knows how to build high-horsepower engines like this 632 cubic inch big block Chevy nitrous engine for No Prep drag racing. Check it out!

448 cid Billet LS Engine

Pete Harrell of Harrell Engine & Dyno is real good at doin’ stuff, like building turbocharged and forced induction high-powered engines such as this 448 cid billet LS engine for Limited Drag Radial. Check out what went into this 2,500+ HP engine!

Other Posts

Compound-Turbo “Shredder” 5.9L Cummins Engine

Like any sensible diesel guy, Chris Voorheis got a small taste of diesel performance and immediately wanted more. His 2006 Mega Cab went from a daily driver to a sled puller to now a formidable drag racing vehicle thanks to a compound-turbo “Shredder” 5.9L Cummins from Industrial Injection. Check out what went into the build!

Record Number of Manufacturers for 2024 WEC Entry List

The 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) will feature a record-breaking 14 manufacturers across its Hypercar and LMGT3 classes. Related Articles – SADEV Racing Transmission to Showcase New Innovations at PRI – King to Showcase New Godzilla Bearings and a Ride-On Cooler Raffle at PRI – Mark Finnie Named CEO of Racing & Performance Holdings

Lynsi Snyder-Ellingson Receives Bob Russo Heritage Award

Lynsi Snyder-Ellingson, the motorsports philanthropist and NHRA Top Sportsman racer, has been named a 2024 recipient of the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America (MSHFA) Bob Russo Heritage Award for her efforts to preserve the future of drag racing in the United States, the museum announced. Related Articles – Toyota’s New NASCAR Cup Series Camry

Drag-N-Drive World Champion Announced for 2023

Drag-N-Drive Addiction awards the inaugural Drag-N-Drive World Champion presented by Summit Racing.