When a new engine platform arrives on the scene, everyone in the performance aftermarket is excited to get their hands on it. They want to start developing high-performance aftermarket parts and see what the new engines are capable of. When GM released the new Gen-V small block back in 2014, the story was no different.
For the past decade, plenty of high-performance parts have hit the market for this direct-injected V8, and performance shops and race teams have used the new platform to chase horsepower and track records. Back in 2019, Katech built a 427 cubic inch Gen-V LT that made a then-record setting 806 horsepower naturally aspirated. Then, the SDPC Raceshop pushed the dyno record further with its 440 cubic-inch iteration, making 835 horsepower. Gwatney Performance Innovation and Kuntz Racing Engines are no newcomers to building high-horsepower engines, and their latest Gen-V 454 LT pushes four-digit horsepower.
The team at Kuntz Racing Engines strapping the Gen-V 454-cube small-block to the dyno for its record-setting pull.
Starting From The Bottom Up
GPI started with a Kuntz-prepped and sleeved Gen-V 6.2-liter LT1 OEM block. The production cylinders can only handle about 0.020 inches over the stock 4.065-inch bore. So, to hit that big-cube displacement; they needed the max bore of 4.185 inches, which only an aftermarket sleeve could provide. Steel main caps and ARP studs clamp down a Callies Performance Magnum crankshaft with a 4.125-inch stroke.
Connecting rods come from Molnar Technologies and are their forged H-Beam design made from 4340 steel, heat treated and shot peened to increase tensile strength and fatigue life, then fitted with ARP2000 hardware. The cylinders are filled with custom-forged pistons and rings from Diamond Racing Pistons. These pistons are custom-machined with a dome to fit the CNC chamber of the cylinder heads to produce a concussion-inducing 16:1 compression ratio — no 93-octane for this 454.
Diamond Racing custom forged pistons fill the 4.185-inch bore cylinders.
The bumpstick in this bored-and-stroked Gen-V LT is a GPI custom 0.800-inch-lift hydraulic-roller camshaft ground by Cam Motion to their specifications. Your eyes did not deceive you; you read that correctly. This 1,000-plus horsepower, 9,000 rpm redline goliath is not running a solid roller camshaft and lifters, but off-the-shelf Johnson short travel tie bar hydraulic-roller lifters (P/N: ST2116LSR). The stock GM oil pump isn’t designed to spin to…
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