Twin-Turbo LS 474 Laughs at Quadruple Digits
Beastly LS is capable of 2,000 horsepower and made over 1,000 HP on just 13 psi of twin-turbo boost with trick fuel system.
These days it seems pretty commonplace for a built engine to make over one thousand horsepower. Thus, it takes a bit of ingenuity to blow minds. However, with trick technology like the fueling system used on this monster of a twin-turbo LS engine.
Enginelabs brought this insane engine build to our attention. The iconic engine builders at Nelson Engine Labs have crafted something truly miraculous. This LS engine has two different fuel cells and switches between octane levels based on how much boost the engine is building. Confused? We were too, but we’ll do our best to make some sense out of it for you.
Effectively, this engine sips typical 91-octane pump gas when cruising around in daily driving situations and before things get too out of hand. However, when the throttle opens up, an electronic controller switches it to 116-octane fuel. This saves the old pocketbook if you can manage to keep your foot off the floor. The system switches to the higher octane fuel around 17 PSI of boost, making the best use of the pump gas before a higher octane becomes necessary.
Is it a bit over-complicated? Perhaps, but it is super cool to see something like this come to fruition. Just a few short years ago something like this may have seemed infeasible. That being said, this technology advancement could very well become commonplace in cars that serve double duty as street and track cars.
Crazy tech leads to crazy power
The fuel system is not the only crazy part of this LS build, though. It’s built around an iron LSX block from Chevrolet Performance and features a Callies stroker crankshaft and forged connecting rods with JE forged pistons. Additionally, it features Brodix aluminum heads and NRE’s proprietary mirror-image twin-turbo system. Finally, a COMP camshaft and a bonkers looking intake manifold make this thing more than just a pretty artifact to look at. It’s capable of some fearsome power.
On just 13 PSI of boost, this beast made a whopping 1,153 horsepower. With a kick to 17 PSI, the power output grows to 1,300 horsepower. While those numbers are pretty crazy, this only scratches the surface of what this engine is capable of. Nelson Racing Engines recons with 30 PSI pumping into the intake manifold, this engine will crank out over 2,000 horsepower happily. While that seems like a crazy number, this engine is built to handle it.
This monster will find home in a 1971 Firebird that, according to Enginelabs, will mostly be street driven and occasionally will hit a drag strip. Thus, the fuel switching system will be perfectly suited for its purposes. We hope to see more innovative and exciting integration of technology in future engine builds.
Photos: Enginelabs
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