Why Billet Blocks Work Best For Big Power-Adder Engines

Power-adders are fun, they can turn any vehicle into a rowdy ride. If you’re trying to make serious horsepower, a power-adder will find the weak links in your engine in a hurry, including the block itself. The solution for those trying to make big horsepower when a turbo, supercharger, or lots of nitrous is being used is a billet aluminum engine block.

Billet blocks used to only be reserved for the most extreme engine combinations known to man, but these days you can find them in high-horsepower street cars. These billet beasts start out as 490-pound blocks of aluminum before they’re whittled down to 100-pound works of art. In this article, we talk with Ben Mens from Energy Manufacturing to learn why billet blocks are the best foundation for high-horsepower engines that use a power-adder.

Billet Block Basics

Billet engine blocks, like the ones Energy Manufacturing produces, are made from forged billet 6061-T6 aluminum. This is an extremely strong alloy of aluminum, and that strength is enhanced when the semi-finished blocks are heat-treated to T6 standards before they’re cryogenically stress-relieved. All of this is done to ensure the engine block will maintain its structural integrity no matter how much horsepower is being generated.

Non-billet engine blocks are created through a casting process. This means the base material the block is made from is heated until it becomes molten. That molten metal is then poured into a sand casting to form the engine block. While this method is great for producing many engine blocks quickly and for a good price, the structure won’t be as strong as something made from forged billet aluminum.

“The billet aluminum is going to be purer and have a superior grain structure over a cast block. That cast block material is made from several different alloys, and it’s going to have more impurities in it versus a billet material. The grain structure of the billet block is going to remove the impurities out of the equation, and that’s what makes them so strong,” Mens explains.

Since billet blocks are made from scratch they’re highly customizable. You will have a variety of deck heights available off the shelf, or you can even have a custom deck height created for your application. These blocks can have the cam location and size configured to meet your needs. You can even have the head studs moved around for a specific set…