Katech has announced a new direct injection fuel-pump that will allow LT1/LT4 engines to achieve more than 2,000 horsepower. Developed with strategic partner Xtreme-DI, the system adds a secondary, direct injection fuel pump to the original factory OEM fuel system. The Katech Xtreme-DI System was developed for the Gen5 LT1/LT4 engine platform, but it can be integrated for use on any direct injection gasoline engine.
Under their agreement, Xtreme-DI developed the secondary pump and pump control electronics. Katech integrated the secondary pump onto the engine utilizing the front engine belt drive, provided the required engine ECU calibration, and validated the system both on the engine and chassis dyno.
The first Xtreme-DI Fuel System was installed on a C7 Z06 Corvette, which put out 900 ft.-lbs. of torque at 3,000 rpm on the engine dyno, and 965 horsepower. The horsepower on this installation was limited by the airflow available from the engine supercharger. Combined with twin turbochargers, or a solution providing similar airflow, the current version of the system is capable of 1,200 horsepower at the wheels, and 1,400 horsepower at the flywheel with E85 fuel. With race gas, the numbers climb to 1,300 and 1,600 respectively. Development is underway on a larger fuel injector that will push the system to 2,000-plus horsepower to the flywheel for LT engines capable of that power.
Katech is in the process of validating these numbers with a system on a twin-turbo LT engine.
“The Katech Xtreme-DI Fuel System is a brand new approach to providing fuel to a direct injected engine,” said Uwe Ostmann, founder of Xtreme-DI, LLC. “It’s not like what other people have tried to do, such as simply replacing one pump with a bigger pump. We are literally adding another fuel pump, which doubles the flow. We can also triple or quadruple the flow as well. The system is extremely modular, which gives us a lot of options to pursue better performance and higher horsepower.”
“Our system provides exceptional fuel flow at all engine RPMs,” said Chris Meszaros, director of engineering for Katech. “What you’re really looking for in terms of engine power output for real world applications is area under the torque curve. The more area you have under the curve, the more usable power you have. Provided you can supply the necessary airflow, our system enables big torque gains across the entire engine operating range.”
The Katech Xtreme-DI System fully integrates with the factory engine computer, providing all degrees of freedom for controlling fueling, in terms of minimum injection durations, pressure levels, idle stability, and so on.
“Katech chose to partner with Xtreme-DI because of Uwe Ostmann’s experience and reputation as one of the top DI engineers in the world,” said Steve Spurr, CEO of Katech. “Uwe earned his stripes as a Bosch diesel engineer in Europe, and was the main calibration engineer for the Le Mans winning Audi diesel teams. We believe this partnership brings together two leaders in the automotive aftermarket space to create something real and extreme for car owners that want everything.
The Katech Xtreme-DI Fuel System is available now at katechengines.com.
