Reply to "Cheapest and easiest way to get approx 600HP"

I installed the 427 cu in Windsor-based PI Hammer in my GT5 a few years ago. At that time, it was only rated at 538 hp at the crank, if I recall correctly.

I bought the engine for three reasons. First, my car originally came with a Windsor from the factory (it was built in 1988, by which time De Tomaso had run out of 351Cs), so it was a straight swap. The second reason was price; I did not think it possible to build the engine for the same cost and, except for the Ford Racing/SVO crate engines, the PI motor offered the best bang for the buck. The third reason was that the engine had been designed from the outset to run in a Pantera and so I expected fewer hassles getting it to work.

I bought it with the PI Motorsports ready to run kit, which gives you most of the accessories, and the PI headers. In hindsight, the headers were a mistake, because I went to a full 3" exhaust to avoid choking the motor, but the PI headers are designed for a smaller diameter pipe. This meant I had to cut up the collectors to weld on a bigger flange, and then re-do the ceramic coating. If I were to do it again, I would go with Pat Mical's headers & 3" exhaust kit.

My experience with the motor has been, by and large, positive. It is much lighter than my stock engine, by virtue of all the aluminum. Despite my unchanged stock cooling system, it runs much cooler because the aluminum sheds heat faster. It pulls as you would expect, although, in my personal opinion, another 100 hp would still be useable and reasonably safe (the go-pedal has more settings than just "on" and "off", after all).

My gripes with the motor are as follows:

1. There is no choke on the Demon carb. This may be fine if you live in California, but can be a real problem if you live anywhere north of that.

2. There was no crank case vent recirculation system on the motor, and the supplied valve cover vents just spewed oil all over my engine compartment to the point of creating a fire hazard. PI Motorsports did not sell anything to fix the problem (or even acknowledge it, for that matter) so I had to risk evisceration and go to Hall for one of their (admittedly very attractive) kits.

3. I suspect the recommended 6,000 rpm redline on the engine is given more in the interest of avoiding warranty claims than anything else. The motor is just starting to pull at that rpm, and will happily go to 6,500 rpm.

4. The chrome moly rings never seated properly, so the motor has burned a little oil from day one.

5. My experience (and, for all I know, it could have been the exception rather than the rule) was that I received very little support or information after I bought the motor.

All in all, these are relatively minor issues in the greater scheme of things. The bottom line is that I do not baby my motor, and it has held up well for almost 10,000 km and four years. It's very good value, it's proven to work in the Pantera (although most of you would have to modify your engine mounts to accept a Windsor block), runs cooler than the stock motor, and weighs much less. And, yes, I would buy another one.