What does a 1000HP cost?
 

Hey all, just want to know what you think it would cost to go one of our big name Pontiac guys and have them build you a motor from scratch and give you a 1000HP+. All good items...block, heads, billet crank, and all the immenities to basically drop the motor in the car and go racing? I just picked up my motor and it made a little over a 1000HP on the motor but I am not looking to say what I paid...just comparing apples to apples to see if it was overboard or not...I just want to know if anyone else has built something similar and approximately how much it cost them. BTW...its a NA 540.

my guess 35K plus or minus a couple.Tom

my high port engine made 928 with a nitrous grind cam, normal tension rings and only 13.2 compressioon so i would say by changing a few parts i could probably come close to 1000. i don't have an exact figure in front of me but it's about 22-23,000 without the carb and headers if i'm doing the math right in my head from memory.
that was a local build but i bet it's pretty close.

KRE street roots blower motor - a few years back it was 25K. Would imagine 30-35K today.

I would expect to pay at least 25-30K or more unless I did a ton of the work myself to save some $$$$.

The less work a fella did on the build themself,the more I'd expect them to hafta pay the builder.

Plus then there are all the little things too,was this including dyno time and such,that would bump the price as well.

it will be eazyer to tell (if it was worth the money)after you have run it...how much it was worth, and how long it runs before you need to take it apart.

I would think you could build 1,000hp for much less than some of the other estimates here if you went blown. A natually aspriated motor cost much more to make that much power. You would not need to spend a fortune on heads with a blown motor. Also, with the $700 forged cranks out now, you can save about $1,500 or more over a premium billet too.

Steve Barcak www.pontiacheaven.org

"Real Pontiacs only...no corporate nonsense!"

Thanks guys, I am right there in the ballpark to what I paid. I was just curious to see what you other guys had paid to get around the same horsepower out of a NA motor. I kinda wish I would have went Turbocharged but this motor should still be more than enough. Wish the car was gonna be done for Norwalk. Plus the motor is setup/clearanced to run a 300 shot of NOS on it. That makes me smile.

Do you have the 20k to sink into the car to use that kind of power? One friend of mine has a chevy with a 632 BB in it making 1100 hp, and my other friend with 400 CFM heads that I did on his 540 BB chevy making 800 HP and is nibbling on his bumper at the end of the 1/4 mile. That extra 300 HP cost ALOT more!

Yep, then you need a $30K plus car to use it in.

not always! see my sig below. i have way less than 15,000 in the rest of the car including the trans,rearend, and electronics. and i think it performs pretty well for a 3100lb car on true 10.5s.

Ok, 15-30k car.
Most probly have 15-25 depending on what they had to start with, and what class thier running in.
Some have 70-150 in the car/chassis.

I had to resist pen and paper.... somethings are best left a low estimate.....
But i like to do things the hard way. 600 800 1000 hp build it three times...LOL
still on the middle one but already fabbing a 200 nos plate in the mix. And rounding up parts for a PG. next the axles and spool will be to small. I can only imagine what my non car friends think... But I'm guessing those are pretty close on the numbers. depending on how much you can do yourself. Just a IA II short Block with pretty good stuff is almost 9. Plus heads intake Carb Cam. I thought that I could build one cheaper than the going rate... but you add it up.... Man I'm gonna have to take up some other vise to make me feel better about this one. LOL
John

i dont see wy you couldnt do it for 15k myself if you did go the blower route like stev said iam planning to try get into that range for a 67 tempest on my other motor after i get done with the car iam working on now. i spent close to 8k jst to shoot fr 500 hp and now that its been built ive been looking at all the parts i couldve bought and some of the parts i might not have had to buy and think 15 would have done it but i guess 500 was enugh for my first attempt

Heads - 8k with titanium valves, springs, seats, guides, head bolts and shaft bars (that is being conservative)
intake - 4k with 2 dominators (box stock no tricks)
block - 4k machined
crank - 2.5k
rods, pistons, pins, rings and bearings - $2k
oil pan, oil pump, vacuum pump & valve covers - $1.5k
belt drive, water pump, crank trigger and balancer - $1.75k
cam, lifters and push rods - $1.3k
flex plate and starter - $.4k
dist, plugs, wires, cap, rotor - $.2k
oil and remote oil filter - $.1k
head and valve cover gaskets - $.2k
custom headers - $2.5k
misc shipping - $.5k
dyno - $.5k
Grand Total - $29,450.00

Cant see it much lower with a blower, or any type of power adder.
Still need top shelf parts and machine work to make it last.
No cheap way around it.
And a drive train/chassis to handle it.

15k for just motor and iam sure it could easily go a little over just the same a my 455 did, i wasnt thinking it was gonna costbut 4 -5 k when i started and before i knew it i was at the 8 and that was on the stand! i didnt even wnna think about the little stuf i still needed to put it in the car acces and stuff

that's a great itemized list, but i think you could cut a few things and still end up with 1000na horsepower.
you wouldn't necessarily need a belt drive.
a single carb with a well done cast manifold would get the job done.
everything else looks pretty close except for the heads, you may be a little low there depending on what you start with and who works on them.

Thanx John for the breakdown...I am sitting a few thousand below your total but still in the ballpark...wish this motor was going in the 79 bird(bruces old car) but its going in my 68 Bird(backhalf car, cert to 7.50) I will be running on 33/10.5Ws and a glide. It would have been nice to see both our cars run NA headsup on the same track. Thanks for all the replies...these Ponchos will break ya. I was gonna break my buddy when he said why not just build a chebbie.

To my knowledge there have only been 2 motors that made over 1,000 hp with a single 4 on a cast intake. Both of those intakes were ported by the same individual and cost in the ball park of 2k to port. Additionally, to achieve 1,000 hp, both of those motors required customized carbs that cost in the neighborhood of 1.5k-2k. I know I was being conservative with the heads.